name	Buddhism

Buddhism (Pali/ ''Bauddha Dharma'') is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end ignorance (avidyā) of dependent origination, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.

Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana "The Great Vehicle". Theravada has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana is found throughout East Asia and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai) and Shinnyo-en. In some classifications Vajrayana—a subcategory of Mahayana practiced in Tibet and Mongolia—is recognized as a third branch. While Buddhism remains most popular within Asia, both branches are now found throughout the world. Estimates of Buddhists worldwide vary significantly depending on the way Buddhist adherence is defined. Lower estimates are between 350–500 million.

Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. The cardinal doctrine of dependent origination is the only doctrine that is common to all Buddhist teachings from Theravada to Dzogchen to the extinct schools. The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community). Taking "refuge in the triple gem" has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist. Other practices may include following ethical precepts, support of the monastic community, renouncing conventional living and becoming a monastic, the development of mindfulness and practice of meditation, cultivation of higher wisdom and discernment, study of scriptures, devotional practices, ceremonies, and in the Mahayana tradition, invocation of buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Life of the Buddha

The evidence of the early texts suggests that the Buddha was born in a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch.

According to this narrative, shortly after the birth of young prince Siddhartha Gautama, an astrologer visited the young prince's father—King Śuddhodana—and prophesied that Siddhartha would either become a great king or renounce the material world to become a holy man, depending on whether he saw what life was like outside the palace walls.

Śuddhodana was determined to see his son become a king, so he prevented him from leaving the palace grounds. But at age 29, despite his father's efforts, Siddhartha ventured beyond the palace several times. In a series of encounters—known in Buddhist literature as the four sights—he learned of the suffering of ordinary people, encountering an old man, a sick man, a corpse and, finally, an ascetic holy man, apparently content and at peace with the world. These experiences prompted Gautama to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest.

Gautama first went to study with famous religious teachers of the day, and mastered the meditative attainments they taught. But he found that they did not provide a permanent end to suffering, so he continued his quest. He next attempted an extreme asceticism, which was a religious pursuit common among the Shramanas, a religious culture distinct from the Vedic one. Gautama underwent prolonged fasting, breath-holding, and exposure to pain. He almost starved himself to death in the process. He realized that he had taken this kind of practice to its limit, and had not put an end to suffering. So in a pivotal moment he accepted milk and rice from a village girl and changed his approach. He devoted himself to anapanasati meditation, through which he discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way (Skt. ''madhyamā-pratipad''): a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.

Gautama was now determined to complete his spiritual quest. At the age of 35, he famously sat in meditation under a sacred fig tree — known as the Bodhi tree — in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, and vowed not to rise before achieving enlightenment. After many days, he finally destroyed the fetters of his mind, thereby liberating himself from the cycle of suffering and rebirth, and arose as a fully enlightened being (Skt. ''''). Soon thereafter, he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the path of awakening he had discovered, traveling throughout the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, and died at the age of 80 (483 BCE) in Kushinagar, India. The south branch of the original fig tree only available in Anuradhapura Sri Lanka known as Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi.

The above narrative draws on the ''Nidānakathā'' biography of the Theravāda sect in Sri Lanka, which is ascribed to Buddhaghoṣa in the 5th century CE. Earlier biographies such as the ''Buddhacarita'', the Lokottaravādin ''Mahāvastu'', and the Mahāyāna / Sarvāstivāda ''Lalitavistara Sūtra'', give different accounts.

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order but do not consistently accept all of the details contained in his biographies. According to author Michael Carrithers, while there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, "the outline of the life must be true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death."

In writing her biography of Buddha, Karen Armstrong noted, "It is obviously difficult, therefore, to write a biography of the Buddha that will meet modern criteria, because we have very little information that can be considered historically sound... [but] we can be reasonably confident Siddhatta Gotama did indeed exist and that his disciples preserved the memory of his life and teachings as well as they could."

Buddhist concepts

Life and the world

Karma

Karma (from Sanskrit: "action, work") in Buddhism is the force that drives saṃsāra—the cycle of suffering and rebirth for each being. Good, skillful deeds (Pāli: "kusala") and bad, unskillful (Pāli: "akusala") actions produce "seeds" in the mind which come to fruition either in this life or in a subsequent rebirth. The avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions is called śīla (from Sanskrit: "ethical conduct").

In Buddhism, karma specifically refers to those actions (of body, speech, and mind) that spring from mental intent ("cetana"), and which bring about a consequence (or fruit, "phala") or result ("vipāka").

In Theravada Buddhism there can be no divine salvation or forgiveness for one's karma, since it is a purely impersonal process that is a part of the makeup of the universe. Some Mahayana traditions hold different views. For example, the texts of certain Mahayana sutras (such as the ''Lotus Sutra'', the ''Angulimaliya Sutra'' and the ''Nirvana Sutra'') claim that reciting or merely hearing their texts can expunge great swathes of negative karma. Some forms of Buddhism (for example, Vajrayana) regard the recitation of mantras as a means for cutting off previous negative karma. The Japanese Pure Land teacher Genshin taught that Amida Buddha has the power to destroy the karma that would otherwise bind one in saṃsāra.

Rebirth

Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of sentient life, each running from conception to death. Buddhism rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity. According to Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self independent from the rest of the universe (the doctrine of anatta). Rebirth in subsequent existences must be understood as the continuation of a dynamic, ever-changing process of "dependent arising" ("pratītyasamutpāda") determined by the laws of cause and effect (karma) rather than that of one being, transmigrating or incarnating from one existence to the next.

Each rebirth takes place within one of five realms according to Theravadins, or six according to other schools. These are further subdivided into 31 planes of existence: # Naraka beings: those who live in one of many Narakas (Hells) # Preta: sometimes sharing some space with humans, but invisible to most people; an important variety is the hungry ghost # Animals: sharing space with humans, but considered another type of life # Human beings: one of the realms of rebirth in which attaining Nirvana is possible # Asuras: variously translated as lowly deities, demons, titans, antigods; not recognized by Theravāda (Mahavihara) tradition as a separate realm # Devas including Brahmas: variously translated as gods, deities, spirits, angels, or left untranslated

Rebirths in some of the higher heavens, known as the Śuddhāvāsa Worlds (Pure Abodes), can be attained only by skilled Buddhist practitioners known as anāgāmis (non-returners). Rebirths in the arupa-dhatu (formless realms) can be attained only by those who can meditate on the arūpajhānas, the highest object of meditation.

According to East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, there is an intermediate state (Tibetan "Bardo") between one life and the next. The orthodox Theravada position rejects this; however there are passages in the ''Samyutta Nikaya'' of the Pali Canon (the collection of texts on which the Theravada tradition is based), that seem to lend support to the idea that the Buddha taught of an intermediate stage between one life and the next.

Saṃsāra

Sentient beings crave pleasure and are averse to pain from birth to death. In being controlled by these attitudes, they perpetuate the cycle of conditioned existence and suffering (saṃsāra), and produce the causes and conditions of the next rebirth after death. Each rebirth repeats this process in an involuntary cycle, which Buddhists strive to end by eradicating these causes and conditions, applying the methods laid out by the Buddha and subsequent Buddhists.

Suffering's causes and solution

The Four Noble Truths

According to the Pali Tipitaka and the Āgamas of other early Buddhist schools, the Four Noble Truths were the first teaching of Gautama Buddha after attaining Nirvana. They are sometimes considered to contain the essence of the Buddha's teachings:

# Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering/uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another. # Suffering is caused by craving. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness. Craving also has its negative aspect, i.e. one craves that a certain state of affairs not exist. # Suffering ends when craving ends. This is achieved by eliminating delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi); # Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.

This method is described by early Western scholars, and taught as an introduction to Buddhism by some contemporary Mahayana teachers (for example, the Dalai Lama).

According to other interpretations by Buddhist teachers and scholars, lately recognized by some Western non-Buddhist scholars, the "truths" do not represent mere statements, but are categories or aspects that most worldly phenomena fall into, grouped in two: # Suffering and causes of suffering # Cessation and the paths towards liberation from suffering.

Thus, according to the Macmillan ''Encyclopedia of Buddhism'' they are # "The noble truth that is suffering" # "The noble truth that is the arising of suffering" # "The noble truth that is the end of suffering" # "The noble truth that is the way leading to the end of suffering"

The traditional Theravada understanding is that the Four Noble Truths are an advanced teaching for those who are ready for them. The East Asian Mahayana position is that they are a preliminary teaching for people not yet ready for the higher and more expansive Mahayana teachings.

The Noble Eightfold Path

The Noble Eightfold Path—the fourth of the Buddha's Noble Truths—is the way to the cessation of suffering (dukkha). It has eight sections, each starting with the word "samyak" (Sanskrit, meaning "correctly", "properly", or "well", frequently translated into English as "right"), and presented in three groups known as the three higher trainings. (NB: Pāli transliterations appear in brackets after Sanskrit ones):

Prajñā is the wisdom that purifies the mind, allowing it to attain spiritual insight into the true nature of all things. It includes:

# (ditthi): viewing reality as it is, not just as it appears to be. # (sankappa): intention of renunciation, freedom and harmlessness.

Śīla is the ethics or morality, or abstention from unwholesome deeds. It includes:

#

(vāca): speaking in a truthful and non-hurtful way # (kammanta): acting in a non-harmful way # (ājīva): a non-harmful livelihood

Samādhi is the mental discipline required to develop mastery over one's own mind. This is done through the practice of various contemplative and meditative practices, and includes:

#

(vāyāma): making an effort to improve # (sati): awareness to see things for what they are with clear consciousness, being aware of the present reality within oneself, without any craving or aversion # (samādhi): correct meditation or concentration, explained as the first four jhānas

The practice of the Eightfold Path is understood in two ways, as requiring either simultaneous development (all eight items practiced in parallel), or as a progressive series of stages through which the practitioner moves, the culmination of one leading to the beginning of another.

The Middle Way

An important guiding principle of Buddhist practice is the Middle Way (or Middle Path), which is said to have been discovered by Gautama Buddha prior to his enlightenment. The Middle Way has several definitions: # The practice of non-extremism: a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification # The middle ground between certain metaphysical views (for example, that things ultimately either do or do not exist) # An explanation of Nirvana (perfect enlightenment), a state wherein it becomes clear that all dualities apparent in the world are delusory (see Seongcheol) # Another term for emptiness, the ultimate nature of all phenomena (in the Mahayana branch), a lack of inherent existence, which avoids the extremes of permanence and nihilism or inherent existence and nothingness

Nature of existence

Buddhist scholars have produced a remarkable quantity of intellectual theories, philosophies and world view concepts (see, for example, Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophy and Reality in Buddhism). Some schools of Buddhism discourage doctrinal study, and some regard it as essential, but most regard it as having a place, at least for some persons at some stages in Buddhist practice.

In the earliest Buddhist teachings, shared to some extent by all extant schools, the concept of liberation (Nirvana)—the goal of the Buddhist path—is closely related to the correct understanding of how the mind causes stress. In awakening to the true nature of clinging, one develops dispassion for the objects of clinging, and is liberated from suffering (dukkha) and the cycle of incessant rebirths (saṃsāra). To this end, the Buddha recommended viewing things as characterized by the three marks of existence.

Three Marks of Existence

The Three Marks of Existence are impermanence, suffering, and not-self.

Impermanence (Pāli: ''anicca'') expresses the Buddhist notion that all compounded or conditioned phenomena (all things and experiences) are inconstant, unsteady, and impermanent. Everything we can experience through our senses is made up of parts, and its existence is dependent on external conditions. Everything is in constant flux, and so conditions and the thing itself are constantly changing. Things are constantly coming into being, and ceasing to be. Since nothing lasts, there is no inherent or fixed nature to any object or experience. According to the doctrine of impermanence, life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra), and in any experience of loss. The doctrine asserts that because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile and leads to suffering (dukkha).

Suffering (Pāli: दुक्ख ''dukkha''; Sanskrit दुःख '''') is also a central concept in Buddhism. The word roughly corresponds to a number of terms in English including suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, affliction, anxiety, dissatisfaction, discomfort, anguish, stress, misery, and frustration. Although the term is often translated as "suffering", its philosophical meaning is more analogous to "disquietude" as in the condition of being disturbed. As such, "suffering" is too narrow a translation with "negative emotional connotations" which can give the impression that the Buddhist view is one of pessimism, but Buddhism seeks to be neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic. In English-language Buddhist literature translated from Pāli, "dukkha" is often left untranslated, so as to encompass its full range of meaning.

