This page is in the middle of a major reconstruction. Revisions are sandboxed at Talk:Buddhism/Revised. Edits to this page may not last forever! Please check and use the talk page diligently. This avoids edit conflicts and the unintentional loss of your work. This template was placed by Ludwigs2

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy with between 230 and 500 million adherents worldwide, the vast majority living in Asia.^[1][2] It consists of two major schools: Mahayana and Theravada.^[3] The Mahayana school is in turn divided into East Asian (including Pure Land, Chan/Seon/Thien/Zen, Nichiren, Shingon and others) and Tibetan (sometimes grouped with Shingon under the term Vajrayana). However there are many other sects besides these. These divisions reflect a combination of doctrinal differences and regional syncretisms.

Buddhism is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha who lived circa the fifth century BCE in ancient India, in parts of what is now Nepal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on the northeastern Indian subcontinent. While there is disagreement between denominations over the Buddha's teachings,^[4] nearly all Buddhists recognize some version of the Tipitaka ("Three Baskets"), though it plays a far more central role in Theravada Buddhism than in Mahayana Buddhism. Also, Mahayana Buddhists recognize a set of texts called the Mahayana Sutras which Theravadins do not accept.

[ Main traditions

Scholars usually categorize Buddhist schools by the ancient languages of surviving Buddhist religious scripture. These are the Pāli, Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese collections, along with some texts that still exist in Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. While practical, this method doesn't always correspond to doctrinal divisions. Despite these differences, there are several concepts common to both major Buddhist branches:^[5]

• Both accept the Buddha as their teacher.
• Both accept the middle way, dependent origination, the four noble truths and the noble eightfold path, in theory, though in practice these have little or no importance in some traditions.
• Both accept that members of the laity and the sangha can pursue the path toward enlightenment (bodhi).
• Both consider buddhahood to be the highest attainment; however Theravadins consider the nirvana (nibbana to the Theravadins) attained by arahants as identical to that attained by the Buddha himself, as there is only one type of nirvana. According to Theravadins, a buddha is someone who has discovered the path independently and has taught it to others.

[ History and origins

Main article: History of Buddhism

[ The Buddha

Gautama Buddha, whose personal name was Siddhartha, was born in Ancient India in the city of Lumbini^[6] and was raised in Kapilavastu.^[7]

Very little of the traditional story of his life is historical. It is as follows based on the Tipitaka: Born a prince, his father, King Suddhodana, was visited by a wise man shortly after Siddhartha was born. The wise man said that Siddhartha would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a holy man (sadhu) based on whether or not he ever saw life outside of the palace walls. Determined to make Siddhartha a king, the father tried to shield his son from the unpleasant realities of daily life. However, despite his father's efforts, at the age of 29, he discovered human suffering, first through an encounter with an elderly man, then on subsequent trips outside the palace, he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and a monk or an ascetic. These are often called "The Four Sights".^[8]

These four sights deeply affected Gautama. He then sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Gautama escaped his palace, leaving behind this royal life to become a mendicant. For a time on his spiritual quest, Buddha "experimented with extreme asceticism, which at that time was seen as a powerful spiritual practice...such as fasting, holding the breath, and exposure of the body to pain...he found, however, that these ascetic practices brought no genuine spiritual benefits and in fact, being based on self-hatred, that they were counterproductive."^[9]

He abandoned asceticism and concentrated instead upon meditation and, according to some sources, Anapanasati (awareness of breathing in and out). Gautama is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of practice that is outside of the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village girl and then, sitting under a pipal tree or Sacred fig (Ficus religiosa), also known as the Bodhi tree, in Bodh Gaya,^[10][11] he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. His five companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and had become undisciplined, left. After 49 days meditating, at the age of 35, he attained bodhi, also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. After his attainment of bodhi he was known as Buddha or Gautama Buddha and spent the rest of his life teaching his insights (Dharma).^[12] According to scholars, he lived around the fifth century BCE, but his more exact birthdate is open to debate.^[13] He died at the age of 80 in Kushinagara (Pali Kusinara) (India).^[14]

[ Indian Buddhism

[ Early Buddhism

Main articles: History of Buddhism and History of Buddhism in India

The history of Indian Buddhism may be divided into the following five periods:^[15]

1. Early Buddhism (also called Pre-sectarian Buddhism); Hajime Nakamura^[16] subdivides this into two subperiods:
   1. original Buddhism (other scholars call this earliest Buddhism or precanonical Buddhism)
   2. early Buddhism
2. Period of the Early Buddhist schools (also called Sectarian Buddhism, Nikaya Buddhism)
3. Early Mahayana Buddhism
4. Later Mahayana Buddhism
5. Vajrayana Buddhism (also called Esoteric Buddhism)

These developments were not always consecutive. For example, the early schools continued to exist alongside Mahayana. Some scholars have argued that Mahayana remained marginal for centuries.

