BUDDHISM the religion of the awakened one (buddha, buddha-dharma); one of the three great world religions. It was founded by the historical Buddha Shākyamuni in the 6th to 5th centuries B.C.E. In answer to the question concerning the cause of the entanglement of beings in the cycle of existence (sāmsara) and the possibility of removing it —the central question for Indian philosophy at the time of the Buddha— he expounded the four noble truths, the core of his teaching, which he had recognized in the moment of his enlightenment. Life is regarded by Buddha as impermanent (anitya), without essence (anātman), and characterized by suffering. The recognition of these three marks of existence (trilakshana) marks the beginning of the Buddhist path. The suffering-ridden quality of existence is conditioned by craving (trishnā) and ignorance (avidyā), through the clearing away of which liberation from samsāra can be attained. The entanglement of beings in the cycle of existence is explained in Buddhism by the chain of conditioned arising (pratītya-samutpāda). The termination of the cycle is tantamount to the realization of nirvāna.
The way to this can be summarized in terms of the four noble truths, the eightfold path, training in discipline and morality (shīla), meditation (samādhi, dhyāna), and wisdom and insight (prajñā).
The basic thought of Buddhism is summed up in the Tripitaka. The Buddhist community (sangha) consists of monks and nuns (bhikshu, bhikshunī) as well as lay followers (upāsaka).
The historical development of Buddhism can be divided into four major phases:
1. From the middle of the 6th to the middle of the 5th century B.C.E., the phase of early Buddhism, in which the teaching was expounded by the Buddha and diffused by his disciples.
2. The middle of the 4th century B.C.E. to the 1 st century C.E., division into various schools on the basis of differing interpretations of the teaching (Hīnāyana, Buddhist Councils).
3. The 1 st to the 7th century C.E.; the rise of the Mahāyāna with its two major currents, Mādhyamaka and Yogāchāra.
4. After the 7th century; the emergence of Buddhist Tantra (Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrayāna, Tantra).
After the 13th century Buddhism became practically extinct in India, the country of its origin.
From about the 3d century, Buddhism began to spread outside of India, adapting itself to local conditions. Today Hīnayāna Buddhism of the Theravāda school is to be found in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia; Mahāyāna in China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea; Vajrayāna in Tibet, Mongolia, and Japan.
Exact figures concerning the number of Buddhists in the world ( 150-500 million) cannot be given, since adherence to Buddhism does not preclude adherence to other religions.
» Buddhism in Burma: According to tradition Burma came into contact with Buddhism during the reign of King Ashoka (3d century B.C.E.). Another tradition says that Buddhism was brought to Burma by two merchants at the time of the Buddha. The merchants are said to have brought with them from India some of Buddha’s hair, which is still preserved today in the Shwe-dagon Pagoda in Rangoon.
After the 5th century, there is evidence of a flourishing Buddhist life in Burma. Activity of the Therāvada and that of another school (probably the Sarvāstivāda), which used Sanskrit, can be documented. In the 7th century both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna (especially in the north) coexisted. In the following century, Buddhist Tantrism penetrated Burma. In the 11th century the entire country was converted to Therāvada under the rule of King Anaratha. This spelled the end of Mahāyāna in Burma. The Therāvada gradually assimilated the indigenous folk belief in spirits called nats and gave it a Buddhist sense.
Pagan, in the north of the country, became the center of Buddhism. Burma maintained intensive contact with Ceylon. There, toward the end of the 12th century, the Buddhism practiced at the Mahāvihāra Monastery was declared obligatory for all Buddhists of Ceylon. This had a negative effect on Burmese Buddhism, since according to Burmese monks who had been in Ceylon, only those monks whose ordination had taken place at Mahāvihāra were legitimate. This met resistance within the Burmese sangha and resulted in the splintering of the community into several rival groups. In the 15th century King Dhammacheti unified the Burmese community under the auspices of the Mahāvihāra Monastery. Since then, this form of Therāvada has become the prevailing form of Buddhism in Burma.