Not-self (Pāli: ''anatta''; Sanskrit: ''anātman'') is the third mark of existence. Upon careful examination, one finds that no phenomenon is really "I" or "mine"; these concepts are in fact constructed by the mind. In the ''Nikayas'' anatta is not meant as a metaphysical assertion, but as an approach for gaining release from suffering. In fact, the Buddha rejected both of the metaphysical assertions "I have a Self" and "I have no Self" as ontological views that bind one to suffering. When asked if the self was identical with the body, the Buddha refused to answer. By analyzing the constantly changing physical and mental constituents (skandhas) of a person or object, the practitioner comes to the conclusion that neither the respective parts nor the person as a whole comprise a self.

Dependent arising

The doctrine of pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit; Pali: paticcasamuppāda; Tibetan: rten.cing.'brel.bar.'byung.ba; Chinese: 緣起) is an important part of Buddhist metaphysics. It states that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect. It is variously rendered into English as "dependent origination", "conditioned genesis", "dependent co-arising", "interdependent arising", or "contingency".

The best-known application of the concept of pratītyasamutpāda is the scheme of Twelve Nidānas (from Pāli "nidāna" meaning "cause, foundation, source or origin"), which explain the continuation of the cycle of suffering and rebirth (saṃsāra) in detail.

The Twelve Nidānas describe a causal connection between the subsequent characteristics or conditions of cyclic existence, each one giving rise to the next:

# Avidyā: ignorance, specifically spiritual ignorance of the nature of reality # Saṃskāras: literally formations, explained as referring to karma # Vijñāna: consciousness, specifically discriminative # Nāmarūpa: literally name and form, referring to mind and body # Ṣaḍāyatana: the six sense bases: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind-organ # Sparśa: variously translated contact, impression, stimulation (by a sense object) # Vedanā: usually translated feeling: this is the "hedonic tone", i.e. whether something is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral # Tṛṣṇā: literally thirst, but in Buddhism nearly always used to mean craving # Upādāna: clinging or grasping; the word also means fuel, which feeds the continuing cycle of rebirth # Bhava: literally being (existence) or becoming. (The Theravada explains this as having two meanings: karma, which produces a new existence, and the existence itself.) # Jāti: literally birth, but life is understood as starting at conception # Jarāmaraṇa: (old age and death) and also śokaparidevaduḥkhadaurmanasyopāyāsa (sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and misery)

Sentient beings always suffer throughout saṃsāra, until they free themselves from this suffering by attaining Nirvana. Then the absence of the first Nidāna—ignorance—leads to the absence of the others.

Emptiness

Mahayana Buddhism received significant theoretical grounding from Nagarjuna (perhaps c. 150–250 CE), arguably the most influential scholar within the Mahayana tradition. Nagarjuna's primary contribution to Buddhist philosophy was the systematic exposition of the concept of śūnyatā, or "emptiness", widely attested in the ''Prajñāpāramitā'' sutras which were emergent in his era. The concept of emptiness brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatta and pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination), to refute the metaphysics of Sarvastivada and Sautrantika (extinct non-Mahayana schools). For Nagarjuna, it is not merely sentient beings that are empty of ātman; all phenomena (dharmas) are without any svabhava (literally "own-nature" or "self-nature"), and thus without any underlying essence; they are "empty" of being independent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism. Nagarjuna's school of thought is known as the Mādhyamaka. Some of the writings attributed to Nagarjuna made explicit references to Mahayana texts, but his philosophy was argued within the parameters set out by the agamas. He may have arrived at his positions from a desire to achieve a consistent exegesis of the Buddha's doctrine as recorded in the Canon. In the eyes of Nagarjuna the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the Mādhyamaka system.

Sarvastivada teachings—which were criticized by Nāgārjuna—were reformulated by scholars such as Vasubandhu and Asanga and were adapted into the Yogacara (Sanskrit: yoga practice) school. While the Mādhyamaka school held that asserting the existence or non-existence of any ultimately real thing was inappropriate, some exponents of Yogacara asserted that the mind and only the mind is ultimately real (a doctrine known as cittamatra). Not all Yogacarins asserted that mind was truly existent; Vasubandhu and Asanga in particular did not. These two schools of thought, in opposition or synthesis, form the basis of subsequent Mahayana metaphysics in the Indo-Tibetan tradition.

Besides emptiness, Mahayana schools often place emphasis on the notions of perfected spiritual insight (prajñāpāramitā) and Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha). There are conflicting interpretations of the ''tathāgatagarbha'' in Mahāyāna thought. The idea may be traced to ''Abhidharma'', and ultimately to statements of the Buddha in the ''Nikāyas''. In Tibetan Buddhism, according to the Sakya school, tathāgatagarbha is the inseparability of the clarity and emptiness of one's mind. In Nyingma, tathāgatagarbha also generally refers to inseparability of the clarity and emptiness of one's mind. According to the Gelug school, it is the potential for sentient beings to awaken since they are empty (i.e. dependently originated). According to the Jonang school, it refers to the innate qualities of the mind which expresses itself in terms of omniscience etc. when adventitious obscurations are removed. The "Tathāgatagarbha Sutras" are a collection of Mahayana sutras which present a unique model of Buddha-nature. Even though this collection was generally ignored in India, East Asian Buddhism provides some significance to these texts.

Liberation

Nirvana

Nirvana (Sanskrit; Pali: "Nibbana") means "cessation", "extinction" (of craving and ignorance and therefore suffering and the cycle of involuntary rebirths (saṃsāra), "extinguished", "quieted", "calmed"; it is also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. The term for anybody who has achieved ''nirvana'', including the Buddha, is ''arahant''.

''Bodhi'' (Pāli and Sanskrit, in devanagari: बॊधि) is a term applied to the experience of Awakening of arahants. ''Bodhi'' literally means "awakening", but it is more commonly translated into English as "enlightenment". In Early Buddhism, ''bodhi'' carried a meaning synonymous to ''nirvana'', using only some different metaphors to describe the experience, which implies the extinction of ''raga'' (greed, craving), ''dosa'' (hate, aversion) and ''moha'' (delusion). In the later school of Mahayana Buddhism, the status of ''nirvana'' was downgraded in some scriptures, coming to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained ''nirvana'', and that one needed to attain ''bodhi'' to eradicate delusion:

Therefore, according to Mahayana Buddhism, the ''arahant'' has attained only ''nirvana'', thus still being subject to delusion, while the ''bodhisattva'' not only achieves ''nirvana'' but full liberation from delusion as well. He thus attains ''bodhi'' and becomes a ''buddha.'' In Theravada Buddhism, ''bodhi'' and ''nirvana'' carry the same meaning as in the early texts, that of being freed from greed, hate and delusion.

The term ''parinirvana'' is also encountered in Buddhism, and this generally refers to the complete ''nirvana'' attained by the ''arhat'' at the moment of death, when the physical body expires.

Buddhas

Theravada

In Theravada doctrine, a person may awaken from the "sleep of ignorance" by directly realizing the true nature of reality; such people are called ''arahants'' and occasionally ''buddhas.'' After numerous lifetimes of spiritual striving, they have reached the end of the cycle of rebirth, no longer reincarnating as human, animal, ghost, or other being. The commentaries to the Pali Canon classify these awakened beings into three types:

''Sammasambuddha'', usually just called Buddha, who discovers the truth by himself and teaches the path to awakening to others

''Paccekabuddha'', who discovers the truth by himself but lacks the skill to teach others

''Savakabuddha'', who receive the truth directly or indirectly from a Sammasambuddha

''Bodhi'' and ''nirvana'' carry the same meaning, that of being freed from craving, hate, and delusion. In attaining ''bodhi'', the ''arahant'' has overcome these obstacles. As a further distinction, the extinction of only hatred and greed (in the sensory context) with some residue of delusion, is called ''anagami.''

Mahayana

In the Mahayana, the Buddha tends not to be viewed as merely human, but as the earthly projection of a beginningless and endless, omnipresent being (see ''Dharmakaya'') beyond the range and reach of thought. Moreover, in certain Mahayana sutras, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are viewed essentially as One: all three are seen as the eternal Buddha himself.

Celestial Buddhas are individuals who no longer exist on the material plane of existence, but who still aid in the enlightenment of all beings.

Nirvana came to refer only to the extinction of greed and hate, implying that delusion was still present in one who attained Nirvana. Bodhi became a higher attainment that eradicates delusion entirely. Thus, the ''Arahant'' attains Nirvana but not Bodhi, thus still being subject to delusion, while the Buddha attains Bodhi.

The method of self-exertion or "self-power"—without reliance on an external force or being—stands in contrast to another major form of Buddhism, Pure Land, which is characterised by utmost trust in the salvific "other-power" of Amitabha Buddha. Pure Land Buddhism is a very widespread and perhaps the most faith-orientated manifestation of Buddhism and centres upon the conviction that faith in Amitabha Buddha and the chanting of homage to his name will liberate one at death into the Blissful (安樂), Pure Land (淨土) of Amitabha Buddha. This Buddhic realm is variously construed as a foretaste of Nirvana, or as essentially Nirvana itself. The great vow of Amitabha Buddha to rescue all beings from samsaric suffering is viewed within Pure Land Buddhism as universally efficacious, if only one has faith in the power of that vow or chants his name.

Buddha eras

Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha was the first to achieve enlightenment in this Buddha era and is therefore credited with the establishment of Buddhism. A Buddha era is the stretch of history during which people remember and practice the teachings of the earliest ''known'' Buddha. This Buddha era will end when all the knowledge, evidence and teachings of Gautama Buddha have vanished. This belief therefore maintains that many Buddha eras have started and ended throughout the course of human existence. The Gautama Buddha, then, is ''the Buddha of this era'', who taught directly or indirectly to all other Buddhas in it (see types of Buddhas).

In addition, Mahayana Buddhists believe there are innumerable other Buddhas in other universes. A Theravada commentary says that Buddhas arise one at a time in this world element, and not at all in others. The understandings of this matter reflect widely differing interpretations of basic terms, such as "world realm", between the various schools of Buddhism.

The idea of the decline and gradual disappearance of the teaching has been influential in East Asian Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism holds that it has declined to the point where few are capable of following the path, so it may be best to rely on the power of the Amitabha Buddha.

Bodhisattvas

''Bodhisattva'' means "enlightenment being", and generally refers to one who is on the path to buddhahood, typically as a fully enlightened buddha (Skt. ''''). Theravada Buddhism primarily uses the term in relation to Gautama Buddha's previous existences, but has traditionally acknowledged and respected the bodhisattva path as well.

Mahāyāna Buddhism is based principally upon the path of a bodhisattva. According to Jan Nattier, the term ''Mahāyāna'' ("Great Vehicle") was originally even an honorary synonym for ''Bodhisattvayāna'', or the "Bodhisattva Vehicle." The '''', an early and important Mahāyāna text, contains a simple and brief definition for the term ''bodhisattva'', and this definition is the following:

Mahāyāna Buddhism encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the complete enlightenment of all beings by practicing six perfections (Skt. ''pāramitā''). According to the Mahāyāna teachings, these perfections are: giving, discipline, forbearance, effort, meditation, and transcendent wisdom.

Practice

Devotion

Devotion is an important part of the practice of most Buddhists. Devotional practices include bowing, offerings, pilgrimage, and chanting. In Pure Land Buddhism, devotion to the Buddha Amitabha is the main practice. In Nichiren Buddhism, devotion to the Lotus Sutra is the main practice.

Yoga

Buddhism traditionally incorporates states of meditative absorption (Pali: ''jhāna''; Skt: ''dhyāna''). The most ancient sustained expression of yogic ideas is found in the early sermons of the Buddha. One key innovative teaching of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must be combined with liberating cognition. The difference between the Buddha's teaching and the yoga presented in early Brahminic texts is striking. Meditative states alone are not an end, for according to the Buddha, even the highest meditative state is not liberating. Instead of attaining a complete cessation of thought, some sort of mental activity must take place: a liberating cognition, based on the practice of mindful awareness.

Meditation was an aspect of the practice of the yogis in the centuries preceding the Buddha. The Buddha built upon the yogis' concern with introspection and developed their meditative techniques, but rejected their theories of liberation. In Buddhism, mindfulness and clear awareness are to be developed at all times, in pre-Buddhist yogic practices there is no such injunction. A yogi in the Brahmanical tradition is not to practice while defecating, for example, while a Buddhist monastic should do so.

Another new teaching of the Buddha was that meditative absorption must be combined with a liberating cognition.

