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Life of the Buddha
Buddha in Sarnath Museum (Dhammajak Mutra)
Buddhism is an
Indian religion attributed to the teachings of the Buddha, supposedly born Siddhārtha Gautama, and also known as the
Tathāgata ("thus-gone") and
Sakyamuni
("sage of the Sakyas"). Early texts have his personal name as "Gautama"
or "Gotama" (Pali) without any mention of "Siddhārtha," ("Achieved the
Goal") which appears to have been a kind of honorific title when it does
appear. The details of Buddha's life are mentioned in many
Early Buddhist Texts but are inconsistent, and his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that he was born as
Siddhārtha Gautama in
Lumbini and grew up in Kapilavasthu, a town in the plains region of the modern Nepal-India border, and that he spent his life in what is now modern
Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh.
Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named
Suddhodana, his mother was Queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini
gardens.
However, scholars such as Richard Gombrich consider this a dubious
claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the
Shakyas community – one that later gave him the title
Shakyamuni, and the
Shakya
community was governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council
where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead.
Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, and claims
about the society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated
at a later time into the Buddhist texts.
"The Great Departure", relic depicting Gautama leaving home, first or second century (Musée Guimet)
According to the Buddhist sutras, Gautama was moved by the innate suffering of humanity and its
endless repetition
due to rebirth. He set out on a quest to end this repeated suffering.
Early Buddhist canonical texts and early biographies of Gautama state
that Gautama first studied under
Vedic
teachers, namely Alara Kalama (Sanskrit: Arada Kalama) and Uddaka
Ramaputta (Sanskrit: Udraka Ramaputra), learning meditation and ancient
philosophies, particularly the concept of "nothingness, emptiness" from
the former, and "what is neither seen nor unseen" from the latter.
Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of
asceticism. This too fell short of attaining his goal, and then he turned to the practice of
dhyana, meditation. He famously sat in
meditation under a
Ficus religiosa tree now called the
Bodhi Tree in the town of
Bodh Gaya in the Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, and attained
enlightenment, certainty about the
Middle Way (Skt.
madhyamā-pratipad) as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering (
dukkha) from rebirths in
Saṃsāra.
As a
fully enlightened Buddha (Skt.
samyaksaṃbuddha), he attracted followers and founded a
Sangha (monastic order). Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the
Dharma he had discovered, and
died at the age of 80 in
Kushinagar, India.
Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the
last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became over 18 Buddhist
sub-schools of thought, each with its own
basket of texts containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha; these over time evolved into many traditions of which the more well known and widespread in the modern era are
Theravada,
Mahayana and
Vajrayana Buddhism.
The problems of life: dukkha and saṃsāra
Four Noble Truths – dukkha and its ending
The Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths. Sanskrit manuscript. Nalanda, Bihar, India.
The truth of
dukkha is the basic insight that life in this mundane world, with its clinging and craving to
impermanent states and things is
dukkha, and unsatisfactory.
Dukkha can be translated as "incapable of satisfying," "the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all
conditioned phenomena"; or "painful."
Dukkha
is most commonly translated as "suffering," but this is inaccurate,
since it refers not to episodic suffering, but to the intrinsically
unsatisfactory nature of temporary states and things, including pleasant
but temporary experiences. We expect happiness from states and things which are impermanent, and therefore cannot attain real happiness.
In Buddhism, dukkha is one of the
three marks of existence, along with
impermanence and
anattā (non-self).
Buddhism, like other major Indian religions, asserts that everything is
impermanent (anicca), but, unlike them, also asserts that there is no
permanent self or soul in living beings (
anattā). The ignorance or misperception (
avijjā)
that anything is permanent or that there is self in any being is
considered a wrong understanding, and the primary source of clinging and
dukkha.
Dukkha arises when we crave (Pali:
tanha) and cling to these changing phenomena. The clinging and craving produces
karma, which ties us to samsara, the round of death and rebirth. Craving includes
kama-tanha, craving for sense-pleasures;
bhava-tanha, craving to continue the cycle of life and death, including rebirth; and
vibhava-tanha, craving to not experience the world and painful feelings.
Dukkha ceases, or can be confined, when craving and clinging cease or are confined. This also means that no more karma is being produced, and rebirth ends. Cessation is
nirvana, "blowing out," and peace of mind.
By following the Buddhist path to
moksha, liberation,
one starts to disengage from craving and clinging to impermanent states
and things. The term "path" is usually taken to mean the
Noble Eightfold Path, but
other versions of "the path" can also be found in the Nikayas. The Theravada tradition regards insight into the four truths as liberating in itself.
The cycle of rebirth
Saṃsāra
Saṃsāra means "wandering" or "world", with the connotation of cyclic, circuitous change.
It refers to the theory of rebirth and "cyclicality of all life,
matter, existence", a fundamental assumption of Buddhism, as with all
major Indian religions. Samsara in Buddhism is considered to be
dukkha, unsatisfactory and painful, perpetuated by desire and
avidya (ignorance), and the resulting
karma.
The theory of rebirths, and realms in which these rebirths can
occur, is extensively developed in Buddhism, in particular Tibetan
Buddhism with its wheel of existence (Bhavacakra) doctrine. Liberation from this cycle of existence, nirvana, has been the foundation and the most important historical justification of Buddhism.
The later Buddhist texts assert that rebirth can occur in six
realms of existence, namely three good realms (heavenly, demi-god,
human) and three evil realms (animal, hungry ghosts, hellish). Samsara ends if a person attains
nirvana, the "blowing out" of the desires and the gaining of true insight into
impermanence and
non-self reality.
Rebirth
Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of
sentient life, each running from conception to death. In Buddhist thought, this rebirth does not involve any soul, because of its doctrine of
anattā (Sanskrit:
anātman, no-self doctrine) which rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in
Hinduism and
Christianity. According to Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self in any being or any essence in any thing.
The Buddhist traditions have traditionally disagreed on what it
is in a person that is reborn, as well as how quickly the rebirth occurs
after each death. Some Buddhist traditions assert that "no self" doctrine means that there is no perduring self, but there is
avacya (inexpressible) self which migrates from one life to another. The majority of Buddhist traditions, in contrast, assert that
vijñāna
(a person's consciousness) though evolving, exists as a continuum and
is the mechanistic basis of what undergoes rebirth, rebecoming and
redeath. The rebirth depends on the
merit or demerit gained by one's karma, as well as that accrued on one's behalf by a family member.
Each rebirth takes place within one of five realms according to
Theravadins, or six according to other schools – heavenly, demi-gods,
humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hellish.
In East Asian and
Tibetan Buddhism, rebirth is not instantaneous, and there is an intermediate state (Tibetan "
bardo") between one life and the next. The orthodox Theravada position rejects the wait, and asserts that rebirth of a being is immediate. However there are passages in the
Samyutta Nikaya
of the Pali Canon that seem to lend support to the idea that the Buddha
taught about an intermediate stage between one life and the next.
Karma
In Buddhism,
karma (from
Sanskrit: "action, work") drives
saṃsāra – the endless cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Good, skilful deeds (Pāli:
kusala) and bad, unskilful deeds (Pāli:
akusala) produce "seeds" in the unconscious receptacle (
ālaya) that mature later either in this life or in a subsequent
rebirth.
The existence of karma is a core belief in Buddhism, as with all major
Indian religions, it implies neither fatalism nor that everything that
happens to a person is caused by karma.
A central aspect of Buddhist theory of karma is that intent (
cetanā) matters and is essential to bring about a consequence or
phala "fruit" or
vipāka "result".
However, good or bad karma accumulates even if there is no physical
action, and just having ill or good thoughts creates karmic seeds; thus,
actions of body, speech or mind all lead to karmic seeds.
In the Buddhist traditions, life aspects affected by the law of karma
in past and current births of a being include the form of rebirth, realm
of rebirth, social class, character and major circumstances of a
lifetime. It operates like the laws of physics, without external intervention, on every being in all
six realms of existence including human beings and gods.
A notable aspect of the karma theory in Buddhism is merit transfer.
A person accumulates merit not only through intentions and ethical
living, but also is able to gain merit from others by exchanging goods
and services, such as through dāna (charity to monks or nuns). Further, a person can transfer one's own good karma to living family members and ancestors.
