Buddhism
| Buddhism |
|---|
| Terms and concepts |
| People |
| Schools and sects |
| Texts |
| Timeline |
| Temples |
| Culture |
| Buddhism by region |
| List of topics |
Tian Tan Buddha statue. Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Buddhism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings of [[Gautama Buddha|Siddhā rtha Gautama]] (Sanskrit; in [[Pali|Pā li]], Siddhattha Gotama), who lived between approximately 563 and 483 BCE. This religion originated in India and gradually spread throughout Asia, to Central Asia, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, as well as the East Asian countries of China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.
"To shun all evil.
To do good.
To purify one's heart.
This is the teaching of the Buddhas."
--[[Dhammapada|Dhammapāda]], XIV, 5
Buddhism largely consists of the doing of good action, the avoidance of bad action, and mental training. The aim of these practices is to put an end to suffering and achieve enlightenment; either for oneself, or for all beings. Enlightenment leads to touching or abiding in nirvāṇa (Sanskrit: "Extinguishing.")
Buddhist morality is guided by principles of harmlessness and moderation. Buddhists frequently use meditation to try to gain insight into the fundamental operations of human psychology and the causal processes of the world.
While Buddhism does not deny the existence of mystical beings (indeed, many are discussed in Buddhist scripture), it does not ascribe power for creation, salvation or judgement to them. Like humans, they are regarded as having the power to affect worldly events, and so some Buddhist schools associate with them via ritual.
Buddha is a word in the ancient Indian languages [[Pali|Pā
li]] and Sanskrit which means "one who has become awake". It is derived from the verbal root "√budh", meaning "to awaken."
The word "Buddha" denotes not just a single religious teacher who lived in a particular epoch, but a type of person, of which there have been many instances in the course of cosmic time. (Similarly, "American President" refers not just to one man, but to everyone who has ever held the office of the American presidency). The Buddha Gautama, then, is simply one member in the spiritual lineage of Buddhas, which stretches back into the dim recesses of the past and forward into the distant horizons of the future.
Gilded image of the Buddha
Gautama did not claim any divine status for himself, nor did he assert that he was inspired by a god or gods. He claimed to be not a personal saviour, but a teacher to guide those who choose to listen. A Buddha is any human being who has fully awakened to the true nature of existence, whose insight has totally transformed him or her beyond birth, death, and subsequent rebirth, and who is enabled to help others achieve the same enlightenment.
The principles by which a person can be led to enlightenment are known as the Buddhadharma, or simply the Dharma. Dharma in this sense of the rather complex term means, "law, doctrine, or truth." Anyone can attain what the Buddha attained regardless of age, gender, or caste. Indeed, Buddhists believe there have been many solitary buddhas (Pā
li pacceka-buddha; Sansrkit: pratyekabuddha) who achieved enlightenment on their own but did not go on to teach others. According to one of the stories in the [[Sutta Nipata|Sutta Nipā
ta]], the Buddha, too, was afraid to teach humans because he despaired of their limited capacity for understanding. The Vedic (early Hindu) god Indra, however, interceded, and requested that he teach despite this. That the historical Buddha did so is thus a mark of special compassion.
Legend has it that the Buddha to be, [[Siddhartha Gautama|Siddhā
rtha Gautama]], was born around the 6th century BCE. His birthplace is said to be Lumbini in the kingdom of Magadha, in what is now Nepal. His father was a king, and Siddhā
rtha lived in luxury, being spared all hardship.
The legends say that a seer predicted that Siddhartha would become either a great king or a great holy man, because of this, the king tried to make sure that Siddhartha never had any cause for dissatisfaction with his life, as that might drive him toward a spiritual path. However, at the age of 29, while being escorted by his attendant Channa, he came across what has become known as the Four Passing Sights: an old crippled man, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and finally a wandering holy man. These four sights, as they are called, led him to the realization that birth, old-age, sickness and death came to everyone, not only once but repeated for life after life in succession for uncounted aeons. He decided to abandon his worldly life, leaving behind his wife and child, his privilege, rank, caste, and to take up the life of a wandering holy man in search of the answer to the problem of birth, old age, sickness, and death. It is said that he stole out of the house in the dead of night, pausing for one last look at his family, and did not return there for a very long time.
Indian holy men (''sā
dhus''), in those days just as today, engaged in a variety of ascetic practices designed to "mortify" the flesh. This belief was taken to an extreme in the faith of Jainism. It was thought that by enduring pain and suffering, the [[atman|ā
tman]] (Sanskrit; Pā
li: atta}, "soul." became free from the round of rebirth into pain and sorrow. Siddhā
rtha proved adept at these practices, and was able to surpass his teachers. However, he found no answer to his problem and, leaving behind his teachers, he and a small group of companions set out to take their austerities even further. He became a skeleton covered with skin, surviving on a single grain of rice per day, and practiced holding his breath. After nearly starving himself to death with no success (some sources claim that he nearly drowned), Siddhā
rtha began to reconsider his path. Then he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's plowing, and he had fallen into a naturally concentrated and focused state in which time seemed to stand still, and which was blissful and refreshing. Perhaps this would provide an alternative to the dead end of self-mortification?