Religious knowledge or "vision" was indicated as a result of practice both within and outside of the Buddhist fold. According to the ''Samaññaphala Sutta'' this sort of vision arose for the Buddhist adept as a result of the perfection of "meditation" coupled with the perfection of "discipline" (Pali. ''sīla''; Skt. ''śīla''). Some of the Buddha's meditative techniques were shared with other traditions of his day, but the idea that ethics are causally related to the attainment of "transcendent wisdom" (Pali. ''paññā''; Skt. ''prajñā'') was original.

The Buddhist texts are probably the earliest describing meditation techniques. They describe meditative practices and states which had existed before the Buddha as well as those which were first developed within Buddhism. Two Upanishads written after the rise of Buddhism do contain full-fledged descriptions of yoga as a means to liberation.

While there is no convincing evidence for meditation in pre-Buddhist early Brahminic texts, Wynne argues that formless meditation originated in the Brahminic or Shramanic tradition, based on strong parallels between Upanishadic cosmological statements and the meditative goals of the two teachers of the Buddha as recorded in the early Buddhist texts. He mentions less likely possibilities as well. Having argued that the cosmological statements in the Upanishads also reflect a contemplative tradition, he argues that the Nasadiya Sukta contains evidence for a contemplative tradition, even as early as the late Rig Vedic period. as the foundation of one's religious practice. The practice of taking refuge on behalf of young or even unborn children is mentioned in the ''Majjhima Nikaya'', recognized by most scholars as an early text (cf. Infant baptism). Tibetan Buddhism sometimes adds a fourth refuge, in the ''lama''. In Mahayana, the person who chooses the ''bodhisattva'' path makes a vow or pledge, considered the ultimate expression of compassion. In Mahayana, too, the Three Jewels are perceived as possessed of an eternal and unchanging essence and as having an irreversible effect: "The Three Jewels have the quality of excellence. Just as real jewels never change their faculty and goodness, whether praised or reviled, so are the Three Jewels (Refuges), because they have an eternal and immutable essence. These Three Jewels bring a fruition that is changeless, for once one has reached Buddhahood, there is no possibility of falling back to suffering."

The Three Jewels are: The Buddha. This is a title for those who have attained Nirvana. See also the Tathāgata and Gautama Buddha. The Buddha could also be represented as a concept instead of a specific person: the perfect wisdom that understands ''Dharma'' and sees reality in its true form. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha can be viewed as the supreme Refuge: "Buddha is the Unique Absolute Refuge. Buddha is the Imperishable, Eternal, Indestructible and Absolute Refuge." The ''Dharma''. The teachings or law of nature as expounded by the Gautama Buddha. It can also, especially in Mahayana, connote the ultimate and sustaining Reality which is inseparable from the Buddha. Further, from some Mahayana perspectives, the Dharma embodied in the form of a great sutra (Buddhic scripture) can replace the need for a personal teacher and can be a direct and spontaneous gateway into Truth (Dharma). This is especially said to be the case with the Lotus Sutra. Dr. Hiroshi Kanno writes of this view of the ''Lotus Sutra'': "it is a Dharma-gate of sudden enlightenment proper to the Great Vehicle; it is a Dharma-gate whereby one awakens spontaneously, without resorting to a teacher".

The ''Sangha''. Those who have attained to any of the Four stages of enlightenment, or simply the congregation of monastic practitioners.

According to the scriptures, Gautama Buddha presented himself as a model. The Dharma offers a refuge by providing guidelines for the alleviation of suffering and the attainment of Nirvana. The Sangha is considered to provide a refuge by preserving the authentic teachings of the Buddha and providing further examples that the truth of the Buddha's teachings is attainable.

Buddhist ethics

''Śīla'' (Sanskrit) or ''sīla'' (Pāli) is usually translated into English as "virtuous behavior", "morality", "ethics" or "precept". It is an action committed through the body, speech, or mind, and involves an intentional effort. It is one of the ''three practices'' (''sila'', ''samadhi'', and ''panya'') and the second ''pāramitā''. It refers to moral purity of thought, word, and deed. The four conditions of ''śīla'' are chastity, calmness, quiet, and extinguishment.

''Śīla'' is the foundation of ''Samadhi/Bhāvana'' (Meditative cultivation) or mind cultivation. Keeping the precepts promotes not only the peace of mind of the cultivator, which is internal, but also peace in the community, which is external. According to the Law of Karma, keeping the precepts are meritorious and it acts as causes which would bring about peaceful and happy effects. Keeping these precepts keeps the cultivator from rebirth in the four woeful realms of existence.

''Śīla'' refers to overall principles of ethical behavior. There are several levels of ''sila'', which correspond to "basic morality" (five precepts), "basic morality with asceticism" (eight precepts), "novice monkhood" (ten precepts) and "monkhood" (''Vinaya'' or ''Patimokkha''). Lay people generally undertake to live by the five precepts, which are common to all Buddhist schools. If they wish, they can choose to undertake the eight precepts, which add basic asceticism.

The five precepts are training rules in order to live a better life in which one is happy, without worries, and can meditate well: # To refrain from taking life (non-violence towards sentient life forms), or ''ahimsā'' # To refrain from taking that which is not given (not committing theft) # To refrain from sensual (including sexual) misconduct # To refrain from lying (speaking truth always) # To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness (specifically, drugs and alcohol)

The precepts are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice. In Buddhist thought, the cultivation of dana and ethical conduct will themselves refine consciousness to such a level that rebirth in one of the lower heavens is likely, even if there is no further Buddhist practice. There is nothing improper or un-Buddhist about limiting one's aims to this level of attainment.

In the eight precepts, the third precept on sexual misconduct is made more strict, and becomes a precept of celibacy. The three additional precepts are: :6. To refrain from eating at the wrong time (only eat from sunrise to noon) :7. To refrain from dancing and playing music, wearing jewelry and cosmetics, attending shows and other performances :8. To refrain from using high or luxurious seats and bedding

The complete list of ten precepts may be observed by laypeople for short periods. For the complete list, the seventh precept is partitioned into two, and a tenth added:

:6. To refrain from taking food at an unseasonable time, that is after the mid-day meal :7. To refrain from dancing, music, singing and unseemly shows :8. To refrain from the use of garlands, perfumes, ointments, and from things that tend to beautify and adorn (the person) :9. To refrain from (using) high and luxurious seats (and beds) :10. To refrain from accepting gold and silver

Monastic life

Vinaya is the specific moral code for monks and nuns. It includes the Patimokkha, a set of 227 rules for monks in the Theravadin recension. The precise content of the vinayapitaka (scriptures on Vinaya) differ slightly according to different schools, and different schools or subschools set different standards for the degree of adherence to Vinaya. Novice-monks use the ten precepts, which are the basic precepts for monastics.

Regarding the monastic rules, the Buddha constantly reminds his hearers that it is the spirit that counts. On the other hand, the rules themselves are designed to assure a satisfying life, and provide a perfect springboard for the higher attainments. Monastics are instructed by the Buddha to live as "islands unto themselves". In this sense, living life as the vinaya prescribes it is, as one scholar puts it: "more than merely a means to an end: it is very nearly the end in itself."

In Eastern Buddhism, there is also a distinctive Vinaya and ethics contained within the Mahayana Brahmajala Sutra (not to be confused with the Pali text of that name) for Bodhisattvas, where, for example, the eating of meat is frowned upon and vegetarianism is actively encouraged (see ''vegetarianism in Buddhism''). In Japan, this has almost completely displaced the monastic vinaya, and allows clergy to marry.

Meditation

Buddhist meditation is fundamentally concerned with two themes: transforming the mind and using it to explore itself and other phenomena. According to Theravada Buddhism the Buddha taught two types of meditation, ''samatha'' meditation (Sanskrit: ''śamatha'') and ''vipassanā'' meditation (Sanskrit: ''vipaśyanā''). In Chinese Buddhism, these exist (translated ''chih kuan''), but Chan (Zen) meditation is more popular. According to Peter Harvey, whenever Buddhism has been healthy, not only monks, nuns, and married lamas, but also more committed lay people have practiced meditation. According to Routledge's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, in contrast, throughout most of Buddhist history before modern times, serious meditation by lay people has been unusual. The evidence of the early texts suggests that at the time of the Buddha, many male and female lay practitioners did practice meditation, some even to the point of proficiency in all eight jhānas (see the next section regarding these).

Samādhi (meditative cultivation): samatha meditation

In the language of the Noble Eightfold Path, ''samyaksamādhi'' is "right concentration". The primary means of cultivating ''samādhi'' is meditation. Upon development of ''samādhi'', one's mind becomes purified of defilement, calm, tranquil, and luminous.

Once the meditator achieves a strong and powerful concentration (''jhāna'', Sanskrit ध्यान ''dhyāna''), his mind is ready to penetrate and gain insight (vipassanā) into the ultimate nature of reality, eventually obtaining release from all suffering. The cultivation of mindfulness is essential to mental concentration, which is needed to achieve insight.

Samatha meditation starts from being mindful of an object or idea, which is expanded to one's body, mind and entire surroundings, leading to a state of total concentration and tranquility (''jhāna'') There are many variations in the style of meditation, from sitting cross-legged or kneeling to chanting or walking. The most common method of meditation is to concentrate on one's breath (anapanasati), because this practice can lead to both ''samatha'' and ''vipassana'.

In Buddhist practice, it is said that while ''samatha'' meditation can calm the mind, only ''vipassanā'' meditation can reveal how the mind was disturbed to start with, which is what leads to knowledge (''jñāna''; Pāli '''') and understanding (''prajñā'' Pāli ''paññā''), and thus can lead to ''nirvāṇa'' (Pāli ''nibbāna''). When one is in jhana, all defilements are suppressed temporarily. Only understanding (''prajñā'' or ''vipassana'') eradicates the defilements completely. Jhanas are also states which ''Arahants'' abide in order to rest.

In Theravāda

In Theravāda Buddhism, the cause of human existence and suffering is identified as craving, which carries with it the various defilements. These various defilements are traditionally summed up as greed, hatred and delusion. These are believed to be deeply rooted afflictions of the mind that create suffering and stress. In order to be free from suffering and stress, these defilements need to be permanently uprooted through internal investigation, analyzing, experiencing, and understanding of the true nature of those defilements by using ''jhāna'', a technique which is part of the Noble Eightfold Path. It will then lead the meditator to realize the Four Noble Truths, Enlightenment and ''Nibbana''. Nibbana is the ultimate goal of Theravadins.

Prajñā (Wisdom): vipassana meditation

''Prajñā'' (Sanskrit) or ''paññā'' (Pāli) means wisdom that is based on a realization of dependent origination, The Four Noble Truths and the three marks of existence. ''Prajñā'' is the wisdom that is able to extinguish afflictions and bring about ''bodhi''. It is spoken of as the principal means of attaining '''', through its revelation of the true nature of all things as ''dukkha'' (unsatisfactoriness), ''anicca'' (impermanence) and ''anatta'' (not-self). ''Prajñā'' is also listed as the sixth of the six ''pāramitās'' of the Mahayana.

Initially, ''prajñā'' is attained at a conceptual level by means of listening to sermons (dharma talks), reading, studying, and sometimes reciting Buddhist texts and engaging in discourse. Once the conceptual understanding is attained, it is applied to daily life so that each Buddhist can verify the truth of the Buddha's teaching at a practical level. Notably, one could in theory attain Nirvana at any point of practice, whether deep in meditation, listening to a sermon, conducting the business of one's daily life, or any other activity.

Zen

Zen Buddhism (禅), pronounced ''chán'' in Chinese, ''seon'' in Korean or ''zen'' in Japanese (derived from the Sanskrit term ''dhyāna'', meaning "meditation") is a form of Buddhism that became popular in China, Korea and Japan and that lays special emphasis on meditation. Zen places less emphasis on scriptures than some other forms of Buddhism and prefers to focus on direct spiritual breakthroughs to truth.

Zen Buddhism is divided into two main schools: Rinzai (臨済宗) and Sōtō (曹洞宗), the former greatly favouring the use in meditation on the koan (公案, a meditative riddle or puzzle) as a device for spiritual break-through, and the latter (while certainly employing koans) focusing more on ''shikantaza'' or "just sitting".

Zen Buddhist teaching is often full of paradox, in order to loosen the grip of the ego and to facilitate the penetration into the realm of the True Self or Formless Self, which is equated with the Buddha himself. According to Zen master, Kosho Uchiyama, when thoughts and fixation on the little 'I' are transcended, an Awakening to a universal, non-dual Self occurs: ' When we let go of thoughts and wake up to the reality of life that is working beyond them, we discover the Self that is living universal non-dual life (before the separation into two) that pervades all living creatures and all existence.'. Thinking and thought must therefore not be allowed to confine and bind one. Nevertheless, Zen does not neglect the scriptures.

