Fast FactsEssential FactsInteresting Facts

Buddhism facts reveal that Buddhism is defined as a nontheistic religion, but the relationship of Buddhist teachings and god(s) is a complicated one. Buddha himself rejected the existence of a creator deity, but the notion of divinity is not incompatible with his teachings. In fact, there are gods found in Buddhist teachings, but these are considered to be inferior to Buddha and not necessarily wiser than us.

In conclusion, the concept of god(s) exists in Buddhism, but is not central to the religion, in contrast to Christianity, for example. While most experts agree that this makes Buddhism a nontheistic religion, there are also some who believe that naming Buddhism nontheistic is overly simplistic

According to the Buddhist teachings, we are all prisoners of samsara, the continuing cycle of death, re-birth and suffering. The highest goal is to end this suffering by extinguishing three fires (passion, ignorance and aversion) and thus attaining Nirvana. There are differences among different schools of Buddhism in understanding Nirvana, but all hold up the concept as one worth following.

In the first teaching following his awakening, the Buddha revealed the Noble Eightfold Path (the Middle Way) as the way to achieve Nirvana. The Middle Way is a path of moderation, avoiding the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification, consisting of eight factors: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

Buddhism facts show that Buddhists account for about 6% of the worlds population, making this the 4th biggest (in terms of followers) religion in the world, following Christianity with 2 billion followers, Islam with 1.3 billion followers and Hinduism with 0.9 billion followers. It is also interesting to note that if the group of nonreligious people (including agnostics) is added to the statistics, Buddhism falls to 5th place.

There are two traditional schools of Buddhism: Theravada (The School of the Elders) and Mahayana (The Great Vehicle). They each interpret certain aspects of Buddhas teachings in their own way. While these two branches of Buddhism are widely known, many people dont know that there is a third branch: Vajrayana (also known as Tantric Buddhism or the Diamond Way). This is sometimes considered a part of Mahayana, although its very different in various concepts.

Theravada is nowadays most popular in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and is considered to be the largest branch, followed by approximately 56% of all Buddhists. Mahayana is most popular in East Asia, including China and Japan, and is followed by roughly 38% of all Buddhists. Vajrayana is practiced in Mongolia and Tibet and represents about 6% of followers of the Buddhas Way.

The Bodhi Tree was a large sacred fig tree in India where Siddhartha Gautama, on whose teachings Buddhism is founded, is believed to have achieved enlightenment regarding the true nature of things (Bodhi). Although the original Bodhi Tree doesnt exist anymore, there are three other holy Bodhi Trees that are believed to be propagated from the original tree: Bodhi Tree at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India, the Anandabodhi tree in Sravasti, India, and the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Sacred fig trees are usually planted in the vicinity of all Buddhist monasteries.

The main pilgrimage sites are places where Gautama Buddha resided during the most important periods of his life: Lumbini, Nepal (his birthplace), Bodh Gaya, India (the place of his enlightenment), Sarnath, India (the place of his first teaching) and Kusinara (the place of his death).

These 4 pilgrimage sites are also the first 4 of the 8 Great Places, joined by the ancient cities of Sravasti, Rajgir, Sankassa and Vaishali, where special historical miraculous events are reported to have taken place.

Buddhism facts reveal that Gautama Buddha has inspired many filmmakers over the last century, starting with Dadasaheb Phalkes Lord Buddha (originally Buddhadev) in 1923. The most famous of them, at least to the Western audiences, is Bernardo Bertoluccis Little Buddha from 1993, featuring Bridget Fonda, Keanu Reeves and Chris Isaak.

Most religions are known for their central holy text, such as the Bible for Christianity and Judaism, and the Quran for Islam, but Buddhism has no such single writing. Instead, Buddhists consider the buddhavacana (the Word of the Buddha), works believed to be original Buddhas teachings, as holy. Pali Canon, Kangyur, Taish Tripiaka, Mahayana Sutras, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and others thus all serve as sacred texts of Buddhism for the various schools of Buddhism practiced around the world.

Although Buddhism is based on his teachings, Buddhists believe there were other Buddhas before him. Theravada Buddhism teaches of 28 Buddhas (the last being Gautama Buddha, another 27 coming before him), while Mahayana Buddhism also recognizes various other Buddhas of celestial origin. However, they both believe that the next Buddha will be the one named Maitreya (Metteyya).

These were not monasteries as we know them today, but sacred caves, found in the Deccan Plateau area of India. But, by the 2nd century AD, Buddhist monasteries, known as Viharas in India, already had a standard structure, consisting of a walled quadrangular court that was surrounded by small cells.

The Truths are: all life is marked with suffering (the Truth of Dukkha), suffering is caused by desire and attachment (the Truth of the Origin of Dukkha), suffering can be eliminated (the Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha), and following the Noble Eightfold path eliminates suffering (the Truth of the Path of Liberation from Dukkha).

And yes, the term Dukkha means the all-present suffering that is the main antagonist in Buddhist teachings.

Although it is one of central concepts in Buddhism, Karma is not exclusive to the teachings of Buddha. It is also one of the key concepts in Hinduism, Taoism, Jainism and Sikhism. And what does it mean? It means action, work or deed, but in relation to religious teachings, it means the spiritual principle of cause and effect, in which intents and actions of an individual influence that individuals future. In plain terms: the more good one does, the better his life will be, and the more evil one does, the worse his life will be.

Practically all Westerners know the Christian concept of the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, but a similar concept is also present in Buddhism a religion that is often understood as being nontheistic. The Buddhist trinity refers to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (Buddhas teachings) and the Sangha (the community of Buddhists). Buddhism facts also reveal that people have been known to notice some similarities between the two

In the first 400 years after Gautama Buddhas life, they were preserved only orally. They were first written down during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BC, and are nowadays known as the Pali Canon or the Tipitaka.

Buddhism facts show that the father of Buddhism was born either in 536 BC or in 480 BC. Similarly to his teachings, the details of his life were also passed orally from generation to generation for the first few centuries, and that is why there are no completely reliable sources regarding the date of his birth. What is known for certain is that he was born in Nepal.

This also explains the fact that Buddhists believe there were many Buddhas prior to Siddhartha Gautama. The term can be applied to anyone who has awakened and realized the true nature of things, but according to Buddhist teachings there have not been that many, since Gautama was the last Buddha among us

According to Buddhism facts, Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous German philosopher from the 19th century, has referred to Buddhism more than a hundred times in his works. His main criticism was that Nirvana, the ultimate goal of traditional Buddhist philosophy, is actually a form of nihilism.

According to Buddhism facts, they are based on the Five Precepts of Buddhism, which constitute the basic ethics of the belief system, and are designed to avert the monks from: killing living creatures, stealing, unchastity, incorrect speech, taking intoxicants, eating at inappropriate times, indulging in any forms of popular entertainment (singing, dancing, etc.), wearing decorative accessories (perfume, cosmetics, fashion accessories etc.), sitting on high chairs, sleeping on soft beds, and accepting money.

One of the most interesting Buddhism facts reveals that the religion is nowadays considered very fashionable in Western societies, and many top celebrities are known to follow (or try to follow) its teachings. Kate Bosworth, Steven Seagal, Richard Gere, Tina Turner, Orlando Bloom, Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, Naomi Watts, Jack Kerouac and Sharon Stone are just a few names on the very long list of American celebs who follow (or have followed) the path to Nirvana

Buddhism is a 2,500-year-old religion and philosophy that originated in India, but has spread through most of Asia and to a lesser degree to other parts of the world. The fourth biggest religion in the world (by number of followers), Buddhism is split into different schools, of which Theravada and Mahayana are the most popular and wide-spread. The center of Buddhism are the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, which see Nirvana as the ultimate goal of existence. Nirvana is the stillness of mind, devoid of cravings and delusions, which ends the suffering otherwise present in all we do in life.

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Top 20 Buddhism Facts - Types, History, Beliefs | Facts.net

Join Us for Meditation

Please join us for meditation Sundays at 10 AM!

SAVE THE DATE! VENERABLE THUBTEN CHONYI WILL VISIT IN APRIL!

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche

How to Deal with Anger and Hatred

FREE PUBLIC TALK

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 6 PM

Siebels House

1601 Richland Street

(corner of Pickens and Richland)

Columbia, SC 29201

Ahbay Rinpoche (Lama Ahbay Tulku Jigme Thupten Tendar Rinpoche) has beenrecognized by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Lama Lobsang Tenzin, and hastaught widely in Europe and the United States.

FREE PUBLIC TALKPLEASE JOIN US

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche teaches Mondays and Thursdays at 6:30 PM at the Dharma Center

Please join us to hear teaching from Ahbay Rinpoche on Mondays and Thursdays until May 25, starting this Thursday, Apr. 8. Teaching will be offered at the Dharma Center at 6 PM on those days. He will also be with us for meditation on Sundays at 10 AM. We hope you can join us!

Ahbay Rinpoche returns to Columbia April 1-May 25, 2017

Lama Ahbay Rinpochewill return to teach in Columbia April 1-May 25, 2017. Hewill offer regular teachingson various topics

and meet with individuals for spiritual advice.He will offer teachings on on Monday and Thursday nights. The teachings on both nights will be at 6:30 PM at the Dharma Center. He will also teach on meditation on Sunday mornings at 10, and may perform pujas and other practices then, as well. He is available for individual meetings--contact us at scdharma@gmail.com to schedule appointments. Please join us!We hope everyone has an opportunity to meet this remarkableteacher!

Please join us for meditation!

Please join us for meditation at 10 AM each Sunday! If you'd like an introduction to meditation, contact us at scdharma@gmail.com and we can schedule a time to meet with you before or after meditation.

Geshe Dakpa Topgyal teaching in Columbia this weekend (Aug. 26, 27, 28)Geshe Dakpa Topgyal from Charleston will be teaching at the Dharma Center this weekend. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Here's the schedule

Friday, Aug. 26 7-8 PM

Saturday, Aug. 27 10-12 AM

Sunday, Aug. 28 10-12 AM

Please note that Geshela asks that people arrive on time and not leave early.

Tibetan classes at the Dharma Center!

Please join us for Tibetan classes at the SCDG Dharma Center, the third Sunday of each month, at 11 AM!

These classes will be for absolute beginners, who would like to understand and pronounce the words in recitations and prayers correctly, but students who know a little Tibetan will also benefit. Eric Winter and John Tasevski, who have proficiency in classical Tibetan, will teach the classes.

The class will begin Sunday, Aug. 21, and will be offered on the third Sunday of each month, so dates this fall will be Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 20, and Dec. 18. The classes will begin after meditation, at 11 AM at the Dharma Center.

On other Sundays at that time, we'll continue the discussion ofThe Path to Enlightenmentby His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Please let us know if you'd like to participate but don't have the book. We can order additional used copies, or you can buy your own online (the ISBN of the edition we use is978-1559390323).

Please let us know if you need more information about either of these!

Join us for meditation Sundays at 10 AM!

Please join us for meditation each Sunday at 10 AM at the Dharma Center! For more information, email scdharma@gmail.com or call 803-467-7759.

Ahbay Rinpoche Returns to India

After a wonderful three-month visit, Ahbay Rinpoche has returned to India. He will travel in India and attend the Kalachakra offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Bodh Gaya, India, in January. Rinpoche La will also travel in Europe, and we hope will soon return to South Carolina for another visit, if possible.

Here are Rinpoche La and the students attending his last teaching before leaving in July, 2016:

A Peaceful Mind: A Public Talk by Ahbay Rinpoche June 1

A talk on the Buddhist path tomental and spiritual peace will be given by Ahbay Rinpoche at 6 PM on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in the Seibels House at 1601Pickens St, Columbia, SC 29201 (at the corner of Pickens and Richland Street.The free talk is sponsored by the South Carolina Dharma Group.

The talk will focus on achieving peace by working to eliminate the negativemind of anger and hatred.AhbayRinpoche (Lama Ahbay Tulku Jigme Thupten Tendar Rinpoche) has been recognizedby the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Lama Lobsang Tenzin, and has taughtwidely in Europe and the United States.

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche Returns to Columbia!

Lama Ahbay Rinpoche has returned to Columbia for a three-month stay! He is with us April 13-July 4, 2016, and will offer regular teachings and meet with individuals for spiritual advice.He will offer teachings on on Monday and Wednesday nights on various topics. The teachings on both nights will be at 7 PM at the Dharma Center. He will also teach on meditation on Sunday mornings at 10, and may perform pujas and other practices then, as well. He is available for individual meetings--contact us at scdharma@gmail.com to schedule appointments. Please join us!We hope everyone has an opportunity to meet this remarkableteacher!

Sand Mandala in Columbia

Visit from Lama Ahbay Rinpoche, July 24-31, 2015

Ahbay's hand on a participant's hand

Ahbay Rinpoche preparing the offerings

Offering bowls at the puja

Lined up for blessings

One person being blessed

Saga Dawa 2015

Members of the South Carolina Dharma Group celebrated

Saga Dawa, the remembrance of Shakyamuni Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and passing into Parinivana. We said prayers and mantras, and released crickets (who would otherwise have been used for bait), reminding us of compassion and liberation.

Aid for Earthquake Victims in Nepal

Many of the victims of the earthquake in Nepal are Buddhists, some in our lineage, and some may even be relatives of a member of CTS, our sister organization in Charleston. We hear that there are many problems with relief money sent to Nepal going only to the cities, while people in the small villages receive nothing.

The Nepalese family in Charleston has connected us with a new fund set up to send aid directly to the villages that so far have had no relief from the government. (A helicopter that was flying up to the mountain to rescue critically injured villagers was taken by the government to rescue rich mountain climbers on Mt. Everest).

If you would like to send aid that will go directly to help the villages in the mountains, please:

1. Send checks made out to Jampa Gompo

2. Mail them to:

Charleston Tibetan Society

ATTN: Karma G. Sherpa

12 Parkwood Avenue

Charleston, SC 29403

Unfortunately this fund is too new to be a 501c3, so there cant be a tax write-off, but all money will go directly to the villages in Nepal.

Meditate with us at our new location!

The South Carolina Dharma Group has a new location in the Earlewood neighborhood of Columbia, in a building on Florence street just behind the house at 3003 Columbia Street (please come to the building on Florence, not to the house). Please join us for meditation there each Sunday at 10 AM. For more detailed directions, write us at scdharma@gmail.com or call 803-467-7759.

Talk on "Meditation and Neuroplasticity"

by Dr. Dieter Borrmann

(student of Geshe Topgyal andNeurologist at the Gemeinschaftspraxis frNeurologie, Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie in Emmerich, Germany.)

We were fortunate to have a talk on the effects of meditation on the brain by Dr. Dieter Borrman in April, 2015, co-sponsored by the USC Department of Religion.

Dr. DieterBorrmann is a Neurologist at the Gemeinschaftspraxis fr Neurologie,Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie in Emmerich, Germany. He is a student of Buddhism under Geshe Dakpa Topgyal at TheCharleston Tibetan Society, Charleston, SC. and under Geshe Pema Samten at theTibetisches Zentrum e.V., Hamburg, Germany, where he is morethan halfway into a seven year systematic course of study in Tibetan Buddhism. With the Universitt Bonn he has contributed to the research on"Meditation and White Matter". His fascinating book about meditationfrom the perspective of a neurologist, both in personal experience and inmedical practice, will soon be translated and published in English.

StupaCompleted

A stupa honoringthe memory of the late Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok, former resident teacher of theSouth Carolina Dharma Group, has been completed and was consecrated in a formalceremony in April 2014 in Bomdila, which lies in the mountains of northeastern India.

The stupa not only honors the memory of Geshe Phuntsok but also servesfor the long-term spiritual benefit of visitors to Bomdila and residents of theregion. Stupas represent the enlightened mind of buddhas and exhibit thespiritual road map to enlightenment. The stupa will exist as a source of meritfor generations of numerous devoted people who can make offerings at andcircumambulations around the sacred monument.

Erection ofthe stupa was made possible through the generous donations of Dr. Jamie Felbergand membersof the Asanga Institute of Montrose, Colorado.

Teachings from Ven. Chonyi

Ven. Thubten Chonyi, of Sravasti Abbey in Washington State, visited SCDG for teachings Dec. 31-Jan. 5. Below are pictures from the visit.

w Book by Spiritual Director Published

The South Carolina Dharma Group, in conjunction with Dr. Jamie Felberg, the Asanga Institute of Montrose, Colorado, and the Charleston Tibetan Society, has established a scholarship fund in memory of Geshe Ngawang Phuntsok. Geshe Phuntsok was the South Carolina Dharma Groups resident teacher in 2002 and 2003 and was the Asanga Institutes resident teacher from 2007 to 2012.

As devoted dharma students of Geshe Phuntsok, and following the moral suggestion of Geshe Dakpa Topgyal, SCDGs spiritual director, the members of SCDG, CTS, the Asanga Institute, and Dr. Jamie Felberg, donated to the scholarship fund to make Geshe Phuntsoks dream reality. We made contributions out of heartfelt respect for our teacher and out of the wish that Geshe Phuntsoks dream be realized.

A second moral imperative, as pointed out by Geshe Topgyal, is to build a stupa in memory of Geshe Phuntsok in his home village, Bomdila, in northeastern India where he was born and where his parents currently reside. We are uncertain if we can succeedthat will depend on collecting funds the needed to build the stupa.

The purpose of the stupa will not just be to honor the memory of Geshe Phuntsok, but also to serve for the long-term spiritual benefit of as many sentient beings as possible. The stupa would exist as a sacred source of merit for generations of numerous devoted people who may make offerings at the stupa and circumambulations around the monument.

Dr. Jamie Felberg has made a commitment to help make the stupa a reality, but any individual who would like to donate can donate online or by mailing a check to the South Carolina Dharma Group, PO Box 50357, Columbia, SC 29250. Contact us for more information at scdharma@gmail.com.

Your contributions help support our programming, such as teachings by accredited teachers in the Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhist lineage, retreats and meditation lessons.

You can securely make a donation online by clicking the button below.You do not need a PayPal account to donate online. Look for the "Continue" link by the bank card icons on the PayPal donation page.

You may also donate bymailing us a check (SCDG, PO Box 50357, Columbia, SC 29250) or by leaving cash or a check at the Dharma Center.

The South Carolina Dharma Group is a federally-recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and contributions are taxdeductibleto the extent allowed by law.

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scdharma

Diamond Way Buddhist Center Denver belongs to an international non-profit network of over 600 lay Diamond Way Buddhist centers of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, founded by Lama Ole Nydahl and under the spiritual guidance of H.H. the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje.

Diamond Way Buddhism offers practical and effective methods to realize minds inherent richness for the benefit of all. With an accessible and modern style, it works with peoples confidence and desire, using every situation in life to develop fearlessness and joy. We always present a basic introduction for newcomers, and the meditations are guided in English.

Wednesdays at 7:30pm Introductory Talk and Public Meditation* Wednesday nights are excellent for newcomers. The 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month features a one-hour lecture.

Thursdays at 7:30pm Dharma Talk and Public Meditation

Fridays at 7:30pm Dharma Talk and Public Meditation

Our free public meditations are preceded by a brief 10min talk. Wednesday nights will be an introduction to Diamond Way Buddhism followed by meditation. This is a great night to come if you are new to Diamond Way Buddhism or Buddhism in general. Thursdays Dharma talk will discuss various topics on the basics of Buddhism.

Our main meditation practice on Wednesdays and Thursday is the Guru Yoga meditation on the 16th Karmapa. This guided meditation is in English and involves visualization and mantra recitation, allowing space, clarity and joy to naturally arise.