Main articles: Pre-sectarian Buddhism and Early Buddhist schools

The term Early Buddhism can be applied to both Pre-sectarian Buddhism and the Buddhism of the Early Buddhist Schools.

[ Sutta Pitaka and Vinaya Pitaka

The earliest phase of Buddhism (pre-sectarian Buddhism) recognized by nearly all scholars (the main exception is Dr Gregory Schopen,[17]) is based on a comparison of the Pali Canon with surviving portions of other early canons. Its main scriptures are the Vinaya Pitaka and the four principal Nikayas or Agamas.

Certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout the early texts, so most scholars conclude at least that the Buddha must have taught something of the kind:^[18]

• the three characteristics
• the five aggregates
• dependent arising
• karma and rebirth
• the four noble truths
• the eightfold path
• nirvana

Some scholars disagree, and have proposed many other theories.^[19]

[ Councils

International flag of Buddhism

According to the scriptures, soon after the parinirvāṇa (Pāli: parinibbāna, "complete extinguishment") of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held. As with any ancient Indian tradition, transmission of teaching was done orally. The primary purpose of the assembly was to collectively recite the teachings to ensure that no errors occurred in oral transmission. In the first council, Ānanda, a cousin of the Buddha and his personal attendant, was called upon to recite the discourses (sūtras, Pāli suttas) of the Buddha, and, according to some sources, the abhidhamma. Upāli, another disciple, recited the monastic rules (Vinaya). Scholars regard the traditional accounts of the council as greatly exaggerated if not entirely fictitious.^[20]

According to most scholars, at some period after the Second Council however, the Sangha began to break into separate factions. (Schopen suggests that Buddhism was very diverse from the beginning and became less so.^[21]) The various accounts differ as to when the actual schisms occurred: according to the Dipavamsa of the Pali tradition, they started immediately after the Second Council; the Puggalavada tradition places it in 137 AN; the Sarvastivada tradition of Vasumitra says it was in the time of Asoka; and the Mahasanghika tradition places it much later, nearly 100 BCE.

The Asokan edicts, our only contemporary sources, state that 'the Sangha has been made unified'. This may refer to a dispute such as that described in the account of the Third Buddhist Council at Pataliputta. This concerns the expulsion of non-Buddhist heretics from the Sangha, and does not speak of a schism. However, the late Professor Hirakawa argued that the first schism occurred after the death of Asoka. These schisms occurred within the traditions of Early Buddhism, at a time when the Mahāyāna movement either did not exist at all, or only existed as a current of thought not yet identified with a separate school.

The root schism was between the Sthaviras and the Mahāsāṅghikas. The fortunate survival of accounts from both sides of the dispute reveals disparate traditions. The Sthavira group offers two quite distinct reasons for the schism. The Dipavamsa of the Theravāda says that the losing party in the Second Council dispute broke away in protest and formed the Mahasanghika. This contradicts the Mahasanghikas' own vinaya, which shows them as on the same, winning side. On the other hand, the northern lineages, including the Sarvastivada and Puggalavada (both branches of the ancient Sthaviras) attribute the Mahāsāṅghika schism to the '5 points' that erode the status of the arahant. For their part, the Mahāsāṅghikas argued that the Sthaviras were trying to expand the Vinaya; they may also have challenged what they perceived to be excessive claims or inhumanly high criteria for Arhatship. Both parties, therefore, appealed to tradition.^[22] The Sthaviras gave rise to several schools, one of which was the Theravāda school. Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over vinaya, and monks following different schools of thought seem to have lived happily together in the same monasteries, but eventually, by about 100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal disagreements too.^[23]

[ Further developments

Buddhist proselytism at the time of emperor Aśoka the Great (260–218 BCE).

Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate an Abhidharma, a collection of philosophical texts. Early sources for these probably existed in the time of the Buddha as simple lists. However, as time went on and Buddhism spread further, the (perceived) teachings of the Buddha were formalized in a more systematic manner in a new Pitaka: the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Some modern academics refer to it as Abhidhamma Buddhism. Interestingly, in the opinion of some scholars, the Mahasanghika school did not have an Abhidhamma Pitaka, which agrees with their statement that they did not want to add to the Buddha's teachings. But according to Chinese pilgrims Fa-hsien (Fa Xian) (5th century CE) and Hsüan-tsang (Xuanzang, 7th century CE), they had procured a copy of Abhidhamma which belonged to the Mahasanghika School.