Liberation
The cessation of the
kleshas and the attainment of
nirvana (
nibbāna),
with which the cycle of rebirth ends, has been the primary and the
soteriological goal of the Buddhist path for monastic life since the
time of the Buddha. The term "path" is usually taken to mean the
Noble Eightfold Path, but
other versions of "the path" can also be found in the Nikayas. In some passages in the Pali Canon, a distinction is being made between right knowledge or insight (
sammā-ñāṇa), and right liberation or release (
sammā-vimutti), as the means to attain cessation and liberation.
Nirvana literally means "blowing out, quenching, becoming extinguished".
In early Buddhist texts, it is the state of restraint and self-control
that leads to the "blowing out" and the ending of the cycles of
sufferings associated with rebirths and redeaths. Many later Buddhist texts describe nirvana as identical with
anatta with complete "emptiness, nothingness". In some texts, the state is described with greater detail, such as passing through the gate of emptiness (
sunyata) – realizing that there is no soul or self in any living being, then passing through the gate of signlessness (
animitta) – realizing that nirvana cannot be perceived, and finally passing through the gate of wishlessness (
apranihita) – realizing that nirvana is the state of not even wishing for nirvana.
The nirvana state has been described in Buddhist texts partly in a
manner similar to other Indian religions, as the state of complete
liberation, enlightenment, highest happiness, bliss, fearlessness,
freedom, permanence, non-dependent origination, unfathomable, and
indescribable. It has also been described in part differently, as a state of spiritual release marked by "emptiness" and realization of
non-self.
While Buddhism considers the liberation from
saṃsāra
as the ultimate spiritual goal, in traditional practice, the primary
focus of a vast majority of lay Buddhists has been to seek and
accumulate merit through good deeds, donations to monks and various
Buddhist rituals in order to gain better rebirths rather than nirvana.
The path to liberation: Bhavana (practice, cultivation)
While the Noble Eightfold Path is best-known in the west, a wide
variety of practices and stages have been used and described in the
Buddhist traditions. Basic practices include
sila (ethics),
samadhi (meditation,
dhyana) and
prajna
(wisdom), as described in the Noble Eightfold Path. An important
additional practice is a kind and compassionate attitude toward every
living being and the world.
Devotion
is also important in some Buddhist traditions, and in the Tibetan
traditions visualizations of deities and mandalas are important. The
value of textual study is regarded differently in the various Buddhist
traditions. It is central to Theravada and highly important to Tibetan
Buddhism, while the Zen tradition takes an ambiguous stance.
Refuge in the Three Jewels
Traditionally, the first step in most Buddhist schools requires taking Three Refuges, also called the Three Jewels (
Sanskrit:
triratna,
Pali:
tiratana) as the foundation of one's religious practice. Pali texts employ the
Brahmanical motif of the triple refuge, found in the
Rigveda 9.97.47,
Rigveda 6.46.9 and
Chandogya Upanishad 2.22.3–4. Tibetan Buddhism sometimes adds a fourth refuge, in the
lama. The three refuges are believed by Buddhists to be protective and a form of reverence.
The Three Jewels are:
- The Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha, the Blessed One, the Awakened with true knowledge
- The Dharma, the precepts, the practice, the Four Truths, the Eightfold Path
- The Sangha, order of monks, the community of Buddha's disciples
Reciting the three refuges is considered in Buddhism not as a place
to hide, rather a thought that purifies, uplifts and strengthens.
The Buddhist path
Theravada – Noble Eightfold Path
An important guiding principle of Buddhist practice is the
Middle Way (
madhyamapratipad). It was a part of Buddha's first sermon, where he presented the
Noble Eightfold Path that was a 'middle way' between the extremes of asceticism and hedonistic sense pleasures. In Buddhism, states Harvey, the doctrine of "dependent arising" (conditioned arising,
pratītyasamutpāda)
to explain rebirth is viewed as the 'middle way' between the doctrines
that a being has a "permanent soul" involved in rebirth (eternalism) and
"death is final and there is no rebirth" (annihilationism).
In the Theravada canon, the Pali-suttas, various often
irreconcilable sequences can be found. According to Carol Anderson, the
Theravada canon lacks "an overriding and comprehensive structure of the
path to
nibbana." Nevertheless, the
Noble Eightfold Path,
or "Eightfold Path of the Noble Ones", has become an important
description of the Buddhist path. It consists of a set of eight
interconnected factors or conditions, that when developed together, lead
to the cessation of
dukkha.
These eight factors are: Right View (or Right Understanding), Right
Intention (or Right Thought), Right Speech, Right Action, Right
Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
This Eightfold Path is the fourth of the
Four Noble Truths, and asserts the path to the cessation of
dukkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness). The path teaches that the way of the enlightened ones stopped their craving, clinging and
karmic accumulations, and thus ended their endless cycles of rebirth and suffering.
| Division
|
Eightfold factor
|
Sanskrit, Pali
|
Description
|
Wisdom
(Sanskrit: prajñā,
Pāli: paññā)
|
1. Right view
|
samyag dṛṣṭi,
sammā ditthi
|
The belief that there is an afterlife and not everything ends with
death, that Buddha taught and followed a successful path to nirvana; according to Peter Harvey, the right view is held in Buddhism as a belief in the Buddhist principles of karma and rebirth, and the importance of the Four Noble Truths and the True Realities.
|
| 2. Right intention
|
samyag saṃkalpa,
sammā saṅkappa
|
Giving up home and adopting the life of a religious mendicant in order to follow the path;
this concept, states Harvey, aims at peaceful renunciation, into an
environment of non-sensuality, non-ill-will (to lovingkindness), away
from cruelty (to compassion).
|
Moral virtues
(Sanskrit: śīla,
Pāli: sīla)
|
3. Right speech
|
samyag vāc,
sammā vāca
|
No lying, no rude speech, no telling one person what another says about him, speaking that which leads to salvation;
|
| 4. Right action
|
samyag karman,
sammā kammanta
|
No killing or injuring, no taking what is not given; no sexual acts in monastic pursuit,
for lay Buddhists no sensual misconduct such as sexual involvement with
someone married, or with an unmarried woman protected by her parents or
relatives.
|
| 5. Right livelihood
|
samyag ājīvana,
sammā ājīva
|
For monks, beg to feed, only possessing what is essential to sustain life.
For lay Buddhists, the canonical texts state right livelihood as
abstaining from wrong livelihood, explained as not becoming a source or
means of suffering to sentient beings by cheating them, or harming or
killing them in any way.
|
Meditation
(Sanskrit and Pāli: samādhi)
|
6. Right effort
|
samyag vyāyāma,
sammā vāyāma
|
Guard against sensual thoughts; this concept, states Harvey, aims at preventing unwholesome states that disrupt meditation.
|
| 7. Right mindfulness
|
samyag smṛti,
sammā sati
|
Never be absent minded, conscious of what one is doing; this, states
Harvey, encourages mindfulness about impermanence of the body, feelings
and mind, as well as to experience the five skandhas, the five hindrances, the four True Realities and seven factors of awakening.
|
| 8. Right concentration
|
samyag samādhi,
sammā samādhi
|
Correct meditation or concentration (dhyana), explained as the four jhānas.
|
Mahayana – Bodhisattva-path and the six paramitas
Dāna or charitable giving to monks is a virtue in Buddhism, leading to merit accumulation and better rebirths.
Mahāyāna Buddhism is based principally upon the path of a
Bodhisattva. A
Bodhisattva refers to one who is on the path to buddhahood. The term
Mahāyāna was originally a synonym for
Bodhisattvayāna or "Bodhisattva Vehicle."
In the earliest texts of Mahayana Buddhism, the path of a bodhisattva was to awaken the
bodhicitta. Between the 1st and 3rd century CE, this tradition introduced the
Ten Bhumi doctrine, which means ten levels or stages of awakening.
This development was followed by the acceptance that it is impossible
to achieve Buddhahood in one (current) lifetime, and the best goal is
not nirvana for oneself, but Buddhahood after climbing through the ten
levels during multiple rebirths.
Mahayana scholars then outlined an elaborate path, for monks and
laypeople, and the path includes the vow to help teach Buddhist
knowledge to other beings, so as to help them cross samsara and liberate
themselves, once one reaches the Buddhahood in a future rebirth. One part of this path are the
Pāramitā (perfections, to cross over), derived from the
Jatakas tales of Buddha's numerous rebirths.