H.H. 16th KarmapaRangjung Rigpe Dorje

H.H. 17th KarmapaTrinlay Thaye Dorje

Lama Ole Nydahl &Hannah Nydahl

See more here:
Buddhism Denver - Diamond Way Buddhist Center Denver

Year End Retreat - Vajrasattva Practice December 26-30, 2017

Drepung Loseling Monastery is delighted to offer this Year-End Retreat on the Vajrasattva meditation and recitation of the 100-syllable mantra. This powerful practice is especially appropriate to our present times, and is an auspicious way to prepare for the new year.For details click here.

Geshe Ngawang Phende will lead the Foundation Series begining with an introduction to Buddhism and continuing with retreats on the four universal Buddhist meditation practices. For details click here.

Geshe Dadul Namgyal will lead this Intermediate Series beginning with an introduction to Mahayana Buddhism, the foundation for the generation of universal compassion and continue with more advanced topics.For details click here.

Help Us Build the new Drepung Loseling Center for Science & Meditation in India

Senior Monk Care Fund Drepung Loseling Monastery Mungod, India

Building a Community of Compassion: A Space for Meditation Thursdays 6-7 pm

To fulfill our vision of preserving Tibet's unique culture and sharing Tibet's spiritual traditions in North America, we have started creating our Little Tibet in Atlanta but we still need your support to finish building our dream. Click here to find out more about our plans and how you can help or to become a Building Fund Sponsor.

Hi-def videos from all the programs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Emory University for "The Visit: 2013" are available for viewing on YouTube. Choose from the Full Program or Highlights. Click here for videos

Previous VisitsVisit 2010: click hereVisit 2007: click here

The Loseling Gallery is now home to over 200 handcrafted dolls depicting the culture and tradition of Tibet. These handcrafted, mini-masterpieces celebrate the distinct and diverse cultural identity of Tibetans as manifested in an astonishing variety of secular and religious dress. For details click here.

This altar is one of the few traditionally hand-carved Tibetan Buddhist altars of this magnitude, intricacy and beauty seen in North America.For details click here

Six Tibetan Buddhist monks are studying science at Emory University. It's part of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, which is infusing science into monastic education. Take a look inside the life of a Tibetan monk while he's in college.Click here to watch the video

The International Conference on Tibetan Buddhism was held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel from October 18-20, 2010, in conjunction with the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Emory University. This conference was co-sponsored by the Office of Tibet, New York, & Emory University, with support from the Conservancy for Tibetan Art & Culture in Washington, DC, and Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc., in Atlanta, GA. To watch video footage of events, please click here.

Join us on Facebook and keep abreast of daily news tidbits and interesting articles not otherwise announced in our weekly newsletter. Please visit the following link to become a fan (note: you must be an existing member of Facebook to add the page) Drepung Loseling Facebook Fan Page.

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Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc. Center for Tibetan Buddhist ...

In Buddhism, Dhyna (Sanskrit) or Jhna (Pali) is a series of cultivated states of mind, which lead to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhii-sati-piirisuddhl)." It is commonly translated as meditation, and is also used in Hinduism and Jainism. Dhyana may have been the core practice of pre-sectarian Buddhism, but became appended with other forms of meditation throughout its development.

According to Henepola Gunaratana, the term "jhana" is closely connected with "samadhi", which is generally rendered as "concentration". The word "samadhi" is almost interchangeable with the word "samatha", serenity.[4]

In the suttas samadhi is defined as mental one-pointedness.[4]Buddhaghosa explains samadhi etymologically as:

... the centering of consciousness and consciousness concomitants evenly and rightly on a single object... the state in virtue of which consciousness and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single object, undistracted and unscattered (Vism.8485; PP.85).[4]

In the widest sense the word samadhi is being used for the practices which lead to the development of serenity. In this sense, samadhi and jhana are close in meaning. Nevertheless, they are not exactly identical. Samadhi signifies only one mental factor, namely one-pointedness, while the word "jhana" encompasses the whole state of consciousness.[4]

Samadhi also covers another type of concentration, namely "momentary concentration" (khanikasamadhi), "the mobile mental stabilization produced in the course of insight contemplation of the passing flow of phenomena."[4]

The Pli canon describes eight progressive states of jhna. Four are called meditations of form (rpa jhna), and four are formless meditations (arpa jhna).

There are four stages of deep collectedness which are called the Rupa Jhna (Fine-material Jhna). For each Jhna are given a set of qualities which are present in that jhana:[5]

Beyond the four jhnas lie four attainments, referred to in the early texts as aruppas. These are also referred to in commentarial literature as immaterial/the formless jhnas (arpajhnas), also translated as The Formless Dimensions, in distinction from the first four jhnas (rpa jhnas). In the Buddhist canonical texts, the word "jhna" is never explicitly used to denote them, they are instead referred to as yatana. However, they are sometimes mentioned in sequence after the first four jhnas (other texts. e.g. MN 121 treat them as a distinct set of attainments) and thus came to be treated by later exegetes as jhnas. The immaterial attainments have more to do with expanding, while the Jhanas (14) focus on concentration. The enlightenment of complete dwelling in emptiness is reached when the eighth jhna is transcended.

The four formless jhanas are:

Although the "Dimension of Nothingness" and the "Dimension of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception" are included in the list of nine Jhanas taught by the Buddha, they are not included in the Noble Eightfold Path. Noble Path number eight is "Samma Samadhi" (Right Concentration), and only the first four Jhanas are considered "Right Concentration". If he takes a disciple through all the Jhanas, the emphasis is on the "Cessation of Feelings and Perceptions" rather than stopping short at the "Dimension of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception".

The Buddha also rediscovered an attainment beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, Nirodha-Samapatti, the "cessation of feelings and perceptions".[5] This is sometimes called the "ninth jhna" in commentarial and scholarly literature.[6][7]

The time of the Buddha saw the rise of the ramaa movement, ascetic practitioners with a body of shared teachings and practices.[full citation needed] The strict delineation of this movement into Jainism, Buddhism and brahmanical/Upanishadic traditions is a later development.[full citation needed]

According to Bronkhorst, the practice of the four dhyanas may have been an original contribution by Gautama Buddha to the religious practices of ancient India in response to the ascetic practices of the Jains. According to Wynne, the attainment of the formless meditative absorption was incorporated from Brahmanical practices,[pageneeded] These practices were paired to mindfulness and insight, and given a new interpretation.[pageneeded] The stratification of particular samdhi experiences into the four jhnas seems to be a Buddhist innovation.[pageneeded] It was then borrowed and presented in an incomplete form in the Mokadharma, a part of the Mahbhrata. Kalupahana argues that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from ra Klma and Uddaka Rmaputta.

Thomas William Rhys Davids and Maurice Walshe agreed that the term samadhi is not found in any pre-Buddhist text. Samadhi was first found in the Tipiaka and not in any pre-Buddhist text. It was later incorporated into later texts such as the Maitrayaniya Upanishad.[13] But according to Matsumoto, "the terms dhyana and samahita (entering samadhi) appear already in Upanishadic texts that predate the origins of Buddhism".[note 2]

The Mahasaccaka Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 36, narrates the story of the Buddha's awakening. According to this story, he learned two kinds of meditation, which did not lead to enlightenment. He then underwent harsh ascetic practices with which he eventually also became disillusioned. The Buddha then recalled a meditative state he entered by chance as a child:[pageneeded]

I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be the path to Awakening?' Then following on that memory came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.'

In the Mahasaccaka Sutta, dhyana is followed by insight into the four noble truths. The mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight" is probably a later addition.[pageneeded] Originally the practice of dhyana itself may have constituted the core liberating practice of early Buddhism, since in this state all "pleasure and pain" had waned.[pageneeded] According to Vetter,

[P]robably the word "immortality" (a-mata) was used by the Buddha for the first interpretation of this experience and not the term cessation of suffering that belongs to the four noble truths [...] the Buddha did not achieve the experience of salvation by discerning the four noble truths and/or other data. But his experience must have been of such a nature that it could bear the interpretation "achieving immortality".

Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development, under pressure of developments in Indian religious thinking, which saw "liberating insight" as essential to liberation.[pageneeded] This may also have been due to an over-literal interpretation by later scholastics of the terminology used by the Buddha, and to the problems involved with the practice of dhyana, and the need to develop an easier method.

Alexander Wynne attempted to find parallels in Brahmanical texts to the meditative goals the two teachers claimed to have taught, drawing especially on some of the Upanishads and the Mokshadharma chapter of the Mahabharata.

The suttas describe how the Buddha learned meditative practices from two teachers, Uddaka Ramaputta and Alara Kalama. Alex Wynne argues that Uddaka Ramaputta belonged to the pre-Buddhist tradition portrayed by the Buddhist and Brahmanic sources, in which the philosophical formulations of the early Upanishads were accepted, and the meditative state of "neither perception nor non-perception" was equated with the self. Wynne further argues that the goal of Alara Kalama was a Brahminical concept. Evidence in the Chandogya Upanishad and the Taittiriya Upanishad suggests that a different early Brahminic philosophical tradition held the view that the unmanifest state of Brahman was a form of non-existence. According to Wynne it thus seems likely that both element and formless meditation was learned by the Buddha from his two teachers, and adapted by him to his own system.[note 3]

It appears that in early Brahminic yoga, the formless spheres were attained following element meditation. This is also taught as an option in the early Buddhist texts. The primary method taught to achieve the formless attainment in early Buddhist scriptures, on the other hand, is to proceed to the sphere of infinite space following the fourth jhna.[30]

Wynne claimed that Brahminic passages on meditation suggest that the most basic presupposition of early Brahmanical yoga is that the creation of the world must be reversed, through a series of meditative states, by the yogin who seeks the realization of the self. These states were given doctrinal background in early Brahminic cosmologies, which classified the world into successively coarser strata. One such stratification is found at TU II.1 and Mbh XII.195, and proceeds as follows: self, space, wind, fire, water, earth. Mbh XII.224 gives alternatively: Brahman, mind, space, wind, fire, water, earth.

In Brahmanical thought, the meditative states of consciousness were thought to be identical to the subtle strata of the cosmos. There is no similar theoretical background to element meditation in the early Buddhist texts, where the elements appear simply as suitable objects of meditation. It is likely that the Brahmanic practices of element-meditation were borrowed and adapted by early Buddhists, with the original Brahmanic ideology of the practices being discarded in the process.

On this point, it is thought that the uses of the elements in early Buddhist literature have in general very little connection to Brahmanical thought; in most places they occur in teachings where they form the objects of a detailed contemplation of the human being. The aim of these contemplations seems to have been to bring about the correct understanding that the various perceived aspects of a human being, when taken together, nevertheless do not comprise a 'self'. Moreover, the self is conceptualized in terms similar to both "nothingness" and "neither perception nor non-perception" at different places in early Upanishadic literature.

The latter corresponds to Yajnavalkyas definition of the self in his famous dialogue with Maitreyi in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and the definition given in the post-Buddhist Mandukya Upanishad. This is mentioned as a claim of non-Buddhist ascetics and Brahmins in the Pacattaya Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 102.2).[37] In the same dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya draws the conclusions that the self that is neither perceptive nor non-perceptive is a state of consciousness without object. The early Buddhist evidence suggests much the same thing for the state of "neither perception nor non-perception". It is a state without an object of awareness, that is not devoid of awareness. The state following it in the Buddhist scheme, the "cessation of perception and sensation", is devoid not only of objectivity, but of subjectivity as well.

The Brahmanical texts cited by Wynne assumed their final form long after the Buddhas lifetime. The Mokshadharma postdates him.[27]

The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of jhana.[pageneeded] There is a tradition that stresses attaining insight (bodhi, prajna, kensho) as the means to awakening and liberation. According to the Theravada tradition dhyana must be combined with vipassana, which gives insight into the three marks of existence and leads to detachment and "the manifestation of the path".

But the Buddhist tradition 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. One solution to this contradiction is the conjunctive use of vipassana and samatha.[43] In Zen Buddhism, this problem has appeared over the centuries in the disputes over sudden versus gradual enlightenment.[pageneeded]

Schmithausen notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36.[pageneeded][pageneeded] Schmithausen discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in the suttas, to which Vetter adds a fourth possibility:

According to the Theravada-tradition, the meditator uses the jhna state to bring the mind to rest, and to strengthen and sharpen the mind, in order to investigate the true nature of phenomena (dhamma) and to gain insight into impermanence, suffering and not-self.[citation needed] According to Nathan Katz, the arahant is aware that the jhanas are ultimately unsatisfactory, realizing that the meditative attainments are also anicca, impermanent.[47]

Contemporary scholars have discerned a broader apllication of jhana in historical Buddhist practice. According to Alexander Wynne, the ultimate aim of dhyana was the attainment of insight, and the application of the meditative state to the practice of mindfulness. According to Frauwallner, mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving, which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects. According to Frauwallner, this may have been the Buddhas original idea. According to Wynne, this stress on mindfulness may have led to the intellectualism which favoured insight over the practice of dhyana.

According to Richard Gombrich, the sequence of the four rupa-jhanas describes two different cognitive states: "I know this is controversial, but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhanas are thus quite unlike the second."[note 4] Alexander Wynne further explains that the dhyana-scheme is poorly understood. According to Wynne, words expressing the inculcation of awareness, such as sati, sampajno, and upekkh, are mistranslated or understood as particular factors of meditative states, whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving the sense objects:

Thus the expression sato sampajno in the third jhna must denote a state of awareness different from the meditative absorption of the second jhna (cetaso ekodibhva). It suggests that the subject is doing something different from remaining in a meditative state, i.e. that he has come out of his absorption and is now once again aware of objects. The same is true of the word upek(k)h: it does not denote an abstract 'equanimity', [but] it means to be aware of something and indifferent to it [...] The third and fourth jhna-s, as it seems to me, describe the process of directing states of meditative absorption towards the mindful awareness of objects.[note 5]

According to some texts, after progressing through the eight jhanas and the stage of Nirodha-Samapatti, a person is liberated.[5] According to some traditions someone attaining the state of Nirodha-Samapatti is an anagami or an arahant.[53] In the Anupadda sutra, the Buddha narrates that Sariputta became an arahant upon reaching it.[54]

The emphasis on "liberating insight" alone seems to be a later development, in response to developments in Indian religious thought. Vetter notes that such insight is not possible in a state of dhyana, since discursive thinking is eliminated in such a state. He also notes that the emphasis on "liberating insight" developed only after the four noble truths were introduced as an expression of what this "liberating insight" constituted. In time, other expressions took over this function, such as prattyasamutpda and the emptiness of the self.

Both Schmithausen and Bronkhorst note that the attainment of insight, which is a cognitive activity, can't be possible in a state wherein all cognitive acitivy has ceased. According to Vetter, the practice of Rupa Jhana itself may have constituted the core practice of early Buddhism, with practices such as sila and mindfulness aiding to its development. It is the "middle way" between self-mortification, ascribed by Bronkhorst to Jainism, and indulgence in sensual pleasure. Vetter emphasizes that dhyana is a form of non-sensual happiness. The eightfold path can be seen as a path of preparation which leads to the practice of samadhi.

According to the contemporary Vipassana-movement, the jhna state cannot by itself lead to enlightenment as it only suppresses the defilements. Meditators must use the jhna state as an instrument for developing wisdom by cultivating insight, and use it to penetrate the true nature of phenomena through direct cognition, which will lead to cutting off the defilements and nibbana.[citation needed]

According to the later Theravda commentorial tradition as outlined by Buddhagoa in his Visuddhimagga, after coming out of the state of jhna the meditator will be in the state of post-jhna access concentration. In this state the investigation and analysis of the true nature of phenomena begins, which leads to insight into the characteristics of impermanence, suffering and not-self arises.[citation needed] According to Richard Shankman, the sutta descriptions of jhna practice explain that the meditator does not emerge from jhna to practice vipassana but rather the work of insight is done whilst in jhna itself. In particular the meditator is instructed to "enter and remain in the fourth jhna" before commencing the work of insight in order to uproot the mental defilements.[61][note 6]

A meditator should first master the lower jhnas, before they can go into the higher jhnas. According to Nathan Katz, the early suttas state that "the most exquisite of recluses" is able to attain any of the jhnas and abide in them without difficulty.[47] According to Sujiva, there are five aspects of jhna mastery:[63]

According to the Pli canon commentary, access/neighbourhood concentration (upacra-samdhi) is a stage of meditation that the meditator reaches before entering into jhna. The overcoming of the five hindrances[note 7] mark the entry into access concentration.[citation needed] Access concentration is not mentioned in the discourses of the Buddha, but there are several suttas where a person gains insight into the Dhamma on hearing a teaching from the Buddha.[note 8][note 9]

According to Tse-fu Kuan, at the state of access concentration, some meditators may experience vivid mental imagery,[note 10] which is similar to a vivid dream. They are as vivid as if seen by the eye, but in this case the meditator is fully aware and conscious that they are seeing mental images. According to Tse-fu Kuan, this is discussed in the early texts, and expanded upon in Theravda commentaries.[65]

According to Venerable Sujivo, as the concentration becomes stronger, the feelings of breathing and of having a physical body will completely disappear, leaving only pure awareness. At this stage inexperienced meditators may become afraid, thinking that they are going to die if they continue the concentration, because the feeling of breathing and the feeling of having a physical body has completely disappeared. They should not be so afraid and should continue their concentration in order to reach "full concentration" (jhna).[66]

Mahyna Buddhism includes numerous schools of practice. Each draw upon various Buddhist stras, philosophical treatises, and commentaries, and each has its own emphasis, mode of expression, and philosophical outlook. Accordingly, each school has its own meditation methods for the purpose of developing samdhi and praj, with the goal of ultimately attaining enlightenment.

In China, the word dhyna was originally transliterated with Chinese: ; pinyin: chnn and shortened to just pinyin: chn in common usage. In Chinese Buddhism dhyna may refer to all kinds of meditation techniques and their preparatory practices which can be used to attain samadhi. The word chn became the designation for Chan Buddhism (Korean Seon, Zen). The word and the practice of meditation entered into Chinese through the translations of An Shigao (fl. c. 148180 CE), mainly the Dhyna sutras, which were influential early meditation texts.

Dhyna is a central aspect of Buddhist practice in Chan. Nan Huai-Chin:

Intellectual reasoning is just another spinning of the sixth consciousness, whereas the practice of meditation is the true entry into the Dharma."[68]

According to Sheng Yen, meditative concentration is necessary, calling samdhi one of the requisite factors for progress on the path toward enlightenment.[69]

B. Alan Wallace holds that modern Tibetan Buddhism lacks emphasis on achieving levels of concentration higher than access concentration.[70][71] According to Wallace, one possible explanation for this situation is that virtually all Tibetan Buddhist meditators seek to become enlightened through the use of tantric practices. These require the presence of sense desire and passion in one's consciousness, but jhna effectively inhibits these phenomena.[70]

While few Tibetan Buddhists, either inside or outside Tibet, devote themselves to the practice of concentration, Tibetan Buddhist literature does provide extensive instructions on it, and great Tibetan meditators of earlier times stressed its importance.[72]

Hindu texts later used that term to indicate the state of liberation. According to Walshe, citing Rhys Davids, this is not in conformity with Buddhist usage:[73][pageneeded]

its subsequent use in Hindu texts to denote the state of enlightenment is not in conformity with Buddhist usage, where the basic meaning of concentration is expanded to cover meditation in general.[13][pageneeded]

But according to Vetter, the practice of dhyana may have been the original liberating practice in Buddhism.[pageneeded]

There are parallels with the fourth to eighth stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga, as mentioned in his classical work, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali,[74] which were compiled around 400 CE by, taking materials about yoga from older traditions.