Buddhist tradition records in the Milinda Panha that the 2nd century BCE Indo-Greek king Menander converted to the Buddhist faith and became an arhat.

Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Aśoka the Great, who was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more Buddhist religious memorials (stūpas) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands – particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India. These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.

This period marks the first known spread of Buddhism beyond India. According to the edicts of Aśoka, emissaries were sent to various countries west of India in order to spread "Dhamma", particularly in eastern provinces of the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean. This led, a century later, to the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and to the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra. During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, and from changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions – themselves influenced by Buddhism. It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were, or were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries.

[ Rise of Mahayana Buddhism

Main article: Mahayana

Chinese Seated Buddha, Tang Dynasty, Hebei province, ca. 650 CE. Chinese Buddhism is of the Mahayana tradition, with popular schools today being Pure Land and Zen.

The precise geographical origins of Mahayana are unknown. It is likely that various elements of Mahayana developed independently from the 1st century BCE onwards, initially within several small individual communities, in areas to the north-west within the Kushan Empire (within present-day northern Pakistan), and in areas within the Shatavahana Empire, including Amaravati to the south-east (in present-day Andhra Pradesh), to the west around the port of Bharukaccha (present-day Bharuch, a town near Bombay), and around the various cave complexes, such as Ajanta and Karli (in present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra). Some scholars have argued that Mahayana was a movement of lay Buddhists focused around stupa devotion. Pictures within the wall of a stupa representing the story of the Buddha and his previous reincarnation as a bodhisattva were used to preach Buddhism to the masses. Other scholars reject this theory.^[24] Monks representing different philosophical orientations could live in the same Sangha as long as they practiced the same Vinaya. Still, in terms of Abhidharma, the Sarvastivada school and the Dharmaguptaka school, both of which were widespread in the Kushan Empire, seem to have had major influence.

Mahayana Buddhism generally regards as its most important teaching the path of the bodhisattva. This already existed as a possibility in earlier Buddhism, as it still does in Theravada today, but the Mahayana gave it an increasing emphasis, eventually saying everyone should follow it.

Expansion of Mahayana Buddhism between the 1st – 10th century CE.

Around the second century CE, the Kushan emperor Kanishka is said to have convened what many western scholars call the fourth Buddhist council. This council is not recognised by the Theravada line of Buddhism. According to Mahayana sources, this council did not simply rely on the original Tripitaka. Instead, a set of new scriptures, mostly notably, the Lotus Sutra, an early version of the Heart Sutra and the Amitabha Sutra were approved, as well as fundamental principles of doctrine based around the concept of salvation for all beings (hence Mahāyāna "great vehicle") and the concept of Buddhas and bodhisattvas who embody the indwelling yet transcendent Buddha-nature who strive to achieve such a goal. However, most western scholars believe this council was purely Sarvastivada, while the late Monseigneur Professor Lamotte considered it entirely fictitious.^[25] The new scriptures were first written in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit or one of the Prakrits. From that point on, and in the space of a few centuries, Mahayana would spread from India to Southeast Asia, and towards the north to Central Asia and then east to China where Mahayana was Sinicized and this Sinicized Mahayana would be passed on to Korea, Vietnam and finally to Japan in 538 CE. The East Asians would go on to write more indigenous sutras and commentaries to the Mahayana Canon.

One of the Buddhas of Bamyan, Afghanistan as it stood in 1963.

Mahāyāna Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nāgārjuna (perhaps c.150–250 CE), arguably the most influential scholar within the Mahāyāna tradition. Some of the writings attributed to him made explicit references to Mahāyāna texts, but his philosophy was argued within the parameters set out by the Tripiṭaka sūtras. Nāgārjuna asserted that the nature of the dharmas (hence the enlightenment) to be śūnya (void or empty), bringing together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anātman (no-self) and pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination). His school of thought is known as the Madhyamaka.

After the end of the Kuṣāṇas, Buddhism flourished in India during the dynasty of the Guptas (4th – 6th century). Mahāyāna centres of learning were established, the most important one being the Nālandā University in north-eastern India. Sarvāstivāda teaching, which was criticized by Nāgārjuna, was reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asaṅga and were adapted into the Yogācāra (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school. While the Madhyamaka school asserted that there is no ultimately real thing, the Yogācāra school asserts that only the mind is ultimately existent. These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form the basis of subsequent Mahāyāna theology in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.