The conquest of the country by the English in the 19th century greatly damaged the sangha and its organization. Only after the recovery of independence in 1947 could the old structures be restored with the help of the government.
In 1956 a council took place in Rangoon at which the full text of the Tripitaka was recited. Today about 85 percent of the population of Burma is Buddhist. Buddhism is the official religion of the country.
» Buddhism in Cambodia: This region was in contact with a Sanskrit tradition of Buddhism in the 3d century C.E., probably that of the Sarvāstivāda school, which reached its zenith in the 5th and 6th centuries. An inscription from the year 791 found in the neighborhood of Angkor Wat bears witness to the existence of the Mahāyāna in Cambodia. The country was also under the influence of Shaivism. The synthesis that developed out of the mixture of the two religions was characterized by the cult of the bodhisattva Lokeshvara, a fusion of Avalokiteshvara and Shiva. Later the Shaivite element seems to have been eliminated. However, again in the 13th century an upsurge of the Shiva cult took place, in the course of which the Buddhist sangha was exposed to severe persecution.
Records left by Chinese pilgrims show that during this time Therāvada was represented by numerous followers, while Mahāyāna was losing influence. The first inscription in Pali is from the year 1309; it makes clear that the Therāvada was under the protection of the royal house. Since that time it has been the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia. Toward the end of the 19th century the Dhammayut school of Thailand gained a foothold in Cambodia.
» Buddhism in Ceylon: According to tradition, Buddhism was brought to Ceylon from India around 250 B.C.E. by Mahinda and Sanghamitta, children of King Ashoka. The king of Ceylon, Devanampiya Tissa, himself became a Buddhist and built the Mahāvihāra Monastery, where he preserved the branch of the Bodhitree that Mahinda and his sister had brought. This monastery remained for many centuries the center of orthodox Therāvada.
In the course of time various schools were formed. There was sometimes very vehement rivalry among them. A number of kings tried to end these disputes by convoking synods or by persecution of certain schools. The main antagonists were the monks of Mahāvihāra on one side and those of the Abhayagirivihāra and the Jetavanavihāra on the other. The latter party was under the influence of Indian schools; traces of Mahāyāna and Buddhist Tantrism can also be documented. The Therāvada gained the upper hand, to which result Buddhaghosha, one of the great scholars of the Therāvada, decisively contributed. His work marks Singhalese Buddhism to this day. The many-sidedness of Buddhism in Ceylon met a bitter end in the 12th century, when King Parakkambahu I convoked a synod and forced all hostile schools to adopt the Buddhism of Mahāvihāra.
The arrival of the Portuguese in Ceylon in the 16th century —who tried to introduce Catholicism by force— and that of the Dutch in the 1 7th century aroused national feeling and had a strengthening effect on Buddhism, which had been in the process of deterioration.
Several Singhalese kings undertook measures to give new impetus to Buddhism. They sent delegations to Burma (end of the 17th century) and Thailand (18th century) in order to gain support. As a result of this contact with foreign monks Burmese and Thai tendencies began to make themselves felt in the sangha in Ceylon. Thai monks introduced an aristocratic principle of selection, which aroused resistance in other strata of the population but established, in spite of this, one of the main enduring tendencies of Singhalese Buddhism. In 1802 a Burmese branch of the sangha emerged —Amarapura, the members of which came from the ordinary classes of the people. Both tendencies remain today, the Thai— inspired being the stronger.
More recently a third current developed, which is of Burmese origin and is characterized by particular strictness. In the 19th century the Buddhism of Ceylon was at its nadir; Western Buddhists, who formed new centers and organizations (Mahābodhi Society), contributed decisively to its revival.
By 1948 Buddhism was again a driving force in Singhalese culture and played a role in the achievement of national independence in that year. Today Singhalese Buddhism is influential in other Asian countries as well as in the West.