Patanjali discerns bahiranga (external) aspects of yoga namely, yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, and the antaranga (internal) yoga. Having actualized the pratyahara stage, a practitioner is able to effectively engage into the practice of Samyama. At the stage of pratyahara, the consciousness of the individual is internalized in order that the sensations from the senses of taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell don't reach their respective centers in the brain and takes the sadhaka (practitioner) to next stages of Yoga, namely Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (mystical absorption), being the aim of all Yogic practices.[78]

The Eight Limbs of the yoga sutras show Samadhi as one of its limbs. The Eight limbs of the Yoga Sutra was influenced by Buddhism.[79][80] Vyasa's Yogabhashya, the commentary to the Yogasutras, and Vacaspati Misra's subcommentary state directly that the samadhi techniques are directly borrowed from the Buddhists' Jhana, with the addition of the mystical and divine interpretations of mental absorption.[81][not in citation given] However, it is also to be noted that the Yoga Sutra, especially the fourth segment of Kaivalya Pada, contains several polemical verses critical of Buddhism, particularly the Vijnavda school of Vasubandhu.[82]

The suttas show that during the time of the Buddha, Nigantha Nataputta, the Jain leader, did not even believe that it is possible to enter a state where the thoughts and examination stop.[83]

There has been little scientific study of these mental states. In 2008, an EEG study found "strong, significant, and consistent differences in specific brain regions when the meditator is in a jhana state compared to normal resting consciousness".[84] Tentative hypotheses on the neurological correlates have been proposed, but lack supporting evidence.[85]

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Dhyna in Buddhism - Wikipedia

Buddhism in Japan has been practiced since its official introduction in 552 CE according to the Nihon Shoki[1] from Baekje, Korea, by Buddhist monks.[2][3]Buddhism has had a major influence on the development of Japanese society and remains an influential aspect of the culture to this day.[4]

In modern times, Japan's most popular schools of Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon Buddhism and Zen. As of 2008, approximately 34% of the Japanese identify as Buddhists and the number has been growing since the 1980s, in terms of membership in organized religion. However, in terms of practice, 75% practice some form of Buddhism (compared with 90% practicing Shinto, thus most Japanese practice both religion to some extent (Shinbutsu-shg)).[5] About 60% of the Japanese have a Butsudan (Buddhist shrine) in their homes.[6]

The arrival of Buddhism in China is ultimately a consequence of the first contacts between China and Central Asia, where Buddhism had spread from the Indian subcontinent. These contacts occurred with the opening of the Silk Road in the 2nd century BCE, following the travels of Zhang Qian between 138 and 126 BCE. These contacts culminated with the official introduction of Buddhism in China in 67 CE. Historians generally agree that by the middle of the 1st century, the religion had penetrated to areas north of the Huai River in China.[7]

According to the Book of Liang, which was written in 635, five Buddhist monks from Gandhara traveled to Japan in 467. At the time, they referred to Japan as Fusang (Chinese: ; Japanese pronunciation: Fus), the name of a mythological country to the extreme east beyond the sea:[8]

Fusang is located to the east of China, 20,000 li (1,500 kilometers) east of the state of Da Han [, "China"] (itself east of the state of Wa in modern Kansai region, Japan). (...) In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but in the second year of Da Ming of the Song Dynasty (467), five monks from Kipin [Kabul region of Gandhara] travelled by ship to Fusang. They propagated Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish worldly attachments. As a result the customs of Fusang changed.

Although there are records of Buddhist monks from China coming to Japan before the Asuka Period, the "official" introduction of Buddhism to Japan is dated to 552 in Nihon Shoki[9] when King Seong of Baekje (, now western Korea) sent a mission to the Emperor Kinmei that included Buddhist monks or nuns together with an image of Buddha and a number of sutras to introduce Buddhism.[3][10] The powerful Soga clan played a key role in the early spread of Buddhism in the country. Initial uptake of the new faith was slow, and Buddhism only started to spread some years later when Empress Suiko openly encouraged the acceptance of Buddhism among all Japanese people.

According to legend, in Japan in 552, there was an attempt to destroy a tooth relic, one of the first of Buddhas to arrive in the country; it was hit by a hammer into an anvil; the hammer and anvil were destroyed but the tooth was not.[11] On January 15, 593, Soga no Umako ordered relics of Buddha deposited inside the foundation stone under the pillar of a pagoda at Asuka-dera.[12]

In 607, in order to obtain copies of sutras, an imperial envoy was dispatched to Sui China. As time progressed and the number of Buddhist clergy increased, the offices of Sj (archbishop) and Szu (bishop) were created. By 627, there were 46 Buddhist temples, 816 Buddhist priests, and 569 Buddhist nuns in Japan.

The initial period saw the six great Chinese schools, called Nanto Rokush (, lit. the Six Nara Sects) in Japanese, introduced to the Japanese archipelago:

These schools centered around the ancient capitals of Asuka and Nara, where great temples such as the Asuka-dera and Tdai-ji were erected respectively. These were not exclusive schools, and temples were apt to have scholars versed in several of the schools. It has been suggested that they can best be thought of as "study groups". The Buddhism of these periods, known as the Asuka period and Nara period was not a practical religion, being more the domain of learned priests whose official function was to pray for the peace and prosperity of the state and imperial house. This kind of Buddhism had little to offer the illiterate and uneducated masses, and led to the growth of "peoples priests" who were not ordained and had no formal Buddhist training. Their practice was a combination of Buddhist and Daoist elements and the incorporation of shamanistic features of indigenous practices. Some of these figures became immensely popular, and were a source of criticism towards the sophisticated academic and bureaucratic Buddhism of the capital.

The Late Nara period saw the introduction of Tangmi (Esoteric Buddhism, Japanese mikky) to Japan from China by Kkai and Saich, who founded Shingon Buddhism and the Tendai school, respectively.

During the Heian period the capital was shifted from Nara to Kyoto. Monasteries became centers of powers, even establishing armies of Shei, warrior-monks.

Shinto and Buddhism became the dominant religions, maintaining a balance until the Meiji-restoration.

The Kamakura period was a period of crises in which the control of the country moved from the imperial aristocracy to the samurai. In 1185 the Kamakura shogunate was established at Kamakura.

This period saw the introduction of the two schools that had perhaps the greatest impact on the country: the schools of Pure Land Buddhism, promulgated by evangelists such as Genshin and articulated by monks such as Hnen, which emphasize salvation through faith in Amitbha and remain the largest Buddhist sect in Japan (and throughout Asia); and Zen, promulgated by monks such as Eisai and Dgen, which emphasize liberation through the insight of meditation, which were equally rapidly adopted by the upper classes and had a profound impact on the culture of Japan.

Additionally, it was during the Kamakura period that the influential monk Nichiren began teaching devotion to the Lotus Sutra. Eventually, his disciples formed their own school of Nichiren Buddhism, which includes various sects that have their own interpretations of Nichiren's teachings. Nichiren Buddhism established the foundation of Japanese Buddhism in the thirteenth century. The school is known for its sociopolitical activism and looks to reform society through faith.[16]

In the Muromachi period, Zen, particularly the Rinzai school, obtained the help of the Ashikaga shogunate and the Emperor of Japan, and accomplished considerable development.

After the Sengoku period of war, Japan was re-united in the AzuchiMomoyama period. This decreased the power of Buddhism, which had become a strong political and military force in Japan. Neo-Confucianism and Shinto gained influence at the expense of Buddhism, which came under strict state control.[17] Japan closed itself off to the rest of the world. The only traders to be allowed were Dutchmen admitted to the island of Dejima.

New doctrines and methods were not to be introduced, nor were new temples and schools. The only exception was the baku lineage, which was introduced in the 17th century during the Edo period by Ingen, a Chinese monk. Ingen had been a member of the Linji school, the Chinese equivalent of Rinzai, which had developed separately from the Japanese branch for hundreds of years. Thus, when Ingen journeyed to Japan following the fall of the Ming dynasty to the Manchu people, his teachings were seen as a separate school. The baku school was named after Mount Huangbo (Chinese: ; pinyin: Hungb shn; Japanese pronunciation: baku shan), which had been Ingen's home in China. Also notable during the period was the publication of an exceptionally high quality reprint of the Ming-era Tripiaka by Tetsugen Doko, a renowned master of the baku school.[17]

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new government adopted a strong anti-Buddhist attitude, and a movement to eradicate Buddhism and bring Shinto to ascendancy arose throughout the country due to the strong connections of Buddhism to the Shoguns.

During the Meiji period (18681912), after a coup in 1868, Japan abandoned its feudal system and opened up to Western modernism. Shinto became the state religion. Within the Buddhist establishment the Western world was seen as a threat as well as a challenge to stand up to.[19][20] Buddhist institutions had a simple choice: adapt or perish. Rinzai and Soto Zen chose to adapt, trying to modernize Zen in accord with Western insights, while simultaneously maintaining a Japanese identity. Other schools, and Buddhism in general, simply saw their influence wane. The edict of April 1872 ended the status of the buddhist precepts as state law and allowed monks to marry and to eat meat.[21] This "codification of a secularized lifestyle for the monk coupled with the revival of the emperor system and development of State Shinto were fundamental in desacralizing Buddhism and pushing it to the margins of society".[22]

Japanese identity was being articulated in Nihonjinron, the "Japanese uniqueness theory". A broad range of subjects was taken as typical of Japanese culture. D. T. Suzuki contributed to the Nihonjinron by taking Zen as the distinctive token of Asian spirituality, showing its unique character in the Japanese culture.[23]Nichirenism was one particular expression of Japanese Buddhist nationalism.

During World War II, almost all Buddhists temples strongly supported Japan's militarization.[24][25][26][27][28][29] In contrast, a few individuals such as Ichikawa Haku,[30] and Gir Senoo were targeted, and the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, a Nichiren lay believers' organization, was ultimately banned by military authorities. During the 1940s, "leaders of both Honmon Hokkeshu and Sokka Gakkai were imprisoned for their defiance of wartime government religious policy, which mandated display of reverence for state Shinto."[31][32][33]

Post World War II, there was a high demand for Buddhist priests who glorified fallen soldiers, and gave funerals and posthumous names, causing a strong revival.[34][citation needed] However, due to secularization and materialism, Buddhism and religion in general, continued to decline.[need quotation to verify]

Japan has seen a growth in post war movements of lay believers of Buddhism[citation needed] and a decline in traditional Buddhism in the 20th century, with roughly 100 Buddhist organizations disappearing every year.[35][36] As of 2008 approximately 34% of the Japanese identify as "Buddhists" and the number has been growing since the 1980s, as Buddhists were 27% in 1984.

Still, around 90% of Japanese funerals are conducted according to Buddhist rites.[37] "In 1963 Tamamuro Taijo coined the term Funeral Buddhism that came to be used to describe traditional Buddhism in Japan as the religion engaged in funerary rites and removed from the spiritual needs of people".[38]

Contrary to the ritualistic practice of traditional Buddhism, a revived modern form of Nichiren Buddhism led by lay believers Soka Gakkai grew rapidly in the chaos of post war Japan [33] from about 3000 members in 1951 to over 8 million members in 2000,[39] and has established schools, colleges and a university, as well as cultural institutions.[40] A study about the reason for the growth in lay believers and increased engagement in society attributes the cause to Nichiren teachings of social responsibility: In the tradition of Nichiren Buddhism, however, we find the Lotus Sutra linked to a view of social responsibility that is distinctive.[41] According to an academic study, lay believers of Buddhism offer an alternative view of Japan where their form of Buddhism would form the religious foundation of a peaceful and psychologically and materially enriched society [42]

In the post-Meiji, pre-WWII period, there were officially 13 schools and 56 branches (ja:) of traditional Buddhism (i.e., those not established in modern times). The official schools included three from the Nara period, two from the Heian period (Tendai and Shingon), four Pure Land schools, three Zen schools (Rinzai, St and Obaku), and Nichiren. During the war, this was halved to 28 branches, but the law enforcing this was repealed following the end of the war, allowing former branches to return. Further, since then, many groups have split off from existing branches.[citation needed]

625: Introduced into Japan. The Tattvasiddhi school (, Jjitsu-sh) (formerly known as the *Styasiddhi) is considered to be an offshoot of the Bahurutya, an Indian Sautrntika school of Nikaya Buddhism; however, the Tattvasiddhi's position was also close to that of the Sthavira nikya. They were distinguished by a rejection of abhidharma as not being the words of the Buddha. It was introduced to Japan as Jjitsu in 625 by the monk Ekwan of Goryeo. In Japan, it was classified as one of the three approaches of East Asian Mdhyamaka instead of a separate lineage. East Asian Mdhyamaka (, Sanron-sh) was one of the six Nara sects (, Nanto Rokush).

654: Dsh introduces East Asian Yogcra (, Hoss). Yogcra is based on an early Indian philosophy by masters such as Vasubandhu. Practices of this lineage are also known as "consciousness-only" since they teach that all phenomena are phenomena of the mind. The East Asian Yogcra school of Buddhism was founded by Xuanzang (, Jp. Genj) in China c. 630 and introduced to Japan in 654 by Dsh, who had travelled to China to study under him.[45] The Discourse on the Theory of Consciousness-Only (, Jyuishiki-ron) is an important text for the Hoss school.

This school was transmitted to Japan in the 7th century. Literally: Three-Discourse School; a Madhyamaka school which developed in China based on two discourses by Nagarjuna and one by Aryadeva. Madhyamaka is one of the two most important Mahayana philosophies, and reemphasizes the original Buddhist teachings that phenomena are neither truly existent or absolutely non-existent, but are characterized by impermanence and insubstantiality.

736: Bodhisena introduces the Kegon (Huayan or Avatasaka) school to Japan. The Kegon school was founded by Dushun (, Dojun) c. 600 and was introduced to Japan by the Indian monk Bodhisena in 736. The Avatamsaka Sutra (Kegon-ky ) is the central text for the Kegon school. The Shin'yaku Kegonky Ongi Shiki is an early Japanese annotation of this stra.

753: Jianzhen (Chinese: ) introduces the Rissh (Ritsu or vinaya school) to Japan. Founded by Doxun (, Jp. Dosen), China, c. 650First Introduction to Japan: Jianzhen, 753. The Ritsu school specialized in the Vinaya (the monastic rules in the Tripitaka). They used the Dharmagupta version of the vinaya which is known in Japanese as Shibunritsu ()

The Kusha-sh () was one of the six schools of Buddhism introduced to Japan during the Asuka and Nara periods. Along with the Tattvasiddhi school (Jjitsu-sh) and the Rissh, it is a school of Nikaya Buddhism, which is sometimes derisively known to Mahayana Buddhism as "the Hinayana".

A Sarvastivada school,[47] Kusha-sh focussed on abhidharma analysis based on the "Commentary on the Abhidharmakoabhaya" () by the fourth-century Gandharan philosopher Vasubandhu. The school takes its name from that authoritative text.

807: Saich introduces the Tendai (Tiantai) school to Japan. Known as Tiantai () in China, the Tendai school was founded by Zhiyi (, Jp Chigi) in China, c. 550. In 804 Saich () traveled to China to study at the Tiantai teachings, at Mount Tiantai. However, before his return he also studied, and was initiated into, the practice of the Vajrayana, with emphasis on the Mahavairocana Sutra. The primary text of Tiantai is Lotus Sutra (Hokke-ky ), but when Saich established his school in Japan he incorporated the study and practice of Vajrayana as well.

816: Kkai founds Shingon Buddhism (, Shingon-sh). One of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan today and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, it originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Known in Chinese as the Tangmi, these esoteric teachings would flourish in Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kkai (), who traveled to Tang China in 804 as part of the same expedition as Saich. In the capital he studied Tangmi and Sanskrit and received initiation from Huiguo. On returning to Japan, Kkai eventually managed to establish Shingon as a school in its own right. Kkai received two lineages of teachingone based on the Mahavairocana Tantra (, Dainichiky) and the other based on the Vajrasekhara Sutra (, Kongchky).

The word "Shingon" is the Japanese pronunciation of Zhnyn "True Words",[48] which in turn is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit word "mantra".[49]

1175: Hnen introduces Pure Land Buddhism to Japan.

Jdo-sh was founded by Hnen (), 1175Japanese name: , "Pure Land"Major Influences: Chinese Jingtu Zong ( "Pure Land school"), TendaiDoctrine: NianfoPrimary Text: Longer Sukhvatvyha Stra (Muryju-ky )

Jdo Shinsh was founded by Shinran (), 1224Japanese name: , "True Pure Land"Major Influences: Jdo-sh, TendaiDoctrine: nembutsu no shinjin ("nianfo of true entrusting", that is, saying nianfo is a declaration of faith in Amida's salvation plan for the individual rather than a plan for salvation.)Primary Text: Longer Sukhvatvyha Stra (Muryju-ky )

Ji-sh was founded by Ippen (), 1270Japanese name: or , "Time"Major Influences: Jdo-shDoctrine: NembutsuPrimary Text:

The Yz-Nembutsu school was founded by Rynin (), 1117Japanese name: Doctrine: sokushitsu j (,)Primary Text: Avatamsaka Sutra (Kegon-ky )Lotus Sutra (Hokke-ky )

Several variants of Zen's practice and experiential wisdom () were separately brought to Japan. Note that Zen influences are identifiable earlier in Japanese Buddhism, esp. cross-fertilization with Hosso and Kegon, but the independent schools were formed quite late.

1191: Eisai introduces the Rinzai school to Japan. Founder: Linji Yixuan (), China, c. 850Chinese name: Linji school (), named after founderFirst Introduction to Japan: Eisai (), 1191Major Influences: East Asian Yogcra, KegonDoctrine: zazen (, "sitting meditation"), especially kan (, "public matter") practicePrimary Texts: Transcendental Wisdom Sutras aka Prajnaparamita (), incl. Heart Sutra

1227: Dgen introduces the St (Caodong school) to Japan. Founders: Caoshan (, Jp. Sosan) and Dongshan Liangjie (, Jp. Tosan), China, c. 850Chinese name: Caodong (), named after its foundersFirst Introduction to Japan: Dgen (), 1227Major Influences: Tendai, East Asian Yogcra, KegonDoctrine: zazen (, "sitting meditation"), especially shikantazaPrimary Texts: Transcendental Wisdom Sutras aka Prajnaparamita (), incl. Heart Sutra

1654: Ingen introduces the baku (Huangbo) school to Japan.Founder: Ingen (), Japan, 1654Japanese name: , named for the mountain where the founder had lived in ChinaMajor Influences: Rinzai schoolDoctrine: kyzen-itchi (, "Unity of Sutras and Zen")Primary Texts: Transcendental Wisdom Sutras aka Prajnaparamita (), incl. Heart Sutra

The Fuke-sh was founded by Puhua ()First introduction to Japan: Shinchin Kakushin (), 1254Major Influences: Rinzai schoolAbolished: 1871

1253: Nichiren (: "Sun-Lotus") expounds his teachings. Nichiren Buddhism split into several denominations after the death of Nichiren in 1282. The Nichiren Fuju-fuse-ha sub-sect of Nichiren Buddhism was abolished in 1669 and legalised again in 1876.Today's Nichiren Buddhism is represented by traditional-oriented schools such as Honmon Butsury-sh, Nichiren-sh and Nichiren Shsh and more recent movements like the Soka Gakkai, Rissh Ksei Kai, Reiykai and Nipponzan-Myhji-Daisanga. See Nichiren Buddhism for a more complete list.