The Mahayana texts are inconsistent in their discussion of the Paramitas, and some texts include lists of two, others four, six, ten and fifty-two. The six paramitas have been most studied, and these are:
- Dāna pāramitā:
perfection of giving; primarily to monks, nuns and the Buddhist
monastic establishment dependent on the alms and gifts of the lay
householders, in return for generating religious merit; some texts recommend ritually transferring the merit so accumulated for better rebirth to someone else
- Śīla pāramitā:
perfection of morality; it outlines ethical behaviour for both the
laity and the Mahayana monastic community; this list is similar to Śīla
in the Eightfold Path (i.e. Right Speech, Right Action, Right
Livelihood)
- Kṣānti pāramitā: perfection of patience, willingness to endure hardship
- Vīrya pāramitā: perfection of vigour; this is similar to Right Effort in the Eightfold Path
- Dhyāna pāramitā: perfection of meditation; this is similar to Right Concentration in the Eightfold Path
- Prajñā pāramitā:
perfection of insight (wisdom), awakening to the characteristics of
existence such as karma, rebirths, impermanence, no-self, dependent
origination and emptiness;
this is complete acceptance of the Buddha teaching, then conviction,
followed by ultimate realization that "dharmas are non-arising".
In Mahayana Sutras that include ten Paramitas, the additional four perfections are "skillful means, vow, power and knowledge". The most discussed Paramita and the highest rated perfection in Mahayana texts is the "Prajna-paramita", or the "perfection of insight".
This insight in the Mahayana tradition, states Shōhei Ichimura, has
been the "insight of non-duality or the absence of reality in all
things".
Śīla – Buddhist ethics
Śīla (Sanskrit) or sīla (Pāli) is the concept of "moral virtues", that is the second group and an integral part of the Noble Eightfold Path. It consists of right speech, right action and right livelihood.
Śīla appear as ethical precepts for both lay and ordained
Buddhist devotees. It includes the Five Precepts for laypeople, Eight or
Ten Precepts for monastic life, as well as rules of Dhamma (Vinaya or Patimokkha) adopted by a monastery.
Precepts
Buddhist scriptures explain the five precepts (
Pali:
pañcasīla;
Sanskrit:
pañcaśīla) as the minimal standard of Buddhist morality. It is the most important system of morality in Buddhism, together with the
monastic rules. The five precepts apply to both male and female devotees, and these are:
- Abstain from killing (Ahimsa);
- Abstain from stealing;
- Abstain from sensual (including sexual) misconduct;
- Abstain from lying;
- Abstain from intoxicants.
Undertaking and upholding the five precepts is based on the principle of
non-harming (
Pāli and
Sanskrit:
ahiṃsa). The
Pali Canon recommends one to compare oneself with others, and on the basis of that, not to hurt others. Compassion and a belief in
karmic retribution form the foundation of the precepts. Undertaking the five precepts is part of regular lay devotional practice, both at home and at the local temple. However, the extent to which people keep them differs per region and time. They are sometimes referred to as the
śrāvakayāna precepts in the
Mahāyāna tradition, contrasting them with the
bodhisattva precepts.
The five precepts are not commandments and transgressions do not
invite religious sanctions, but their power has been based on the
Buddhist belief in karmic consequences and their impact in the
afterlife. Killing in Buddhist belief leads to rebirth in the hell
realms, and for a longer time in more severe conditions if the murder
victim was a monk. Adultery, similarly, invites a rebirth as prostitute
or in hell, depending on whether the partner was unmarried or married.
These moral precepts have been voluntarily self-enforced in lay
Buddhist culture through the associated belief in karma and rebirth. Within the Buddhist doctrine, the precepts are meant to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to
enlightenment.
The monastic life in Buddhism has additional precepts as part of patimokkha, and unlike lay people, transgressions by monks do invite sanctions. Full expulsion from sangha
follows any instance of killing, engaging in sexual intercourse, theft
or false claims about one's knowledge. Temporary expulsion follows a
lesser offence. The sanctions vary per monastic fraternity (nikaya).
Lay people and novices in many Buddhist fraternities also uphold
eight (asta shila) or ten (
das shila) from time to time. Four of these are same as for the lay devotee: no killing, no stealing, no lying, and no intoxicants. The other four precepts are:
- No sexual activity;
- Abstain from eating at the wrong time (e.g. only eat solid food before noon);
- Abstain from jewellery, perfume, adornment, entertainment;
- Abstain from sleeping on high bed i.e. to sleep on a mat on the ground.
All eight precepts are sometimes observed by lay people on
uposatha days: full moon, new moon , the first and last quarter following the lunar calendar. The ten precepts also include to abstain from accepting money.
In addition to these precepts, Buddhist monasteries have hundreds of rules of conduct, which are a part of its patimokkha.
Vinaya
Monks performing a ceremony in Hangzhou, China
Vinaya is the specific code of conduct for a
sangha of monks or nuns. It includes the
Patimokkha,
a set of 227 offences including 75 rules of decorum for monks, along
with penalties for transgression, in the Theravadin tradition. The precise content of the
Vinaya Pitaka
(scriptures on the Vinaya) differs in different schools and tradition,
and different monasteries set their own standards on its implementation.
The list of
pattimokkha is recited every fortnight in a ritual gathering of all monks.
Buddhist text with vinaya rules for monasteries have been traced in all
Buddhist traditions, with the oldest surviving being the ancient
Chinese translations.
Monastic communities in the Buddhist tradition cut normal social
ties to family and community, and live as "islands unto themselves". Within a monastic fraternity, a sangha has its own rules.
A monk abides by these institutionalized rules, and living life as the
vinaya prescribes it is not merely a means, but very nearly the end in
itself. Transgressions by a monk on Sangha vinaya rules invites enforcement, which can include temporary or permanent expulsion.
Samadhi (dhyana) – meditation
A wide range of meditation practices has developed in the Buddhist
traditions, but "meditation" primarily refers to the practice of dhyana c.q. jhana.
It is a practice in which the attention of the mind is first narrowed
to the focus on one specific object, such as the breath, a concrete
object, or a specific thought, mental image or mantra. After this
initial focusing of the mind, the focus is coupled to mindfulness,
maintaining a calm mind while being aware of one's surroundings. The practice of dhyana aids in maintaining a calm mind, and avoiding disturbance of this calm mind by mindfulness of disturbing thoughts and feelings.
Origins
The earliest evidence of yogis and their meditative tradition, states Karel Werner, is found in the
Keśin hymn 10.136 of the
Rigveda. While evidence suggests
meditation was practised in the centuries preceding the Buddha,
the meditative methodologies described in the Buddhist texts are some
of the earliest among texts that have survived into the modern era. These methodologies likely incorporate what existed before the Buddha as well as those first developed within Buddhism.
According to Bronkhorst, the
Four Dhyanas was a Buddhist invention.
Bronkhorst notes that the Buddhist canon has a mass of contradictory
statements, little is known about their relative chronology, and "there
can be no doubt that the canon – including the older parts, the Sutra
and Vinaya Pitaka – was composed over a long period of time". Meditative practices were incorporated from other
sramanic movements;
the Buddhist texts describe how Buddha learnt the practice of the
formless dhyana from Brahmanical practices, in the Nikayas ascribed to
Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta.
The Buddhist canon also describes and criticizes alternative dhyana
practices, which likely mean the pre-existing mainstream meditation
practices of Jainism and Hinduism.
Buddha added a new focus and interpretation, particularly through the Four Dhyanas methodology, in which mindfulness is maintained. Further, the focus of meditation and the underlying theory of liberation guiding the meditation has been different in Buddhism.
For example, states Bronkhorst, the verse 4.4.23 of the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad with its "become calm, subdued, quiet, patiently enduring,
concentrated, one sees soul in oneself" is most probably a meditative
state.
The Buddhist discussion of meditation is without the concept of soul
and the discussion criticizes both the ascetic meditation of Jainism and
the "real self, soul" meditation of Hinduism.
Four rupa-jhāna and four arupa-jhāna
For Nirvana, Buddhist texts teach various meditation methodologies, of which rupa-jhana (four meditations in the realm of form) and arupa-jhana (four meditations in the formless realm) have been the most studied. These are described in the Pali Canon as trance-like states in the world of desirelessness. The four dhyanas under rupa-jhanas are:
- First dhyana: detach from all sensory desires and sinful states
that are a source of unwholesome karma. Success here is described in
Buddhist texts as leading to discursive thinking, deliberation,
detachment, sukha (pleasure) and priti (rapture).
