Download Buddhism: An Overview

Buddhism: An Overview
Gautama Buddha. (566 BC - 486 B.C.; or perhaps 466 BC - 386 BC).
The Buddha's teaching.
The Four Noble Truths. The heart of the Buddha's new teaching is contained in what is often
called the Four Noble Truths.
(1) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of pain [dukkha]: birth is painful, old age is
painful, sickness is painful, death is painful, sorrow, lamentation, dejection, and despair
are painful. Contact with unpleasant things is painful, not getting what one wishes is
painful. In short the five khandas [aggregates] of grasping are painful.
(2) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cause of pain: that craving which leads to
rebirth, combined with pleasure and lust, finding pleasure here and there, namely, the
craving for passion, the craving for existence, the craving for non-existence.
(3) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of pain: the cessation without a
remainder of that craving, abandonment, forsaking, release, non-attachment.
(4) Now this, O monks, is the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain:
this is the noble Eightfold Path, namely, right views, right intention, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.
[Samyutta Nikaya, V.420; A Source Book in Indian Philosophy eds.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles Moore (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1957) p. 274f]
Karma and rebirth.
The Buddha accepted the reality of samsara, the repetitive cycle of rebirths, and karma, the
principle which regulates current states in light of past actions. But he did not believe in the
reincarnation of an enduring soul. All things constituting the world as we know it are
characterized by dukkha (suffering), anatta (absence of self, no-self), and anicca
(impermanence). The Buddha denied the reality of any substantial or enduring soul. What is
passed on in rebirth is not a soul but rather the cumulative effects of past actions which, in the
next life, form the “five aggregates” (khandas). This then gives the illusion of an enduring person
or soul.
Nirvana (nibbana in Pali)
The only thing which is permanent and not subject to change is nirvana. The Buddha held that
there is a deathless, permanent, unconditioned state which can be attained, and that the one who
does so will not be reborn in another life. This is nirvana, the religious ultimate, the only thing
which is unconditioned and permanent, the attainment of which is the goal of the devout
Buddhist. Generally, nirvana is described in Buddhist literature in negative terms -- as
"cessation", "absence of craving", "detachment", or "the unconditioned". Positively, however,
nirvana is release from the cycle of rebirths, or in other words, from the chains of karma.
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Buddhist Traditions
Theravada (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar)
Mahayana (Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan)
Vajrayana / Tibetan (Tibet, Mongolia)
Some differences between Theravada and Mahayana traditions
1. The canonical scriptures are different. Mahayana Buddhism has a much larger canon than
Theravada.
2. Mahayana puts greater stress upon metaphysical doctrines. One can see this in the growing
prominence of bodhisattvas in the Mahayana tradition. Bodhisattvas are said to be those about to
experience supreme enlightenment but who have taken a special vow to continue being reborn
into samsara, rather than entering nirvana, so as to deliver others from suffering by assisting in
their enlightenment. The bodhisattva thus came to represent the ideal of compassion.
3. Contrasting views on the person of the Buddha. Theravada Buddhists insist that, although
he was an utterly unique, superior man, Gautama Buddha was nevertheless a human being. As
Rahula puts it, "If the Buddha is to be called a 'saviour' at all, it is only in the sense that he
discovered and showed the Path to Liberation, Nirvana. But we must tread the Path
ourselves".[Walploa Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (New York: Grove Press, 1974) pp. 1-2]
Within Mahayana, however, the Buddha is seen as a "divine" figure, the perfect expression in
human form of the Absolute Buddha Nature. Mahayana gave the doctrine of the Buddha
sophisticated expression in the notion of the Three Bodies (Trikaya), three distinguishable, but
closely related, levels of "Buddhahood", or the Buddha essence.
4. Contrasting views on the way to attain liberation. Theravada Buddhism emphasizes selfeffort (jiriki). One attains liberation from samsara through one's own efforts, through many
lifetimes. Mahayana Buddhism, by contrast, is a wide path to liberation, open to the masses.
Some schools of Mahayana (Zen) stress rigorous self-effort. Others – Pure Land traditions –
stress that salvation/liberation is a gift of grace to be had through the merits of bodhisattvas or the
Amida Buddha.
5. Differing understandings of the nature of liberation / enlightenment / salvation. For
Theravada Buddhism, the human predicament is samsara, the endless cycle of rebirths. The
spiritual goal is liberation from karma and samsara. But as Buddhism moved from the Indian
subcontinent north into China during the first century A.D., and then later into Korea and Japan,
there was decreasing emphasis upon nirvana as release from samsara and greater stress upon the
much more positive notion of enlightenment in this life. The ideal became harmony within the
social and cosmic order, which is achieved through attaining a liberating insight into the actual
nature of reality.
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Buddhist Modernism
What is known today as Buddhism – not only in the West but also in modernizing Asian societies
-- is not simply a faithful transmission of the ancient teachings and practices of the early Buddhist
community in India, but rather a form of Buddhism that has been shaped through encounters with
Western colonialism, Christian missions, and modernization.
David McMahan observes, “What many Americans and Europeans often understand by the term
‘Buddhism’, however, is actually a modern hybrid tradition with roots in the European
Enlightenment no less than the Buddha’s enlightenment, in Romanticism and transcendentalism
as much as the Pali canon, and in the clash of Asian cultures and colonial powers as much as in
mindfulness and meditation.” This hybrid tradition is referred to as Buddhist modernism.
[David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2008) p. 5]
McMahan identifies three developments defining Buddhist modernism – detraditionalization,
demythologization, and psychologization.