Major Influences: TendaiPrimary Texts: Lotus Sutra (: Myh Renge Ky; abbrev. : Hokke-ky), treatises and letters by Nichiren.Mantra: Nam(u) Myh Renge Ky ()

Japanese culture maintained an uneasy relation to Buddhist culture. While the Chinese culture was admired, Buddhism was also regarded as a strange influence.

During the Kamakura (11851333) and Muromachi (13361573) Buddhism, or the Buddhist institutions, had a great influence on Japanese society. Buddhist institutions were used by the shogunate to control the country. During the Edo (16001868) this power was constricted, to be followed by persecutions at the beginning of the Meiji-restoration (18681912). Buddhist temples played a major administrative role during the Edo period, through the Danka or terauke system. In this, Japanese citizens were required to register at their local Buddhist temples and obtain a certification (terauke), which became necessary to function in society. At first, this system was put into place to suppress Christianity, but over time it took on the larger role of census and population control.

In Japan, Buddhist art started to develop as the country converted to Buddhism in 548. Some tiles from the Asuka period (shown above), the first period following the conversion of the country to Buddhism, display a strikingly classical style, with ample Hellenistic dress and realistically rendered body shape characteristic of Greco-Buddhist art.

Buddhist art became extremely varied in its expression. Many elements of Greco-Buddhist art remain to this day however, such as the Hercules inspiration behind the Nio guardian deities in front of Japanese Buddhist temples, or representations of the Buddha reminiscent of Greek art such as the Buddha in Kamakura.[b]

Various other Greco-Buddhist artistic influences can be found in the Japanese Buddhist pantheon, the most striking being that of the Japanese wind god Fjin. In consistency with Greek iconography for the wind god Boreas, the Japanese wind god holds above his head with his two hands a draping or "wind bag" in the same general attitude.[c] The abundance of hair has been kept in the Japanese rendering, as well as exaggerated facial features.

Another Buddhist deity, Shukongshin, one of the wrath-filled protector deities of Buddhist temples in Japan, is also an interesting case of transmission of the image of the famous Greek god Heracles to East Asia along the Silk Road. Heracles was used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha, and his representation was then used in China and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples.[d]

The artistic inspiration from Greek floral scrolls is found quite literally in the decoration of Japanese roof tiles, one of the only remaining element of wooden architecture throughout centuries. The clearest ones are from the 7th century Nara temple building tiles, some of them exactly depicting vines and grapes. These motifs have evolved towards more symbolic representations, but essentially remain to this day in many Japanese traditional buildings.[e]

Soga no Umako built Hk-ji, the first temple in Japan, between 588 to 596. It was later renamed as Asuka-dera for Asuka, the name of the capital where it was located. Unlike early Shinto shrines, early Buddhist temples were highly ornamental and strictly symmetrical. The early Heian period (9th10th century) saw an evolution of style based on the mikky sects Tendai and Shingon Buddhism. The Daibutsuy style and the Zenshy style emerged in the late 12th or early 13th century.

Although its date and practices vary region to region, the Bon Festival is celebrated primarily in Japan and in communities with large Japanese diaspora communities. It is believed that the spirits of the dead return to earth for three days and visit the family shrines or graves. It is customary to clean the graves and to hold family reunions.

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Buddhism in Japan - Wikipedia

Theravda (Pali, literally "school of the elder monks") is a branch of Buddhism that uses the Buddha's teaching preserved in the Pli Canon as its doctrinal core. The Pali canon is the only complete Buddhist canon which survives in a classical Indic Language, Pali, which serves as the sacred language and lingua franca of Theravada Buddhism.[1] Another feature of Theravada is that it tends to be very conservative about matters of doctrine and monastic discipline.[2] As a distinct sect, Theravada Buddhism developed in Sri Lanka and spread to the rest of Southeast Asia.

Theravada also includes a rich diversity of traditions and practices that have developed over its long history of interactions with varying cultures and religious communities. It is the dominant form of religion in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is practiced by minority groups in India, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Philippines and Vietnam. In addition, the diaspora of all of these groups as well as converts around the world practice Theravda Buddhism. Contemporary expressions include Buddhist modernism, the Vipassana movement and the Thai Forest Tradition.

Theravda Buddhism is followed by countries and people around the globe, and is:

Today, Theravda Buddhists, otherwise known as Theravadins, number over 150 million worldwide, and during the past few decades Theravda Buddhism has begun to take root in the West[a] and in the Buddhist revival in India.[web 2]

The name Theravda comes[b] from the ancestral Sthvirya, one of the early Buddhist schools, from which the Theravadins claim descent. After unsuccessfully trying to modify the Vinaya, a small group of "elderly members", i.e. sthaviras, broke away from the majority Mahsghika during the Second Buddhist council, giving rise to the Sthavira sect.[3] According to its own accounts, the Theravda school is fundamentally derived from the Vibhajjavda "doctrine of analysis" grouping,[4] which was a division of the Sthvirya.

Buddhists from the Indian mainland appear originally to have regarded the Buddhists of Lak as simply the 'Lak school', thus Vasubandhu writing in the fourth century cites the notion of the bhavga-vijna of the Tmraparya-nikya as a forerunner of the laya-vijna. But beginning with Yijings account of his travels in India (671695 ce ) and Vintadevas eighth-century summary of the divisions of the Buddhist schools (Samaya-bhedoparacana- cakra-nikya-bhedopadarana-cakra), we find north Indian sources describing the Buddhist Sagha as comprising four nikyas: (1) the Mahsghikas, (2) the Sthviras, (3) the Sarvstivdins, and (4) the Samatyas. Significantly, the Sthviras in turn comprise three sub-nikyas: the Jetavanyas, the Abhayagirivsins, and the Mahvihravsins. The Buddhists of Lak are thus no longer regarded as the Lak school, they are the Sthviras, despite the fact that both the Sarvstivdins and the Samatyas were also understood as tracing their lineage to the Sthvira side of the original split with the Mahsghikas. The reason for referring to the three Buddhist nikyas of Lak as the Sthviras is probably not so much a recognition of an exclusive claim to be the authentic theravda, as a reflection of the simple fact that the Lak schools alone of the various Sthvira schools continued to refer to themselves as theriya or theravda in certain contexts.[5]

According to Damien Keown, there is no historical evidence that the Theravda school arose until around two centuries after the Great Schism which occurred at the Third Council.[6] Theravadin accounts of its own origins mention that it received the teachings that were agreed upon during the putative Third Buddhist council under the patronage of the Indian Emperor Ashoka around 250 BCE. These teachings were known as the Vibhajjavada.[7] Emperor Ashoka is supposed to have assisted in purifying the sangha by expelling monks who failed to agree to the terms of Third Council.[8] The elder monk Moggaliputta-Tissa was at the head of the Third council and compiled the Kathavatthu (Points of Controversy), a refutation of various opposing views which is an important work in the Theravada Abhidhamma.

Later, the Vibhajjavdins in turn is said to have split into four groups: the Mahsaka, Kyapya, Dharmaguptaka, and the Tmraparya.

The Theravda is said to be descended from the Tmraparya sect, which means "the Sri Lankan lineage". Missionaries sent abroad from India are said to have included Ashoka's son Mahinda (who studied under Moggaliputta-Tissa) and his daughter Sanghamitta, and they were the mythical founders of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, a story which scholars suggest helps to legitimize Theravda's claims of being the oldest and most authentic school.[8] According to the Mahavamsa chronicle their arrival in Sri Lanka is said to have been during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura (307 BCE to 267 BCE) who converted to Buddhism and helped build the first Buddhist stupas. According to S.D. Bandaranayake:

"The rapid spread of Buddhism and the emergence of an extensive organization of the sangha are closely linked with the secular authority of the central state...There are no known artistic or architectural remains from this epoch except for the cave dwellings of the monks, reflecting the growth and spread of the new religion. The most distinctive features of this phase and virtually the only contemporary historical material, are the numerous Brahmi inscriptions associated with these caves. They record gifts to the sangha, significantly by householders and chiefs rather than by kings. The Buddhist religion itself does not seem to have established undisputed authority until the reigns of Dutthagamani and Vattagamani (ca mid-2nd century BCE to mid-1st century BCE)..."[9]

The first records of Buddha images come from the reign of king Vasabha (65-109 BCE), and after the 3rd century AD the historical record shows a growth of the worship of Buddha images as well as Bodhisattvas.[9]

In the 7th century, the Chinese pilgrim monks Xuanzang and Yijing refer to the Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka as Shngzub (Chinese: ), corresponding to the Sanskrit Sthavira nikya and Pali Thera Nikya.[10]Yijing writes, "In Sri Lanka the Sthavira school alone flourishes; the Mahasanghikas are expelled".[11]

The school has been using the name Theravda for itself in a written form since at least the 4th century, about one thousand years after the Buddha's death, when the term appears in the Dpavasa.[12][need quotation to verify]

According to Buddhist scholar A. K. Warder, the Theravda

... spread rapidly south from Avanti into Maharashtra and Andhra and down to the Chola country (Kanchi), as well as Sri Lanka. For some time they maintained themselves in Avanti as well as in their new territories, but gradually they tended to regroup themselves in the south, the Great Vihara (Mahavihara) in Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka, becoming the main centre of their tradition, Kanchi a secondary center and the northern regions apparently relinquished to other schools.

Between the reigns of Sena I (833-853) and Mahinda IV (956-972), the city of Anuradhapura saw a "colossal building effort" by various kings during a long period of peace and prosperity, the great part of the present architectural remains in this city date from this period.[14]

The Sri Lankan Buddhist Sangha initially preserved the Buddhist scriptures (the Tipitaka) orally as it had been traditionally done, however during the first century BCE, famine and wars led to the writing down of these scriptures. The Sri Lankan chronicle The Mahavamsa records:

"Formerly clever monks preserved the text of the Canon and its commentaries orally, but then, when they saw the disastrous state of living beings, they came together and had it written down in books, that the doctrine might long survive."[15]

According to Richard Gombrich this is "the earliest record we have of Buddhist scriptures being committed to writing anywhere."[15] The Theravada Pali texts which have survived (with only a few exceptions) are derived from the Mahavihara (monastic complex) of Anuradhapura, the ancient Sri Lankan capital.[16]

Later developments included the formation and recording of the Theravada commentary literature (Atthakatha). The Theravada tradition records that even during the early days of Mahinda, there was already a tradition of Indian commentaries on the scriptures.[17] Prior to the writing of the classic Theravada Pali commentaries, there were also various commentaries on the Tipitaka written in the Sinhalese language, such as the Maha-atthakatha ("Great commentary"), the main commentary tradition of the Mahavihara monks.[18]

Of great importance to the commentary tradition is the work of the great Theravada scholastic Buddhaghosa (4-5th century CE), who is responsible for most of the Theravada commentary literature that has survived (any older commentaries have been lost). Buddhaghosa wrote in Pali, and after him, most Sri Lankan Buddhist scholastics did as well.[19] This allowed the Sri Lankan tradition to become more international through a lingua franca so as to converse with monks in India and later Southeast Asia.

Theravada monks also produced other Pali literature such as historical chronicles (e.g. Mahavamsa), hagiographies, practice manuals, summaries, textbooks, poetry and Abhidhamma works such as the Abhidhammattha-sangaha and the Abhidhammavatara. Buddhaghosa's work on Abhidhamma and Buddhist practice outlined in works such as the Visuddhimagga and the Atthasalini are the most influential texts apart from the Pali Canon texts themselves in the Theravada tradition. Other Theravada Pali commentators and writers include Dhammapala and Buddhadatta. Dhammapala wrote commentaries on the Pali Canon texts which Buddhaghosa had omitted and also wrote a commentary called the Paramathamanjusa on Buddhaghosa's great manual, the Visuddhimagga.

Over much of the early history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, three subdivisions of Theravda existed in Sri Lanka, consisting of the monks of the Mahvihra, Abhayagiri vihra and Jetavana.[20] The Mahvihra was the first tradition to be established, while Abhayagiri Vihra and Jetavana Vihra were established by monks who had broken away from the Mahvihra tradition.[20] According to A.K. Warder, the Indian Mahsaka sect also established itself in Sri Lanka alongside the Theravda, into which they were later absorbed.[20] Northern regions of Sri Lanka also seem to have been ceded to sects from India at certain times.[20]

When the Chinese monk Faxian visited the island in the early 5th century, he noted 5000 monks at Abhayagiri, 3000 at the Mahvihra, and 2000 at the Cetiyapabbatavihra.[22]

The Mahavihara (Great Monastery) school became dominant in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 2nd millennium CE and gradually spread through mainland Southeast Asia. It was established in Myanmar in the late 11th century, in Thailand in the 13th and early 14th centuries, and in Cambodia and Laos by the end of the 14th century. Although Mahavihara never completely replaced other schools in Southeast Asia, it received special favor at most royal courts. This is due to the support it received from local elites, who exerted a very strong religious and social influence. [23]

Theravada, a group of monks who disagreed with the Mahavihara way, decided to rebel and form their own alliance group. Mahavihara was essential to Theravada, because it was in fact the center of Theravada Buddhism. It was responsible for the development of Sri Lankan people, based off their religious beliefs and acceptable lifestyle. In the religious sense of Theravada, there are no further subdivisions, if Mahavihara does not cease to exist. [24]

Over the centuries, the Abhayagiri Theravdins maintained close relations with Indian Buddhists and adopted many new teachings from India.[25] including many elements from Mahyna teachings, while the Jetavana Theravdins adopted Mahyna to a lesser extent.[22][26]

Xuanzang wrote of two major divisions of Theravda in SriLanka, referring to the Abhayagiri tradition as the "Mahyna Sthaviras", and the Mahvihra tradition as the "Hnayna Sthaviras".[27] Xuanzang further writes:[22]

The Mahvihravsins reject the Mahyna and practise the Hnayna, while the Abhayagirivihravsins study both Hnayna and Mahyna teachings and propagate the Tripiaka.

Akira Hirakawa notes that the surviving Pli commentaries (Ahakath) of the Mahvihra school, when examined closely, also include a number of positions that agree with Mahyna teachings.[28] Kalupahana notes the same for the Visuddhimagga, the most important Theravda commentary.

It is known that in the 8thcentury, both Mahyna and the esoteric Vajrayna form of Buddhism were being practised in SriLanka, and two Indian monks responsible for propagating Esoteric Buddhism in China, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra, visited the island during this time.[30] Abhayagiri Vihra appears to have been a center for Theravadin Mahyna and Vajrayna teachings.[31]

Some scholars have held that the rulers of SriLanka ensured that Theravda remained traditional, and that this characteristic contrasts with Indian Buddhism.[32] However, before the 12thcentury, more rulers of SriLanka gave support and patronage to the Abhayagiri Theravdins, and travelers such as Faxian saw the Abhayagiri Theravdins as the main Buddhist tradition in SriLanka.[33][34]

The trend of the Abhayagiri Vihara being the dominant sect changed in the 12thcentury, when the Mahvihra sect gained the political support of ParakramabahuI (11531186), who completely abolished the Abhayagiri and Jetavanin traditions.[35][36] The Theravda monks of these two traditions were then defrocked and given the choice of either returning to the laity permanently, or attempting reordination under the Mahvihra tradition as "novices" (smaera).[36][37]Richard Gombrich writes:[38]

Though the chronicle says that he reunited the Sangha, this expression glosses over the fact that what he did was to abolish the Abhayagiri and Jetavana Nikyas. He laicized many monks from the Mah Vihra Nikya, all the monks in the other two and then allowed the better ones among the latter to become novices in the now 'unified' Sangha, into which they would have in due course to be reordained.

Regarding the differences between these three Theravda traditions, the Cavasa laments, "Despite the vast efforts made in every way by former kings down to the present day, the Bhikkhus turned away in their demeanor from one another and took delight in all kinds of strife."[39]

Parakkamabhu I rebuilt the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, restoring Buddhist stupas and Viharas (monasteries).[40] He appointed a Sangharaja, or "King of the Sangha", a monk who would preside over the Sangha and its ordinations in Sri Lanka, assisted by two deputies.[38] The reign of Parakkamabhu also saw a flowering of Theravada scholasticism with the work of prominent Sri Lankan scholars such as Anuruddha, Sriputta Thera, Mahkassapa Thera of Dimbulagala Vihara and Moggallana Thera.[40] They worked on compiling of subcommentaries on the Tipitaka, texts on grammar, summaries and textbooks on Abhidhamma and Vinaya such as the influential Abhidhammattha-sangaha of Anuruddha.

A few years after the arrival of Mahinda, the bhikkhu Saghamitt, who is also believed to have been the daughter of Ashoka, came to Sri Lanka. She ordained the first nuns in Sri Lanka. In 429, by request of China's emperor, nuns from Anuradhapura were sent to China to establish the order there, which subsequently spread across East Asia. The prtimoka of the nun's order in East Asian Buddhism is the Dharmaguptaka, which is different than the prtimoka of the current Theravada school; the specific ordination of the early Sangha in Sri Lanka not known, although the Dharmaguptaka sect originated with the Sthvirya as well.

The nun's order subsequently died out in Sri Lanka in the 11th century and in Burma in the 13th century. It had already died out around the 10th century in other Theravadin areas. Novice ordination has also disappeared in those countries. Therefore, women who wish to live as renunciates in those countries must do so by taking eight or ten precepts. Neither laywomen nor formally ordained, these women do not receive the recognition, education, financial support or status enjoyed by Buddhist men in their countries. These "precept-holders" live in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, and Thailand. In particular, the governing council of Burmese Buddhism has ruled that there can be no valid ordination of women in modern times, though some Burmese monks disagree. Japan is a special case as, although it has neither the bhikkhuni nor novice ordinations, the precept-holding nuns who live there do enjoy a higher status and better education than their precept-holder sisters elsewhere, and can even become Zen priests.[41] In Tibet there is currently no bhikkhuni ordination, but the Dalai Lama has authorized followers of the Tibetan tradition to be ordained as nuns in traditions that have such ordination.

In 1996, 11 selected Sri Lankan women were ordained fully as Theravada bhikkhunis by a team of Theravda monks in concert with a team of Korean nuns in India. There is disagreement among Theravda vinaya authorities as to whether such ordinations are valid. The Dambulla chapter of the Siam Nikaya in Sri Lanka also carried out a nun's ordination at this time, specifically stating their ordination process was a valid Theravadin process where the other ordination session was not. This chapter has carried out ordination ceremonies for hundreds of nuns since then.[citation needed] This has been criticized by leading figures in the Siam Nikaya and Amarapura Nikaya, and the governing council of Buddhism in Myanmar has declared that there can be no valid ordination of nuns in modern times, though some Burmese monks disagree with this.[43]

In 1997 Dhamma Cetiya Vihara in Boston was founded by Ven. Gotami of Thailand, then a 10 precept nun; when she received full ordination in 2000, her dwelling became America's first Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni vihara.

A 55-year-old Thai Buddhist 8-precept white-robed maechee nun, Varanggana Vanavichayen, became the first woman to receive the going-forth ceremony of a Theravada novice (and the gold robe) in Thailand, in 2002.[44] On February 28, 2003, Dhammananda Bhikkhuni, formerly known as Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, became the first Thai woman to receive bhikkhuni ordination as a Theravada nun.[45] Dhammananda Bhikkhuni was ordained in Sri Lanka.[46] The Thai Senate has reviewed and revoked the secular law passed in 1928 banning women's full ordination in Buddhism as unconstitutional for being counter to laws protecting freedom of religion. However Thailand's two main Theravada Buddhist orders, the Mahanikaya and Dhammayutika Nikaya, have yet to officially accept fully ordained women into their ranks.

