Buddhism is the world’s oldest missionary religion. Since its beginnings some 2,500 years ago in northern India, it has spread to nearly every region of the world. There are now more than 350 million Buddhists in the world, most of whom belong to one or the other of the 2 major schools: the Mahayana and the Theravada. Buddhist core philosophical tenets and beliefs include Karma,

Buddhist tradition holds that the man who would become the Buddha was born in a small village near what is now the border between Nepal and India in the middle of the 6h century B.C.E. He was born into a Kṣatriya family, part of the Śākya clan, and was given the name Siddhārtha (he whose goal will be accomplished) Gautama. It was clear that he

As Buddhism gained followers and monks began to form distinct groups, often united on the basis of doctrinal commonalities and matters of monastic discipline, Buddhism was marked by a doctrinal explosion. This doctrinal profusion Buddhists is truly one of the hallmarks of Buddhism. That said, however, certain key doctrines also are shared by all. Underlying virtually all of Buddhism is the basic doctrines of Samsāra,

The central theme of the Buddhist ethics is the cultivation of mindfulness (sati)— - to develop a mental attitude of complete and selfless awareness, a mental attitude that necessarily influences the manner in which one acts toward other living beings, a mental awareness that fundamentally informs one’s every act and intention to act. The pañcha śīla are the basic ethical guidelines for the layperson, the

Tradition holds that during the first rainy-season retreat after the Buddha’s death, in 483 BCE., 500 of Buddha’s disciples gathered at Rajagriha (present-day Rajgir, in Bihar) – - to agree the contents of the Dhamma and Vinaya and orally collected all of the Buddha’s teachings into 3 sets, or “three baskets” (Tripitaka; Pali, Tipiṭaka): Ānanda recited the Suttas, the monk Upāli recited the Vinaya, the

The Buddha’s immediate disciples not only formed the first Buddhist community but also were responsible for orally preserving his teachings. One of the most important of these early followers was Ānanda, the Buddha’s cousin, who accompanied the Buddha for more than 20 years and figures prominently in early Buddhist texts. Perhaps the most important theologian of early Buddhism was Nāgārjuna (c. 150 – c. 250

Theravada Buddhism comes from the teachings of the Buddha, who lived in the 5th century B.C.E. The Theravada (School of the Elders, in the Pali language) is the sole surviving branch of the earliest Buddhism. Its primary emphasis was on monastic life, with the single goal of individual Liberation through Enlightenment, until the early 20th century, when it became more widely available. Laypeople practice generosity

*/ 1. Arhat The Sanskrit term Arhat (Pāli, Arahant ) derives from the root arh ( Arhati ) and literally means “ worthy ” or “ deserving .” The term is especially important in Theravāda Buddhism , where it denotes the highest state of spiritual development, but it also has pre-Buddhist and non-Buddhist applications. 2. History and Development of the Term In Vedic and non-Vedic

Ālaya-Vijñāna is the Sanskrit term denoting, roughly, “storehouse” consciousness, a conception of unconscious mental processes developed by the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism in the 3-5th centuries CE. Ālaya-Vijñāna appears in such “Yogācāra” scriptures as the Saṁdhi-nirmocana Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, but is most systematically treated in the scholastic treatises of Asaṅga (c. 315-390) and Vasubandhu (c. mid-4th to mid-5th centuries).

Within the Buddhist tradition there exist enormously sophisticated systems of thought: Whether these systems should be regarded as “philosophy” or “theology” or something else is a difficult question and a topic of much debate: The Buddhist term most closely related is Dharma, which means something like truths or teachings, especially teachings about how to live. But it is not what professional philosophers in modern West