Taking a little buttermilk from a passing goatherd, he found a large tree (now called the Bodhi tree) under which he would be shaded from the heat of the mid-summer sun, and set to meditating. This new way of practicing began to bear fruit. His mind became concentrated and pure, and then, six years after he began his quest, he attained Enlightenment, and became a Buddha.
Sarnath (also known as "Deer Park") is said to be the place where the Buddha preached his first sermon
''See also: Earliest Buddhism
Buddhists seek refuge in what are often referred to as the Three Jewels or Triple Gem. These are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the "noble" (Sanskrit: arya)Sangha or community of laypeople and monks who have become enlightened. While it is impossible to escape one's karma or the effects caused by previous thoughts, words and deeds, it is possible to avoid the suffering that comes from it by becoming enlightened. In this way, dharma offers a refuge. Dharma used in the sense of the Buddha's teachings provides is a raft and is thus a temporary refuge while entering and crossing the river, however, the real refuge is on the other side of the river.
To one who is seeking to become enlightened, taking refuge constitutes a continuing committment to pursuing enlightenment and following in the footsteps of the people who have followed the path to enlightenment before. It contains an element of confidence that enlightenment is in fact a refuge, a supreme resort. Many Buddhists take the refuges each day, sometimes more than once in order to remind themselves of what they are doing and to direct their resolve inwardly towards liberation.
Although Buddhists concur that taking refuge should be undertaken with proper motivation (complete liberation) and an understanding of the objects of refuge, the Indian scholar Atisha identified that in practice there are many different motives found for taking refuge; his idea was to use these differing motivations as a key to understanding the lack of conflict between all the Buddhas sermons without having to depend upon some form of syncresis that would cause as much trouble as it attempted to alleviate.
In the 11th century 'Lamp for the Path' by Atisha, and in the subsequent Lamrim tradition as elaborated by Tsongkhapa, the several motives for refuge are enumerated as follows, typically introduced using the concept of the 'scope' of a practitioner:
The Eightfold Path essentially consists of meditation, following the precepts, and cultivating the positive converse of the precepts (e.g. benefiting living beings is the converse of the first precept of harmlessness). The Path may also be thought of as a the way of developing [[sila|ś
ī
la]], meaning mental and moral discipline.
See also: Noble Eightfold Path
See also: Pancasila
According to the Buddhist tradition all phenomena (dharmas) are marked by three characteristics, sometimes referred to as the Dharma Seals:
Buddhism has evolved into myriad schools that can be roughly grouped into three families. The Sanskrit term used for these forms is ''[[yana|yā
na]] or vehicles. Each yā
na'' sees itself as representing the true, original teachings of the Buddha, although some schools believe that the dialectic nature of Buddhism allows its format, terminology, and techniques to adapt over time in response to changing circumstances.
The three vehicles include, first, the [[Hinayana|Hinayā
na]] or "Lesser vehicle". The Hinayana vehicle represents the class of practitioners who seek enlightenment for themselves, and is represented in literature by those teachings that encourage arhatship rather than Buddhahood.
All traditions accept the Hinayana teachings as being authentic (and they are generally considered to be the earliest). However, "Hinayana schools", sometimes referred to as Nikaya schools, are those schools who recognise solely the Hinayana teachings as authentic. The Theravada school, or "Way of the Elders", is the only surviving Nikaya tradition. Theravada is practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, and portions of Vietnam and Malaysia.
The second vehicle is the [[Mahayana|Mahā
yā
na]], or "Great Vehicle", which emphasizes universal compassion and the selfless ideal of the bodhisattva. In addition to the Hinayana scriptures, Mahā
yā
na schools recognize all or part of a genre of scriptures that were first put in writing around 1 CE. These later scriptures are concerned with the purpose of achieving Buddhahood through following the ten stages of the Bodhisattva'a progress to Buddhahood across three countless aeons of lifetimes; because of the immense time, many Mahā
yā
na schools accept the idea of working towards rebirth in a Pure Land, where the attainment of enlightenment is much easier. Mahā
yana is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, parts of India, and portions of Vietnam.
The third vehicle is the [[Vajrayana|Vajrayā
na]] or "Diamond Vehicle" (also known as Tantric Buddhism), which, while sharing many of the basic concepts of Mahā
yā
na, also includes a vast array of spiritual techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice.