In 2009 in Australia four women received bhikkhuni ordination as Theravada nuns, the first time such ordination had occurred in Australia.[47] It was performed in Perth, Australia, on 22 October 2009 at Bodhinyana Monastery. Abbess Vayama together with Venerables Nirodha, Seri, and Hasapanna were ordained as Bhikkhunis by a dual Sangha act of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis in full accordance with the Pali Vinaya.[48]

In 2010, in the USA, four novice nuns were given the full bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Theravada tradition, which included the double ordination ceremony. Henepola Gunaratana and other monks and nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere.[49]

The first bhikkhuni ordination in Germany, the ordination of German woman Samaneri Dhira, occurred on June 21, 2015 at Anenja Vihara.[50]

In Indonesia, the first Theravada ordination of bhikkhunis in Indonesia after more than a thousand years occurred in 2015 at Wisma Kusalayani in Lembang, Bandung in West Java.[51] Those ordained included Vajiradevi Sadhika Bhikkhuni from Indonesia, Medha Bhikkhuni from Sri Lanka, Anula Bhikkhuni from Japan, Santasukha Santamana Bhikkhuni from Vietnam, Sukhi Bhikkhuni and Sumangala Bhikkhuni from Malaysia, and Jenti Bhikkhuni from Australia.[51]

According to the Mahavamsa, a Sri Lankan chronicle, after the conclusion of the Third Buddhist council, a mission was sent to Suvarnabhumi, led by two monks, Sona and Uttara.[52] Scholarly opinions differ as to where exactly this land of Suvarnabhumi was located, but it is generally believed to have been located somewhere in the area of Lower Burma, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, or Sumatra.

Before the 12th century, the areas of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia were dominated by Buddhist sects from India, and included the teachings of Mahyna Buddhism.[53][54] In the 7th century, Yijing noted in his travels that in these areas, all major sects of Indian Buddhism flourished.[53]

Though there are some early accounts that have been interpreted as Theravda in Myanmar, the surviving records show that most Burmese Buddhism incorporated Mahyna, and used Sanskrit rather than Pali.[54][55][56] After the decline of Buddhism in India, missions of monks from Sri Lanka gradually converted Burmese Buddhism to Theravda, and in the next two centuries also brought Theravda Buddhism to the areas of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, where it supplanted previous forms of Buddhism.[57]

The Mon and Pyu were among the earliest people to inhabit Myanmar. The oldest surviving Buddhist texts in the Pali language come from Pyu city-state of Sri Ksetra, the text which is dated from the mid 5th to mid 6th century is written on twenty-leaf manuscript of solid gold.[58] According to Peter Skilling: "From the point of view of both language and contents, I conclude that the Pali inscriptions of Burma and Siam give firm evidence for a Theravadin presence in the Irrawaddy and Chao Phraya basins, from about the 5th century CE onwards. From the extent and richness of the evidence it seems that the Theravada was the predominant school, and that it enjoyed the patronage of ruling and economic elites. But I do not mean to suggest that religious society was monolithic: other schools may well have been present, or have come and gone, and there is ample evidence for the practice of Mahayana and Brahmanism in the region."[59]

The Burmese slowly became Theravdan as they came into contact and conquered the Pyu and Mon civilizations. This began in the 11th century during the reign of the Bamar king Anawrahta (1044-1077) of the Pagan Kingdom who acquired the Pali scriptures in a war against the Mon as well as from Sri Lanka and build stupas and monasteries at his capital of Bagan.[60] Various invasions of Burma by neighboring states and the Mongol invasions of Burma (13th century) damaged the Burmese sangha and Theravada had to be reintroduced several times into the country from Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The Khmer Empire (8021431) centered in Cambodia was initially dominated by Hinduism, Hindu ceremonies and rituals were performed by Brahmins, usually only held among ruling elites of the king's family, nobles, and the ruling class. Tantric Mahayana Buddhism was also a prominent faith, promoted by Buddhist emperors such as Jayavarman VII (11811215) who rejected the Hindu gods and presented himself as a Bodhisattva King.

King Jayavarman VII (reigned c.11811218) had sent his son Tamalinda to Sri Lanka to be ordained as a Buddhist monk and study Theravada Buddhism according to the Pali scriptural traditions in the Mahavihara monastery. Tamalinda then returned to Cambodia and promoted Buddhist traditions according to the Theravada training he had received, galvanizing and energizing the long-standing Theravada presence that had existed throughout the Angkor empire for centuries. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Theravada monks from Sri Lanka continued introducing orthodox Theravada Buddhism which eventually became the dominant faith among all classes.[61] The monasteries replaced the local priestly classes, becoming centers of religion, education, culture and social service for Cambodian villages. This led to high levels of literacy among Cambodians.[62]

In Thailand, Theravada existed alongside Mahayana and other religious sects before the rise of Sukhothai Kingdom.[63] During the reign of King Ram Khamhaeng (c. 1237/1247 1298) Theravada was made the main state religion and promoted by the king.

During the pre-modern era, Southeast Asian Buddhism included numerous elements which could be called tantric and esoteric (such as the use of mantras and yantras in elaborate rituals). The French scholar Franois Bizot has called this "Tantric Theravada", and his textual studies show that it was a major tradition in Cambodia and Thailand.[64] Some of these practices are still prevalent in Cambodia and Laos today.

Despite its success in Southeast Asia, Theravda Buddhism in China has generally been limited to areas bordering Theravda countries.

Later Theravada textual materials show new and somewhat unorthodox developments in theory and practice. These developments include what has been called the "Yogvacara tradition" associated with the Sinhalese Yogvacara's manual (c. 16th to 17th centuries) and also Esoteric Theravada also known as Born kammahna ('ancient practices'). These traditions include new practices and ideas which are not included in classical orthodox Theravada works like the Visuddhimagga, such as the use of mantras (such as Araham), the practice of magical formulas, complex rituals and complex visualization exercises.[65][66] These practices were particularly prominent in the Siam Nikaya before the modernist reforms of King Rama IV (18511868) as well as in Sri Lanka.

In the 19th century began a process of mutual influence of both Asian Theravadins and a Western audience interested in ancient wisdom. Especially Helena Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, founders of the Theosophical Society had a profound role in this process. In Theravda countries a lay vipassana practice developed. From the 1970s on, Western interest gave way to the growth of the Vipassana movement in the West.

Buddhist revivalism has also reacted against changes in Buddhism caused by colonialist regimes. Western colonialists and Christian missionaries deliberately imposed a particular type of Christian monasticism on Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka and colonies in Southeast Asia, restricting monks' activities to individual purification and temple ministries.[68] Prior to British colonial control, monks in both Sri Lanka and Burma had been responsible for the education of the children of lay people, and had produced large bodies of literature. After the British takeover, Buddhist temples were strictly administered and were only permitted to use their funds on strictly religious activities. Christian ministers were given control of the education system and their pay became state funding for missions.[69]

Foreign, especially British, rule had an enervating effect on the sangha.[70] According to Walpola Rahula, Christian missionaries displaced and appropriated the educational, social, and welfare activities of the monks, and inculcated a permanent shift in views regarding the proper position of monks in society through their institutional influence upon the elite.[70] Many monks in post-colonial times have dedicated themselves to undoing these changes.[71] Movements intending to restore Buddhism's place in society have developed in both Sri Lanka and Myanmar.[72]

One consequence of the reaction against Western colonialism has been a modernization of Theravda Buddhism: Western elements have been incorporated, and meditation practice has opened to a lay audience. Modernized forms of Theravdan practice have spread to the West.

In Sri Lanka Theravadins were looking at Western culture to find means to revitalize their own tradition. Christian missionaries were threatening the indigenous culture. As a reaction to this, Theravadins started to propagate Theravda Buddhism. They were aided by the Theosophical Society, who were dedicated to the search for wisdom within ancient sources, including Buddhism and the Pli Canon. Anagarika Dharmapala was one of the Theravda leaders with whom the Theosophists sided. Dharmapala tried to reinstate vipassan, using the Visuddhimagga and the Pali Canon as a foundation. Dharmapala reached out to the middle classes, offering them religious practice and a religious identity, which were used to withstand the British imperialists. As a result of Dharmapapla's efforts lay practitioners started to practise meditation, which had been reserved specifically for the monks.

The translation and publication of the Pli Canon by the Pali Text Society made the Pali Canon better available to a lay audience, not only in the West, but also in the East. Western lay interest in Theravda Buddhism was promoted by the Theosophical Society, and endured until the beginning of the 20th century. During the 1970s interest rose again, leading to a surge of Westerners searching for enlightenment, and the republishing of the Pli Canon, first in print, and later on the internet.

With the coming to power in 1851 of King Mongkut, who had been a monk himself for twenty-seven years, the sangha, like the kingdom, became steadily more centralized and hierarchical, and its links to the state more institutionalized. Mongkut was a distinguished scholar of Pali Buddhist scripture. Moreover, at that time the immigration of numbers of monks from Burma was introducing the more rigorous discipline characteristic of the Mon sangha. Influenced by the Mon and guided by his own understanding of the Tipitaka, Mongkut began a reform movement that later became the basis for the Dhammayuttika Nikaya.

In the early 1900s, Thailand's Ajahn Sao Kantaslo and his student, Mun Bhuridatta, led the Thai Forest Tradition revival movement. In the 20th century notable practitioners included Ajahn Thate, Ajahn Maha Bua and Ajahn Chah. It was later spread globally by Ajahn Mun's students including Ajahn Thate, Ajahn Maha Bua and Ajahn Chah and several Western disciples, among whom the most senior is Luang Por Ajahn Sumedho.

Burmese Theravda Buddhism has had a profound influence on modern vipassan practice, both for lay practitioners in Asia as in the West.

The "New Burmese method" was developed by U Nrada and popularized by his student Mahasi Sayadaw and Nyanaponika Thera. Another prominent teacher is Bhikkhu Bodhi, a student of Nyanaponika. The New Burmese Method strongly emphasizes vipassan over samatha. It is regarded as a simplification of traditional Buddhist meditation techniques, suitable not only for monks but also for lay practitioners. The method has been popularized in the West by teachers as Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Gil Fronsdal and Sharon Salzberg.

The Ledi lineage begins with Ledi Sayadaw.S. N. Goenka is a well-known teacher in the Ledi-lineage. According to S. N. Goenka, vipassana techniques are essentially nonsectarian in character, and have universal application. Meditation centers teaching the vipassan popularized by S. N. Goenka exist now in India, Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia, Middle East and Africa.[77][citation needed]

The following modern trends or movements have been identified.[78][web 4]

The Sthvirya, from which Theravda is derived, differed from other early Buddhist schools on a variety of teachings that are maintained by the Theravda school.[citation needed] The differences resulted from the systemization of the Buddhist teachings, which was preserved in the abhidharmas of the various schools.

The abhidhamma is "a restatement of the doctrine of the Buddha in strictly formalised language [...] assumed to constitute a consistent system of philosophy". Its aim is not the empirical verification of the Buddhist teachings, but "to set forth the correct interpretation of the Buddha's statements in the Sutra to restate his 'system' with perfect accuracy".

The Mahsghika believed arhats could regress, while Theravadins believe that the arhat has an "incorruptible nature".

According to the Theravda, "progress in understanding comes all at once, 'insight' (abhisamaya) does not come 'gradually' (successively - anapurva)", a belief known as subitism. This is reflected in the Theravda account on the four stages of enlightenment, in which the attainment of the four paths appears suddenly and the defilements are rooted out at once. The same stance is taken in the contemporary vipassana movement, especially the "New Burmese Method".[citation needed]

The commentaries gave a new definition of "a 'principle' or 'element' (dharma)":

[D]harmas are what have (or 'hold', 'maintain', dhr is the nearest equivalent in the language to the English 'have') their own own-being (svabhava). It is added that they naturally (yathasvabhavatas) have this through conditions (pratyaya). The idea is that they are distinct, definable, principles in the constitution of the universe."

Theravda promotes the concept of vibhajjavda "teaching of analysis". This doctrine says that insight must come from the aspirant's experience, application of knowledge, and critical reasoning. However, the scriptures of the Theravadin tradition also emphasize heeding the advice of the wise, considering such advice and evaluation of one's own experiences to be the two tests by which practices should be judged.

Theravda orthodoxy takes the seven stages of purification as its basic outline of the path to be followed.

The Theravda Path starts with learning, to be followed by practise, culminating in the realization of Nirvana.[c]

Throughout the Pali Canon, two characteristics of all sakhra (conditioned phenomena) and one characteristic of all dhammas are mentioned. The Theravda tradition has grouped them together. Insight into these three characteristics is the entry to the Buddhist path:

The Four Noble Truths are described as follows:

In Theravda, the cause of human existence and suffering (dukkha) is identified as tah (craving), which carries with it the kilesas (defilements). Those defilements that bind humans to the cycle of rebirth are classified into a set of ten fetters, while those defilements - sometimes referred to in English as "toxic mental states" - that impede samadhi (concentration) are presented in a fivefold set called the five hindrances.[web 5] The level of defilement can be coarse, medium, and subtle. It is a phenomenon that frequently arises, remains temporarily and then vanishes. Theravadins believe defilements are not only harmful to oneself, but also harmful to others. They are the driving force behind all inhumanities a human being can commit.

There are three stages of defilements. During the stage of passivity the defilements lie dormant at the base of the mental continuum as latent tendencies (anusaya), but through the impact of sensory stimulus, they will manifest (pariyutthana) themselves at the surface of consciousness in the form of unwholesome thoughts, emotions, and volitions. If they gather additional strength, the defilements will reach the dangerous stage of transgression (vitikkama), which will then involve physical or vocal actions.

Theravadins believe these defilements are habits born out of avijj (ignorance) that afflict the minds of all unenlightened beings, who cling to them and their influence in their ignorance of the truth. But in reality, those mental defilements are nothing more than taints that have afflicted the mind, creating suffering and stress. Unenlightened beings cling to the body, under the assumption that it represents a Self, whereas in reality the body is an impermanent phenomenon formed from the mahbhta. Often characterized by earth, water, fire and air, in the early Buddhist texts these are defined to be abstractions representing the sensorial qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility, respectively.[d]

The mental defilements' frequent instigation and manipulation of the mind is believed to have prevented the mind from seeing the true nature of reality. Unskillful behavior in turn can strengthen the defilements, but following the Noble Eightfold Path can weaken or eradicate them. Avijj is destroyed by insight.

The concept of cause and effect, or causality, is a key concept in Theravda, and indeed, in Buddhism as a whole. This concept is expressed in several ways, including the Four Noble Truths, and most importantly, paticcasamuppda (dependent co-arising).

Abhidharma in the Pali Canon differentiates between a root cause (hetu) and facilitating cause (pacca). By the combined interaction of both these, an effect is brought about. On top of this view, a logic is built and elaborated whose most supple form can be seen in paticcasamuppda.

This concept is then used to question the nature of suffering and to elucidate the way out of it, as expressed in the Four Noble Truths. It is also employed in several suttas to refute several philosophies, or any belief system that takes a fixed mindset, or absolute beliefs about the nature of reality.

By taking away a cause, the result will also disappear. From this follows the Buddhist path to end suffering and existence in samsara.

Theravda orthodoxy takes the seven stages of purification as the basic outline of the path to be followed. This basic outline is based on the threefold discipline of sla (ethics or discipline), samdhi (meditative concentration) and pa (understanding or wisdom). The emphasis is on understanding the three marks of existence, which removes ignorance. Understanding destroys the ten fetters and leads to nibbana.

Theravadins believe that every individual is personally responsible for their own self-awakening and liberation, as they are the ones that were responsible for their own kamma (actions and consequences). Great emphasis is placed upon applying the knowledge through direct experience and personal realization, than believing about the known information about the nature of reality as said by the Buddha.

In the Sutta Pitaka, the path to liberation is described by the Noble Eightfold Path:

The Blessed One said, "Now what, monks, is the Noble Eightfold Path? Right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.[web 7]

The Noble Eightfold Path can also be summarized as the Three Noble Disciplines.[web 8][89] These are sla, pa, and samdhi.[web 9]

The Visuddhimagga, written in the fifth century by Buddhaghosa, has become the orthodox account of the Theravda path to liberation. It gives a sequence of seven purifications, based on the sequence of sla, samdhi and pa.

It is composed of three sections, which discuss sla, samdhi and paa.

The seven purifications are:

The "Purification by Knowledge and Vision" is the culmination of the practice, in four stages leading to liberation and Nirvana.

The emphasis in this system is on understanding the three marks of existence, dukkha, anatta and anicca. This emphasis is recognizable in the value that is given to vipassan over samatha, especially in the contemporary Vipassana movement.

Theravda Buddhist meditation practices fall into two broad categories: samatha and vipassan.[web 10] This distinction is not made in the sutras, but in the Visuddhimagga.[web 11]

Meditation (Pali: Bhavana) means the positive reinforcement of one's mind. Meditation is the key tool implemented in attaining jhna. Samatha means "to make skillful", and has other renderings, among which are "tranquilizing, calming", "visualizing", and "achieving". Vipassan means "insight" or "abstract understanding". In this context, Samatha Meditation makes a person skillful in concentration of mind. Once the mind is sufficiently concentrated, vipassan allows one to see through the veil of ignorance.

In order to be free from suffering and stress, Theravadins believe that the defilements need to be permanently uprooted. Initially the defilements are restrained through mindfulness to prevent them from taking over mental and bodily action. They are then uprooted through internal investigation, analysis, experience and understanding of their true nature by using jhna. This process needs to be repeated for each and every defilement. The practice will then lead the meditator to realize Nirvana.

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The history of Buddhism spans from the 5th century BCE to the present; which arose in the eastern part of Ancient India, in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of Siddhrtha Gautama. This makes it one of the oldest religions practiced today. The religion evolved as it spread from the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent through Central, East, and Southeast Asia. At one time or another, it influenced most of the Asian continent. The history of Buddhism is also characterized by the development of numerous movements, schisms, and schools, among them the Theravda, Mahyna and Vajrayna traditions, with contrasting periods of expansion and retreat.

Siddhrtha Gautama was the historical founder of Buddhism. He was born a Kshatriya warrior prince in Lumbini, Shakya Republic, which was part of the Kosala realm of ancient India.[1] He is also known as the Shakyamuni (literally: "The sage of the Shakya clan").

After an early life of luxury under the protection of his father, uddhodhana, the ruler of Kapilavasthu which later became incorporated into the state of Magadha, Siddhartha entered into contact with the realities of the world and concluded that life was inescapably bound up with suffering and sorrow. Siddhartha renounced his meaningless life of luxury to become an ascetic. He ultimately decided that asceticism couldn't end suffering, and instead chose a middle way, a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

Under a fig tree, now known as the Bodhi tree, he vowed never to leave the position until he found Truth. At the age of 35, he attained Enlightenment. He was then known as Gautama Buddha, or simply "The Buddha", which means "the enlightened one", or "the awakened one".

For the remaining 45 years of his life, he traveled the Gangetic Plain of central India (the region of the Ganges/Ganga river and its tributaries), teaching his doctrine and discipline to a diverse range of people. By the time of his death, he had thousands of followers.

The Buddha's reluctance to name a successor or to formalise his doctrine led to the emergence of many movements during the next 400 years: first the schools of Nikaya Buddhism, of which only Theravada remains today, and then the formation of Mahayana and Vajrayana, pan-Buddhist sects based on the acceptance of new scriptures and the revision of older techniques.

Followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Sakyan-s or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India.[2][3] Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez asserts they also used the term Bauddha,[4] although scholar Richard Cohen asserts that that term was used only by outsiders to describe Buddhists.[5]

Early Buddhism remained centered on the Ganges valley, spreading gradually from its ancient heartland. The canonical sources record two councils, where the monastic Sangha established the textual collections based on the Buddha's teachings and settled certain disciplinary problems within the community.

The first Buddhist council was held just after Buddha's Parinirvana, and presided over by Gupta Mahkyapa, one of His most senior disciples, at Rjagha (today's Rajgir) during the 5th century under the noble support of king Ajthaatru. The objective of the council was to record all of Buddha's teachings into the doctrinal teachings (sutra) and Abhidhamma and to codify the monastic rules (vinaya). nanda, one of the Buddha's main disciples and his cousin, was called upon to recite the discourses and Abhidhamma of the Buddha, and Upali, another disciple, recited the rules of the vinaya. These became the basis of the Tripiaka (Three Baskets), which is preserved only in Pli.

Actual record on the first Buddhist Council did not mention the existence of the Abhidhamma. It existed only after the second Council.

The second Buddhist council was held at Vaisali following a dispute that had arisen in the Sagha over a relaxation by some monks of various points of discipline. Eventually it was decided to hold a second council at which the original Vinaya texts that had been preserved at the first Council were cited to show that these relaxations went against the recorded teachings of the Buddha.

The Mauryan Emperor Aoka (273232 BC) converted to Buddhism after his bloody conquest of the territory of Kalinga (modern Odisha) in eastern India during the Kalinga War. Regretting the horrors and misery brought about by the conflict, the king magnanimously decided to renounce violence, to replace the misery caused by war with respect and dignity for all humanity. He propagated the faith by building stupas and pillars urging, amongst other things, respect of all animal life and enjoining people to follow the Dharma. Perhaps the finest example of these is the Great Stupa of Sanchi, (near Bhopal, India). It was constructed in the 3rd century BC and later enlarged. Its carved gates, called toranas, are considered among the finest examples of Buddhist art in India. He also built roads, hospitals, resthouses, universities and irrigation systems around the country. He treated his subjects as equals regardless of their religion, politics or caste.

This period marks the first spread of Buddhism beyond India to other countries. According to the plates and pillars left by Aoka (the edicts of Aoka), emissaries were sent to various countries in order to spread Buddhism, as far south as Sri Lanka and as far west as the Greek kingdoms, in particular the neighboring Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and possibly even farther to the Mediterranean.

King Aoka convened the third Buddhist council around 250 BC at Pataliputra (today's Patna). It was held by the monk Moggaliputtatissa. The objective of the council was to purify the Sagha, particularly from non-Buddhist ascetics who had been attracted by the royal patronage. Following the council, Buddhist missionaries were dispatched throughout the known world.

Some of the edicts of Aoka describe the efforts made by him to propagate the Buddhist faith throughout the Hellenistic world, which at that time formed an uninterrupted continuum from the borders of India to Greece. The edicts indicate a clear understanding of the political organization in Hellenistic territories: the names and locations of the main Greek monarchs of the time are identified, and they are claimed as recipients of Buddhist proselytism: Antiochus II Theos of the Seleucid Kingdom (261246 BC), Ptolemy II Philadelphos of Egypt (285247 BC), Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia (276239 BC), Magas (288258 BC) in Cyrenaica (modern Libya), and Alexander II (272255 BC) in Epirus (modern Northwestern Greece).

Furthermore, according to Pli sources, some of Aoka's emissaries were Greek Buddhist monks, indicating close religious exchanges between the two cultures:

Aoka also issued edicts in the Greek language as well as in Aramaic. One of them, found in Kandahar, advocates the adoption of "piety" (using the Greek term eusebeia for Dharma) to the Greek community:

It is not clear how much these interactions may have been influential, but some authors[citation needed] have commented that some level of syncretism between Hellenist thought and Buddhism may have started in Hellenic lands at that time. They have pointed to the presence of Buddhist communities in the Hellenistic world around that period, in particular in Alexandria (mentioned by Clement of Alexandria), and to the pre-Christian monastic order of the Therapeutae (possibly a deformation of the Pli word "Theravda"[7]), who may have "almost entirely drawn (its) inspiration from the teaching and practices of Buddhist asceticism"[8] and may even have been descendants of Aoka's emissaries to the West.[9] The philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene, from the city of Cyrene where Magas of Cyrene ruled, is sometimes thought to have been influenced by the teachings of Aoka's Buddhist missionaries.[10]

Buddhist gravestones from the Ptolemaic period have also been found in Alexandria, decorated with depictions of the Dharma wheel.[11] The presence of Buddhists in Alexandria has even drawn the conclusion: "It was later in this very place that some of the most active centers of Christianity were established".[12]

In the 2nd century AD, the Christian dogmatist, Clement of Alexandria recognized Bactrian Buddhists (ramanas) and Indian gymnosophists for their influence on Greek thought:

Sri Lanka was proselytized by Aoka's son Mahinda and six companions during the 2nd century BC. They converted the King Devanampiya Tissa and many of the nobility. In addition, Aoka's daughter, Saghamitta also established the bhikkhun (order for nuns) in Sri Lanka, also bringing with her a sapling of the sacred bodhi tree that was subsequently planted in Anuradhapura. This is when the Mahvihra monastery, a center of Sinhalese orthodoxy, was built. The Pli canon was written down in Sri Lanka during the reign of king Vattagamani (2917 BC), and the Theravda tradition flourished there. Later some great commentators worked there, such as Buddhaghoa (4th5th century) and Dhammapla (5th6th century), and they systemised the traditional commentaries that had been handed down. Although Mahyna Buddhism gained some influence in Sri Lanka at that time, the Theravda ultimately prevailed and Sri Lanka turned out to be the last stronghold of it. From there it would expand again to South-East Asia from the 11th century.

In the areas east of the Indian subcontinent (modern Burma and Thailand), Indian culture strongly influenced the Mons. The Mons are said to have been converted to Buddhism from the 3rd century BC under the proselytizing of the Indian Emperor Aoka, before the fission between Mahyna and Hinayna Buddhism. Early Mon[citation needed] Buddhist temples, such as Peikthano in central Burma, have been dated to between the 1st and the 5th century CE.

The Buddhist art of the Mons was especially influenced by the Indian art of the Gupta and post-Gupta periods, and their mannerist style spread widely in South-East Asia following the expansion of the Mon kingdom between the 5th and 8th centuries. The Theravda faith expanded in the northern parts of Southeast Asia under Mon influence, until it was progressively displaced by Mahyna Buddhism from around the 6th century AD.

According to the Aokvadna (2nd century AD), Aoka sent a missionary to the north, through the Himalayas, to Khotan in the Tarim Basin, then the land of the Tocharians, speakers of an Indo-European language.

The Shunga dynasty (18573 BC) was established in 185 BC, about 50 years after Aoka's death. After assassinating King Brhadrata (last of the Mauryan rulers), military commander-in-chief Pushyamitra Shunga took the throne. Buddhist religious scriptures such as the Aokvadna allege that Pushyamitra (an orthodox Brahmin) was hostile towards Buddhists and persecuted the Buddhist faith. Buddhists wrote that he "destroyed hundreds of monasteries and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Monks":[14] 840,000 Buddhist stupas which had been built by Aoka were destroyed, and 100 gold coins were offered for the head of each Buddhist monk.[15] In addition, Buddhist sources allege that a large number of Buddhist monasteries (vihras) were converted to Hindu temples, in places like, but not limited to, Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Mathura, among many others.

Modern historians, however, dispute this view in the light of literary and archaeological evidence. They opine that following Aoka's sponsorship of Buddhism, it is possible that Buddhist institutions fell on harder times under the Shungas, but no evidence of active persecution has been noted. Etienne Lamotte observes: "To judge from the documents, Pushyamitra must be acquitted through lack of proof."[16] Another eminent historian, Romila Thapar points to archaeological evidence that "suggests the contrary" to the claim that "Pushyamitra was a fanatical anti-Buddhist" and that he "never actually destroyed 840,000 stupas as claimed by Buddhist works, if any". Thapar stresses that Buddhist accounts are probably hyperbolic renditions of Pushyamitra's attack of the Mauryas, and merely reflect the desperate frustration of the Buddhist religious figures in the face of the possibly irreversible decline in the importance of their religion under the Shungas.[17]

During the period, Buddhist monks deserted the Ganges valley, following either the northern road (uttarapatha) or the southern road (dakinapatha).[18] Conversely, Buddhist artistic creation stopped in the old Magadha area, to reposition itself either in the northwest area of Gandhra and Mathura or in the southeast around Amaravati. Some artistic activity also occurred in central India, as in Bhrhut, to which the Shungas may or may not have contributed.

At the start of the Silk Road in the crossroads between India and China (modern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and Tajikistan) Greek kingdoms had been in place since the time of the conquests of Alexander the Great around 326 BC and continued for over 300 years: first the Seleucids from around 323 BC, then the Greco-Bactrian kingdom from around 250 BC and finally the Indo-Greek Kingdom, lasting until 10 CE.

The Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I invaded the Indian Subcontinent in 180 BC, establishing an Indo-Greek kingdom that was to last in parts of Northwest South Asia until the end of the 1st century CE. Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian kings, and it has been suggested that their invasion of India was intended to show their support for the Mauryan empire and to protect the Buddhist faith from the alleged religious persecutions of the Shungas (18573 BC).

One of the most famous Indo-Greek kings is Menander (reigned c. 160135 BC). He converted to Buddhism and is presented in the Mahyna tradition as one of the great benefactors of the faith, on a par with king Aoka or the later Kushan king Kanika. Menander's coins bear the mention of the "saviour king" in Greek; some bear designs of the eight-spoked wheel. Direct cultural exchange is also suggested by the dialogue of the Milinda Paha around 160 BC between Menander and the Buddhist monk Ngasena, who was himself a student of the Greek Buddhist monk Mahadharmaraksita. Upon Menander's death, the honor of sharing his remains was claimed by the cities under his rule, and they were enshrined in stupas, in a parallel with the historic Buddha.[19] Several of Menander's Indo-Greek successors inscribed "Follower of the Dharma," in the Kharoh script, on their coins, and depicted themselves or their divinities forming the vitarka mudr.

It is also around the time of initial Greek and Buddhist interaction that the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha are found, often in realistic Greco-Buddhist style. The former reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and the sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scenes where other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one of the Buddhas sayings, reported in the Digha Nikaya, that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction of his body.[20] Probably not feeling bound by these restrictions, and because of "their cult of form, the Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the Buddha".[21][pageneeded] In many parts of the Ancient World, the Greeks did develop syncretic divinities, that could become a common religious focus for populations with different traditions: a well-known example is the syncretic God Sarapis, introduced by Ptolemy I in Egypt, which combined aspects of Greek and Egyptian Gods. In India as well, it was only natural for the Greeks to create a single common divinity by combining the image of a Greek God-King (The Sun-God Apollo, or possibly the deified founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Demetrius), with the traditional attributes of the Buddha. Many of the stylistic elements in the representations of the Buddha point to Greek influence: the Greco-Roman toga-like wavy robe covering both shoulders (more exactly, its lighter version, the Greek himation), the contrapposto stance of the upright figures (see: 1st2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas[22]), the stylicized Mediterranean curly hair and topknot (ushnisha) apparently derived from the style of the Belvedere Apollo (330 BCE),[23] and the measured quality of the faces, all rendered with strong artistic realism (See: Greek art). A large quantity of sculptures combining Buddhist and purely Hellenistic styles and iconography were excavated at the Gandharan site of Hadda.

Several influential Greek Buddhist monks are recorded. Mahadharmaraksita (literally translated as 'Great Teacher/Preserver of the Dharma'), was "a Greek ("Yona") Buddhist head monk", according to the Mahavamsa (Chap. XXIX[24]), who led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of Alasandra" (Alexandria of the Caucasus, around 150km north of today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Great Stupa in Anuradhapura during the rule (165 BC - 135 BC) of King Menander I. Dharmaraksita (Sanskrit), or Dhammarakkhita (Pali) (translation: Protected by the Dharma), was one of the missionaries sent by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to proselytize the Buddhist faith. He is described as being a Greek (Pali: "Yona", lit. "Ionian") in the Mahavamsa.

A Buddhist gold coin from India was found in northern Afghanistan at the archaeological site of Tillia Tepe, and dated to the 1st century AD. On the reverse, it depicts a lion in the moving position with a nandipada in front of it, with the Kharoh legend "Sih[o] vigatabhay[o]" ("The lion who dispelled fear").

The Mahayana Buddhists symbolized Buddha with animals such as a lion, an elephant, a horse or a bull. A pair of feet was also used. The symbol called nandipada by archaeologists and historians is actually a composite symbol. The symbol at the top symbolizes the "Middle Path", the Buddha dhamma. The circle with a centre symbolizes cakka. Thus, the composite symbol symbolizes dhammacakka, the Buddhist Wheel of the Law. Thus, the symbols on the reverse of the coin jointly symbolize Buddha rolling the dhammacakka. In the "Lion Capital" of Saranath, India, Buddha rolling the dhammacakka is depicted on the wall of the cylinder with lion, elephant, horse and bull rolling the dhammacakkas. On the obverse, an almost naked man only wearing an Hellenistic chlamys and wearing a head-dress rolls a dhammacakka. The legend in Kharoh reads "Dharmacakrapravata[ko]" ("The one who turned the Wheel of the Law"). It has been suggested that this may be an early representation of the Buddha.[25]

The head-dress symbolizes the "Middle Path". Thus, the man with the head-dress is a person who adheres to the Middle Path. (In one of the Indus Valley seals, we find a similar head-dress worn by 9 women.)

Thus, on both sides of the coin, we find Buddha rolling the dhammacakka.

As no scientific study on literary and physical symbolization of Buddha and Buddhism was conducted by the archaeologists and historians, imaginary and false interpretations were only given on coins, seals, Brahmi and other inscriptions and other archaeological finds.

Several scholars have suggested that the Prajpramit stras, which are among the earliest Mahyna stras,[26][27] developed among the Mahsghika along the Ka River in the ndhra region of South India.[28]

The earliest Mahyna stras to include the very first versions of the Prajpramit genre, along with texts concerning Akobhya Buddha, which were probably written down in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.[29][30] Guang Xing states, "Several scholars have suggested that the Prajpramit probably developed among the Mahsghikas in southern India, in the ndhra country, on the Ka River."[31]A.K. Warder believes that "the Mahyna originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the ndhra country."[32]

Anthony Barber and Sree Padma note that "historians of Buddhist thought have been aware for quite some time that such pivotally important Mahayana Buddhist thinkers as Ngrjuna, Dignaga, Candrakrti, ryadeva, and Bhavaviveka, among many others, formulated their theories while living in Buddhist communities in ndhra."[33] They note that the ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Ka Valley, including Amaravati, Ngrjunako and Jaggayyapea "can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier."[34] Akira Hirakawa notes the "evidence suggests that many Early Mahayana scriptures originated in South India."[35]

The Fourth Council is said to have been convened in the reign of the Kashmir emperor Kanika around 100 AD at Jalandhar or in Kashmir. Theravda Buddhism had its own Fourth Council in Sri Lanka about 200 years earlier in which the Pli canon was written down in toto for the first time. Therefore, there were two Fourth Councils: one in Sri Lanka (Theravda), and one in Kashmir (Sarvstivdin).

It is said that for the Fourth Council of Kashmir, Kanika gathered 500 monks headed by Vasumitra, partly, it seems, to compile extensive commentaries on the Abhidharma, although it is possible that some editorial work was carried out upon the existing canon itself. Allegedly during the council there were altogether three hundred thousand verses and over nine million statements compiled, and it took twelve years to complete. The main fruit of this council was the compilation of the vast commentary known as the Mah-Vibhsh ("Great Exegesis"), an extensive compendium and reference work on a portion of the Sarvstivdin Abhidharma.

Scholars believe that it was also around this time that a significant change was made in the language of the Sarvstivdin canon, by converting an earlier Prakrit version into Sanskrit. Although this change was probably effected without significant loss of integrity to the canon, this event was of particular significance since Sanskrit was the sacred language of Brahmanism in India, and was also being used by other thinkers, regardless of their specific religious or philosophical allegiance, thus enabling a far wider audience to gain access to Buddhist ideas and practices. For this reason there was a growing tendency among Buddhist scholars in India thereafter to write their commentaries and treatises in Sanskrit. Many of the early schools, however, such as Theravda, never switched to Sanskrit, partly because Buddha explicitly forbade translation of his discourses into what was an elitist religious language (as Latin was in medieval Europe). He wanted his monks to use a local language instead - a language which could be understood by all. Over time, however, the language of the Theravdin scriptures (Pli) became a scholarly or elitist language as well, exactly opposite to what the Buddha had explicitly commanded.

From that point on, and in the space of a few centuries, Mahyna was to flourish and spread in the East from India to South-East Asia, and towards the north to Central Asia, China, Korea, and finally to Japan in 538 AD and Tibet in the 7th century.

After the end of the Kushans, Buddhism flourished in India during the dynasty of the Guptas (4th-6th century). Mahyna centers of learning were established, especially at Nland in north-eastern India, which was to become the largest and most influential Buddhist university for many centuries, with famous teachers such as Ngrjuna. The influence of the Gupta style of Buddhist art spread along with the faith from south-east Asia to China.

Indian Buddhism had weakened in the 6th century following the White Hun invasions and Mihirakula's persecution.

Xuanzang reported in his travels across India during the 7th century, of Buddhism being popular in Andhra, Dhanyakataka and Dravida, which area today roughly corresponds to the modern day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.[36] While reporting many deserted stupas in the area around modern day Nepal and the persecution of Buddhists by Shashanka in the Kingdom of Gauda in modern-day West Bengal, Xuanzang complimented the patronage of Haravardana during the same period. After the Haravardana kingdom, the rise of many small kingdoms that led to the rise of the Rajputs across the gangetic plains and marked the end of Buddhist ruling clans along with a sharp decline in royal patronage until a revival under the Pla Empire in the Bengal region. Here Mahyna Buddhism flourished and spread to Tibet, Bhutan and Sikkim between the 7th and the 12th centuries before the Plas collapsed under the assault of the Hindu Sena dynasty. The Plas created many temples and a distinctive school of Buddhist art. Xuanzang noted in his travels that in various regions Buddhism was giving way to Jainism and Hinduism.[37] By the 10th century Buddhism had experienced a sharp decline beyond the Pla realms in Bengal under a resurgent Hinduism and the incorporation in Vaishnavite Hinduism of Buddha as the 9th incarnation of Vishnu.[38]

A milestone in the decline of Indian Buddhism in the North occurred in 1193 when Turkic Islamic raiders under Muhammad Khilji burnt Nland. By the end of the 12th century, following the Islamic conquest of the Buddhist strongholds in Bihar and the loss of political support coupled with social pressures, the practice of Buddhism retreated to the Himalayan foothills in the North and Sri Lanka in the south. Additionally, the influence of Buddhism also waned due to Hinduism's revival movements such as Advaita, the rise of the bhakti movement and the missionary work of Sufis.

