Buddhism

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If you are interested in Buddhism, you may find these pages worth a look:

Buddha's Teaching:
Know all things to be like this
The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path

Tibetan Buddhism:
Autobiography in 5 chapters

Zen Buddhism:
Hakuin's Chant in Praise of Zazen

Buddhism is a non-theistic religion, a philosophy and a system of psychology. It was named after "the Buddha", who was born Siddhartha Gautama and later also called "the Awakened One".

The Buddha is believed to have been born in or near Lumbini (now in the Kingdom of Nepal) around the 5th Century BC and is said to have died aged about 80 years in Kushinagar in India.

The Buddha taught that people should be awakened from the sleep of ignorance by realising the true nature of reality and that when they did so they achieved a state of enlightenment, also called liberation, Bodhi or Nirvana.

The Buddha’s teachings spread throughout the Indian subcontinent during the five centuries after his death and from there on into Central, Southeast and East Asia, and subsequently Eastern Europe. Now Buddhists and Buddhism are to be found all over the world.

Indian Buddhism eventually became extinct excepting in parts of Nepal, where it still exists.

Presently, Buddhism is divided by scholars into three (some say two) main traditions, although the underlying principles and thoughts remain constant. They all accept the following:

• The Buddha as their teacher
• The Middle Way, Dependent Origination, the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path
• That lay people, as well as monks, can pursue the path towards enlightenment
• Three types of Buddha with Buddhahood as the highest attainment

Theravada or Southern Buddhism, which is also sometimes called South-east Asian Buddhism or Pali Buddhism, is practised mainly in Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand and areas within peninsular Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh. Theravada Buddhism uses Pali as its scriptural language.

Mahayana (the "great vehicle") or Eastern Buddhism (including Zen Buddhism), sometimes called East-Asian Buddhism, Chinese Buddhism or Sino-Japanese Buddhism, is practised mainly in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and parts of Russia. Many of the scriptures here are to be found in Chinese.

Vajrayana (the "diamond vehicle," sometimes classified as a subset of Mahayana Buddhism) or Northern Buddhism, also known as Tibetan Buddhism or Lamaism is found mainly in Bhutan, Mongolia, Tibet and parts of China, India, Nepal and Russia. The scriptures in Vajrayana are principally in Tibetan.

Whilst these descriptors are basically correct, many Buddhists use descriptors which cross these boundaries, with the result that some Northern Buddhists describe themselves as Mahayana Buddhists. At one stage a further term, Hinayana (the "small vehicle"), used to be used for some Buddhists but this is now seen as derogatory and its use should be avoided (according to the World Federation of Buddhists).

Dalit Buddhists are modern converts from Hindu untouchables in India, principally at the instigation of B.R. Ambedkar in the 1950s. Their practice is general in nature and they do not follow the thoughts of any particular school.

In the West, most Buddhist groups are linked or affiliated to one of the Eastern traditions. The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order are an exception, although they are Mahayanist in many ways.

In many Eastern countries Buddhism is an official religion and in some cases it receives financial support from the government. In the West, Buddhism has been recognised as an official religion in Denmark, Greece, Poland and the Russian Federation.

With the spread of Buddhism, many of the texts have been translated into a variety of languages, especially those local to areas where Buddhism is firmly established, and into English.

Buddhism is a very active and growing religion worldwide, continuing to attract followers in large numbers. According to current estimates there are anything between 225 million and 550 million Buddhists globally. There is little doubt that it is the fifth largest religion in the world, behind Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and the traditional Chinese religion.