- Second dhyana: cease deliberation and all discursive thoughts. Success leads to one-pointed thinking, serenity, pleasure and rapture.
- Third dhyana: lose feeling of rapture. Success leads to equanimity, mindfulness and pleasure, without rapture.
- Fourth dhyana: cease all effects, lose all happiness and sadness.
Success in the fourth meditation stage leads to pure equanimity and
mindfulness, without any pleasure or pain.
The
arupa-jhanas (formless realm meditation) are also four, which are entered by those who have mastered the
rupa-jhanas (
Arhats).
The first formless dhyana gets to infinite space without form or colour
or shape, the second to infinity of perception base of the infinite
space, the third formless dhyana transcends object-subject perception
base, while the fourth is where he dwells in nothing-at-all where there
are no feelings, no ideas, nor are there non-ideas, unto total
cessation. The four
rupa-dhyanas in Buddhist practice lead to rebirth in successfully better
rupa Brahma heavenly realms, while
arupa-dhyanas lead into arupa heavens.
Richard Gombrich notes that the sequence of the four rupa-jhanas
describes two different cognitive states. The first two describe a
narrowing of attention, while in the third and fourth jhana attention is
expanded again. Alexander Wynne further explains that the dhyana-scheme is poorly understood. According to Wynne, words expressing the inculcation of awareness, such as sati, sampajāno, and upekkhā, are mistranslated or understood as particular factors of meditative states, whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving the sense objects.
Meditation and insight
The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of
dhyāna (meditation, Pali
jhāna). There is a tradition that stresses attaining
prajñā (insight,
bodhi,
kenshō,
vipassana) as the means to awakening and liberation. But it has also incorporated the
yogic tradition, as reflected in the use of jhana, which is rejected in other sutras as not resulting in the final result of liberation.
Lambert Schmithausen, a professor of Buddhist Studies, discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in the suttas, to which Vetter adds the sole practice of
dhyana itself.
According to Vetter and Bronkhorst, the earliest Buddhist path
consisted of a set of practices which culminate in the practice of
dhyana, leading to a calm of mind which according to Vetter
is the liberation which is being sought. Frauwallner notes that the Buddha regarded
tanha,
"thirst," craving, to be the cause of suffering, not ignorance. But
this was in contradiction to the Indian traditions of the time, and
posed a problem, which was then also incorporated into the Buddhis
teachings. Later on, "liberating insight" came to be regarded as equally liberating. This "liberating insight" came to be exemplified by
prajna, or the insight in the "four truths," but also by other elements of the Buddhist teachings.
The Brahma-vihara
The four immeasurables or four abodes, also called Brahma-viharas,
are virtues or directions for meditation in Buddhist traditions, which
helps a person be reborn in the heavenly (Brahma) realm. These are traditionally believed to be a characteristic of the deity Brahma and the heavenly abode he resides in.
The four Brahma-vihara are:
- Loving-kindness (Pāli: mettā, Sanskrit: maitrī) is active good will towards all;
- Compassion (Pāli and Sanskrit: karuṇā) results from metta; it is identifying the suffering of others as one's own;
- Empathetic joy (Pāli and Sanskrit: muditā): is the feeling of joy because others are happy, even if one did not contribute to it; it is a form of sympathetic joy;
- Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā, Sanskrit: upekṣā): is even-mindedness and serenity, treating everyone impartially.
According to Peter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the four Brahmavihara meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition".
The Brahmavihara (sometimes as Brahmaloka), along with the tradition of
meditation and the above four immeasurables are found in pre-Buddha and
post-Buddha Vedic and Sramanic literature.
Aspects of the Brahmavihara practice for rebirths into the heavenly
realm have been an important part of Buddhist meditation tradition.
According to Gombrich, the Buddhist usage of the brahma-vihāra
originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete
attitude toward other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman"
here and now. The later tradition took those descriptions too literally,
linking them to cosmology and understanding them as "living with
Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahma-world. According to Gombrich, "the Buddha taught that kindness – what Christians tend to call love – was a way to salvation."
Visualizations: deities, mandalas
Mandala are used in Buddhism for initiation ceremonies and visualization.
Idols of deity and icons have been a part of the historic practice, and in Buddhist texts such as the 11th-century Sadanamala, a devotee visualizes and identifies himself or herself with the imagined deity as part of meditation.
This has been particularly popular in Vajrayana meditative traditions,
but also found in Mahayana and Theravada traditions, particularly in
temples and with Buddha images.
In Tibetan Buddhism tradition, mandala are mystical maps for the visualization process with cosmic symbolism. There are numerous deities, each with a mandala, and they are used during initiation ceremonies and meditation.
The mandalas are concentric geometric shapes symbolizing layers of the
external world, gates and sacred space. The meditation deity is in the
centre, sometimes surrounded by protective gods and goddesses.
Visualizations with deities and mandalas in Buddhism is a tradition
traceable to ancient times, and likely well established by the time the
5th-century text Visuddhimagga was composed.
Practice: monks, laity
According to Peter Harvey, whenever Buddhism has been healthy, not
only ordained but also more committed lay people have practised formal
meditation.
Loud devotional chanting however, adds Harvey, has been the most
prevalent Buddhist practice and considered a form of meditation that
produces "energy, joy, lovingkindness and calm", purifies mind and
benefits the chanter.
Throughout most of Buddhist history, meditation has been
primarily practised in Buddhist monastic tradition, and historical
evidence suggests that serious meditation by lay people has been an
exception. In recent history, sustained meditation has been pursued by a minority of monks in Buddhist monasteries.
Western interest in meditation has led to a revival where ancient
Buddhist ideas and precepts are adapted to Western mores and interpreted
liberally, presenting Buddhism as a meditation-based form of
spirituality.
Prajñā – insight
Prajñā (Sanskrit) or
paññā (Pāli) is insight or knowledge of the true nature of existence. The Buddhist tradition regards ignorance (
avidyā), a fundamental ignorance, misunderstanding or mis-perception of the nature of reality, as one of the basic causes of
dukkha and
samsara.
By overcoming ignorance or misunderstanding one is enlightened and
liberated. This overcoming includes awakening to impermanence and the
non-self nature of reality, and this develops dispassion for the objects of
clinging, and liberates a being from
dukkha and
saṃsāra.
Prajñā
is important in all Buddhist traditions, and is the wisdom about the
dharmas, functioning of karma and rebirths, realms of samsara,
impermanence of everything, no-self in anyone or anything, and dependent
origination.
Origins
The origins of "liberating insight" are unclear. Buddhist texts,
states Bronkhorst, do not describe it explicitly, and the content of
"liberating insight" is likely not original to Buddhism.
According to Vetter and Bronkhorst, this growing importance of
"liberating insight" was a response to other religious groups in India,
which held that a liberating insight was indispensable for
moksha, liberation from rebirth.
Bronkhorst suggests that the conception of what exactly
constituted "liberating insight" for Buddhists developed over time.
Whereas originally it may not have been specified as an insight, later
on the Four Noble Truths served as such, to be superseded by pratityasamutpada, and still later, in the Hinayana schools, by the doctrine of the non-existence of a substantial self or person.
Other descriptions of this
"liberating insight" exist in the Buddhist canon: that the five Skandhas
are impermanent, disagreeable, and neither the Self nor belonging to
oneself"; "the contemplation of the arising and disappearance (udayabbaya) of the five Skandhas"; "the realisation of the Skandhas as empty (rittaka), vain (tucchaka) and without any pith or substance (asaraka).
— Lambert Schmithausen
In the Pali Canon liberating insight is attained in the fourth dhyana.
However, states Vetter, modern scholarship on the Pali Canon has
uncovered a "whole series of inconsistencies in the transmission of the
Buddha's word", and there are many conflicting versions of what
constitutes higher knowledge and samadhi that leads to the liberation
from rebirth and suffering.
Even within the Four Dhyana methodology of meditation, Vetter notes
that "penetrating abstract truths and penetrating them successively does
not seem possible in a state of mind which is without contemplation and
reflection." According to Vetter, dhyāna itself constituted the original "liberating practice".
Carol Anderson notes that insight is often depicted in the Vinaya
as the opening of the Dhamma eye, which sets one on the Buddhist path
to liberation.