» Buddhism in China: According to Chinese tradition Buddhism penetrated into China in 2 C.E. from Central Asia. In the beginning it was regarded as a variety of Taoism and associated with Lao-tzu. The latter is said to have left China riding on an ox in order to bring his teaching to the “barbarians” in the west. Thus Buddhism was understood as the barbaric version of Taoism. This equation of Buddhism and Taoism was probably based on the fact that both religions offer a teaching of salvation and the differences between the two were not known in this early phase. One reason for this was that the Chinese language did not possess a conceptual apparatus adequate for the abstract thought of Buddhism and therefore translations had to have recourse to the terminology of Taoism. The use of familiar concepts contributed significantly to the diffusion of Buddhism in China. The 3d century saw the beginning of lively translation activity; the most important Sanskrit texts were translated into Chinese. The preeminent figures of this period are An Shih-kao, who primarily translated Hīnayāna sūtras, and Chih-lou Chia-ch’an, who devoted himself to the translation of Mahāyāna works.
In the year 355, permission was given for Chinese officials to enter the Buddhist sangha. This considerably advanced the establishment of Buddhism in China. In the 4th century the various Prajñaparamita schools (six houses and seven schools) emerged, the most important spokesman of which was Chih-tun. In 399 Fa-hsien was the first Chinese pilgrim to travel to India. A series of others was to follow (Hsuan-tsang, I-ching).
In the 5th and 6th centuries Buddhism spread throughout China and received the support of the imperial house, which also encouraged the building of monasteries and the study of the teaching. At this time the renowned cave temples of Yun-kang and Lung-men were created. In the years 446 and 574-577 there were persecutions of Buddhism, which, however, did not hinder its rise. The translation of sūtras, thanks to the work of Kumārajīva and Paramārtha, reached a very high level. By this time all the important Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna texts existed in Chinese. The most important for the development of Buddhist philosophy were the Lankavatara-sūtra, the Mahāparinirvana-sūtra, and the Satyasiddhi, under the influence of which the Satyasiddhi, San-lun, and Nirvāna schools were formed.
During the Sui and T’ang dynasties (end of the 6th to beginning of the 10th centuries) Buddhism in China reached its high point. The great schools of Chinese Buddhism made their appearance: Hua-yen, T’ien-t’ai, Ch’an (Zen), Pure Land, Fa-hsiang. The most important spokesmen of the Buddhism of this period were Hsuan-tsang, Chih-i, and Tu-shun.
The monasteries became so powerful economically that they represented a threat to the ruling house. Since the monasteries were exempt from taxes, many peasants gave them their properties and leased the land back. In that way the peasants were able to elude compulsory labor levies and military service, while the monasteries grew ever richer. For this reason in 845 there was a further persecution of Buddhism; the monasteries were dismantled, and the monks and nuns were obliged to return to worldly life. Buddhism in China never entirely recovered from this blow; nevertheless it had already left indelible marks on all areas of Chinese culture.
During the Sung Dynasty (1Oth-13th century), there came about a fusion of Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist thought. Of the many Buddhist schools, in any broader sense only Ch’an (Zen) and Pure Land were still of any significance. The others were reduced to the status of objects of Buddhist philosophical study. Under the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century) Chu-hung brought about a synthesis of the Ch’an and Pure Land schools and a strong Buddhist lay movement developed.
Under the Manchurian Ch’ing Dynasty (17th to the beginning of the 20th century) Lamaism made a major advance, but soon a strong decadent tendency became visible. The Buddhism of the 20th century is characterized by an effort toward reform (T’ai-hsii) and adaptation to modernity. Under Communist rule “religious freedom” subsisted nominally, but party functionaries made it clear that citizens did not have the freedom to believe anything that conflicted with the basic principles of Communist policy. Buddhists were permitted to continue their activities within the monasteries. During the land reform of 1950-52, however, most of the monasteries were dispossessed; and the monks, whose basis of livelihood was removed, for the most part returned to worldly life. After 1957 no further ordinations took place.
