Indian Buddhism

Buddha is a title that means, 'Awakened One'. Compared to Buddhas, ordinary people are thought to be asleep to the true nature of reality. A Buddha is a being who has awoken to this reality and teaches others so that they may also wake up.

We know very little about the historical Buddha with any degree of certainty. The earliest sources about the Buddha's life depict him as a sramana. The Buddha probably lived sometime around the 5th century BCE. Recall that this was during the development of the renouncer traditions in Hinduism.

Dates of the Buddha
Traditional dates of the Buddha according to the Theravada or southern tradition are 566-486 BCE. Contemporary scholarship tends to place the death of the Buddha much closer to 400 BCE than 500 BCE.

Life of the Buddha (Scholarly historical version)
The earliest sources state that the Buddha was born Siddhartha Gautama (Pali: Siddhattha Gotama), the son of a local chieftain in a place called Kapilavastu on what is now the Indian-Nepalese border. As the son of an aristocrat, he was a member of the warrior (ksatriya) class. At some point he became disillusioned with his comfortable and privileged life. Troubled by sickness, old age and death, he renounced the world and became a wandering ascetic. After practising severe asceticism for many years, Siddhartha gave up this method and meditated under a tree on the banks of the Nairanjana river. According to tradition, he gained enlightenment (bodhi) under this tree. The Buddha then devoted the rest of his life to wandering around north India teaching what he had realised. By the time of his death at the age of around 80, he had attracted a large number of followers and supporters. He was cremated and his remains were divided up and enshrined in a number of monuments throughout India known as stupas.

Life of the Buddha (legend)
Buddhists accept the Indian belief in the cycle of rebirth (samsara). They maintain that all Buddhas spent their previous life as a god in the heaven of Contented (Tusita), just prior to being reborn as a human and becoming a Buddha. In this heaven the Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) waits until the appropriate time to be reborn. He has achieved this exalted state through practising the perfections (paramita) for countless lifetimes. The current Buddha was once many aeons ago an ascetic named Sumedha who met a former Buddha named Dipamkara. Inspired by Dipamkara's infinite wisdom and compassion, Sumedha vowed to do whatever was necessary to become a Buddha himself. For innumerable lifetimes he practiced the perfections of generosity, morality, desirelessness, vigour, wisdom, patience, truthfulness, resolve, loving kindness and equanimity. Many stories called the Jatakas recount the Bodhisattva's previously lives perfecting this various virtues.

When the time was right, the Bodhisattva took rebirth in India as the son King Suddhodhana and Queen Maya. As soon as he was born in a place called Lumbhini Grove, he took seven steps to the north and declared, 'I am chief in the world, I am best in the world, I am first in the world. This is my last birth. There will be no further rebirth'. Seven days after his birth, his mother died and took rebirth in Tusita Heaven.

Shortly after the Bodhisattva's birth, Brahman specialists indicated that the boy possessed the 32 marks of the 'Great Man', and would either become a world-conquering monarch or renounce the world and become an enlightened being. The king, wishing his son to become a ruler, sheltered him from all the pain and suffering in the world and surrounded him with a life of luxury. At the age of 29, Prince Siddhartha had a beautiful wife named Yasodhara (or Gopa) and a son named Rahula. But one day out of curiosity, the Prince had his charioteer, Channa, take him beyond his palace walls. On successive occasions he witnessed an old man, a sick man, a dead man and an ascetic. This inspired him to renounce the world. For the next six years he practised various meditational systems and severe austerities. Finally giving up on extreme asceticism, he sat under a tree and meditated until he attained enlightenment, or nirvana. Legends recount that on the night of his enlightenment he was tempted by Mara (the Buddhist Satan). The exact nature of his enlightenment is variously described but the general idea is that he realised the true nature of suffering (duhkha), is origin, its cessation and the path leading to this cessation. Seeing the true nature of reality (Dharma), he attained freedom from all suffering and rebirth and attained a state of permanent transcendental Bliss (nirvana). At first the Buddha was not going to teach, but the god Brahma came to him and requested that he do so. His first sermon called 'Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma' he taught to the group of five ascetics with whom he had performed severe austerities. After hearing his words, the five become arhats-Buddhist saints who have rid themselves of the sufferings of samsara. This was the beginning of a 45 year teaching career. At the age of 80 the Buddha attained his 'full going out' (parinirvana) never to be reborn.