Theravada
Vipassanā
In Theravada Buddhism, but also in Tibetan Buddhism, two types of meditation Buddhist practices are being followed, namely
samatha (Pāli; Sanskrit:
śamatha; "calm") and vipassana (insight). Samatha is also called "calming meditation", and was adopted into Buddhism from pre-Buddha Indian traditions.
Vipassanā
meditation was added by Buddha, and refers to "insight meditation".
Vipassana does not aim at peace and tranquillity, states Damien Keown,
but "the generation of penetrating and critical insight (panna)".
The focus of Vipassana meditation is to continuously and thoroughly know
impermanence of everything (
annica),
no-Self in anything (
anatta) and the
dukkha teachings of Buddhism.
Contemporary Theravada orthodoxy regards samatha as a preparation
for vipassanā, pacifying the mind and strengthening the concentration
in order to allow the work of insight, which leads to liberation. In
contrast, the Vipassana Movement argues that insight levels can be
discerned without the need for developing samatha further due to the
risks of going out of the course when strong samatha is developed.
Dependent arising
Pratityasamutpada, also called "dependent arising, or
dependent origination", is the Buddhist theory to explain the nature and
relations of being, becoming, existence and ultimate reality. Buddhism
asserts that there is nothing independent, except the state of nirvana.
All physical and mental states depend on and arise from other
pre-existing states, and in turn from them arise other dependent states
while they cease.
The 'dependent arisings' have a causal conditioning, and thus
Pratityasamutpada is the Buddhist belief that causality is the basis of
ontology, not a creator God nor the ontological Vedic concept called universal Self (
Brahman) nor any other 'transcendent creative principle'.
However, the Buddhist thought does not understand causality in terms of
Newtonian mechanics, rather it understands it as conditioned arising.
In Buddhism, dependent arising is referring to conditions created by a
plurality of causes that necessarily co-originate a phenomenon within
and across lifetimes, such as karma in one life creating conditions that
lead to rebirth in one of the realms of existence for another lifetime.
Buddhism applies the dependent arising theory to explain origination of endless cycles of
dukkha and rebirth, through its
Twelve Nidānas or "twelve links" doctrine. It states that because
Avidyā (ignorance) exists
Saṃskāras (karmic formations) exists, because Saṃskāras exists therefore
Vijñāna (consciousness) exists, and in a similar manner it links
Nāmarūpa (sentient body),
Ṣaḍāyatana (six senses),
Sparśa (sensory stimulation),
Vedanā (feeling),
Taṇhā (craving),
Upādāna (grasping),
Bhava (becoming),
Jāti (birth), and
Jarāmaraṇa (old age, death, sorrow, pain).
By breaking the circuitous links of the Twelve Nidanas, Buddhism
asserts that liberation from these endless cycles of rebirth and dukkha
can be attained.
Mahayana
Emptiness
Śūnyatā, or "emptiness", is a central concept in
Nagarjuna's
Madhyamaka school, and widely attested in the
Prajñāpāramitā sutras. It brings together key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and
dependent origination, to refute the metaphysics of
Sarvastivada and
Sautrāntika (extinct non-Mahayana schools). Not only sentient beings are empty of
ātman; all phenomena (
dharmas) are without any
svabhava
(literally "own-nature" or "self-nature"), and thus without any
underlying essence, and "empty" of being independent; thus the
heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on
the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism.
Representation-ony c.q. mind-only
Sarvastivada teachings, which were criticized by Nāgārjuna, were reformulated by scholars such as
Vasubandhu and
Asanga and were adapted into the
Yogachara school. One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of
vijñapti-mātra. It is often used interchangeably with the term
citta-mātra,
but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both
terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers
object to this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute
idealism" or "idealistic monism". A better translation for
vijñapti-mātra is
representation-only, while an alternative translation for
citta (mind, thought)
mātra (only, exclusively) has not been proposed.
While the Mādhyamaka school held that asserting the existence or
non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some later
exponents of Yogachara asserted that the mind and only the mind is
ultimately real (a doctrine known as cittamatra). Vasubandhu and Asanga however did not assert that mind was truly existent, or the basis of all reality.
These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form
the basis of subsequent Mahayana metaphysics in the Indo-Tibetan
tradition.
Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature is a concept found in some 1st-millennium CE Buddhist texts, such as the
Tathāgatagarbha sūtras. This concept has been controversial in Buddhism, but has a following in East Asian Buddhism. These
Sutras suggest, states Paul Williams, that 'all sentient beings contain a Tathagata' as their 'essence, core inner nature, Self'. The
Tathagatagarbha
doctrine, at its earliest probably appeared about the later part of the
3rd century CE, and it contradicts the Anatta doctrine (non-Self) in a
vast majority of Buddhist texts, leading scholars to posit that the
Tathagatagarbha Sutras were written to promote Buddhism to non-Buddhists. However, the Buddhist text
Ratnagotravibhāga states that the "Self" implied in
Tathagatagarbha doctrine is actually "not-Self".
Devotion
Bhatti (devotion) at a Buddhist temple, Tibet. Chanting during Bhatti Puja (devotional worship) is often a part of the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
Devotion is an important part of the practice of most Buddhists. Devotional practices include ritual prayer, prostration, offerings, pilgrimage, and chanting.
In Pure Land Buddhism, devotion to the Buddha Amitabha is the main
practice. In Nichiren Buddhism, devotion to the Lotus Sutra is the main
practice. Bhakti (called
Bhatti in Pali) has been a common
practice in Theravada Buddhism, where offerings and group prayers are
made to deities and particularly images of Buddha. According to Karel Werner and other scholars, devotional worship has been a significant practice in
Theravada Buddhism, and deep devotion is part of Buddhist traditions starting from the earliest days.
Guru devotion is a central practice of Tibetan Buddhism.
The guru is considered essential and to the Buddhist devotee, the guru
is the "enlightened teacher and ritual master" in Vajrayana spiritual
pursuits.
For someone seeking Buddhahood, the guru is the Buddha, the
Dhamma and the Sangha, wrote the 12th-century Buddhist scholar
Sadhanamala. The veneration of and obedience to teachers is also important in Theravada and Zen Buddhism.
Buddhist texts
Buddhist monk Geshe Konchog Wangdu reads Mahayana sutras from an old woodblock copy of the Tibetan Kanjur.
Buddhism, like all Indian religions, was an oral tradition in ancient times.
The Buddha's words, the early doctrines and concepts, and the
interpretations were transmitted from one generation to the next by the
word of mouth in monasteries, and not through written texts. The first
Buddhist canonical texts were likely written down in Sri Lanka, about
400 years after the Buddha died. The texts were part of the
Tripitakas,
and many versions appeared thereafter claiming to be the words of the
Buddha. Scholarly Buddhist commentary texts, with named authors,
appeared in India, around the 2nd century CE. These texts were written in Pali or Sanskrit, sometimes regional languages, as
palm-leaf manuscripts, birch bark, painted scrolls, carved into temple walls, and later on paper.
Unlike what the
Bible is to
Christianity and the
Quran is to
Islam,
but like all major ancient Indian religions, there is no consensus
among the different Buddhist traditions as to what constitutes the
scriptures or a common canon in Buddhism. The general belief among Buddhists is that the canonical corpus is vast. This corpus includes the ancient
Sutras organized into
Nikayas, itself the part of three basket of texts called the
Tripitakas.
Each Buddhist tradition has its own collection of texts, much of which
is translation of ancient Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist texts of India. The
Chinese Buddhist canon, for example, includes 2184 texts in 55 volumes,
while the Tibetan canon comprises 1108 texts—all claimed to have been
spoken by the Buddha—and another 3461 texts composed by Indian scholars
revered in the Tibetan tradition.
The Buddhist textual history is vast; over 40,000 manuscripts—mostly
Buddhist, some non-Buddhist—were discovered in 1900 in the Dunhuang
Chinese cave alone.
Pāli Tipitaka
The Pāli Tipitaka (Sanskrit:
Tripiṭaka, three pitakas), which means "three baskets", refers to the
Vinaya Pitaka, the
Sutta Pitaka, and the
Abhidhamma Pitaka. These constitute the oldest known canonical works of Buddhism. The
Vinaya Pitaka contains disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monasteries. The
Sutta Pitaka contains words attributed to the Buddha. The
Abhidhamma Pitaka contain expositions and commentaries on the Sutta, and these vary significantly between Buddhist schools.