In 1953 the Chinese Buddhist Association was founded, the task of which was to convey to Buddhists the directives of the government and to report on their activities. In 1956 the Chinese Buddhist Institute was founded; its curriculum also included political training. Its task was to educate Buddhist scholars and monastic administrators.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) many monasteries and other Buddhist monuments were destroyed. The last remaining monks left the monasteries. After the end of the Cultural Revolution still existing monasteries were renovated; the monks, in limited numbers, could return. The Chinese Buddhist Association resumed its activities; local associations were created in all the provinces. The Chinese Buddhist Institute in Peking and other large cities was again educating monks in Buddhist philosophy. These monks, after completing their three years of study, assume leadership positions in the monasteries.
Since 1981, the journal Fa-yin (Voice of the Teaching) has appeared. It has the task of supporting the government in its religious policies; however, it also gives practical instruction for Buddhist practice and discusses problems of Buddhist philosophy.
In Taiwan Buddhism is active predominantly in its popular Pure Land form; in addition, however, there is also lively interest in the Ch’an school. Besides this “orthodox” Buddhism there is also in Taiwan a folk Buddhism that is known as Chai-chiao (Religion of the Vegetarians), which includes Confucian and Taoist elements. Its followers are lay people and wear white robes. Also in Taiwan there is a strong revival movement that wishes to adapt Buddhism to modern times and that the ref ore particularly emphasizes its scientific qualities.
» Buddhism in Indonesia: The first signs of Buddhism in Indonesia can be traced back, on the basis of Buddha statues, to the 3d century C.E. According to reports of the Chinese pilgrim Fa-hsien, who visited Indonesia in 418, Buddhism had developed very little there. However, already by the end of the 5th century considerable progress is detectable, the effect of the efforts of Indian monks. In the 7th century Sumatra and Java were already important study centers for Buddhism, as can be learned from the reports of I-ching. The dominant current was Mahāyāna; in addition, however, there were also Hīnayāna communities, which probably belonged to the Sarvāstivāda school. In the 8th century Mahāyāna underwent a major upsurge under the Buddhist dynasty of the Shailendra. At this time, too, the famous stūpa of Borobudur was built. Around the end of the 8th century the Buddhist Tantra spread in Indonesia. The Mahāyāna and especially Tantrism continued into the 15th century. Inscriptions show that King Ādityavarman (middle of the 14th century) was a follower of the Kālachakra and was considered an incarnation of Lokeshvara. At this time Indonesia cultivated lively intercourse with India, including with the monastic university Nālandā. In Sumatra and Java there was fusion of Buddhist Tantra, Shaivism, and the cult of the king.
Through the inroads of Islam Buddhism vanished from Sumatra at the end of the 14th century and from Java in the early 15th. In the following century it had all but disappeared from all of Indonesia. Today only small Buddhist enclaves still exist. The immigrant Chinese are for the most part Buddhists. In addition there are tendencies in Indonesia toward a revival of Buddhism.
» Buddhism in Japan: Buddhism was introduced into Japan from Korea in the year 522. In the beginning, as a foreign religion, it met with resistance but was recognized in 585 by Emperor Yomei. During the period of government of Prince Shōtoku (593-621) Buddhism was the official religion of Japan. Shōtoku decreed in 594 that the three precious ones (triratna) were to be venerated. He fostered the study of the Buddhist scriptures, himself composed important commentaries to several sūtras, and had monasteries built. He founded, among others, the famous monastery Hōryū-ji in Nara. Chinese and Korean monks were invited as teachers, and the first Japanese joined the Buddhist community. During this early period it was primarily the Sanron school that spread.