Central Asia had been influenced by Buddhism probably almost since the time of the Buddha. According to a legend preserved in Pli, the language of the Theravdin canon, two merchant brothers from Bactria named Tapassu and Bhallika visited the Buddha and became his disciples. They then returned to Bactria and built temples to the Buddha.[39]

Central Asia long played the role of a meeting place between China, India and Persia. During the 2nd century BC, the expansion of the Former Han to the west brought them into contact with the Hellenistic civilizations of Asia, especially the Greco-Bactrian Kingdoms. Thereafter, the expansion of Buddhism to the north led to the formation of Buddhist communities and even Buddhist kingdoms in the oases of Central Asia. Some Silk Road cities consisted almost entirely of Buddhist stupas and monasteries, and it seems that one of their main objectives was to welcome and service travelers between east and west.

The Theravdin traditions first spread among the Iranian tribes before combining with the Mahyna forms during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC to cover modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. These were the ancient states of Gandhra, Bactria, Margiana and Sogdia, from where it spread to China. Among the first of these states to come under the influence of Buddhism was Bactria as early as the 3rd century BC (see Greco-Buddhism). It was not, however, the exclusive faith of this region. There were also Zoroastrians, Hindus, Nestorian Christians, Jews, Manichaeans, and followers of shamanism, Tengrism, and other indigenous, nonorganized systems of belief.

Various Nikya schools persisted in Central Asia and China until around the 7th century AD. Mahyna started to become dominant during the period, but since the faith had not developed a Nikaya approach, Sarvstivdins and Dharmaguptakas remained the Vinayas of choice in Central Asian monasteries.

Various Buddhist kingdoms rose and prospered in both the Central Asian region and downwards into the Indian sub-continent, such as the Kushan Empire, prior to the White Hun invasion in the 5th century, where under the King Mihirakula they were heavily persecuted.

Buddhism in Central Asia started to decline with the expansion of Islam and the destruction of many stupas in war from the 7th century. The Muslims accorded them the status of dhimmis as "people of the Book", such as Christianity or Judaism, and Al-Biruni wrote of Buddha as prophet "burxan".

Buddhism saw a surge during the reign of Mongols following the invasion of Genghis Khan and the establishment of the Il Khanate and the Chagatai Khanate who brought their Buddhist influence with them during the 13th century; however, within 100 years the Mongols who remained in that region would convert to Islam and spread Islam across all the regions of central Asia. Only the eastern Mongols and the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty would keep Vajrayna Buddhism.

Buddhism expanded westward into the easternmost fringes of Arsacid Parthia, to the area of Merv, in ancient Margiana, today's territory of Turkmenistan. Soviet archeological teams have excavated in Giaur Kala near Merv a Buddhist chapel, a gigantic Buddha statue and a monastery.

Parthians were directly involved in the propagation of Buddhism: An Shigao (c. 148 AD), a Parthian prince, went to China, and is the first known translator of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese.

The eastern part of central Asia (Chinese Turkestan, Tarim Basin, Xinjiang) has revealed extremely rich Buddhist works of art (wall paintings and reliefs in numerous caves, portable paintings on canvas, sculpture, ritual objects), displaying multiple influences from Indian and Hellenistic cultures. Serindian art is highly reminiscent of the Gandhran style, and scriptures in the Gandhri script Kharoh have been found.

Central Asians seem to have played a key role in the transmission of Buddhism to the East. The first translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were Parthian (Ch: Anxi) like An Shigao (c. 148 AD) or An Hsuan, Kushan of Yuezhi ethnicity like Lokaksema (c. 178 AD), Zhi Qian and Zhi Yao or Sogdians like Kang Sengkai. Thirty-seven early translators of Buddhist texts are known, and the majority of them have been identified as Central Asians.

Central Asian and East Asian Buddhist monks appear to have maintained strong exchanges until around the 10th century, as shown by frescoes from the Tarim Basin.

These influences were rapidly absorbed, however, by the vigorous Chinese culture, and a strongly Chinese particularism develops from that point.

According to traditional accounts, Buddhism was introduced in China during the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) after an emperor dreamed of a flying golden man thought to be the Buddha. Although the archaeological record confirms that Buddhism was introduced sometime during the Han dynasty, it did not flourish in China until the Six Dynasties period (220-589 AD).[43]

The year 67 AD saw Buddhism's official introduction to China with the coming of the two monks Moton and Chufarlan. In 68 AD, under imperial patronage, they established the White Horse Temple (), which still exists today, close to the imperial capital at Luoyang. By the end of the 2nd century, a prosperous community had settled at Pengcheng (modern Xuzhou, Jiangsu).

The first known Mahyna scriptural texts are translations into Chinese by the Kushan monk Lokakema in Luoyang, between 178 and 189 AD. Some of the earliest known Buddhist artifacts found in China are small statues on "money trees", dated c. 200 AD, in typical Gandhran drawing style: "That the imported images accompanying the newly arrived doctrine came from Gandhra is strongly suggested by such early Gandhra characteristics on this "money tree" Buddha as the high unia, vertical arrangement of the hair, moustache, symmetrically looped robe and parallel incisions for the folds of the arms."[44]

In the period between 460-525 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty, the Chinese constructed Yungang Grottoes, and it's an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha statues and statuettes.

Another famous Buddhism Grottoes is Longmen Grottoes which started with the Northern Wei Dynasty in 493 AD. There are as many as 100,000 statues within the 1,400 caves, ranging from an 1 inch (25 mm) to 57 feet (17 m) in height. The area also contains nearly 2,500 stelae and inscriptions, whence the name "Forest of Ancient Stelae", as well as over sixty Buddhist pagodas.

Buddhism flourished during the beginning of the Tang Dynasty (618907). The dynasty was initially characterized by a strong openness to foreign influences and renewed exchanges with Indian culture due to the numerous travels of Chinese Buddhist monks to India from the 4th to the 11th centuries. The Tang capital of Chang'an (today's Xi'an) became an important center for Buddhist thought. From there Buddhism spread to Korea, and Japanese embassies of Kentoshi helped gain footholds in Japan.

However, foreign influences came to be negatively perceived towards the end of the Tang Dynasty. In the year 845, the Tang emperor Wuzong outlawed all "foreign" religions including Christian Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism in order to support the indigenous Taoism. Throughout his territory, he confiscated Buddhist possessions, destroyed monasteries and temples, and executed Buddhist monks, ending Buddhism's cultural and intellectual dominance.

However, about a hundred years after the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, Buddhism revived during the Song Dynasty (11271279).

Pure Land and Chan Buddhism, however, continued to prosper for some centuries, the latter giving rise to Japanese Zen. In China, Chan flourished particularly under the Song dynasty (11271279), when its monasteries were great centers of culture and learning.

In the last two thousand years, the Buddhist have built The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism, they are Mount Wutai, Mount Emei, Mount Jiuhua, Mount Putuo.

Today, China boasts one of the richest collections of Buddhist arts and heritages in the world. UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in Gansu province, the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in Henan province, the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in Shanxi province, and the Dazu Rock Carvings near Chongqing are among the most important and renowned Buddhist sculptural sites. The Leshan Giant Buddha, carved out of a hillside in the 8th century during the Tang Dynasty and looking down on the confluence of three rivers, is still the largest stone Buddha statue in the world.

Buddhism was introduced around 372 AD, when Chinese ambassadors visited the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo, bringing scriptures and images. Buddhism prospered in Korea - in particular Seon (Zen) Buddhism from the 7th century onward. However, with the beginning of the Confucian Yi Dynasty of the Joseon period in 1392, a strong discrimination took place against Buddhism until it was almost completely eradicated, except for a remaining Seon movement.

The Buddhism of Japan was introduced from Three Kingdoms of Korea in the 6th century. The Chinese priest Ganjin offered the system of Vinaya to the Buddhism of Japan in 754. As a result, the Buddhism of Japan has developed rapidly. Saich and Kkai succeeded to a legitimate Buddhism from China in the 9th century.

Being geographically at the end of the Silk Road, Japan was able to preserve many aspects of Buddhism at the very time it was disappearing in India, and being suppressed in Central Asia and China.

The Buddhism quickly became a national religion and thrived, particularly under Shotoku Taishi (Prince Shotoku) during Asuka period (538-794). From 710, numerous temples and monasteries were built in the capital city of Nara, such as the five-story pagoda and Golden Hall of the Hry-ji, or the Kfuku-ji temple. Countless paintings and sculptures were made, often under governmental sponsorship. The creations of Japanese Buddhist art were especially rich between the 8th and 13th centuries during Nara period(710-794), Heian period(794-1185) and Kamakura period(1185-1333).

During Kamakura period, major reformation activities started, namely changing from Buddhism for the imperial court to the Buddhism for the common people. The traditional Buddhism mostly focused on the protection of the country, imperial house or noble families from the ill spirits and salvation of the imperial families, nobles and monks themselves (self-salvation). On the other hand, new sects such as Jodo shu (pure land sect) founded by Honen and Jodo Shinshu (true pure land sect) founded by Shinran, Honen's disciple, emphasized salvation of sinners, common men and women and even criminals such as murderers of parents. Shinran preached the commoners by teaching that saying nembutsu (prayer of Amida Buddha) is a declaration of faith in Amida's salvation. Also for the first time in the history of Buddhism, Shinran started a new sect allowing marriage of monks by initiating his own marriage, which was deemed as taboo from the traditional Buddhism.

Another development in Kamakura period was Zen, by the introduction of the faith by Dogen and Eisai upon their return from China. Zen is highly philosophical with simplified words reflecting deep thought, but, in the art history, it is mainly characterized by so-called zen art, original paintings (such as ink wash and the Enso) and poetry (especially haikus), striving to express the true essence of the world through impressionistic and unadorned "non-dualistic" representations. The search for enlightenment "in the moment" also led to the development of other important derivative arts such as the Chanoyu tea ceremony or the Ikebana art of flower arrangement. This evolution went as far as considering almost any human activity as an art with a strong spiritual and aesthetic content, first and foremost in those activities related to combat techniques (martial arts).

Buddhism remains active in Japan to this day. Around 80,000 Buddhist temples are preserved and regularly restored.

Buddhism arrived late in Tibet, during the 7th century. The form that predominated, via the south of Tibet, was a blend of mahyna and vajrayna from the universities of the Pla empire of the Bengal region in eastern India.[45]Sarvstivdin influence came from the south west (Kashmir)[46] and the north west (Khotan).[47] Although these practitioners did not succeed in maintaining a presence in Tibet, their texts found their way into the Tibetan Buddhist canon, providing the Tibetans with almost all of their primary sources about the Foundation Vehicle. A subsect of this school, Mlasarvstivda was the source of the Tibetan Vinaya.[48] Chan Buddhism was introduced via east Tibet from China and left its impression, but was rendered of lesser importance by early political events.[49]

From the outset Buddhism was opposed by the native shamanistic Bon religion, which had the support of the aristocracy, but with royal patronage it thrived to a peak under King Rlpachn (817-836). Terminology in translation was standardised around 825, enabling a translation methodology that was highly literal. Despite a reversal in Buddhist influence which began under King Langdarma (836-842), the following centuries saw a colossal effort in collecting available Indian sources, many of which are now extant only in Tibetan translation. Tibetan Buddhism was favored above other religions by the rulers of imperial Chinese and Mongol Yuan Dynasty (12711368).

During the 1st century AD, the trade on the overland Silk Road tended to be restricted by the rise in the Middle-East of the Parthian empire, an unvanquished enemy of Rome, just as Romans were becoming extremely wealthy and their demand for Asian luxury was rising. This demand revived the sea connections between the Mediterranean and China, with India as the intermediary of choice. From that time, through trade connection, commercial settlements, and even political interventions, India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries (excluding Vietnam). Trade routes linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, islands of Sumatra and Java, lower Cambodia and Champa, and numerous urbanized coastal settlements were established there.

For more than a thousand years, Indian influence was therefore the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural unity to the various countries of the region. The Pli and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script, together with Theravda and Mahyna Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism, were transmitted from direct contact and through sacred texts and Indian literature such as the Rmyaa and the Mahbhrata.

From the 5th to the 13th centuries, South-East Asia had very powerful empires and became extremely active in Buddhist architectural and artistic creation. The main Buddhist influence now came directly by sea from the Indian subcontinent, so that these empires essentially followed the Mahyna faith. The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence, and their art expressed the rich Mahyna pantheon of the bodhisattvas.

Srivijaya, a maritime empire centered at Palembang on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, adopted Mahyna and Vajrayna Buddhism under a line of rulers named the Sailendras. Yijing described Palembang as a great center of Buddhist learning where the emperor supported over a thousand monks at his court. Yijing also testified to the importance of Buddhism as early as the year 671 and advised future Chinese pilgrims to spend a year or two in Palembang.[50]Atia studied there before travelling to Tibet as a missionary.

As Srivijaya expanded their thalassocracy, Buddhism thrived amongst its people. However, many did not practice pure Buddhism but a new syncretism form of Buddhism that incorporated several different religions such as Hinduism and other indigenous traditions.[51]

Srivijaya spread Buddhist art during its expansion in Southeast Asia. Numerous statues of bodhisattvas from this period are characterized by a very strong refinement and technical sophistication, and are found throughout the region. Extremely rich architectural remains are visible at the temple of Borobudur the largest Buddhist structure in the world, built from around 780 in Java, which has 505 images of the seated Buddha. Srivijaya declined due to conflicts with the Hindu Chola rulers of India, before being destabilized by the Islamic expansion from the 13th century.

Later, from the 9th to the 13th centuries, the Mahyna Buddhist and Hindu Khmer Empire dominated much of the South-East Asian peninsula. Under the Khmer, more than 900 temples were built in Cambodia and in neighboring Thailand. Angkor was at the center of this development, with a temple complex and urban organization able to support around one million urban dwellers. One of the greatest Khmer kings, Jayavarman VII (11811219), built large Mahyna Buddhist structures at Bayon and Angkor Thom.

Buddhism in Vietnam as practiced by the Vietnamese is mainly of Mahyna tradition. Buddhism came from Vietnam as early as the 2nd century AD through the North from Central Asia via India. Vietnamese Buddhism is very similar to Chinese Buddhism and to some extent reflects the structure of Chinese Buddhism after the Song Dynasty. Vietnamese Buddhism also has a symbiotic relationship with Taoism, Chinese spirituality and the native Vietnamese religion.

Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism.[52] The Majusrimulakalpa, which later came to classified under Kriyatantra, states that mantras taught in the Shaiva, Garuda and Vaishnava tantras will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught originally by Manjushri.[53] The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Shaiva guru and initiating members into Saiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas.[54] The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.[55]

From the 11th century, the destruction of Buddhism in the Indian mainland by Islamic invasions led to the decline of the Mahyna faith in South-East Asia. Continental routes through the Indian subcontinent being compromised, direct sea routes developed from the Middle-East through Sri Lanka to China, leading to the adoption of the Theravda Buddhism of the Pli canon, introduced to the region around the 11th century from Sri Lanka.

King Anawrahta (10441078); the founder of the Pagan Empire, unified the country and adopted the Theravdin Buddhist faith. This initiated the creation of thousands of Buddhist temples at Pagan, the capital, between the 11th and 13th centuries. Around 2,200 of them are still standing. The power of the Burmese waned with the rise of the Thai, and with the seizure of the capital Pagan by the Mongols in 1287, but Theravda Buddhism remained the main Burmese faith to this day.

The Theravda faith was also adopted by the newly founded ethnic Thai kingdom of Sukhothai around 1260. Theravda Buddhism was further reinforced during the Ayutthaya period (14th18th century), becoming an integral part of Thai society.

In the continental areas, Theravda Buddhism continued to expand into Laos and Cambodia in the 13th century. From the 14th century, however, on the coastal fringes and in the islands of south-east Asia, the influence of Islam proved stronger, expanding into Malaysia, Indonesia, and most of the islands as far as the southern Philippines.

Nevertheless, since Suharto's rise to power in 1966, there has been a remarkable renaissance of Buddhism in Indonesia. This is partly due to the requirements of Suharto's New Order for the people of Indonesia to adopt one of the five official religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism or Buddhism. Today it is estimated there are some 10 million Buddhists in Indonesia. A large part of them are people of Chinese ancestry.

After the Classical encounters between Buddhism and the West recorded in Greco-Buddhist art, information and legends about Buddhism seem to have reached the West sporadically. An account of Buddha's life was translated into Greek by John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. By the 14th century this story of Josaphat had become so popular that he was made a Catholic saint.

The next direct encounter between Europeans and Buddhism happened in Medieval times when the Franciscan friar William of Rubruck was sent on an embassy to the Mongol court of Mongke by the French king Saint Louis in 1253. The contact happened in Cailac (today's Qayaliq in Kazakhstan), and William originally thought they were wayward Christians (Foltz, "Religions of the Silk Road").

In the period after Hulagu, the Mongol Ilkhans increasingly adopted Buddhism. Numerous Buddhist temples dotted the landscape of Persia and Iraq, none of which survived the 14th century. The Buddhist element of the Il-Khanate died with Arghun.[56]

The Kalmyk Khanate was founded in the 17th century with Tibetan Buddhism as its main religion, following the earlier migration of the Oirats from Dzungaria through Central Asia to the steppe around the mouth of the Volga River. During the course of the 18th century, they were absorbed by the Russian Empire.[57] At the end of the Napoleonic wars, Kalmyk cavalry units in Russian service entered Paris.[58]

Interest in Buddhism increased during the colonial era, when Western powers were in a position to witness the faith and its artistic manifestations in detail. The opening of Japan in 1853 created a considerable interest in the arts and culture of Japan, and provided access to one of the most thriving Buddhist cultures in the world.

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History of Buddhism - Wikipedia

Buddhism is a world religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of Siddhrtha Gautama[note 1] who was deemed a "Buddha" ("Awakened One"[4]). Buddhism spread outside Magadha starting in the Buddha's lifetime.

With the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two branches: the Mahsghika and the Sthaviravda, each of which spread throughout India and split into numerous sub-sects.[5] In modern times, two major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana throughout the Himalayas and East Asia.

After peaking after Ashoka in ancient India, the practice of Buddhism and Buddhist monasteries received laity and royal support through the 12th century, but generally declined in the 1st millennium CE, with many of its practices and ideas absorbed into Hinduism. Except for the Himalayan region and south India, Buddhism almost became extinct in India after the arrival of Islam in late 12th century.[6][7][8]

Buddhism remains the primary or a major religion in the Himalayan areas such as Sikkim, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, the Darjeeling hills in West Bengal, and the Lahaul and Spiti areas of upper Himachal Pradesh. Remains have also been found in Andhra Pradesh, the probable origin of Mahayana Buddhism.[9] Buddhism has been reemerging in India since the past century, due to its adoption by many Indian intellectuals, the migration of Buddhist Tibetan exiles, and the mass conversion of hundreds of thousands of Dalits to Buddhism.[10] According to the 2011 census, Buddhists make up 0.7% of India's population, or 8.4 million individuals.[11][12]Maharashtra state, which account for 77.36% (6.5 million) of all Buddhists in the country.[13]Navayana Buddhists (Converted or Neo-Buddhists) comprise more than 87% of Indian Buddhist community according to 2011 Census of India.[13]

Buddha was born in Lumbini, in Nepal, to a Kapilvastu King of the Shakya Kingdom named Suddhodana. After asceticism and meditation which was a Samana practice, the Buddha discovered the Buddhist Middle Waya path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

Siddhrtha Gautama attained enlightenment sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India. Gautama, from then on, was known as "The Perfectly Self-Awakened One," the Samyaksambuddha. Buddha found patronage in the ruler of Magadha, emperor Bimbisra. The emperor accepted Buddhism as personal faith and allowed the establishment of many Buddhist "Vihras." This eventually led to the renaming of the entire region as Bihar.[14]

At the Deer Park Water Reservation near Vras in northern India, Buddha set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he had previously sought enlightenment. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first Sagha, the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, the first formation of Triple Gem (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) was completed.