The Pāli Tipitaka is the only surviving early Tipitaka. According
to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven
pitakas.
Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically "Theravadin", but
is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from
the early, non-sectarian body of teachings. According to Peter Harvey,
it contains material at odds with later Theravadin orthodoxy. He states:
"The Theravadins, then, may have added texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period."
Theravada texts
In addition to the Pali Canon, the important commentary texts of the Theravada tradition include the 5th-century
Visuddhimagga by
Buddhaghosa
of the Mahavihara school. It includes sections on shila (virtues),
samadhi (concentration), panna (wisdom) as well as Theravada tradition's
meditation methodology.
Mahayana sutras
The
Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that the
Mahayana Buddhist tradition holds are original teachings of
the Buddha.
Some adherents of Mahayana accept both the early teachings (including
in this the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, which was criticized by Nagarjuna
and is in fact opposed to early Buddhist thought)
and the Mahayana sutras as authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha, and
claim they were designed for different types of persons and different
levels of spiritual understanding.
The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the
bodhisattva path. That path is explained as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings from unhappiness. Hence the name
Mahāyāna (lit.,
the Great Vehicle). The Theravada school does not treat the Mahayana Sutras as authoritative or authentic teachings of the Buddha.
Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures were
composed from the 1st century CE onwards: "Large numbers of Mahayana
sutras were being composed in the period between the beginning of the
common era and the fifth century".
Śālistamba Sutra
Many ancient Indian texts have not survived into the modern era,
creating a challenge in establishing the historic commonalities between
Theravada and Mahayana. The texts preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist
monasteries, with parallel Chinese translations, have provided a
breakthrough. Among these is the Mahayana text Śālistamba Sutra
which no longer exists in a Sanskrit version, but does in Tibetan and
Chinese versions. This Mahayana text contains numerous sections which
are remarkably the same as the Theravada Pali Canon and Nikaya Buddhism. The Śālistamba Sutra was cited by Mahayana scholars such as the 8th-century Yasomitra to be authoritative.
This suggests that Buddhist literature of different traditions shared a
common core of Buddhist texts in the early centuries of its history,
until Mahayana literature diverged about and after the 1st century CE.
History
Historical roots
Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of
Iron Age India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. This was a period of great intellectual ferment and socio-cultural change known as the
"Second urbanisation", marked by the composition of the
Upanishads and the historical emergence of the Sramanic traditions.
Several Śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-
Mahavira), and these influenced both the
āstika and nāstika traditions of
Indian philosophy. According to Martin Wilshire, the Śramaṇa tradition evolved in India over two phases, namely
Paccekabuddha and
Savaka phases, the former being the tradition of individual ascetic and the latter of disciples, and that Buddhism and
Jainism ultimately emerged from these.
Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical ascetic groups shared and used several similar ideas,
but the Śramaṇa traditions also drew upon already established
Brahmanical concepts and philosophical roots, states Wiltshire, to
formulate their own doctrines. Brahmanical motifs can be found in the oldest Buddhist texts, using them to introduce and explain Buddhist ideas. For example, prior to Buddhist developments, the Brahmanical tradition internalized and variously reinterpreted the
three Vedic sacrificial fires as concepts such as Truth, Rite, Tranquility or Restraint. Buddhist texts also refer to the three Vedic sacrificial fires, reinterpreting and explaining them as ethical conduct.
The Śramaṇa religions challenged and broke with the Brahmanic tradition on core assumptions such as
Atman (soul, self),
Brahman, the nature of afterlife, and they rejected the authority of the
Vedas and
Upanishads. Buddhism was one among several Indian religions that did so.
Indian Buddhism
Pre-sectarian Buddhism
According to
Lambert Schmithausen Pre-sectarian Buddhism is "the canonical period prior to the development of different schools with their different positions."
The
early Buddhist Texts include the four principal
Nikāyas (and their parallel
Agamas) together with the main body of monastic rules, which survive in the various versions of the
patimokkha.
However, these texts were revised over time, and it is unclear what
constitutes the earliest layer of Buddhist teachings. One method to
obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the
oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pāli Canon and other texts. The reliability of the early sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
- "Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
- "Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
- "Cautious optimism in this respect."
Core teachings
Buddhist Chakras at ASI Museum, Amaravathi
Bruce Matthews notes that there is no cohesive presentation of karma in the Sutta Pitaka, which may mean that the doctrine was incidental to the main perspective of early Buddhist soteriology.
Schmithausen has questioned whether karma already played a role in the theory of rebirth of earliest Buddhism. According to Vetter, "the Buddha at first sought "the deathless" (
amata/amrta), which is concerned with the here and now. Only later did he become acquainted with the doctrine of rebirth."
Bronkhorst
disagrees, and concludes that the Buddha "introduced a concept of karma
that differed considerably from the commonly held views of his time."
According to Bronkhorst, not physical and mental activities as such
were seen as responsible for rebirth, but intentions and desire.
Another core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight.
Schmithausen states that the four noble truths as "liberating insight",
may be a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the
Four Noble Truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhānas.
The four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and
did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating
insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The
three marks of existence – Dukkha, Annica, Anatta – may reflect Upanishadic or other influences.
K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his hearers. According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
Similarly nibbāna is the common term for the desired goal of this
practice, yet many other terms can be found throughout the Nikāyas,
which are not specified.
Early Buddhist schools
According to the scriptures, soon after the
parinirvāṇa (from Sanskrit: "highest extinguishment") of Gautama 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.
Richard Gombrich
states that the monastic assembly recitations of the Buddha's teaching
likely began during Buddha's lifetime, similar to the First Council,
that helped compose Buddhist scriptures.
The
Second Buddhist council resulted in the first schism in the
Sangha, probably caused by a group of reformists called
Sthaviras who split from the conservative majority
Mahāsāṃghikas. After unsuccessfully trying to modify the
Vinaya, a small group of "elderly members", i.e.
sthaviras, broke away from the majority
Mahāsāṃghika during the Second Buddhist council, giving rise to the Sthavira Nikaya.
The Sthaviras gave rise to several schools, one of which was the
Theravada
school. Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over monastic
disciplinary codes of various fraternities, but eventually, by about
100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal
disagreements too.
Buddhist monks of different fraternities became distinct schools and
stopped doing official Sangha business together, but continued to study
each other's doctrines.
Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate their own version of
Tripiṭaka (Pali Canons, triple basket of texts). In their Tripiṭaka, each school included the Suttas of the Buddha, a Vinaya basket (disciplinary code) and added an
Abhidharma basket which were texts on detailed scholastic classification, summary and interpretation of the Suttas.
The doctrine details in the Abhidharmas of various Buddhist schools
differ significantly, and these were composed starting about the third
century BCE and through the 1st millennium CE.
Eighteen early Buddhist schools are known, each with its own Tripitaka,
but only one collection from Sri Lanka has survived, in a nearly
complete state, into the modern era.
Early Mahayana Buddhism
There is no evidence that Mahayana ever referred to a separate
formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a
certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas. Initially it was known as
Bodhisattvayāna (the "Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas"). Paul Williams states that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate
Vinaya or ordination codes from the early schools of Buddhism.
Records written by Chinese monks visiting India indicate that both
Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks could be found in the same monasteries,
with the difference that Mahayana monks worshipped figures of
Bodhisattvas, while non-Mahayana monks did not.
Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna
comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts. These Mahayana
teachings were first propagated into China by
Lokakṣema, the first translator of Mahayana sutras into Chinese during the 2nd century CE. Some scholars have traditionally considered the earliest
Mahāyāna sūtras to include the very first versions of the
Prajnaparamita series, along with texts concerning
Akṣobhya, which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.
Late Mahayana Buddhism
During the period of Late Mahāyāna, four major types of thought developed:
Madhyamaka,
Yogachara,
Tathagatagarbha, and
Buddhist logic as the last and most recent. In India, the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were the Madhyamaka and the later Yogachara. According to
Dan Lusthaus, Madhyamaka and Yogachara have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism. There were no great Indian teachers associated with tathagatagarbha thought.
Vajrayana (Esoteric Buddhism)
Scholarly research concerning
Esoteric Buddhism is still in its early stages and has a number of problems that make research difficult:
- Vajrayana Buddhism was influenced by Hinduism, and therefore research must include exploring Hinduism as well.
- The scriptures of Vajrayana have not yet been put in any kind of order.