Vajrayana and Tantra

Though based upon Mahayana, Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism is one of the schools that practice ''Vajrayāna'' or "Diamond Vehicle" (also referred to as Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism, or esoteric Buddhism). It accepts all the basic concepts of Mahāyāna, but also includes a vast array of spiritual and physical techniques designed to enhance Buddhist practice. Tantric Buddhism is largely concerned with ritual and meditative practices. One component of the Vajrayāna is harnessing psycho-physical energy through ritual, visualization, physical exercises, and meditation as a means of developing the mind. Using these techniques, it is claimed that a practitioner can achieve Buddhahood in one lifetime, or even as little as three years. In the Tibetan tradition, these practices can include sexual yoga, though only for some very advanced practitioners.

History

Philosophical roots

Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of ancient India during the second half of the first millennium BCE. That was a period of social and religious turmoil, as there was significant discontent with the sacrifices and rituals of Vedic Brahmanism. It was challenged by numerous new ascetic religious and philosophical groups and teachings that broke with the Brahmanic tradition and rejected the authority of the Vedas and the Brahmans. These groups, whose members were known as shramanas, were a continuation of a non-Vedic strand of Indian thought distinct from Indo-Aryan Brahmanism. Scholars have reasons to believe that ideas such as samsara, karma (in the sense of the influence of morality on rebirth), and moksha originated in the shramanas, and were later adopted by Brahmin orthodoxy. This view is supported by a study of the region in which these notions originated. Buddhism arose in Greater Magadha, which stretched from Sravasti, the capital of Kosala in the north-west, to Rajagrha in the south east. This land, to the east of aryavarta, the land of the Aryas, was recognised as non-Vedic. Other Vedic texts reveal a dislike of the people of Magadha, in all probability because the Magadhas at this time were not Brahmanised. It was not until the second or third centuries BCE that the eastward spread of Brahmanism into Greater Magadha became significant. Ideas that developed in Greater Magadha prior to this were not subject to Vedic influence. These include rebirth and karmic retribution which can be found in a number of movements in Greater Magadha, including Buddhism. These movements inherited notions of rebirth and karmic retribution from an earlier culture At the same time, these movements were influenced by, and in some respects continued, philosophical thought within the Vedic tradition as reflected e.g. in the Upanishads. These movements included, besides Buddhism, various skeptics (such as Sanjaya Belatthiputta), atomists (such as Pakudha Kaccayana), materialists (such as Ajita Kesakambali), antinomians (such as Purana Kassapa); the most important ones in the 5th century BCE were the Ajivikas, who emphasized the rule of fate, the Lokayata (materialists), the Ajnanas (agnostics) and the Jains, who stressed that the soul must be freed from matter. Many of these new movements shared the same conceptual vocabulary - atman ("Self"), buddha ("awakened one"), dhamma ("rule" or "law"), karma ("action"), nirvana ("extinguishing"), samsara ("eternal recurrence") and yoga ("spiritual practice"). The shramanas rejected the Veda, and the authority of the brahmans, who claimed to be in possession of revealed truths not knowable by any ordinary human means; moreover, they declared that the entire Brahmanical system was fraudulent: a conspiracy of the brahmans to enrich themselves by charging exorbitant fees for the performance of bogus rites and the giving of futile advice. A particular criticism of the Buddha's was Vedic animal sacrifice. The Buddha declared that priests reciting the Vedas were like the blind leading the blind. According to him, those priests who had memorized the Vedas really knew nothing. He also mocked the Vedic "hymn of the cosmic man". He declared that the primary goal of Upanishadic thought, the Atman, was in fact non-existent, and, having explained that Brahminical attempts to achieve liberation at death were futile, proposed his new idea of liberation in life. At the same time, the traditional Brahminical religion itself gradually underwent profound changes, transforming it into what is recognized as early Hinduism. In particular, the brahmans thus developed "philosophical systems of their own, meeting the new ideas with adaptations of their doctrines".

Indian Buddhism

The history of Indian Buddhism may be divided into five periods: Early Buddhism (occasionally called Pre-sectarian Buddhism), Nikaya Buddhism or Sectarian Buddhism: The period of the Early Buddhist schools, Early Mahayana Buddhism, Later Mahayana Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism (also called Vajrayana Buddhism).

Pre-sectarian Buddhism

Pre-sectarian Buddhism is the earliest phase of Buddhism, recognized by nearly all scholars. Its main scriptures are the Vinaya Pitaka and the four principal Nikayas or Agamas. Certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout the early texts, so most scholars conclude that Gautama Buddha must have taught something similar to the Three marks of existence, the Five aggregates, Dependent origination, Karma and Rebirth, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Nirvana. Some scholars disagree, and have proposed many other theories.

Early Buddhist schools

According to the scriptures, soon after the (from Sanskrit: "highest extinguishment") of Gautama Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held. As with any ancient Indian tradition, transmission of teaching was done orally. The primary purpose of the assembly was to collectively recite the teachings to ensure that no errors occurred in oral transmission. In the first council, Ānanda, a cousin of the Buddha and his personal attendant, was called upon to recite the discourses (''sūtras'', Pāli ''sutta''s) of the Buddha, and, according to some sources, the abhidhamma. Upāli, another disciple, recited the monastic rules (''vinaya''). Scholars regard the traditional accounts of the council as greatly exaggerated if not entirely fictitious.

According to most scholars, at some period after the Second Council the ''Sangha'' began to break into separate factions. The various accounts differ as to when the actual schisms occurred. According to the ''Dipavamsa'' of the Pāli tradition, they started immediately after the Second Council, the Puggalavada tradition places it in 137 AN, the Sarvastivada tradition of Vasumitra says it was in the time of Asoka and the Mahasanghika tradition places it much later, nearly 100 BCE.

The root schism was between the Sthaviras and the Mahāsāṅghikas. The fortunate survival of accounts from both sides of the dispute reveals disparate traditions. The Sthavira group offers two quite distinct reasons for the schism. The Dipavamsa of the Theravāda says that the losing party in the Second Council dispute broke away in protest and formed the Mahasanghika. This contradicts the Mahasanghikas' own ''vinaya'', which shows them as on the same, winning side. The Mahāsāṅghikas argued that the Sthaviras were trying to expand the ''vinaya'' and may also have challenged what they perceived to be excessive claims or inhumanly high criteria for arhatship. Both parties, therefore, appealed to tradition.

The Sthaviras gave rise to several schools, one of which was the Theravāda school. Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over vinaya, and monks following different schools of thought seem to have lived happily together in the same monasteries, but eventually, by about 100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal disagreements too.

Following (or leading up to) the schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate an Abhidharma, a detailed scholastic reworking of doctrinal material appearing in the Suttas, according to schematic classifications. These Abhidharma texts do not contain systematic philosophical treatises, but summaries or numerical lists. Scholars generally date these texts to around the 3rd century BCE, 100 to 200 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore the seven Abhidharma works are generally claimed not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of disciples and great scholars. Every school had its own version of the Adhidharma, with different theories and different texts. The different Adhidharmas of the various schools did not agree with each other. Scholars disagree on whether the Mahasanghika school had an Abhidhamma Pitaka or not.

Early Mahayana Buddhism

The origins of Mahāyāna are still not completely understood. The earliest views of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the West assumed that it existed as a separate school in competition with the so-called "Hīnayāna" schools. Due to the veneration of buddhas and bodhisattvas, Mahāyāna was often interpreted as a more devotional, lay-inspired form of Buddhism, with supposed origins in stūpa veneration, or by making parallels with the history of the European Protestant Reformation. These views have been largely dismissed in modern times in light of a much broader range of early texts that are now available. The old views of Mahāyāna as a separate lay-inspired and devotional sect are now largely dismissed as misguided and wrong on all counts.

There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas. Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate Vinaya or ordination lineage from the early schools of Buddhism, and therefore each bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī adhering to the Mahāyāna formally belonged to an early school. This continues today with the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda ordination lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools. From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.

The Chinese monk Yijing who visited India in the 7th century CE, distinguishes Mahāyāna from Hīnayāna as follows:

Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts. These Mahāyāna teachings were first propagated into China by Lokakṣema, the first translator of Mahāyāna sūtras into Chinese during the 2nd century CE. Some scholars have traditionally considered the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras to include the very first versions of the Prajñāpāramitā series, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya Buddha, which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.

Late Mahayana Buddhism

During the period of Late Mahayana Buddhism, four major types of thought developed: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha, and Buddhist Logic as the last and most recent. In India, the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were the Madhyamaka and the later Yogacara. According to Dan Lusthaus, Madhyamaka and Yogacara have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism. There were no great Indian teachers associated with tathagatagarbha thought.

Vajrayana (Esoteric Buddhism)

Scholarly research concerning Esoteric Buddhism is still in its early stages and has a number of problems which make research difficult: # Vajrayana Buddhism was influenced by Hinduism, and therefore the research has to include research on Hinduism as well. # The scriptures of Vajrayana have not yet been put in any kind of order. # Ritual has to be examined as well, not just doctrine.

The early development of Buddhism

Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, who was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more stūpas (Buddhist religious memorials) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands—particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India. These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.

This period marks the first known spread of Buddhism beyond India. According to the edicts of Aśoka, emissaries were sent to various countries west of India in order to spread Buddhism (Dharma), particularly in eastern provinces of the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean. It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries.

The gradual spread of Buddhism into adjacent areas meant that it came into contact with new ethnical groups. During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, to changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions—themselves influenced by Buddhism. Striking examples of this syncretistic development can be seen in the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and in the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra. A Greek king, Menander, has even been immortalized in the Buddhist canon.

The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka and Thailand and Burma and later also Indonesia. The Dharmagupta school spread (also in 3rd century BCE) north to Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria (Afghanistan).

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to question. The first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin.

In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.

Buddhism today

By the late Middle Ages, Buddhism had become virtually extinct in India, and although it continued to exist in surrounding countries, its influence was no longer expanding. It is now again gaining strength in India and elsewhere. Estimates of the number of Buddhist followers by scholars range from 230 million to 1.691 billion. Most scholars classify similar numbers of people under a category they call "Chinese folk" or "traditional" religion, an amalgam of various traditions that includes Buddhism.

Formal membership varies between communities, but basic lay adherence is often defined in terms of a traditional formula in which the practitioner takes refuge in The Three Jewels: the ''Buddha'', the ''Dharma'' (the teachings of the Buddha), and the ''Sangha'' (the Buddhist community).

Estimates are uncertain for several reasons:

difficulties in defining who counts as a Buddhist;

syncretism among the Eastern religions. Buddhism is practiced by adherents alongside many other religious traditions- including Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, traditional religions, shamanism, and animism- throughout East and Southeast Asia. difficulties in estimating the number of Buddhists who do not have congregational memberships and often do not participate in public ceremonies; official policies on religion in several historically Buddhist countries that make accurate assessments of religious adherence more difficult; most notably China, Vietnam and North Korea. In many current and former Communist governments in Asia, government policies may discourage adherents from reporting their religious identity, or may encourage official counts to underestimate religious adherence.

Demographics

According to one analysis, Buddhism is the fourth-largest religion in the world behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The monks' order (Sangha), which began during the lifetime of the Buddha, is among the oldest organizations on earth. Buddhism was the first world religion and was the world's largest religion in the first half of the 20th century, in 1951 Buddhism was the world's largest religion with 520 million adherents. By comparison, the second largest was Christianity with 500 million adherents Theravāda Buddhism, using Pāli as its scriptural language, is the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Burma. The Dalit Buddhist movement in India (inspired by B. R. Ambedkar) also practices Theravada. Approximately 124 million adherents. East Asian forms of Mahayana Buddhism that use Chinese scriptures are dominant in most of China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam as well as such communities within Indochina, Southeast Asia and the West. Approximately 500 million to one billion Tibetan Buddhism is found in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, areas of India, China, Nepal that border those countries, plus the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation. Approximately 20 million adherents.

Most Buddhist groups in the West are at least nominally affiliated with one of these three traditions.

At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. While in the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East it is regarded as familiar and traditional. Buddhists in Asia are frequently well organized and well funded. In a number of countries, it is recognized as an official religion and receives state support. Modern influences increasingly lead to new forms of Buddhism that significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.