The nature of the Buddha
What happens to a Buddha after death? The early texts make four statements: one cannot say that the Buddha exists after death, does not exist, both exists and does not exist, and neither exists nor does not exist. In other words, nirvana is a state that completely transcends ordinary words and concepts and cannot be understood by someone trapped within samsara. A Buddha is a unique being that has uprooted all hatred, attachment and delusion, and only acts out of compassion, generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom.

Bodies of a Buddha
According to ancient sources the Buddha once said, 'He who sees Dharma, sees me; he who sees me, sees Dharma'. Ideas like this led to the belief that the Buddha possesses at least two bodies: a physical body (rupa-kaya) and a Dharma-body (dharma-kaya). The physical body also has two aspects: the gross external body, and a subtle body possessing the 32 marks of a 'Great Man'. The Dharma-body is the collection of perfect qualities that constitute the 'personality' or psychological make-up of the Buddha.

Three types of Buddhas
There are commonly understood to be three types of enlightened beings:
1. Perfect and fully awakened ones (samyak-sambuddha) like the historical Gautama;
2. those who are awakened as a disciple of such a Buddha (sravaka-buddha);
3. solidary buddhas (pratyeka-buddha), who become enlightened by their own efforts but fail to teach.

The Buddha is seen as the supreme Teacher who brings the Teaching (Dharma) to beings. The community of followers is known as the Sangha. The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are the 'Three Jewels' of Buddhism.
Formally going for 'refuge' to the Three Jewels defines an individual as a Buddhist.
The traditional formula is, 'To the Buddha I go for refuge; to the Dharma I go for refuge; to the Sangha I go for refuge' (said three times).

The primary source of this information is an excellent book by Rubert Gethin titled 'The Foundations of Buddhism' (Oxford UP, 1998).

The Buddha did not write any books, nor did his immediate followers. Buddhist teachings were passed down orally until about the 1st century BCE. What the Buddha taught is called Dharma. Dharma is both the true of things and the way one should act. In this sense, Buddhist Dharma is the same as Hindu Dharma.

For the Buddha, 'Dharma was profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the sphere of mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise'.

Buddhist Dharma cannot be acquired through scholarly or intellectual study alone. Knowledge of Dharma is said to come about through three kinds of understanding:
1. through listening
2. through reflection
3. through meditation

The aim of Buddhism is to live a particular kind of spiritual life that leads to the special knowledge or wisdom (prajna) that realises Dharma.

In the Theravada tradition, they characterise Dharma as having three aspects:
1. the textual tradition
2. practice
3. realisation

According to legend, some three months after the Buddha's death there was communal recitation of his teachings by 500 or his enlightened followers (arhats) commonly referred to in modern writings as 'the first Buddhist council'. According to accounts of this council, the Buddha's teachings were divided into two categories:
1. discourses of the Buddha (sutras)
2. rules of discipline for the Buddhist monks and nuns (vinaya)

Later canonical collections of Buddhist writings add a third category, 'further' or 'higher' Dharma (abhidharma). The sutras, vinaya and abhidharma are often called the 'Three Baskets' (tripitika) of Buddhist teaching.

The three principle canons of Buddhist scriptures that survive correspond to the three main traditions of Buddhism:
1. The Pali canon of Theravada or southern Buddhism (50 volumes in modern print);
2. The Chinese Tripitika of eastern Buddhism (55 volumes each with 1000 pages of Chinese characters); and
3. The Tibetan Kanjur (scriptures) and Tenjur (commentaries) (300 volumes of the traditional poti book format).

Although there is considerable overlap, each canon is different. The Chinese and Tibetan canons were translated from Indian sources over hundreds of years. Translation of Indian texts into Chinese began in the 2nd century CE and continued for over 800 years. The Tibetan translations began in the 7th century and continued until the 13th.

The Pali Canon
The Pali Canon is said to have been brought from India to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE in oral form by monks. The tradition states it was first written down in the 1st century BCE. This is the only canon that survives in an Indic language.