- Ritual must be examined as well, not just doctrine.
Spread of Buddhism
The spread of Buddhism within South Asia and beyond.
Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the
Mauryan emperor
Ashoka, who was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more
stūpas (Buddhist religious memorials) and to its spread throughout the
Maurya empire and into neighbouring lands such as
Central Asia and to the island of
Sri Lanka.
These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in
the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, Korea and Japan,
and in the second case, to the emergence of Sinhalese
Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from
Sri Lanka to much 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 to spread
Buddhism (Dharma), particularly in eastern provinces of the neighbouring
Seleucid Empire, and even farther to
Hellenistic
kingdoms of the Mediterranean. It is a matter of disagreement among
scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist
missionaries.
In central and west Asia, Buddhist influence grew, through
Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs and ancient Asian trade routes. An
example of this is evidenced in Chinese and Pali Buddhist records, such
as
Milindapanha and the
Greco-Buddhist art of
Gandhāra. The
Milindapanha describes a conversation between a Buddhist monk and the 2nd-century BCE Greek king
Menander, after which Menander abdicates and himself goes into monastic life in the pursuit of nirvana. Some scholars have questioned the
Milindapanha version, expressing doubts whether Menander was Buddhist or just favourably disposed to Buddhist monks.
The
Kushans
(mid 1st–3rd century CE) came to control the Silk Road trade through
Central and South Asia, which brought them to interact with ancient
Buddhist monasteries and societies involved in trade in these regions.
They patronized Buddhist institutions, and Buddhist monastery influence,
in turn, expanded into a world religion, according to Xinru Liu. Buddhism spread to
Khotan and China, eventually to other parts of the far east.
Some of the earliest written documents of the Buddhist faith are the
Gandharan Buddhist texts, dating from about the 1st century CE, and connected to the
Dharmaguptaka school. These texts are written in the
Kharosthi script, a script that was predominantly used in the
Greco-Bactrian and
Indo-Greek kingdoms of northern India and that played a prominent role in the coinage and inscriptions of their kings.
To East and Southeast Asia
White Horse Temple (est. 68 CE), traditionally held to be at the origin of Chinese Buddhism.
The
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or
the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to
question. The first documented translation efforts by foreign
Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the
Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the
Tarim Basin.
The first documented Buddhist texts translated into Chinese are those of the Parthian
An Shigao (148–180 CE). The first known
Mahāyāna scriptural texts are translations into Chinese by the Kushan monk
Lokakṣema in
Luoyang, between 178 and 189 CE. From China, Buddhism was introduced into its neighbors
Korea (4th century),
Japan (6th–7th centuries), and
Vietnam (c. 1st–2nd centuries).
During the Chinese
Tang dynasty (618–907),
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism was introduced from India and
Chan Buddhism (Zen) became a major religion. Chan continued to grow in the
Song dynasty (960–1279) and it was during this era that it strongly influenced Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism.
Pure Land Buddhism also became popular during this period and was often practiced together with Chan. It was also during the Song that the entire
Chinese canon was printed using over 130,000 wooden printing blocks.
During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and
Mongolia.
Johannes Bronkhorst states that the esoteric form was attractive
because it allowed both a secluded monastic community as well as the
social rites and rituals important to laypersons and to kings for the
maintenance of a political state during succession and wars to resist
invasion. During the Middle Ages, Buddhism slowly declined in India, while it vanished from Persia and Central Asia as Islam became the state religion.
Schools and traditions
Distribution of major Buddhist traditions
Buddhists generally classify themselves as either
Theravada or
Mahayana. This classification is also used by some scholars and is the one ordinarily used in the English language. An alternative scheme used by some scholars divides Buddhism into the following three traditions or geographical or cultural areas:
Theravada,
East Asian Buddhism and
Tibetan Buddhism.
Some scholars use other schemes. Buddhists themselves have a variety of other schemes.
Hinayana
(literally "lesser or inferior vehicle") is used by Mahayana followers
to name the family of early philosophical schools and traditions from
which contemporary Theravada emerged, but as the Hinayana term is
considered derogatory, a variety of other terms are used instead,
including
Śrāvakayāna, Nikaya Buddhism, early Buddhist schools, sectarian Buddhism and conservative Buddhism.
Not all traditions of Buddhism share the same philosophical
outlook, or treat the same concepts as central. Each tradition, however,
does have its own core concepts, and some comparisons can be drawn
between them:
- Both Theravada and Mahayana traditions accept the Buddha as the founder, Theravada considers him unique, but Mahayana considers him one of many Buddhas
- Both accept the Middle Way, dependent origination, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the three marks of existence
- Nirvana is attainable by the monks in Theravada tradition, while
Mahayana considers it broadly attainable; Arhat state is aimed for in
the Theravada, while Buddhahood is aimed for in the Mahayana
- Religious practice consists of meditation for monks and prayer for
laypersons in Theravada, while Mahayana includes prayer, chanting and
meditation for both
- Theravada has been a more rationalist, historical form of Buddhism;
while Mahayana has included more rituals, mysticism and worldly
flexibility in its scope.
Theravada school
The Theravada tradition traces its roots to the words of the Buddha
preserved in the Pali Canon, and considers itself to be the more
orthodox form of Buddhism.
Theravada flourished in south India and Sri Lanka in ancient
times; from there it spread for the first time into mainland southeast
Asia about the 11th century into its elite urban centres. By the 13th century, Theravada had spread widely into the rural areas of mainland southeast Asia,
displacing Mahayana Buddhism and some traditions of Hinduism which had
arrived in places such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and
Malaysia around the mid-1st millennium CE. The later traditions were
well established in south Thailand and Java by the 7th century, under
the sponsorship of the Srivijaya dynasty.
The political separation between Khmer and Sukhothai led the Sukhothai
king to welcome Sri Lankan emissaries, helping them establish the first
Theravada Buddhist sangha in the 13th century, in contrast to the Mahayana tradition of Khmer earlier.
Sinhalese Buddhist reformers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries portrayed the
Pali Canon as the original version of scripture. They also emphasized Theravada being rational and scientific.
Mahayana traditions
The ideas of the 2nd century scholar Nagarjuna helped shape the Mahayana traditions.
Mahayana schools consider the
Mahayana Sutras as authoritative scriptures and accurate rendering of Buddha's words. These traditions have been the more liberal form of Buddhism allowing different and new interpretations that emerged over time.
Mahayana flourished in India from the time of Ashoka, through to the dynasty of the
Guptas
(4th to 6th-century). Mahāyāna monastic foundations and centres of
learning were established by the Buddhist kings, and the Hindu kings of
the Gupta dynasty as evidenced by records left by three Chinese visitors
to India. The Gupta dynasty, for example, helped establish the famed
Nālandā University in Bihar.
These monasteries and foundations helped Buddhist scholarship, as well
as studies into non-Buddhist traditions and secular subjects such as
medicine, host visitors and spread Buddhism into East and Central Asia.
Native Mahayana Buddhism is practised today in China, Japan,
Korea,
Singapore, parts of Russia and most of
Vietnam
(also commonly referred to as "Eastern Buddhism"). The Buddhism
practised in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahayana
in origin, but is discussed below under the heading of Vajrayana (also
commonly referred to as "Northern Buddhism"). There are a variety of
strands in Eastern Buddhism, of which "the Pure Land school of Mahayana
is the most widely practised today.". In most of this area however, they are fused into a single unified form of Buddhism.
In Japan in particular, they form separate denominations with the five major ones being:
Nichiren, peculiar to Japan;
Pure Land;
Shingon, a form of Vajrayana;
Tendai, and
Zen. In Korea, nearly all Buddhists belong to the
Chogye school, which is officially Son (Zen), but with substantial elements from other traditions.
Vajrayana traditions
7th-century Potala Palace in Lhasa valley symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The goal and philosophy of the Vajrayāna remains Mahāyānist, but its
methods are seen by its followers as far more powerful, so as to lead to
Buddhahood in just one lifetime. The practice of using
mantras was adopted from
Hinduism, where they were first used in the
Vedas.
Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and
Saivism. The
Mañjusrimulakalpa, which later came to classified under
Kriyatantra,
states that mantras taught in the Saiva, Garuda and Vaisnava tantras
will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught
originally by
Manjushri. The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the
Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Saiva guru and initiating members into
Saiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas. The
Samvara tantra texts adopted the
pitha list from the Saiva text
Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.