[ Emergence of the Vajrayāna

Main article: Vajrayana

There are differing views as to just when Vajrayāna and its tantric practice started. In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical Śākyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are esoteric teachings, they were written down long after the Buddha's other teachings. Nālandā University became a center for the development of Vajrayāna theory and continued as the source of leading-edge Vajrayāna practices up through the 11th century. These practices, scriptures and theory were transmitted to China, Tibet, Indochina and Southeast Asia. China generally received Indian transmission up to the 11th century including tantric practice, while a vast amount of what is considered to be Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayāna) stems from the late (9th–12th century) Nālandā tradition.

In one of the first major contemporary academic treatises on the subject, Fairfield University professor Ronald M. Davidson argues that the rise of Vajrayana was in part a reaction to the changing political climate in India at the time. With the fall of the Gupta Empire, in an increasingly fractious political environment, institutional Buddhism had difficulty attracting patronage, and the folk movement led by siddhas became more prominent. After perhaps two hundred years, it had begun to get integrated into the monastic establishment.^{[26][page # needed]}

Vajrayana combined and developed a variety of elements, a number of which had already existed for centuries.^[27]

Although it continued to in surrounding countries, over the centuries Buddhism gradually declined in India and it was virtually extinct there by the time of the British conquest.

See also: Decline of Buddhism in India

[ Southern (Theravāda) Buddhism

Main article: Theravada

Theravāda ("Doctrine of the Elders", or "Ancient Doctrine") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It is relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism.^[28] This school is derived from the Vibhajjavāda grouping which emerged amongst the older Sthavira group at the time of the Third Buddhist Council (c. 250 BCE). This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive.

The Theravada school bases its practice and doctrine exclusively on the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. After being orally transmitted for a few centuries, its scriptures, the Pali Canon, were finally committed to writing in the last century BCE, in Sri Lanka, at what the Theravada usually reckon as the fourth council. It is also one of the first Buddhist schools to commit the complete set of its canon into writing. The Sutta collections and Vinaya texts of the Pāli Canon (and the corresponding texts in other versions of the Tripitaka), are generally considered by modern scholars to be the earliest Buddhist literature, and they are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism.

Theravāda promotes the concept of Vibhajjavada (Pali), literally "Teaching of Analysis". This doctrine says that insight must come from the aspirant's experience, critical investigation, and reasoning instead of by blind faith.

In Theravāda Buddhism, the cause of human existence and suffering is identified as the craving, which carried with it the various defilements. These various defilements are traditionally summed up as greed, hatred and delusion. These defilements are believed to be parasites that have infested the mind and creates suffering and stress. It is believed that in order to be free from suffering and stress these defilements need to be permanently uprooted through internal investigation, analyzing, experiencing, and understanding the true nature of those defilements by using jhana, a technique which is part of the Noble Eightfold Path. It will then lead the meditator to realize the Four Noble Truths, Enlightenment and Nibbana. Nibbana is the ultimate goals of Theravadin.

Theravāda is primarily practiced today in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos as well as small portions of China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bangladesh. It has a growing presence in Europe and America.

[ Eastern (East Asian) Buddhism

Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain figure of Guanyin, "Goddess of Mercy."

Main article: Mahayana

Mahayana ("Great Vehicle") is an inclusive, cosmically-dimensioned faith characterized by the adoption of additional texts. Mahayana Buddhists place emphasis on the Bodhisattva ideal. Mahayana practitioners are less concerned with the traditional early Buddhist emphasis on release from suffering (dukkha) characteristic of the Arahant, and instead vow to remain in the world to liberate all beings, without exception, from suffering. Mahayana is further typified by a pantheon of quasi-divine Bodhisattvas devoting themselves to personal excellence for the sake of rescuing others from suffering and delivering them into the bliss of Nirvana. The quest of the Bodhisattvas is for ultimate Buddhic knowledge so as to be able to effect the salvation of all humanity (and indeed all living beings, including animals, ghosts and gods).

The Mahayana branch emphasizes infinite, universal compassion (maha-karuna) or the selfless, ultra-altruistic quest of the Bodhisattva to attain the "Awakened Mind" (bodhicitta) of Buddhahood so as to have the fullest possible knowledge of how most effectively to lead all sentient beings into Nirvana. Emphasis is also often placed on the notions of Emptiness (shunyata), perfected spiritual insight (prajnaparamita) and Buddha-nature (the deathless tathagatagarbha, or Buddhic Essence, inherent in all beings and creatures). The teaching of thee tathagatagSource: this wikipedia article, under GFDL.
This site was used times.