One component of the Vajrayā
na is harnessing psycho-physical energy as a means of developing profoundly powerful states of concentration and awareness. These profound states are in turn used as an efficient path to Buddhahood. Using these techniques, it is claimed that a practitioner can achieve Buddhahood in as little as three years! In addition to the Hinayā
na and Mahā
yā
na scriptures, Vajrayā
na Buddhists recognise a large body of texts that include the Buddhist Tantras. Vajrayana is practiced today mainly in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, areas of India, Kalmykia and, to a limited extent, in China and Japan.
Three months after the passing of Gautama Buddha, The First Council was held by the Sangha. At this point, no conflict about what the Buddha taught is known to have occurred, so the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory. These groups of people often cross-checked with each other to ensure that no omissions or additions were made.
At the Second Council, one hundred years later, it was not the dharma that was called into question but the monks' code of rules or vinaya. This resulted in the formation of the Sthaviravādin and Mahāsanghika schools. Opinions differ on the cause of the split: the Sthaviravādins described their opponents as lax monks who had ceased to follow all the vinaya rules, while the Mahāsanghikas argued that the Buddha had never intended a rigid adherence to all the minor rules. After this initial division, more were to follow. Schism in early Buddhism was typically not on points of doctrine (orthodoxy), but in the area of practice (orthopraxy). So if two schools shared a vinaya, but were in dispute over doctrinal matters, it was not unlikely that they would continue to practice together. However, if one group disputed the vinaya of another, this would often prevent common practice.
In the 3rd century BC the Third Council occurred, where small sects called into to question not only the vinaya but the details of the Dharma. The chairman of the Council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book called the Kathavatthu, which was meant to refute the heretical, false views and theories held by some sects. Moggaliputta's views were of course disputed by his opponents. The version of the scriptures that had been established at the Third Council, including the vinaya and the Abhidhamma commentaries, was taken to Sri Lanka by the son of Emperor Ashoka. There it was eventually committed to writing in the Pali language. The Pali Canon remains the only complete set of Nikaya scriptures to survive, although fragments of other versions exist.
Between the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD, the terms Mahayana and Hinayana were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra.
During and after the 2nd century AD, versions of the Mahayana vision became clearly defined in the works of Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva, Ashvagosha, and Vasubandhu.
Around the 1st century AD, Buddhism spread from India through successive waves of merchants and pilgrims. It reached as far as Arabia to the west, and eastward to southeast Asia, where the first records of Buddhism date from around 400AD. Mahayana Buddhism established a major regional center in what is today Afghanistan, and from there it spread to China, Korea, Mongolia, and Japan. In 475, the Indian monk Bodhidharma travelled to China and established the became the East Asian Zen school. During the first millennium AD, monks from China such as Yijing and Xuanzang made pilgrimages to India.
At one time, different Turkic and Tocharian groups along the northern fringe of East Turkestan (modern Xinjiang in western China) adhered to the Theravada school. However, Buddhism there was supplanted by the introduction of Islam around 1000 AD.
Vajrayana also evolved at this stage carried from India to Tibet around 800 AD by teachers such as Padmasambhava and Atisha. There it initially coexisted with native belief systems such as BÃÂön, but later came to largely supplant or absorb them. An early form of esoteric Vajrayana known as Shingon was also transmitted by the priest Kūkai to Japan, where it continues to be practiced.
There is still an active debate as to whether or not Tantrism was initially developed within Buddhism or Hinduism. Buddhist literature tends to predate the later puranic Tantras, and there is some evidence to suggest that the basic structure of tantra depends upon the Mahayana Buddhist philosophical schools.
See also: Timeline of Buddhism
The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Sanskrit as the ''Tripiṭ
aka'' and in [[Pali|Pā
li]] as the ''[[Tipitaka|Tipiṭ
aka]]''. These terms literally mean "three baskets" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:
The appearance of the Mahāyāna tradition brought with it a collection of new texts, composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, many of which were also described as actual sermons of the Buddha. These include the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, the [[Avatamsaka Sutra|Avataṃ
saka]], the Lotus Sutra, the [[Vimalakirti Sutra|Vimalakī
rti Sutra]], and the [[Nirvana Sutra|ṇ
irvana Sutra]]. Many of the Mahayana sutras were translated into Tibetan and classical Chinese and are also now read in the West.
The Mahāyāna
Recently an important archaeological discovery was made, consisting of the earliest known Buddhist manuscripts, recovered from somewhere near ancient Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. These fragments, written on birch bark, are dated to the 1st century and have been compared to the Dead Sea scrolls in importance. Donated to the British Library in 1994, they are now are being studied in a joint project at the University of Washington[1].
Some Hindus believe that Gautama is the 9th incarnation of Vishnu, and in the religion of Shintoism, he is seen as a Kami. The Baha'i Faith states he was an independent Manifestation of God. Siddhartha Gautama is thought to have been sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Josaphat based on a mistaken account of his conversion to Christianity. Some Muslims believe that Gautama Buddha is Dhul-Kifl, one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an.
