Professional Documents
Culture Documents
RELS 200 L01 W23 23.1 2023.02.27 Buddhism 1
RELS 200 L01 W23 23.1 2023.02.27 Buddhism 1
Sangha
viharas
PITAKAS
Sutra Pitaka
Vinaya Pitaka
Abhidharma Pitaka
Emperor Ashoka
Stone pillars throughout empire
• age 29 – left palace and family, cut hair, became and dressed as a
renouncer
• asceticism
Now mainly in India, Sri Lanka, SE Asia and East Asian nations
PRIMARY TEXTS
Tripitaka (= The Three Baskets)
Main Teaching
Four Noble Truths
Teach about suffering and its cure
- Condition is suffering
- Cause is desire (craving)
- Cure is elimination of desire
- Course to liberation is the Eightfold Path
Main Emphases
The Three Refuges:
- The Buddha (teacher)
- The Dharma (teaching)
- Sangha (community)
Hierarchy
Monks (male and female)
Laity
Subgroups – Theravada – closest to original
• c.38 % - strongest in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos
and Burma (Myanmar). It is sometimes called 'Southern
Buddhism'.
• 'the doctrine of the elders’ (= senior Buddhist monks)
Subgroups - Mahayana
• c.50% of Buddhists
• strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia
• not a single group but a collection of Buddhist traditions: Zen, Pure
Land, Tibetan among others
Subgroups - Vajrayana
• c. 6%
• one may reach enlightenment in a single lifetime, via spiritual tools
such as visualization and mantra, breath and physical exercises (instead
of taking many lifetimes via meditation, morality, compassion, etc.)
Relation to other religions
Protest against Vedic (Hindu) religion, in particular:
• Rejection of caste system
• Rejection of authority of the Vedas
BUT
Retain ideas of
• karma
• rebirth
• liberation (called nirvana by Buddhists)