Overall there is an overwhelming diversity of recent forms of Buddhism.

Schools and traditions

Buddhists generally classify themselves as either Theravada or Mahayana. This classification is also used by some scholars and is the one ordinarily used in the English language. An alternative scheme used by some scholars divides Buddhism into the following three traditions or geographical or cultural areas: Theravada, East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism.

Some scholars use other schemes. Buddhists themselves have a variety of other schemes. Hinayana (literally "lesser vehicle") is used by Mahayana followers to name the family of early philosophical schools and traditions from which contemporary Theravada emerged, but as this term is rooted in the Mahayana viewpoint and can be considered derogatory, a variety of other terms are increasingly used instead, including Śrāvakayāna, Nikaya Buddhism, early Buddhist schools, sectarian Buddhism, conservative Buddhism, mainstream Buddhism and non-Mahayana Buddhism.

Not all traditions of Buddhism share the same philosophical outlook, or treat the same concepts as central. Each tradition, however, does have its own core concepts, and some comparisons can be drawn between them. For example, according to one Buddhist ecumenical organization, several concepts common to both major Buddhist branches:

Both accept the Buddha as their teacher.

Both accept the Middle way, Dependent origination, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and the Three marks of existence.

Both accept that members of the laity and of the sangha can pursue the path toward enlightenment (bodhi).

Both consider buddhahood to be the highest attainment.

Timeline

This is a rough timeline of the development of the different schools/traditions:

Theravada school

Theravāda ("Doctrine of the Elders", or "Ancient Doctrine") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It is relatively conservative, and ''generally'' closest to early Buddhism. This school is derived from the Vibhajjavāda grouping which emerged amongst the older Sthavira group at the time of the Third Buddhist Council (c. 250 BCE). This school gradually declined on the Indian subcontinent, but its branch in Sri Lanka and South East Asia continues to survive.

The Theravada school bases its practice and doctrine exclusively on the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. After being orally transmitted for a few centuries, its scriptures, the Pali Canon, were finally committed to writing in the 1st century BCE, in Sri Lanka, at what the Theravada usually reckon as the fourth council. It is also one of the first Buddhist schools to commit the complete set of its canon into writing. The Sutta collections and Vinaya texts of the Pāli Canon (and the corresponding texts in other versions of the Tripitaka), are generally considered by modern scholars to be the earliest Buddhist literature, and they are accepted as authentic in every branch of Buddhism.

Theravāda is primarily practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia as well as small portions of China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bangladesh. It has a growing presence in Europe and America.

Mahayana traditions

Mahayana Buddhism flourished in India from the 5th century CE onwards, during the dynasty of the Guptas. Mahāyāna centres of learning were established, the most important one being the Nālandā University in north-eastern India.

Mahayana schools recognize all or part of the Mahayana Sutras. Some of these sutras became for Mahayanists a manifestation of the Buddha himself, and faith in and veneration of those texts are stated in some sutras (e.g. the Lotus Sutra and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) to lay the foundations for the later attainment of Buddhahood itself.

Native Mahayana Buddhism is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, parts of Russia and most of Vietnam (also commonly referred to as "Eastern Buddhism"). The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahayana in origin, but will be discussed below under the heading of Vajrayana (also commonly referred to as "Northern Buddhism". There are a variety of strands in Eastern Buddhism, of which "the Pure Land school of Mahayana is the most widely practised today.". In most of this area however, they are fused into a single unified form of Buddhism. In Japan in particular, they form separate denominations with the five major ones being: Nichiren, peculiar to Japan; Pure Land; Shingon, a form of Vajrayana; Tendai; and Chan/Zen. In Korea, nearly all Buddhists belong to the Chogye school, which is officially Son (Zen), but with substantial elements from other traditions.

Vajrayana traditions

The Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism spread to China, Mongolia, and Tibet. In Tibet, Vajrayana has always been a main component of Tibetan Buddhism, while in China it formed a separate sect. However, Vajrayana Buddhism became extinct in China but survived in elements of Japan's Shingon and Tendai sects.

There are differing views as to just when Vajrayāna and its tantric practice started. In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical Śākyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are esoteric teachings, they were passed on orally first and only written down long after the Buddha's other teachings. Nālandā University became a center for the development of Vajrayāna theory and continued as the source of leading-edge Vajrayāna practices up through the 11th century. These practices, scriptures and theories were transmitted to China, Tibet, Indochina and Southeast Asia. China generally received Indian transmission up to the 11th century including tantric practice, while a vast amount of what is considered to be Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayāna) stems from the late (9th–12th century) Nālandā tradition.

In one of the first major contemporary academic treatises on the subject, Fairfield University professor Ronald M. Davidson argues that the rise of Vajrayana was in part a reaction to the changing political climate in India at the time. With the fall of the Gupta dynasty, in an increasingly fractious political environment, institutional Buddhism had difficulty attracting patronage, and the folk movement led by siddhas became more prominent. After perhaps two hundred years, it had begun to get integrated into the monastic establishment.

Vajrayana combined and developed a variety of elements, a number of which had already existed for centuries. In addition to the Mahāyāna scriptures, Vajrayāna Buddhists recognise a large body of Buddhist Tantras, some of which are also included in Chinese and Japanese collections of Buddhist literature, and versions of a few even in the Pali Canon.

Buddhist texts

Buddhist scriptures and other texts exist in great variety. Different schools of Buddhism place varying levels of value on learning the various texts. Some schools venerate certain texts as religious objects in themselves, while others take a more scholastic approach. Buddhist scriptures are written in these languages: Pāli, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, along with some texts that still exist in Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.

Unlike many religions, Buddhism has no single central text that is universally referred to by all traditions. However, some scholars have referred to the Vinaya Pitaka and the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka as the common core of all Buddhist traditions. This could be considered misleading, as Mahāyāna considers these merely a preliminary, and not a core, teaching. The Tibetan Buddhists have not even translated most of the āgamas (though theoretically they recognize them) and they play no part in the religious life of either clergy or laity in China and Japan. Other scholars say there is no universally accepted common core. The size and complexity of the Buddhist canons have been seen by some (including Buddhist social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar) as presenting barriers to the wider understanding of Buddhist philosophy.

The followers of Theravāda Buddhism take the scriptures known as the Pāli Canon as definitive and authoritative, while the followers of Mahāyāna Buddhism base their faith and philosophy primarily on the Mahāyāna sūtras and their own ''vinaya''. The Pāli sutras, along with other, closely related scriptures, are known to the other schools as the ''āgamas''.

Over the years, various attempts have been made to synthesize a single Buddhist text that can encompass all of the major principles of Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, condensed 'study texts' were created that combined popular or influential scriptures into single volumes that could be studied by novice monks. Later in Sri Lanka, the Dhammapada was championed as a unifying scripture.

Dwight Goddard collected a sample of Buddhist scriptures, with the emphasis on Zen, along with other classics of Eastern philosophy, such as the Tao Te Ching, into his 'Buddhist Bible' in the 1920s. More recently, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to create a single, combined document of Buddhist principles in "The Buddha and His Dhamma". Other such efforts have persisted to present day, but currently there is no single text that represents all Buddhist traditions.

Pāli Tipitaka

The Pāli Tipitaka, which means "three baskets", refers to the ''Vinaya Pitaka'', the ''Sutta Pitaka'', and the ''Abhidhamma Pitaka''. The ''Vinaya Pitaka'' contains disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as explanations of why and how these rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification. The ''Sutta Pitaka'' contains discourses ascribed to Gautama Buddha. The ''Abhidhamma Pitaka'' contains material often described as systematic expositions of the Gautama Buddha's teachings.

The Pāli Tipitaka is the only early Tipitaka (Sanskrit: ''Tripiṭaka'') to survive intact in its original language, but a number of early schools had their own recensions of the Tipitaka featuring much of the same material. We have portions of the Tipitakas of the Sārvāstivāda, Dharmaguptaka, Sammitya, Mahāsaṅghika, Kāśyapīya, and Mahīśāsaka schools, most of which survive in Chinese translation only. According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas.

According to the scriptures, soon after the death of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held; a monk named Mahākāśyapa (Pāli: Mahākassapa) presided. The goal of the council was to record the Buddha's teachings. Upāli recited the ''vinaya''. Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, was called upon to recite the dhamma. These became the basis of the Tripitaka. However, this record was initially transmitted orally in form of chanting, and was committed to text in the last century BCE. Both the sūtras and the ''vinaya'' of every Buddhist school contain a wide variety of elements including discourses on the Dharma, commentaries on other teachings, cosmological and cosmogonical texts, stories of the Gautama Buddha's previous lives, and various other subjects.

Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically "Theravadin", but is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from the early, non-sectarian body of teachings. According to Peter Harvey, it contains material which is at odds with later Theravadin orthodoxy. He states: "The Theravadins, then, may have ''added'' texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period."

Mahayana sutras

The Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that the Mahayana Buddhist tradition holds are original teachings of the Buddha. Some adherents of Mahayana accept both the early teachings (including in this the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, which was criticized by Nagarjuna and is in fact opposed to early Buddhist thought) and the Mahayana sutras as authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha, and claim they were designed for different types of persons and different levels of spiritual understanding.

The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path. That path is explained as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings from unhappiness. Hence the name ''Mahāyāna'' (lit., ''the Great Vehicle'').

According to Mahayana tradition, the Mahayana sutras were transmitted in secret, came from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or were preserved in non-human worlds because human beings at the time could not understand them:

Approximately six hundred Mahayana sutras have survived in Sanskrit or in Chinese or Tibetan translations. In addition, East Asian Buddhism recognizes some sutras regarded by scholars to be of Chinese rather than Indian origin.

Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures were composed from the 1st century CE onwards: "Large numbers of Mahayana sutras were being composed in the period between the beginning of the common era and the fifth century", five centuries after the historical Gautama Buddha. Some of these had their roots in other scriptures composed in the 1st century BCE. It was not until after the 5th century CE that the Mahayana sutras started to influence the behavior of mainstream Buddhists in India: "But outside of texts, at least in India, at exactly the same period, very different—in fact seemingly older—ideas and aspirations appear to be motivating actual behavior, and old and established Hinnayana groups appear to be the only ones that are patronized and supported." These texts were apparently not universally accepted among Indian Buddhists when they appeared; the pejorative label ''hinayana'' was applied by Mahayana supporters to those who rejected the Mahayana sutras.

Only the Theravada school does not include the Mahayana scriptures in its canon. As the modern Theravada school is descended from a branch of Buddhism that diverged and established itself in Sri Lanka prior to the emergence of the Mahayana texts, debate exists as to whether the Theravada were historically included in the ''hinayana'' designation; in the modern era, this label is seen as derogatory, and is generally avoided.

Comparative studies

Buddhism provides many opportunities for comparative study with a diverse range of subjects. For example, dependent origination can be considered one of Buddhism's contributions to metaphysics. Additionally, Buddhism's emphasis on the Middle way not only provides a unique guideline for ethics but has also allowed Buddhism to peacefully coexist with various differing beliefs, customs and institutions in countries in which it has resided throughout its history. Also, its moral and spiritual parallels with other systems of thought—for example, with various tenets of Christianity—have been subjects of close study.

List of Buddhism related topics in comparative studies

Buddhism and Jainism

Buddhism and Hinduism

Buddhism and Christianity

God in Buddhism (Buddhism, mysticism, and monotheism)

Buddhism and Eastern teaching (Buddhism and East Asian teaching)

Buddhism and psychology

Buddhism and science

Buddhist ethics (Buddhism and ethics)

Buddhist philosophy (Buddhism and Western philosophy)

Buddhism and Thelema

See also

Outline of Buddhism

Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi : The south branch of original fig tree planted in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Nonviolence

Index of Buddhism-related articles

List of books related to Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism

Vajrayana Buddhism

List of Buddhist temples

Buddhism by country

Buddhism by region

Criticism of Buddhism

Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

Footnotes

Bibliography

Bechert, Heinz & Richard Gombrich (ed.) (1984). ''The World of Buddhism'', Thames & Hudson.

; reprinted in Williams, ''Buddhism'', volume I; NB in the online transcript a little text has been accidentally omitted: in section 4, between "... none of the other contributions in this section envisage a date before 420 B.C." and "to 350 B.C." insert "Akira Hirakawa defends the short chronology and Heinz Bechert himself sets a range from 400 B.C."