Tibetan Buddhism preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth-century India. Tantric Buddhism is largely concerned with ritual and meditative practices. A central feature of Buddhist Tantra is
deity yoga which includes visualization and identification with an enlightened
yidam or meditation deity and its associated
mandala. Another element of Tantra is the need for ritual initiation or empowerment (abhiṣeka) by a
Guru or
Lama. Some Tantras like the
Guhyasamāja Tantra features new forms of antinomian ritual practice such as the use taboo substances like alcohol,
sexual yoga, and charnel ground practices which evoke
wrathful deities.
Zen
Zen Buddhism (禅), pronounced
Chán in Chinese,
seon in Korean or
zen in Japanese (derived from the Sanskrit term
dhyāna,
meaning "meditation") is a form of Mahayana Buddhism found in China,
Korea and Japan. It lays special emphasis on meditation, and direct
discovery of the Buddha-nature.
Zen Buddhism is divided into two main schools:
Rinzai (臨済宗) and
Sōtō (曹洞宗), the former greatly favouring the use in meditation on the
koan
(公案, a meditative riddle or puzzle) as a device for spiritual
break-through, and the latter (while certainly employing koans) focusing
more on
shikantaza or "just sitting".
Zen Buddhism is primarily found in Japan, with some presence in
South Korea and Vietnam. The scholars of Japanese Soto Zen tradition in
recent times have critiqued the mainstream Japanese Buddhism for dhatu-vada,
that is assuming things have substantiality, a view they assert to be
non-Buddhist and "out of tune with the teachings of non-Self and
conditioned arising", states Peter Harvey.
Buddhism in the modern era
Colonial era
Buddhism has faced various challenges and changes during the
colonization of Buddhist states by Christian countries and its
persecution under modern states. Like other religions, the findings of
modern science has challenged its basic premises. One response to some
of these challenges has come to be called
Buddhist modernism. Early Buddhist modernist figures such as the American convert
Henry Olcott (1832– 1907) and
Anagarika Dharmapala
(1864–1933) reinterpreted and promoted Buddhism as a scientific and
rational religion which they saw as compatible with modern science.
Buddhism in the West
While there were some encounters of Western travelers or missionaries such as St.
Francis Xavier and
Ippolito Desideri
with Buddhist cultures, it was not until the 19th century that Buddhism
began to be studied by Western scholars. It was the work of pioneering
scholars such as
Eugène Burnouf,
Max Müller,
Hermann Oldenberg and
Thomas William Rhys Davids that paved the way for modern
Buddhist studies
in the West. The English words such as Buddhism, "Boudhist",
"Bauddhist" and Buddhist were coined in the early 19th-century in the
West, while in 1881, Rhys Davids founded the
Pali Text Society
– an influential Western resource of Buddhist literature in the Pali
language and one of the earliest publisher of a journal on
Buddhist studies.
It was also during the 19th century that Asian Buddhist immigrants
(mainly from China and Japan) began to arrive in Western countries such
as the United States and Canada, bringing with them their Buddhist
religion. This period also saw the first Westerners to formally convert
to Buddhism, such as
Helena Blavatsky and
Henry Steel Olcott. An important event in the introduction of Buddhism to the West was the 1893
World Parliament of Religions, which for the first time saw well-publicized speeches by major Buddhist leaders alongside other religious leaders.
The 20th century saw a prolific growth of new Buddhist institutions in Western countries, including the
Buddhist Society, London (1924),
Das Buddhistische Haus (1924) and
Datsan Gunzechoinei in
St Petersburg. The publication and translations of Buddhist literature in Western languages thereafter accelerated. After the
second world war, further immigration from Asia, globalization, the
secularization on Western culture as well a renewed interest in Buddhism among the 60s
counterculture led to further growth in Buddhist institutions. Influential figures on post-war
Western Buddhism include
Shunryu Suzuki,
Jack Kerouac,
Alan Watts,
Thích Nhất Hạnh, and the
14th Dalai Lama. While Buddhist institutions have grown, some of the central premises of Buddhism such as the cycles of rebirth and
Four Noble Truths have been problematic in the West.
In contrast, states Christopher Gowans, for "most ordinary [Asian]
Buddhists, today as well as in the past, their basic moral orientation
is governed by belief in karma and rebirth".
Most Asian Buddhist laypersons, states Kevin Trainor, have historically
pursued Buddhist rituals and practices seeking better rebirth, not nirvana or freedom from rebirth.
Buddhism has spread across the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. While
Buddhism in the West is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East it is regarded as familiar and traditional. In countries such as
Cambodia and
Bhutan, it is recognized as the
state religion and receives government support.
In certain regions such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, militants
have targeted violence and destruction of historic Buddhist monuments.
Neo-Buddhism movements
A number of modern movements in Buddhism emerged during the second half of the 20th century. These
new forms of Buddhism are diverse and significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.
In India,
B.R. Ambedkar
launched the Navayana tradition – literally, "new vehicle". Ambedkar's
Buddhism rejects the foundational doctrines and historic practices of
traditional Theravada and Mahayana traditions, such as monk lifestyle
after renunciation, karma, rebirth, samsara, meditation, nirvana, Four
Noble Truths and others.
Ambedkar's Navayana Buddhism considers these as superstitions and
re-interprets the original Buddha as someone who taught about
class struggle and social equality. Ambedkar urged low caste Indian
Dalits to convert to his Marxism-inspired reinterpretation called the
Navayana Buddhism, also known as Bhimayana Buddhism. Ambedkar's effort led to the expansion of Navayana Buddhism in India.
Some of these movements have brought internal disputes and strife
within regional Buddhist communities. For example, the Dhammakaya
movement in Thailand teaches a "true self" doctrine, which traditional
Theravada monks consider as heretically denying the fundamental anatta (not-self) doctrine of Buddhism.
Demographics
Buddhism is practised by an estimated 488 million, 495 million, or 535 million people as of the 2010s, representing 7% to 8% of the world's total population.
China is the country with the largest population of Buddhists, approximately 244 million or 18.2% of its total population. They are mostly followers of
Chinese schools of
Mahayana, making this the largest body of Buddhist traditions. Mahayana, also practised in broader
East Asia, is followed by over half of world Buddhists.
According to a demographic analysis reported by Peter Harvey (2013):
Mahayana has 360 million adherents;
Theravada has 150 million adherents; and
Vajrayana has 18.2 million adherents.
According to Johnson and Grim (2013), Buddhism has grown from a
total of 138 million adherents in 1910, of which 137 million were in
Asia, to 495 million in 2010, of which 487 million are in Asia. Over 98% of all Buddhists live in the Asia-Pacific and South Asia region.
North America had about 3.9 million Buddhists, Europe 1.3 million,
while South America, Africa and the Middle East had an estimated
combined total of about 1 million Buddhists in 2010.
Buddhism is the dominant religion in
Bhutan,
Myanmar,
Cambodia,
Tibet,
Laos,
Mongolia,
Sri Lanka and
Thailand. Large Buddhist populations live in
China (18%),
Japan (36%),
Taiwan (35%),
Macau (17%),
North Korea (14%),
Nepal (11%),
Vietnam (10%),
Singapore (33%),
Hong Kong (15%) and
South Korea (23%).
Buddhism is also growing by conversion. In United States, only
about a third (32%) of Buddhists in the United States are Asian; a
majority (53%) are white. Buddhism in the America is primarily made up
of native-born adherents, whites and converts. In New Zealand, about 25%-35% of the total Buddhists are converts to Buddhism.
After China, where nearly half of the worldwide Buddhists live,
the 10 countries with the largest Buddhist population densities are:
Buddhism by percentage as of 2010
 Cambodia
|
13,701,660
|
96.9%
|
 Thailand
|
64,419,840
|
93.2%
|
 Burma
|
38,415,960
|
80.1%
|
 Bhutan
|
563,000
|
74.7%
|
 Sri Lanka
|
14,455,980
|
69.3%
|
 Laos
|
4,092,000
|
66.0%
|
 Mongolia
|
1,520,760
|
55.1%
|
 Japan
|
45,807,480
or 84,653,000
|
36.2% or 67%
|
 Singapore
|
1,725,510
|
33.9%
|
 Taiwan
|
4,945,600
or 8,000,000
|
21.1% or 35%
|
 China
|
185,000,000+
|
15.9%
|
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