According to statistics from adherents.com, estimates of the number of Buddhists vary between 230 and 500 million, with 350 million as the most commonly cited figure.
In northern Asia, Mahāyāna remains the most common form of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. [[Theravada|Theravā
da]] predominates in most of Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Sri Lanka. [[Vajrayana|Vajrayā
na]] is predominant in Tibet, Mongolia, and portions of India.
While in the West, Buddhism is often seen an as exotic and progressive, in the East, Buddhism is regarded as familiar and part of the establishment. Buddhist organizations in Asia frequently are well-funded and enjoy support from the wealthy and influential. In some cases, this has led critics to charge that certain monks and organizations are too closely associated with powerful and are neglecting their duties to the poor.
In the latter half of the 1800s, Buddhism (along with many other of the world's religions and philosophies) came to the attention of Western intellectuals. These included the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer and the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who translated a Buddhist sutra from French into English. Spiritual enthusiasts enjoyed what they saw as the exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions. At first Western Buddhology was hampered by poor translations (often translations of translations), but soon Western scholars began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. In 1899 Gordon Douglas became the first Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk.
The first Buddhists to arrive in the United States were Chinese. Hired as cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding industries, they established temples in their settlements along the rail lines.
The cultural re-evaluations of the hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s included a renewed interest in Buddhism, proclaimed by some of them as a natural path to awareness, and enlightenment. Many people, including celebrities, traveled to Asia in pursuit of gurus and ancient wisdom. Buddhism had become the fastest-growing religion in Australia and many other Western nations by the 1990s, in contrast to the steady decline of traditional western beliefs (see Christianity).
A distinctive feature of Buddhism in the West has been the emergence of groups that, while drawing on traditional Buddhism, attempt to create a new form of non-sectarian Buddhist practice. Examples include the Shambala movement, founded by ChÃÂögyam_Trungpa, and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, founded by Sangharakshita.
What is a Buddha?
Origins
Principles of Buddhism
The Three Jewels
See also: Three JewelsThe four noble truths
The Buddha taught that life was dissatisfactory because of craving, but that this condition was curable by following the eightfold path. This teaching is called the four noble truths:The Noble Eightfold Path
In order to fully understand the noble truths and investigate whether they were in fact true, Buddha recommended that a certain lifestyle or path be followed which consists of:
Sometimes in the [[Pali Canon|Pā
li Canon]] the Eightfold Path is spoken of as being a progressive series of stages which the practitioner moves through, the culmination of one leading to the beginning of another, but it is more usual to view the stages of the 'Path' as requiring simultaneous development.The Five Precepts
Buddhists undertake certain precepts as aids on the path to coming into contact with ultimate reality. Laypeople generally undertake five precepts. The five precepts are:
In some schools of Buddhism, serious lay people or aspiring monks take an additional three to five ethical precepts, and some of the five precepts are strengthened. For example, the precept pertaining to sexual misconduct becomes a precept of celibacy. Monks and nuns in most countries also vow to follow the 227 patimokkha rules.The three marks of conditioned existence
It is by realizing (not merely understanding intellectually, but making real in one's experience) the three marks of conditioned existence that one develops [[Prajna|PrajÃÂñ
ā
]], which is the antidote to the ignorance that lies at the root of all suffering.Other principles and practices
The three vehicles
History of the schools
Scriptures
During the first few centuries after Gautama Buddha, his teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. A given school of Buddhism will generally have its own distinctive canon of texts, which will partially overlap with those of other schools. The most notable set of texts from the early period is the Pali Canon, which was preserved in Sri Lanka by the [[Theravada|Theravā
da]] school. The sutras it contains are also part of the canon of every other Buddhist sect. Full versions of the original text[1] and partial English translations[1] are now readily available on the internet.canon further expanded after Buddhism was transmitted to China, where the existing texts were translated, and new texts were composed for the purpose of adapting the Indian tradition to the East Asian philosophical mindset. Many of these works are considered by modern scholars to be spurious. Other new texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment did not pretend to be of Indian origin, but were widely accepted as valid scriptures on their own merits. Later writings include the Linji Lu of Chan master Linji. In the course of the development of Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, further important texts were composed. These included, for example, in Korea, some of the writings of Jinul, and in Japan, works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo.
Arguably the most thorough compilation of Mahayana sutras is found in the Tibetan canon. This is split into those texts attributed to be authored by the Buddha (Kanjur), and those texts which are understood to be commentaries by Indian practitioners (Tenjur). [[Vajrayana|Vajrayā
na]] practitioners also study distinctive texts such as the Buddhist tantras.Relations with other faiths
Buddhism in the modern world
Modern Asia
Buddhism and the West
See also
External links