Embree, Ainslie T. (ed.), Stephen N. Hay (ed.), Wm. Theodore de Bary (ed.), A.L. Bashram, R.N. Dandekar, Peter Hardy, J.B. Harrison, V. Raghavan, Royal Weiler, and Andrew Yarrow (1958; 2nd ed. 1988). ''Sources of Indian Tradition: From the Beginning to 1800'' (vol. 1). NY: Columbia U. Press. ISBN 0-231-06651-1.

Gombrich, Richard F. (1988; 6th reprint, 2002). ''Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo'' (London: Routledge). ISBN 0-415-07585-8.

Also available on this websites: saigon.com urbandharma.org vipassana.com

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. ''Introduction to Buddhism'': An Explanation of the Buddhist Way of Life, Tharpa Publications (2nd. ed., 2001, US ed. 2008) ISBN 978-0-9789067-7-1

Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.

Keown, Damien and Charles S Prebish (eds.) (2004). ''Encyclopedia of Buddhism'' (London: Routledge). ISBN 978-0-415-31414-5.

Morgan, Kenneth W. (ed), ''The Path of the Buddha: Buddhism Interpreted by Buddhists'', Ronald Press, New York, 1956; reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi; distributed by Wisdom Books

ISBN 0-8021-3031-3.

Robinson, Richard H. and Willard L. Johnson (1970; 3rd ed., 1982). ''The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction'' (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing). ISBN 0-534-01027-X.

ISBN 0-7679-0369-2. ISBN 0-7734-5985-5.

Williams, Paul (ed.) (2005). ''Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies'', 8 volumes, Routledge, London & New York.

Williams, Paul with Anthony Tribe (2000). ''Buddhist Thought'' (London: Routledge). ISBN 0-415-20701-0. Retrieved 29 Nov 2008 from "Google Books".

ISBN 0-86171-133-5.

Zürcher, E. (1972). ''The Buddhist Conquest of China''. Leiden. E. J. Brill. First published in 1959.

Online

External links

Orange Tip Editions Buddhism in everyday life

Current Japanese Buddhism

Religion and Spirituality: Buddhism at Open Directory Project

Buddhist texts at Sacred Texts.com

Ethical Democracy Journal – Notes on Budhism

Buddhism in various languages

The Future of Buddhism series, from ''Patheos''

Category:Religious faiths, traditions, and movements Category:Transtheism

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Ram Bahadur Bomjon () (born c. 9 April 1990, sometimes spelt ''Bomjan'', ''Banjan'', or ''Bamjan''), also known as ''Palden Dorje'' (his monastic name) and now ''Dharma Sangha'', is from Ratanapuri village, Bara district, Nepal. Some of his supporters have claimed that he is a reincarnation of the Buddha, but Ram himself has denied this, and many practitioners of Buddhism agree that the Buddha has entered nirvana and cannot be reborn.

He drew thousands of visitors and media attention by spending months in meditation. Nicknamed the ''Buddha Boy'', he began his meditation on 16 May 2005. He reportedly disappeared from the hollow tree where he had been meditating for months on 16 March 2006, but was found by some followers a week later. He told them he had left his meditation place, where large crowds had been watching him, "because there is no peace". He then went his own way and reappeared elsewhere in Nepal on 26 December 2006, but left again on 8 March 2007. On 26 March 2007, inspectors from the Area Police Post Nijgadh in Ratanapuri found Bomjon meditating inside a bunker-like ditch seven feet square.

On 10 November 2008, Bomjon reappeared in Ratanapuri and spoke to a group of devotees in the remote jungle.

Buddhist background

Bomjon is a member of the Tamang community, of which a majority practices Vajrayana Buddhism.

Bomjon's story gained popularity because it resembled a legend from the ''Jataka Nidanakatha'' about Gautama Buddha's enlightenment, so much so that some devotees claimed Ram was the reincarnation of a Buddha. However, on 8 November 2005 Dorje arose and said, "Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don't have the Buddha's energy. I am at the level of a rimpoche." Rimpoche ("precious jewel") is an honorific used in Tibetan Buddhism for a teacher and adept. He said that he will need six more years of meditation before he can become a "Buddha".

According to his followers, Bomjon may have been or may be a bodhisattva, a person on the path to attaining full enlightenment or Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. According to the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, there were innumerable Buddhas before him and infinite Buddhas to come. Proponents also claim that Bomjon might also be Maitreya Bodhisattva, the predicted successor to the historical Buddha. Scholars doubt the claims of his supporters. Mahiswor Raj Bajracharya, president of the Nepal Buddhist Council, has said, "We do not believe he is Buddha. He does not have Buddha's qualities".

His mother's name is Maya Devi Tamang, the same first name as Buddha's mother. It is reported that his mother fainted when she found out that her son intended to meditate for an indefinite period.

The claim, made by some, that he is "the reincarnation of Buddha" has been criticized. Gautama Buddha taught that after parinirvana there is no more rebirth, making it impossible to be a "reincarnation of Buddha"; but it is possible to be another Buddha, another who has attained, or will attain, enlightenment.

Wandering to Bara district

After about ten months of meditation, Bomjon went missing on 11 March 2006. He gave no explanation, and some believed he had been abducted. His followers theorized that he went deeper into the woods to look for a quieter place to meditate. Police abandoned a search for him after the likelihood of foul play was eliminated. Suspecting money laundering, the authorities froze the bank account of the local committee managing the crowds, which had gathered more than Rs. 600,000, but they found no evidence.

On 19 March, a group of Bomjon's followers met with him about 2 miles (3 kilometers) southwest of his meditation site. They say they spoke to him for thirty minutes, during which Bomjon said, "There is no peace here," and that he would return in six years, which would be in 2011 or 2012. He left a message for his parents telling them not to worry.

On 25 December 2006, villagers in Bara district spotted Bomjon meditating. He was carrying a sword for protection in the jungle, reminding reporters that "Even Gautama Buddha had to protect himself," and claimed to have eaten nothing but herbs in the interim. He reiterated his six year commitment to Buddhist devotion, and said he would allow people to come and observe him, as long as they remained at some distance and did not bother him. When a reporter pointed out that pilgrims to his meditation site would be making donations in his name, he asked for the donations to not be abused or used for commercial purposes. A new wave of visitors came to see him and pray at his new meditation spot. On 8 March 2007 he left Bara district again to find a quieter place to meditate.

Meditating in pit

On 26 March 2007, news spread of Bomjon meditating underground. Inspector Rameshwor Yadav of the Area Police Post Nijgadh, found Bomjon inside a bunker-like ditch seven feet square. "His face was clean and hair was combed well," Yadav said. According to him, the bunker had been cemented from all sides and fitted with a tiled roof. Indra Lama, a local deployed as Bomjon's caretaker since the beginning of his intensive meditation, said the bunker was prepared per Bomjon's request. "After granting audience a week ago, he expressed his desire to meditate inside the ground; so we built it," he said.

Preaching in Hallori jungle

On 2 August 2007, Bomjon addressed a large crowd in Hallori jungle in Bara district of southern Nepal. The Namo Buddha Tapoban Committee, which is devoted to looking after Bomjon, assembled the meeting. A notice about the boy's first-ever preaching was broadcast by a local FM radio station, and the committee also invited people by telephone. Around three thousand people gathered to listen to Bomjon's address. A video was made of the event. According to Upendra Lamichhane, a blogger who wrote an article and took pictures of the meeting, Bomjon's message was, "The only way we can save this nation is through spirituality". This was his speech:

Second speech excerpt:

Feats of inedia

According to the ''Guinness Book of Records'' the longest time a human has survived without water is 18 days. Bomjon, on the other hand, does not appear to break his meditation to eat or drink.

Skeptics point out that claims of surviving after several month fasting are unsubstantiated as a screen was placed in front of him between dusk and dawn; they also claim that, besides the lack of proof, such a feat would be physically impossible. Bomjon was observed remaining at the tree at least during the daytime, though no one was allowed to approach him too closely. Under such circumstances, he could have eaten at night when no one could have witnessed his doing so.

Some supporters believe that claims of inedia are less relevant than Bomjon's undisputed ability to remain nearly motionless in the same position day after day, with no regard for extremes of weather including a cold winter and a monsoon season. For example, American writer George Saunders visited Bomjon and observed him through a single night, and was impressed by Bomjon's perfectly still stature, even during an evening climate that seemed unbearably cold to the much better clothed journalist.

In December 2005, a nine-member government committee led by Gunjaman Lama watched Bomjon carefully for 48 hours and observed him not to take any food or water during that time. A video recording was also made of this test. However, they were unable to approach closer than 3 meters or take readings of his vital signs. The Nepalese government planned a more careful scientific study, but the study was never carried out.

In 2006, Discovery Channel showed a 45-minute documentary titled ''The Boy With Divine Powers''. One of the aims was to establish whether Ram was indeed abstaining from all sustenance, water included, by filming him continuously for four days and nights. On their first attempt, in January 2006, the film crew was required to stay outside a guarded barbed-wire fence, and their camera's infrared capabilities did not pick up evidence of a body at the base of the tree where Bomjon sat during their non-stop recording. On a second attempt a few weeks later, however, the film crew was able to film Ram continuously for 96 hours, day and night, during which time he did not change his position and did not drink any fluids or eat any food. As Discovery Channel's commentator concluded: "After 96 hours of filming, Ram has defied modern science by continuing his meditation and remaining alive." According to scientists on the documentary, ''an average person would be expected to die from kidney failure after four days without drinking any fluids'' (although cases of inedia lasting for a whole week have been observed and the recorded Guinness World Record of inedia is eighteen days). The boy showed no signs of classical physical deterioration caused by dehydration. A close inspection by the film crew of the area around the tree where Ram was sitting revealed no hidden food supply or water pipes.

In 2008, Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods in Kathmandu, stated that Buddhist priests have yet to investigate Ram.

Reappearance in Ratanpuri jungle

On 10 November 2008, Bomjon reappeared and gave blessings to approximately 400,000 pilgrims over a 12-day period in the remote jungle of Ratanpuri, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, near Nijgadh. His hair was shoulder-length and his body was wrapped in a white cloth. He made two speeches in which he urged people to recognize the compassion in their hearts, and their connection to one another through the all-encompassing soul. His devotees believe he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India, which borders Nepal – the place where Siddartha Gautama attained enlightenment.

Non-appearance in 2009 at the Gadhi Mai Mela

Palden Dorje planned to give blessings on 18–23 November 2009 at the site of the Gadhi Mai Mela, a Hindu vedic religious festival where hundreds of thousands of animals are sacrificed, something he has condemned. However, alleging 'security reasons', priests were unwilling to allot a space for him. On 30 October 2009 he spoke out in public against the approaching Gadhi Mai killings.

Physical assault investigation

A Western media outlet quoted a local Nepali newspaper claiming that Bomjon "had admitted" to slapping some local villagers after being physically assaulted by them on July 22, 2010. According to such claims, the incident took place in the Bara district and police have been involved in the investigation after 17 complaints. Bomjon was quoted to say that the locals were interrupting his meditation by climbing onto his platform, mimicking him, and attempting to manhandle him, and he was "therefore forced to beat them". According to the newspaper, he slapped them "two or three times", while the attackers allege that they were assaulted more seriously.

See also

Buddhism

List of Buddha claimants

::

References

External links

Official Site of Palden Dorje

Category:1990 births Category:Living people Category:Nepalese Buddhists

cbk-zam:Ram Bahadur Bomjon de:Ram Bahadur Bomjon es:Ram Bahadur Bomjon eo:Ram Bahadur Bomjon fr:Ram Bahadur Bomjon ia:Ram Bahadur Bomjon it:Ram Bahadur Bomjon nl:Ram Bahadur Bomjan pl:Ram Bahadur Bomjon pt:Palden Dorje sq:Bamja vi:Ram Bahadur Bomjon

thumb|right|Kathe Koja with Walter John Williams in 2005(photo by Cory Doctorow)Kathe Koja (born 1960) is an American writer. She was initially known for her intense speculative fiction for adults, but over the past few years has turned to writing young adult novels.

Koja is also a prolific author of short stories, including many in collaboration with Barry N. Malzberg. Most of her short fiction remains uncollected. Koja's novels and short stories frequently concern characters who have been in some way marginalized by society, often focusing on the transcendence and/or disintegration which proceeds from this social isolation (as in ''The Cipher'', ''Bad Brains'', "Teratisms," ''The Blue Mirror'', etc.). Koja won the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award for her first novel ''The Cipher'', and a Deathrealm Award for Strange Angels. Her prose has been described as "stunning".

Biography

Koja was born in Detroit, the second of two sisters. She began writing when very young, but only became serious about it after attending a Clarion workshop.