Detraditionalization involves the modern tendencies to elevate reason, experience
and intuition over traditional practices and authority structures, so that Buddhist
practice becomes individualized and privatized, a matter of personal choice.

With demythologization traditional Buddhist beliefs regarded as problematic under
modernity – belief in the many levels of hell, meritorious actions, rebirth not only as
humans but also as animals or hungry ghosts, the existence of an array of demons,
spirits and gods -- are ignored or reinterpreted in non-literal terms.

Similarly, during the past century Buddhism has become especially linked to Western
psychology, with Buddhist metaphysical claims being translated into psychoanalytic
language and the interior life of the mind. Buddhism becomes a form of spiritual
therapy that can be practiced quite apart from accepting the traditional doctrines it
has advanced.
The Dharma Comes West
Europeans and Americans first became seriously interested in Buddhism during the 19th century,
as Eastern sacred texts were translated into Western languages and there was increased contact
with Asian peoples. The popularity of Buddhism is evident in Sir Edwin Arnold’s epic poem of
the life of the Buddha, The Light of Asia, published in 1879. It went through 60 English and 80
American editions and sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies. The most significant
propagator of Buddhism in the West was D. T. Suzuki (1870-1966).
Richard Hughes Seager distinguishes three broad groups within contemporary American
Buddhism [Richard Hughes Seager. Buddhism in America (Columbia University Press, 1999):
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
Descendents of 19th century Japanese and Chinese immigrants who settled in Hawaii
and the West Coast.

American, mainly non-Asian, converts to Buddhism after World War II.

The new wave of Asian immigrants to the U.S. after the 1965 immigration reform
laws, especially after the Vietnam War.
Buddhism in America is eclectic, mixing traditions which have tended to be quite separate in
Asia. Traditional teachings and practices are often retained in the ethnic immigrant Buddhist
communities, whereas non-Asian converts to Buddhism often minimize the traditional
metaphysical teachings in favor of a practical emphasis upon the therapeutic benefits of
meditation in ordinary life.
Some helpful resources:
Lim, David and Steve Spaulding, eds. Sharing Jesus Holistically with the Buddhist World
(William Carey Library, 2005).
Lopez, Donald S. Jr. The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History and Teachings
(Harper SanFrancisco, 2001).
Mackenzie, Vicki. Why Buddhism? Westerners in Search of Wisdom (Harper Collins, 2002).
McMahan, David L. The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford University Press,
2008).
McMahan, David L., ed. Buddhism in the Modern World (London: Routledge, 2012).
Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught, revised edition (Grove Press, 1974).
Seager, Richard Hughes. Buddhism in America (Columbia University Press, 1999).
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