During the Nara period (710-794) there were already six Buddhist schools in Japan, which were brought over from China and officially recognized in the 9th century: the Kosha, Hossō, Sanron, Jōjitsu, Ritsu, and Kegon schools. Buddhism was firmly established in the imperial house, which especially took the teaching of the Kegon school as the basis of its government. The Sūtra of Golden Light was of particular importance. The most famous monasteries in Nara stem from this time. During the Heian period (794-1184) the Tendai and Shingon schools gained in influence and became the dominant forms of Buddhism in Japan. The relationship of monks to the imperial house became even closer. Buddhism became de facto the state religion.
Around the middle of the 10th century Amidism began to spread; in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) it was organized into the Jōdo-shū and the Jōdo-shinshū. In 1191 Zen came to Japan and has remained until today the most vital form of Japanese Buddhism. Two schools of Zen are of major importance: Sōtō and Rinzai.
In the 13th century the Nichiren school emerged. In the following centuries, in part owing to the political situation, there were no significant new developments in Japanese Buddhism.
In the 19th century Shintoism was elevated to the state religion. Since the Second World War there are clear signs of a renaissance of Buddhism in Japan. A whole series of popular movements have taken place, such as Sōka Gakkai, Risshō Koseikai, Nipponzan Myōhōji, which, thanks to their concern for adapting Buddhism to modern times, have a very large following.
» Buddhism in Korea: Buddhism entered Korea from China in the 4th century C.E. It attained its only high point in the 6th to 9th centuries during the three kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla and the united kingdom of Great Silla (668-935). During this time the most important schools of Chinese Buddhism gained a foothold in Korea. Of particular importance were the Ch’an (Zen), Hua-yen, and esoteric Buddhism (Mi-tsung, Shingon). Also the teachings of the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra were known early on in Korea. It is from this time that the most significant Buddhist art treasures of Korea stem.
During the Yi dynasty (1392-1910) Confucianism became the state religion and Buddhist monks were forced to retreat into the mountains. Thus Buddhism lost influence with the people. Only after the end of Japanese rule (1945) did a revival of Buddhism begin. This took the form of a new movement within Buddhism (Won Buddhism).
In present-day South Korea there is no real discrimination between teachings of different schools. In the monasteries the meditation of the Rinzai school of Zen, repetition of Amitābha’s name (nembutsu, Pure Land school), and sūtra recitation are all practiced side by side. The recitation of dhāranīs is also widespread, which goes back to the Tantrism that was prevalent in the middle ages. Among intellectuals Zen meditation is most popular; in rural areas the practice of the repetition of Buddha’s name is predominant.
In Korea also, elements of the old autochthonous religion were assimilated into Buddhism. Mythological figures like Mountain God, Tiger, and the Deity of the Seven Stars are also to be found in rural Buddhist temples. Believers relate to the veneration of these deities as part of their religious practice.
» Buddhism in Thailand: Concerning the beginnings of Buddhism in the area of present-day Thailand little is known. Archaeological sources permit the conclusion that Buddhism came to Thailand from Burma in the 6th century C.E. The Buddhism that initially spread there was of the Hīnayāna type. Between the 8th and 13th centuries, the Mahāyāna appears to have been predominant, based on the evidence of buddha images of this period. Between the 11 th and 14th centuries broad regions of Thailand were under the rule of the Hinduis Khmer. In the 13th century the Thai kings propagated the Therāvada. Relations with Ceylon strengthened the influence of this school, which became the dominant form of Buddhism. In 1882 a council was convoked by the king during which the entire Tripitaka was rehearsed. In the 19th century, with Mongkut (Rama IV), a king was in power who was himself a monk at the time of his enthronement. He laid the ground for modern Buddhism by initiating a reform movement within the Buddhist sangha. He founded the Dhammayut school, which lays special emphasis on the observance of the Vinaya rules. The Dhammayuts have the greatest number of followers down to the present day. King Chulalongkorn (reigned 1868-1910) had an edition of the Pali canon published, which is one of the most important and complete. Later there were further reforms and Buddhism was subsumed under the pontificate of the king, who nominated himself as sangharāja, head of the Buddhist community. Today 95 percent of the population are Buddhists.
Note: See Buddhist Glossary
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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