Koja lives near Detroit, Michigan, and is married to the illustrator Rick Lieder, who often does her book jackets. They have one son.

Awards

Koja won the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award for her first novel ''The Cipher'', which was also nominated for the Philip K Dick Award. She also won a Deathrealm Award for Strange Angels.

Bibliography

Adult

''The Cipher'' (1991)

''Bad Brains'' (1992)

''Skin'' (1993)

''Strange Angels'' (1994)

''Kink'' (1996)

''Extremities'' (1997) (collection)

*"Arrangement for Invisible Voices"

*"The Neglected Garden"

*"Bird Superior"

*"Illusions in Belief"

*"Reckoning"

*"The Company of Storms"

*"Teratisms"

*Angels in Love"

*"Waking the Prince"

*"Ballad of the Spanish Civil Guard"

*"Lady Lazarus"

*"The Disquieting Muse"

*"Queen of Angels"

*"Jubilee"

*"Pas de Deux"

*"Bondange"

''Under the Poppy'' (2010)

Young adult

''straydog'' (2002)

''Buddha Boy'' (2003)

''The Blue Mirror'' (2004)

''Talk'' (2005)

''Going Under'' (2006)

''Kissing the Bee'' (2007)

''Headlong'' (2008)

Short Stories Written with Barry N. Malzberg

"The High Ground" (1993)

"Rex Tremandae, Majestatis" (1993)

"The Timbrel Sound of Darkness" (1993)

"The Careful Geometry of Love" (1994)

"In the Greenhouse" (1994)

"Modern Romance" (1994)

"Literary Lives" (1995)

"Buyer's Remorse (1995)

"The Known Inequities of Love" (1995)

"Mysterious Elisions, Riotous Thrusts" (1995)

"Three Portraits from Heisenberg" (1995)

"The Unchained" (1995)

"The Witches of Delight" (1995)

"Girl's Night Out" (1995)

"Orleans, Rheims, Friction: Fire" (1997)

References

External links

Author's Homepage

Review of Extremities at SFSite.com, 1998

Category:American novelists Category:American horror writers Category:Splatterpunk Category:American fantasy writers Category:1960 births Category:Living people

de:Kathe Koja

Background	#FFD068 | color black
Name	Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Birth name	Osel Rangdrol Mukpo
Birth date	1962
Religion	Kagyü and Nyingma
School	Shambhala Buddhist
Lineage	Chogyam Trungpa
Reincarnation of	Mipham the Great
Website	}}

Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, Jampal Trinley Dradul (born Osel Rangdrol Mukpo in 1962) is the head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and Shambhala International, a worldwide network of urban Buddhist meditation centers, retreat centers, monasteries, a university, and other enterprises, founded by his father, the Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (XI Trungpa Tulku). Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is a high lama in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He is believed to be the second incarnation of Mipham the Great, who is revered in Tibet as an emanation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. ''Rinpoche'' is an honorific (meaning "precious one" in Tibetan) commonly afforded to tulkus.

Biography

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche was born Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo in 1962 in Bodhgaya, India. He spent his early years with his mother, Lady Kunchok Palden, in a Tibetan refugee village in northwest India, where he began his study of Buddhism. At the age of seven, he went to live with his father in the United Kingdom. His father moved to the United States in 1970, and Osel Mukpo rejoined him there two years later, where his education continued. He also began to receive training in various contemplative arts such as kyūdō (Japanese archery), calligraphy, and horsemanship.

The Sakyong also received many teachings from many of the great contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular Penor Rinpoche, supreme head of the Nyingma lineage. The Nyingma teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, was like a grandfather to the Sakyong. After the death of his father in 1987, the Sakyong moved to Nepal and studied with Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche until Khyentse's death in 1991.

In 1995, with many dignitaries in attendance and much celebration, Ösel Rangdröl was formally enthroned as Sakyong and confirmed as the rebirth of Mipham the Great. Penor Rinpoche performed the ceremony.

Dharma activity

In 2001 Sakyong Mipham visited Tibet for the first time. Here he was greeted by thousands of people, not only as the Sakyong and the rebirth of Mipham, but also as living proof of the vitality of Buddhism, returning to the place that his father had left in 1959. Huge audiences gathered to hear his teachings and receive his blessings. Choseng Trungpa, the Twelfth Trungpa Tulku, along with the other tulkus and leaders of Surmang, asked him to assume stewardship of the Surmang monasteries and their people. While in Tibet he was also asked to assume responsibility for Weyen monastery, the Gesar orphanage, and the Mipham Institute in Golok, and Khamput Monastery in Kham; his support for all of these is now directed through the Kunchok Foundation.

In 2004 he returned to India to meet for the first time with Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje‎, and also journeyed back to Tibet to visit the monasteries under his care.

The Sakyong continually maintains his personal meditation, study, and writing. He travels extensively, teaching throughout the world. He is a poet and an artist. He enjoys golf, running, horseback riding, and yoga.

Lineage of Sakyongs

The Sakyong holds and propagates the teachings of Shambhala, an enlightened society. This tradition emphasizes confidence in the basic goodness of all beings and teaches courageous rulership based on wisdom and compassion. The term "Sakyong" literally means "earth-protector" in Tibetan, although it is colloquially understood to mean "king". Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is regarded as a ''chögyal'' (Sanskrit ''dharmaraja'') – "king of truth" – who combines the spiritual and worldly paths. The first Dharmaraja of Shambhala, Dawa Sangpo, was said to have been empowered directly by the Buddha. The Sakyong is the earthly embodiment or emanation of the Rigden — enlightened awareness — and in this sense he is a ''tulku'' (Tibetan), or ''nirmanakaya'' (Sanskrit) of the Rigden.

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is regarded as the first in this lineage of Sakyongs, and as such he is referred to as the "Druk Sakyong", or "Dragon Earth-Protector". In 1978, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche performed a ceremony officially confirming Ösel Rangdröl as his Shambhala heir and the future Sakyong.

Sakyong Wangmo

The consort of the Sakyong is referred to as the Sakyong Wangmo. The first Sakyong Wangmo was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's widow, Lady Diana Mukpo. The present Sakyong Wangmo is Khandro Tseyang Ripa Mukpo, daughter of His Eminence Terton Namkha Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche, to whom Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche was married on June 10, 2006 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The marriage event was largely publicized and included a lhasang held at Citadel Hill National Historic Site. Khandro Tseyang was recently empowered as Sakyong Wangmo in a ceremony held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Khandro Tseyang Ripa Mukpo have a baby girl named Drukmo Yeshe Sarasvati Ziji Mukpo (Lady Dragon Wisdom), born August 11, 2010.

Bibliography

Books

''Ruling Your World: Ancient Strategies for Modern Life'', Morgan Road Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7679-2065-1

''Turning the Mind into an Ally'', Riverhead Books, 2004, ISBN 1-57322-345-X

Articles

It's All in the Mind in ''Shambhala Sun'', November 2006.

See also

Shambhala Training

Rigden kings

Notes

References

Hayward, Jeremy (2007) ''Warrior-King of Shambhala: Remembering Chogyam Trungpa'' ISBN 0-86171-546-2

External links

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche's homepage

Interview with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on relationships, loneliness and "Ruling Your World."

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:Kagyu Category:Lamas Category:Nyingma Category:Rinpoches Category:Tibetan people Category:Tulkus Category:Tibetan Buddhists from India Category:Non-traditional Buddhism

de:Sakyong Mipham fr:Sakyong nl:Sakyong Mipham ja:サキョン・ミパム ru:Сакьёнг Мипам Ринпоче zh:萨姜米庞仁波切

|thdl=Ju Mipam Namgyel Gyamtso|e=Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyamtso|tc=米龐仁波切|s=米庞仁波切|p=Mǐpáng Rénbōqiē}} Jamgön Ju Mipham, or Mipham Jamyang Namgyal Gyamtso (1846–1912) (also known as "Mipham the Great") was a master of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and one of the leading figures in the Ri-me (non-sectarian) movement in Tibet.

Derivation of name

"Ju" ("holding") was Mipham's family name as his paternal clan is said to have originated as clear light deities who came to the human world holding a rope. "Jamgön" or "Jamyang" indicates that he was considered to be an emanation of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. His maternal uncle, Minister-Lama Drupchok Pema Tarjay, named him Mipham Gyamtso ("Invincible Ocean" or "Unconquerable Ocean").

Biography

Early life

Mipham the Great was born to an aristocratic family in 1846 in the Derge Principality of Kham or Eastern Tibet. He was recognized as an exceptional child from a young age, memorizing texts as early as age six. By the age of ten he had already composed many texts. At twelve, he entered the monastery as an ordinary monk of the Ogmin Urgyen Mindrolling lineage at a branch monastery of the great Nyingma seat Shechen.

When he was fifteen or sixteen, after studying the very difficult Mindrolling system of chanting for only a few days and praying to Manjushri, he is said to have completely mastered it. In an 18-month retreat he accomplished the form of Manjushri known as 'Lion of Philosophers' (Tibetan: smra ba'i seng ge), using a liturgy composed by the fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje. He made many medicinal pills blessed with Manjushri's mantra, and many miraculous signs were said to have been manifest. After this, it was said that he could accomplish any sutra or tantra without any effort, and no text was unknown to him. He went to many lamas to obtain the necessary lungs (oral transmissions), but he needed no study or teachings for any texts.

Teachers

Mipham was "a luminary of the nineteenth century Nyingma renaissance and Rime movement ecumenical movement, which started in the Kham region of eastern Tibet". As such he received teachings from masters of all lineages Nyingma and Sarma alike. His root gurus were Dza Patrul Rinpoche, from whom he received instruction on Shantideva's ''Bodhicharyavatara'' and Dzogchen and the renowned master Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, from whom he received transmission of the orally transmitted or Kama and revealed or Terma lineages, and many other teachings. His other teachers included Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye; Dzogchen Khenpo Padma Vajra; Lab Kyabgon Wangchen Gyerab Dorje; Jubon Jigme Dorje; Bumsar Geshe Ngawang Jungne and Ngor Ponlop Jamyang Loter Wangpo.

Work and legacy

As scholar Robet Mayer remarks, Mipham "completely revolutionised rNying ma pa scholasticism in the late 19th century, raising its status after many centuries as a comparative intellectual backwater, to arguably the most dynamic and expansive of philosophical traditions in all of Tibetan Buddhism, with an influence and impact far beyond the rNying ma pa themselves."

Scope

In the Introduction to his critical study of the ontological debates between Mipham and his Gelugpa opponents (''Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness'') Lopon Karma Phuntsho defines Mipham as a polymath and gives this assessment of the scope of Mipham's work:

Mipham's works on both the exoteric or Sutrayana teachings and the esoteric or Vajrayāna teachings have become core texts within the Nyingma tradition. These works now hold a central position in the curriculum of all Nyingma monasteries and monastic colleges — occupying a place of esteem similar the works of Sakya Pandita and Gorampa in the Sakya tradition; those of Tsongkhapa in the Gelug tradition and of Kunkhyen Padma Karpo in the Drukpa Kagyu. Together with Rongzompa and Longchenpa, Mipham is considered to be one of the three "omnscient" writers of the Nyingma tradition.

Commentaries on Buddhist Śāstra

Although Mipham wrote on a wide range of subjects, Prof. David Germano identifies the most influential aspect of Mipham's career in that he "was the single most important author in the efflorescence of Nyingma exoteric literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Grounding himself theoretically in the writings of Longchenpa and other great Nyingma authors, Mipham produced brilliant exegetical commentaries on the great Indian philosophical systems and texts with a Nyingma orientation.".

E. Gene Smith also judged that Mipham's greatest contribution was "in his brilliant and strikingly original commentaries on the Indian treatises." Prior to Mipham, Nyingmapa scholars "had seldom written detailed pedagogical commentaries on the ''śāstras'' of exoteric Buddhism." Until his time the colleges or shedra associated with the great Nyingma monasteries of Kham, such as Dzogchen, Shechen, Kathog, Palyul and Tarthang lacked their own exegetical commentaries on these exoteric Mahayana ''śāstras'', and students commonly studied Gelug commentaries on these fundamental texts. Grounding himself in the writings of Śāntarakṣita, Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo, and Longchenpa, Mipham produced a whole array of brilliant exegetical commentaries on the great Indian philosophical systems and texts that clearly articulated a Nyingma orientation or view.