For the remaining years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain of Northern India and other regions.

Buddha died in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh.[15][16]

Followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Saugata.[17] Other terms were Sakyans or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India.[18][19]Sakyaputto was another term used by Buddhists, as well as Ariyasavako[20] and Jinaputto.[21] Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez states they also used the term Bauddha.[22] The scholar Richard Cohen in his discussion about the 5th-century Ajanta Caves, states that Bauddha is not attested therein, and was used by outsiders to describe Buddhists, except for occasional use as an adjective.[23]

The Buddha did not appoint any successor, and asked his followers to work toward liberation. The teachings of the Buddha existed only in oral traditions. The Sangha held a number of Buddhist councils in order to reach consensus on matters of Buddhist doctrine and practice.

The Early Buddhist Schools were the various schools in which pre-sectarian Buddhism split in the first few centuries after the passing away of the Buddha (in about the 5th century BCE). The earliest division was between the majority Mahsghika and the minority Sthaviravda. Some existing Buddhist traditions follow the vinayas of early Buddhist schools.

The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so.[26] Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikus and bhikus.

During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian Buddhist sects recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahsakas, Kyapyas, Sarvstivdins, and the Mahsghikas.[27] Complete vinayas preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon include the Mahsaka Vinaya (T. 1421), Mahsghika Vinaya (T. 1425), Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (T. 1428), Sarvstivda Vinaya (T. 1435), and the Mlasarvstivda Vinaya (T. 1442). Also preserved are a set of gamas (Stra Piaka), a complete Sarvstivda Abhidharma Piaka, and many other texts of the early Buddhist schools.

Early Buddhist schools in India often divided modes of Buddhist practice into several "vehicles" (yna). For example, the Vaibhika Sarvstivdins are known to have employed the outlook of Buddhist practice as consisting of the Three Vehicles:[28]

Several scholars have suggested that the Prajpramit stras, which are among the earliest Mahyna stras,[29][30] developed among the Mahsghika along the Ka River in the ndhra region of South India.[31]

The earliest Mahyna stras to include the very first versions of the Prajpramit genre, along with texts concerning Akobhya Buddha, which were probably written down in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.[32][33] Guang Xing states, "Several scholars have suggested that the Prajpramit probably developed among the Mahsghikas in southern India, in the ndhra country, on the Ka River."[34]A.K. Warder believes that "the Mahyna originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the ndhra country."[35]

Anthony Barber and Sree Padma note that "historians of Buddhist thought have been aware for quite some time that such pivotally important Mahayana Buddhist thinkers as Ngrjuna, Dignaga, Candrakrti, ryadeva, and Bhavaviveka, among many others, formulated their theories while living in Buddhist communities in ndhra."[36] They note that the ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Ka Valley, including Amaravati, Ngrjunako and Jaggayyapea "can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier."[37] Akira Hirakawa notes the "evidence suggests that many Early Mahayana scriptures originated in South India."[38]

Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism.[39] The Majusrimulakalpa, which later came to classified under Kriyatantra, states that mantras taught in the Shaiva, Garuda and Vaishnava tantras will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught originally by Manjushri.[40] The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Shaiva guru and initiating members into Saiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas.[41] The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.[42]

"During the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. (Before Common Era), commerce and cash became increasingly important in an economy previously dominated by self-sufficient production and bartered exchange. Merchants found Buddhist moral and ethical teachings an attractive alternative to the esoteric rituals of the traditional Brahmin priesthood, which seemed to cater exclusively to Brahmin interests while ignoring those of the new and emerging social classes." [43]

"Furthermore, Buddhism was prominent in communities of merchants, who found it well suited to their needs and who increasingly established commercial links throughout the Mauryan empire."[44]

"Merchants proved to be an efficient vector of the Buddhist faith, as they established diaspora communities in the string of oasis towns-Merv, Bukhara, Samarkand, Kashgar, Khotan, Kuqa, Turpan, Dunhuang - that served as lifeline of the silk roads through central Asia."[45]

The Maurya empire reached its peak at the time of emperor Aoka, who converted to Buddhism after the Battle of Kaliga. This heralded a long period of stability under the Buddhist emperor. The power of the empire was vastambassadors were sent to other countries to propagate Buddhism. Greek envoy Megasthenes describes the wealth of the Mauryan capital. Stupas, pillars and edicts on stone remain at Sanchi, Sarnath and Mathura, indicating the extent of the empire.

Emperor Aoka the Great (304 BCE232 BCE) was the ruler of the Maurya Empire from 273 BCE to 232 BCE.

Aoka reigned over most of India after a series of military campaigns. Emperor Aoka's kingdom stretched from South Asia and beyond, from present-day parts of Afghanistan in the north and Balochistan in the west, to Bengal and Assam in the east, and as far south as Mysore.

According to legend, emperor Aoka was overwhelmed by guilt after the conquest of Kaliga, following which he accepted Buddhism as personal faith with the help of his Brahmin mentors Rdhsvm and Majr. Aoka established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of akyamuni Buddha, and according to Buddhist tradition was closely involved in the preservation and transmission of Buddhism.[46]

Menander was the most famous Bactrian king. He ruled from Taxila and later from Sagala (Sialkot). He rebuilt Taxila (Sirkap) and Pukalavat. He became Buddhist and is remembered in Buddhists records due to his discussions with a great Buddhist philosopher in the book Milinda Paha.

By 90 BC, Parthians took control of eastern Iran and around 50 BC put an end to last remnants of Greek rule in Afghanistan. By around 7 AD, an Indo-Parthian dynasty succeeded in taking control of Gandhra. Parthians continued to support Greek artistic traditions in Gandhara. The start of the Gandhran Greco-Buddhist art is dated to the period between 50 BC and 75 AD.

Kuna under emperor Kanika was known as the Kingdom of Gandhra. The Buddhist art spread outward from Gandhra to other parts of Asia. He greatly encouraged Buddhism. Before Kanika, Buddha was not represented in human form. In Gandhra Mahyna Buddhism flourished and Buddha was represented in human form.

Under the rule of the Pla and Sena kings, large mahvihras flourished in what is now Bihar and Bengal. According to Tibetan sources, five great Mahvihras stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nlanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura, Odantapur, and Jaggadala.[48] The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and their existed "a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pla were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.[49]

According to Damien Keown, the kings of the Pala dynasty (8th to 12th century, Gangetic plains region) were a major supporter of Buddhism, various Buddhist and Hindu arts, and the flow of ideas between India, Tibet and China:[50][51]

During this period [Pala dynasty] Mahayana Buddhism reached its zenith of sophistication, while tantric Buddhism flourished throughout India and surrounding lands. This was also a key period for the consolidation of the epistemological-logical (pramana) school of Buddhist philosophy. Apart from the many foreign pilgrims who came to India at this time, especially from China and Tibet, there was a smaller but important flow of Indian pandits who made their way to Tibet...

Indian ascetics (Skt. ramaa) propagated Buddhism in various regions, including East Asia and Central Asia.

In the Edicts of Ashoka, Ashoka mentions the Hellenistic kings of the period as a recipient of his Buddhist proselytism.[52] The Mahavamsa describes emissaries of Ashoka, such as Dharmaraksita, as leading Greek ("Yona") Buddhist monks, active in Buddhist proselytism.[53]).

Roman Historical accounts describe an embassy sent by the "Indian king Pandion (Pandya?), also named Porus," to Caesar Augustus around the 1st century. The embassy was travelling with a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a sramana who burned himself alive in Athens, to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was described by Nicolaus of Damascus, who met the embassy at Antioch, and related by Strabo (XV,1,73)[54] and Dio Cassius (liv, 9). A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention:

Lokaksema is the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. Gandharan monks Jnanagupta and Prajna contributed through several important translations of Sanskrit sutras into Chinese language.

The Indian dhyana master Buddhabhadra was the founding abbot and patriarch[55] of the Shaolin Temple. Buddhist monk and esoteric master from South India (6th century), Kanchipuram is regarded as the patriarch of the Ti-Lun school. Bodhidharma (c. 6th century) was the Buddhist Bhikkhu traditionally credited as the founder of Zen Buddhism in China.[56]

In 580, Indian monk Vintaruci travelled to Vietnam. This, then, would be the first appearance of Vietnamese Zen, or Thien Buddhism.

Padmasambhava, in Sanskrit meaning "lotus-born", is said to have brought Tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. In Bhutan and Tibet he is better known as "GuruRinpoche" ("Precious Master") where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha. ntarakita, abbot of Nlanda and founder of the Yogacara-Madhyamaka is said to have helped Padmasambhava establish Buddhism in Tibet.

Indian monk Atia, holder of the mind training (Tib. lojong) teachings, is considered an indirect founder of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. Indian monks, such as Vajrabodhi, also travelled to Indonesia to propagate Buddhism.

The decline of Buddhism has been attributed to various factors. Regardless of the religious beliefs of their kings, states usually treated all the important sects relatively even-handedly.[58] This consisted of building monasteries and religious monuments, donating property such as the income of villages for the support of monks, and exempting donated property from taxation. Donations were most often made by private persons such as wealthy merchants and female relatives of the royal family, but there were periods when the state also gave its support and protection. In the case of Buddhism, this support was particularly important because of its high level of organization and the reliance of monks on donations from the laity. State patronage of Buddhism took the form of land grant foundations.[59]

Numerous copper plate inscriptions from India as well as Tibetan and Chinese texts suggest that the patronage of Buddhism and Buddhist monasteries in medieval India was interrupted in periods of war and political change, but broadly continued in Hindu kingdoms from the start of the common era through early 2nd millennium CE.[60][61][62] Modern scholarship and recent translations of Tibetan and Sanskrit Buddhist text archives, preserved in Tibetan monasteries, suggest that through much of 1st millennium CE in medieval India (and Tibet as well as other parts of China), Buddhist monks owned property and were actively involved in trade and other economic activity, after joining a Buddhist monastery.[63][64]

With the Gupta dynasty (~4th to 6th century), the growth in ritualistic Mahayana Buddhism, and the adoption of Buddhist ideas into Hindu schools, the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism blurred, and Vaishnavism, Shaivism and other Hindu traditions became increasingly popular, and Brahmins developed a new relationship with the state.[65] As the system grew, Buddhist monasteries gradually lost control of land revenue. In parallel, the Gupta kings built Buddhist temples such as the one at Kushinagara,[66][67] and monastic universities such as those at Nalanda, as evidenced by records left by three Chinese visitors to India.[68][69][70]

According to Hazra, Buddhism declined in part because of the rise of the Brahmins and their influence in socio-political process.[71] According to Randall Collins, Richard Gombrich and other scholars, Buddhism's rise or decline is not linked to Brahmins or the caste system, since Buddhism was "not a reaction to the caste system", but aimed at the salvation of those who joined its monastic order.[72][73][74]

The 11th century Persian traveller Al-Biruni writes that there was 'cordial hatred' between the Brahmins and Sramana Buddhists.[75] Buddhism was also weakened by rival Hindu philosophies such as Advaita Vedanta, growth in temples and an innovation of the bhakti movement. Advaita Vedanta proponent Adi Shankara is believed to have "defeated Buddhism" and established Hindu supremacy. This rivalry undercut Buddhist patronage and popular support.[76] The period between 400 CE and 1000 CE thus saw gains by the Vedanta school of Hinduism over Buddhism[77] and Buddhism had vanished from Afghanistan and north India by early 11th century. India was now Brahmanic, not Buddhistic; Al-Biruni could never find a Buddhistic book or a Buddhist person in India from whom he could learn.[78]

According to some scholars such as Lars Fogelin, the decline of Buddhism may be related to economic reasons, wherein the Buddhist monasteries with large land grants focussed on non-material pursuits, self-isolation of the monasteries, loss in internal discipline in the sangha, and a failure to efficiently operate the land they owned.[62][79]

Chinese scholars traveling through the region between the 5th and 8th centuries, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, I-ching, Hui-sheng, and Sung-Yun, began to speak of a decline of the Buddhist Sangha, especially in the wake of the Hun invasion from central Asia.[6] Xuanzang, the most famous of Chinese travellers, found millions of monasteries in north-western India reduced to ruins by the Huns.[6][80]

The Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent was the first great iconoclastic invasion into South Asia.[81] By the end of twelfth century, Buddhism had mostly disappeared,[6][82] with the destruction of monasteries and stupas in medieval northwest and western India (now Pakistan and north India).[83]

In the northwestern parts of medieval India, the Himalayan regions, as well regions bordering central Asia, Buddhism once facilitated trade relations, states Lars Fogelin. With the Islamic invasion and expansion, and central Asians adopting Islam, the trade route-derived financial support sources and the economic foundations of Buddhist monasteries declined, on which the survival and growth of Buddhism was based.[79][84] The arrival of Islam removed the royal patronage to the monastic tradition of Buddhism, and the replacement of Buddhists in long-distance trade by the Muslims eroded the related sources of patronage.[83][84]

In the Gangetic plains, Orissa, northeast and the southern regions of India, Buddhism survived through the early centuries of the 2nd millennium CE.[79] The Islamic invasion plundered wealth and destroyed Buddhist images,[85] and consequent take over of land holdings of Buddhist monasteries removed one source of necessary support for the Buddhists, while the economic upheaval and new taxes on laity sapped the laity support of Buddhist monks.[79]

Monasteries and institutions such as Nalanda were abandoned by Buddhist monks around 1200 CE, who flee to escape the invading Muslim army, after which the site decayed over the Islamic rule in India that followed.[86][87]

The last empire to support Buddhism, the Pala dynasty, fell in the 12th century, and Muslim invaders destroyed monasteries and monuments.[6] According to Randall Collins, Buddhism was already declining in India before the 12th century, but with the pillage by Muslim invaders it nearly became extinct in India in the 1200s.[7] In the 13th century, states Craig Lockard, Buddhist monks in India escaped to Tibet to escape Islamic persecution;[88] while the monks in western India, states Peter Harvey, escaped persecution by moving to south Indian Hindu kingdoms that were able to resist the Muslim power.[8]

Many Indian Buddhists fled south. It is known that Buddhists continued to exist in India even after the 14th century from texts such as the Chaitanya Charitamrita. This text outlines an episode in the life of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (14861533), a Vaisnava saint, who was said to have entered into a debate with Buddhists in Tamil Nadu.[89]

The Tibetan Taranatha (15751634) wrote a history of Indian Buddhism, which mentions Buddhism as having survived in some pockets of India during his time.[90]

Buddhism also survived to the modern era in the Himalayan regions such as Ladakh, with close ties to Tibet.[91] A unique tradition survives in Nepal's Newar Buddhism.

Some scholars suggest that a part of the decline of Buddhist monasteries was because it was detached from everyday life in India and did not participate in the ritual social aspects such as the rites of passage (marriage, funeral, birth of child) like other religions.[83]

A revival of Buddhism began in India in 1891, when the Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala founded the Maha Bodhi Society.[92] Its activities expanded to involve the promotion of Buddhism in India. In June 1892, a meeting of Buddhists took place at Darjeeling. Dharmapala spoke to Tibetan Buddhists and presented a relic of the Buddha to be sent to the Dalai Lama.

Dharmapla built many vihras and temples in India, including the one at Sarnath, the place of Buddha's first sermon. He died in 1933, the same year he was ordained a bhikkhu.[93]

The 14th Dalai Lama departed Tibet in 1959, when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru offered to permit him and his followers to establish a "government-in-exile" in Dharamsala. Tibetan exiles have settled in the town, numbering several thousand. Many of these exiles live in Upper Dharamsala, or McLeod Ganj, where they established monasteries, temples and schools. The town is sometimes known as "Little Lhasa", after the Tibetan capital city, and has become one of the centers of Buddhism in the world. Many settlements for Tibetan refugee communities came up across many parts of India on the lands offered by the Government of India. Some of the biggest Tibetan settlements in exile are in the state of Karnataka. The Dalai Lama's brother, Gyalo Thondup, himself lives in Kalimpong and his wife established the Tibetan Refugee Centre in Darjeeling [1]. The 17th Karmapa also arrived in India in 2000 and continues education and has taken traditional role to head Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and every year leads the Kagyu Monlam in Bodh Gaya attended by thousands of monks and followers. Palpung Sherabling monastery seat of the 12th Tai Situpa located in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh is the largest Kagyu monastery in India and has become an important centre of Tibetan Buddhism. Penor Rinpoche, the head of Nyingma, the ancient school of Tibetan Buddhism re-established a Nyingma monastery in Bylakuppe, Mysore. This is the largest Nyingma monastery today. Monks from Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, Bhutan and from Tibet join this monastery for their higher education. Penor Rinpoche also founded Thubten Lekshey Ling, a dharma center for lay practitioners in Bangalore. Vajrayana Buddhism and Dzogchen (maha-sandhi) meditation again became accessible to aspirants in India after that.

A Buddhist revivalist movement among Dalit Indians was initiated in 1890s by socialist leaders such as Iyothee Thass, Bhagya Reddy Varma, and Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi.[citation needed] In the 1950s, B. R. Ambedkar turned his attention to Buddhism and travelled to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to attend a convention of Buddhist scholars and monks. While dedicating a new Buddhist vihara near Pune, Ambedkar announced that he was writing a book on Buddhism, and that as soon as it was finished, he planned to make a formal conversion to the religion. He twice visited Burma in 1954; the second time in order to attend the third conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Rangoon. In 1955, he founded the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha, or the Buddhist Society of India. He completed his final work, The Buddha and His Dhamma, in 1956. It was published posthumously.[citation needed]

After meetings with the Sri Lankan Buddhist monk Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Ambedkar organised a formal public ceremony for himself and his supporters in Nagpur on 14 October 1956. Accepting the Three Refuges and Five Precepts from a Buddhist monk in the traditional manner, Ambedkar completed his own conversion. He then proceeded to convert an estimated 500,000 of his supporters who were gathered around him. Taking the 22 Vows, Ambedkar and his supporters explicitly condemned and rejected Hinduism and Hindu philosophy. This was the world's biggest mass religious conversion; it is celebrated by Buddhists every year at Nagpur, when 1-1.5million Buddhists gather every year for the ceremony. He then travelled to Kathmandu in Nepal to attend the Fourth World Buddhist Conference. Ambedkar died soon after conversion on 6 December 1956.

Most of the Ambedkarite Buddhists belong his own former Mahar caste. The new converts treat Ambedkar himself as a deity. Although they have renounced Hinduism in practice, a community survey showed adherence to many practices of the old faith including endogamy, worshipping the traditional family deity etc.[94]

The Buddhist meditation tradition of Vipassana meditation is growing in popularity in India. Many institutionsboth government and private sectornow offer courses for their employees.[95] This form is mainly practiced by the elite and middle class Indians. This movement has spread to many other countries in Europe, America and Asia.

According to the 2011 Census of India there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India but Buddhist leaders claim there are about 50 to 60 million Buddhists in India.[96] Maharashtra has the highest number of Buddhists in India, with 77.36% of the total population. Almost 90 per cent of Navayana or Neo-Buddhists live in the state.

In the 1951 census of India, 1.81 lakh (0.05%) respondents said they were Buddhist. The 1961 census, taken after Ambedkar adopted Buddhism with his millions of followers in 1956, showed an increased to 3.2 million (0.74%).

Living Religions, seventh edition, by Mary Pat Fisher

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History of Buddhism in India - Wikipedia