Ascetic Practices and Buddhism: Buddhism arose in India at a time when a number of non-Vedic ascetic movements were gaining adherents: Śramaṇa traditions offered a variety of psychosomatic disciplines to attain and experience states transcending those of conditioned existence. Accounts of the Buddha’s quest for awakening depict him engaging in ascetic disciplines common to many Śramaṇa groups of his time for a period of 6

Maitreya is the Bodhisattva anticipated by all Buddhists traditions to become the Next Buddha of this world, Jambudvīpa. Currently dwelling in the Tuṣita heaven, Maitreya awaits rebirth at that time in the distant future when Śākyamuni Buddha’s dispensation will have been completely forgotten. Depicted as both - Bodhisattva and Future Buddha, Maitreya is frequently portrayed sitting Western-style with legs pendant, sometimes with ankles crossed.

Buddhānusmṛiti (recollection of the Buddha) is the first of a set of up to 10 anusmṛtis (acts of recollection or calling to mind) that are used for both meditative and liturgical purposes. Buddhist practitioners focus their minds on these subjects by reciting a set text or formula listing their salient qualities. The recollection of the Buddha was the most important anusmṛti, eventually becoming an independent

Whether the early Councils were truly historical events has long been a matter of contention in Buddhist communities: While most Asian Buddhists believe that the first Council was a historical event, its historicity is questioned by virtually all Buddhist scholars: They argue that while it was not unlikely that a small group of Buddha’s intimate disciples gathered after his death, a Council in the grand

The 1st Great Buddhist Council was convened just 3 months after the Great Demise of the Buddha. An immoral Bhikkhu named Subhadda who had joined the Sangha (monkhood) in his old age, made derogatory remarks to the effect that monks were now free to do as they like. That prompted the Venerable Kassapa, the third chief Disciple of the Buddha, to convene a Council of

The term Buddha, literally “awakened one,” is one of many Indian epithets applied to the founder of the Buddhist religion. A Buddha is defined, first and foremost, as one who has undergone the profoundly transformative experience known as Nirvāṇa and who, as a result, will never be subject to the cycle of birth and death again. Buddhists came to believe that other such Buddhas would

Jātaka is the Sanskrit and Pāli term for a particular genre of Buddhist literature. A Jātaka is a story in which one of the characters—usually the hero—is identified as a previous birth of the historical Buddha, as a man, a deity, or one of the higher animals. The existence of the Jātaka genre is based on the notion that the Buddha, on the night of

Jewels occupy important narrative and ritual spaces throughout the history of Buddhism. The Buddha routinely employed the metaphor of the jewel (rātna) in a variety of sūtras to refer to the unlimited value of Enlightened Wisdom, a value that can be seen as represented in the form of an infinitely beautiful and valuable jewel that at the same time stands in contrast to the limitations

The Arhat (Sanskrit) or Arahant (Pāli) is a being who has attained the state of Enlightenment that is the goal of Theravāda and other Mainstream Buddhist Schools. The Arhat is fully human yet has reached a transcendent state of wisdom and liberation that the texts describe as being almost identical with that of the Buddha. Arhat fulfils a role as an ideal for imitation veneration.