The texts include his commentaries on the ''Mulamadhyamakakarika'' or ''Fundamental Stanzas on Wisdom'' by Nagarjuna; the ''Introduction to the Middle Way'' (Sanskrit: Madhyamakāvatāra) of Chandrakirti; the ''Quintessence of all Courses of Ultimate Wisdom'' (Jnanasarasamuccaya) of Aryadeva; commentaries on the major works of the Indian Buddhist logicians Dharmakirti and Dignaga; commentaries on the ''Five Treatises of Maitreya'' most notably, the ''Abhisamayalamkara''; commentaries on several works of Vasubandhu including the ''Abhidharmakosha''. Miphams commentary on the ninth chapter of Shantideva's ''Bodhicaryavatara, '' the ''Shertik Norbu Ketaka (), "threw Tibetan scholarly circles into several decades of heated controversy," but "it was not the only tempest Mipham's new expositions raised." His commentary on the ''Madhyamakalamkara'' of Śāntarakṣita was also considered highly controversial.

Vajrayana works

Manjusri

As a scholar and meditator Mipham was so accomplished that he was enthroned as an emanation of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. Most of the Fifth volume of his collected works consists of works related to Manjusri.

Guhyagarbha Tantra

Mipham's commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra is entitled ''The Essence of Clear Light'' or ''Nucleus of Inner Radiance'' ()— it is based on Longchenpa's commentary,'' Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions'' which explains the Guhyagarbha from the Dzogchen point of view.

Kalacakra

Mipham showed particular interest in the Kalachakra and the kingdom of Shambhala, and one of his last and most extensive of his esoteric works are his two volumes of commentary, initiation and sadhana related to the Kalachakra Tantra, the esoteric teaching from Shambhala. Before he died in 1912, he said to his students that now he was going to Shambhala.

Dzogchen

It may appear that Mipham did not write extensively on Dzogchen (The Great Perfection) however there are many references to it throughout his original compositions. One volume of his writings comprises short, pithy instructions on the view, meditation and practice of Great Perfection. Volume 24 contains his commentary on Jigme Lingpa's Yonten Dzöd and a three-part original exposition of Great Perfection, the Trilogy of Fundamental Mind. Only some parts of the first section of this may be by Mipham Rinpoche's own hand. Much or all of that section, as well as second and third are based on notes and recollections of Mipham's closest disciple, Shechen Gyaltsab, who in turn was one of the principle teachers of the late Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Mipham Rinpoche regretted the incompleteness of the Trilogy but nevertheless it is a mine of profound commentary on Great Perfection, especially in defending those teachings against its critics, and clearing up misconceptions and misinterpretations of Dzogchen, such as confusing it with certain aspects of teachings of the New Tantras as was common in Mipham's day.

Besides his texts explicitly concerned with Dzogchen, many of Mipham Rinpoche's other works are written with Dzogchen in mind—if not as the subject, then as an overriding theme. Among those are the "Five Lotuses" and "Five Swords", short and intermediate-length commentaries on the essence of wisdom and language; the Beacon of Certainty which is perhaps the most essential of Mipham's original writings; and in many of Mipham's liturgies (such as those of Gesar), his essays of practical advice (gtams-tshogs), his verses of praise to Manjushri, Sarasvati and other persons, historical or otherwise (bstod-tshogs), and in one of his most famous compositions which is an 'aspiration' (smon-lam), Mipham makes clear—either explicitly or using coded language—the centrality of Dzogchen/Great Perfection to his view, meditation, practice and experiential realization.

Mipham and Gesar

Throughout his life, Mipham showed a particular interest in the legend of the warrior king Gesar of Ling, a 12th century figure whose epic is well-known and widely celebrated in eastern Tibet, and about whom Mipham wrote extensively.

The Gesar practice, known as "The Swift Accomplishment of Enlightened Activity Through Invocation and Offering" () arose in the mind of Mipham as a gong-ter and was written down over the course of 3 years from the age of 31 to 34. This practice invokes Gesar and his retinue and requests him to assist practitioners.

Medicine

Mipham's medical works continue to be highly regarded to this day.

Astrology and divination

Mipham also wrote extensively about astrology which was, in his words, a "delightful game" that he mastered in his teens but later applied to more serious topics such as medicine; these two topics, with various texts on more or less related topics of divination, occupy perhaps 2,000 pages of his writing. An entire volume of Mipham's is devoted to Ju-thig or divination using knots, a method that might be termed "Bon" in origin, for want of a more accurate term; this may have been the legacy of his family, who were doctors for several generations. Throughout his writings there are many resources for divination, in addition to astrology, including several rituals for looking in mirrors (pra-mo), one using dice (mo), pulling different-length 'arrows' (Wylie: da dar) out of a quiver and so on, compelling a non-human "bird" to whisper future news in one's ear, and so on. In one short text he prescribes various methods of divination (all drawn, Mipham emphasizes, from Tantric scriptures and commentaries) that make use of unusual sources of augury such as: the vicariously overheard chatter of women; sudden appearance of various animals, especially birds; weather phenomena; the shape, size and color of flames in the agnihotra or fire puja; the quality of burning butter lamps, especially the size of the flame, the amount and shape of smoke that arises; and the size and shape of the carbon deposit on the wick.

When some of his scholarly rivals thought it inappropriate for a monk to devote so much time to matters of future events, Mipham wrote a short essay explaining the purpose of divination, citing sources in the Sutras and Tantras where the utility and value of divination are explained.

Works on grammar and poetry

Other topics

Students

Mipham’s most important students were Dodrub Rinpoche, Terton Sogyal, the Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Gemang Kyab Gon, Khenpo Padmavajra, Katog Situ Rinpoche, Sechen Rabjam, Gyaltsab Tulku, Palyul Gyaltrul, Karma Yangtrul, Palpung Situ Rinpoche, Ling Jetrung, Adzom Drukpa (1842-1924), Tokden Shakya Shri, Ngor Ponlob, and others. The great tulkus of Sechen, Dzogchen, Katog, Palyul, Palpung, Dege Gonchen, Repkong and others of all lineages, Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma, all became his disciples.

Emanations of Ju Mipham

According to one account shortly before he died, Mipham told his attendant:

This may be interpreted as a statement that his mindstream would have no further 'emanations' (Wylie: ''sprul pa'' (tulpa); ''sprul sku'' (tulku)). Conversely, according to another account in which he mentions the mindstream in passing and prophesies the shortly before his death to his student Khenpo Kunphel:

In the above account, shortly after the departure of Khenpo Kunphel he stated publicly, "Now, soon I shall depart. I shall not be reborn again in Tibet, therefore do not search for me. I have reason to go to Shambhala in the north."

Subsequently a number of emanations have been recognized.

According to E. Gene Smith "At least three rebirths were recognized in the decade following his death: 1) Zhe chen Mi pham (a grandnephew of Mi pham rgya mtsho); 2) Tshe dbang bdud 'dul (1915/16-42) the last prince of Sde dge; 3. Khyung po Mi pham, an incarnation recognized by Rdzong gsar Mkhyen brtse 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros."

The next (third) Mipham in the line of the Dege Prince who died in 1942 was apparently born in Tibet in 1949 and recognised by Tengye Rinpoche of Lab i 1959 At that time he was enthroned and given responsibility for all monasteries previously held by the first and second incarnations. This third incarnation was also confirmed by Patrul Rinpoche who gave him relics of the previous incarnations and by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who he had recognized in a previous incarnation. This Mipham incarnate is the father of Thaye Dorje, one of two candidates to be recognized as the 17th Karmapa, and of 14th Sonam Tsemo Rinpoche, an important Gelug/Sakya tulku.

In 1995, Ösel Rangdröl Mukpo (b. 1962), the eldest son of renowned dharma master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Ani Könchok Palden, was recognized as a reincarnation of Mipham Rinpoche by HH Drubwang Padma Norbu Rinpoche, at the time the head of the Nyingma lineage. He is now known as Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and is the spiritual head of Shambhala International.

Alternate names

Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso ''(ʼJam-mgon ʼJu Mi-pham rgya-mtsho)''

Jamgön Mipham ''(ʼJam-mgon Mi-pham)''

Ju Mipham ''(ʼJu Mi-pham)''

Mipham Gyatso ''(mi pham rgya mtsho)''

Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatso ''(ʼju mi pham rnam rgyal rgya mtsho)''

Mipham Namgyal Gyatso ''(mi pham rnam rgyal rgya mtsho)''

Jamgon Mipham Gyatso ''(ʼjam mgon mi pham rgya mtsho)''

Works of Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso translated into English

Kunsang, Erik Pema (''trans.'') ''Gateway to Knowledge''. Rangjung Yeshe Publications.

* Vol 1 (1997) ISBN 9627341290

* Vol 2 (2002) ISBN 9627341428

* Vol 3 (2002) ISBN 9627341460

* Vol 4 (Forthcoming)

Dharmachakra Translation Committee (''trans.'') Ju Mipham, ''Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham''. Snow Lion Publications (2007)

Doctor, Thomas H. (''trans.'') '' Speech of Delight: Mipham's Commentary of Shantarakshita's Ornament of the Middle Way''. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publicaions (2004). ISBN 1559392177

Padmakara Translation Group (''trans.'') Shantarakshita & Jamgon Mipham ''The Adornment Of The Middle Way''. Shambhala Publications (June 2005) ISBN 1-59030-241-9

Padmakara Translation Group (''trans.'') Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara with Commentary by Jamgön Mipham. Shambhala Publications 2002. ISBN 1570629420

Padmakara Translation Group (''trans.'') ''White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava'' by Jamgön Mipham. Shambhala Publications (2008)

Petit, John Whitney. ''Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzochen, the Great Perfection''. Boston: Wisdom Publications (1999). ISBN 0861711572

Tulku, Tarthang (translator) ''Calm and Clear'' by Lama Mipham. Emeryville, CA: Dharma Publishing (1973) ISBN 091354602X (illustrations by Arthur Okamura)

Hopkins, Jeffery (''trans. & ed.'') ''Fundamental Mind: The Nyingma View of the Great Completeness'' by Mi-pam-gya-tso, comm. by Khetsun Sangpo Rinbochay. Snow Lion Publications (2006) ISBN 1559392509

Rinpoche, Thrangu. ''Middle-way Meditation Instructions of Mipham Rinpoche''. Namo Buddha Publications (2001). ISBN 0962802662

Scott, J. ''Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being with Commentary by Mipham''. Snow Lion Publications

Yeshe Gyamtso ''Garland of Jewels: The Eight Great Bodhisattvas''. KTD Publications

Translations available online

Mipham's "Sword of Wisdom: For Thoroughly Ascertaining Reality' (DRG) (don rnam nges shes rab ral gri)

Notes

Sources

Primary sources

"Sherdrel Ketaka" The commentary of 9 Chapter of Bodhisattavacharya (shes rab le'u'i tshig don go sla bar rnam par bshad pa nor bu ke ta ka) (accessed: Sunday November 8, 2009)

Mipham's don rnam nges shes rab ral gri "The Sword of Prajna (DRG) & the translation of this text in English is also freely available from Lotsawa House Online

Root text of "Umajen" or "Madhyamakalamkara" by Shanta Rakshita. Commentary ("Jamyang Gyepai Zhalung") by Mipham Rinpoche.

Further reading

;Studies of Mipham's thought

Phuntsho, Karma. ''Mipham's Dialectics and Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither''. (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism series).London: RoutledgeCurzon (2005) ISBN 0415352525

Duckworth, Douglas S. ''Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition.'' SUNY Press (2008) ISBN 9780791475218

External links

'Jam-mgon 'Ju Mi-pham rgya-mtsho - Open Library

Jamgon Ju Mipham Rinpoche

Mipham Rinpoche - Rigpa Wiki

Mipham Rinpoche Timeline

Mipham Rinpoche - Rangjung Yeshe Wiki

TBRC P252 mi pham rgya mtsho at TBRC

The Life and Works of Mipham Rinpoche - from Petit, John Whitney. ''Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzochen, the Great Perfection''. Boston: Wisdom Publications (1999). ISBN 0861711572 p. 19-39

Lotsawa House - Translations of several texts by Mipham Rinpoche.

The Life of Mipham Jamyang Namgyal (1846–1912)

Table of Contents for the 27 volumes of the Collected Works of Mipham - in Tibetan

H.E. 2nd Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche

H.E. 3rd Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche

Ju Mohar Monastery - Mipham Rinpoche's monastery, where he accomplished Manjushri whilst on retreat

Category:Buddhist philosophers Category:Nyingma Lamas Category:19th-century Lamas Category:Lamas from Tibet Category:Rinpoches Category:Tibetan philosophers

de:Jamgön Ju Mipham Gyatsho es:Mipham pl:Mipham Rinpocze ru:Мипам zh:米龐仁波切