The Buddha's discourses are generally divided into four collections (called Nikayas or Agamas) according to their length. They exist now in Pali and in Chinese. They are:
1. the collection of long discourses (30 sutras)
2. the collection of middle length discourses (150 sutras in Pali and 200 in Chinese)
3. the 'grouped collection' of short sutras
4. the 'numbered collection' of short sutras

All of the Pali Nikayas have been translated into English. Most of the Chinese Agamas have not been translated. The Pali Nikayas appear to 'constitute the common heritage of ancient Buddhism' (Gethin, p. 44).

In addition to the four Nikaya, the ancient Indian canons like the Pali canon preserved a 'minor collection' of miscellaneous texts, such as the Dharmapada ('Sayings on Dharma') and the Jataka stories about the Buddha's previous births.

Sutra and Abhidharma: the problem of textual authenticity

All Buddhist sutras begin the same: 'Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying at...' These are suppose to be the words of Ananda, the Buddha's faithful cousin and companion, who was witness to all of the Buddha's teachings and possesses a photographic memory. Not every sutras is spoken directly by the Buddha. Anything that someone has said that was inspired by the Buddha or approved by him could also be considered true 'Buddha-word' (buddhavacana).

'Four Great Authorities' (mahapadesa) were used to determine if teaching was authentic Dharma:
1. that is was heard from the Buddha himself,
2. that it was heard from a community of elder monks,
3. that it was heard from a group of learned monks,
4. that it was heard from one learned monk.

The Abhidharma is the further or higher dharma. It is a systematic philosophical account of the Buddha's teachings. We possess substantial knowledge of only two systems of Abhidharma from the ancient schools: the Theravada Abhidharma and the Sarvastivada Abhidharma. Although these schools claim the Abhidharma was compiled by the direct disciples of the Buddha and is therefore authentic word of the Buddha, others have rejected this claim.

The origin of the ancient Buddhist schools and their exegetical literatures

Because monastic Buddhism was more concerned with orthopraxy than orthodoxy, the earliest indications we find of splits within the monastic community deal with interpretations of the Vinaya (monastic rules), and not with doctrine. According to tradition, sometime about 100 years after the Buddha's death there was a 'second council' due to some disagreement over monastic rules. The Buddhist community of monks then split into two groups: the reformist 'elders' (sthavira / Pali: thera) and 'those of the great community' (mahasamghika).

100 years or so after this initial split there were other splits into numerous sub-schools. Ancient Buddhist sources give a traditional list of 18 schools, but this number seems to be more symbolic than actual. There seems to have been four main groups:
1. Mahasamghikas
2. Sthaviras
3. Vatsiputriya-Sammatiyas
4. Sarvastivadins

At a certain point in time commentaries or textbook on the Buddha's teachings were composed. This is known as exegetical literature. It does not have the same authority as the word of the Buddha, but is still very important to the various traditions. The exegetical literature of most of the ancient schools is lost. We only have significant knowledge of two traditions: Theravadins and Sarvastivadins.

One of the most important Theravadin works is the 'Path of Purification' (Visuddhimagga) composed by the monk Buddhaghosa in the 5th century CE. It outlines the Buddhist path to enlightenment and is divided into three sections:
1. on morality,
2. on concentration,
3. on wisdom or knowledge.

One of the most important Sarvastivadins works is the 'Treasury of Abhidharma' (Abhidharmakosa) by Vasubandhu composed also in the 5th century CE.

Mahayana sutras
From around the beginning the Common Era, a type of Buddhist sutra begins to appear. These were the earliest of the Mahayana or 'Great Vehicle' sutras. Mahayana seems to have emerged as a minority movement within the Buddhist monastic community and continued to be such for many centuries. The production of Mahayana sutras span six or seven centuries. Over time a number of important commentaries and treatise were written based on these sutras. Two of the most important philosophical schools that developed from these were the Madhyamaka school of Nagarjuna (2nd century CE), and the Yogacara school founded by Asanga and Vasubandhu (4th-5th century). The traditions states that this was the same Vasubandhu who wrote the Abhidharmakosa, but modern scholarship questions this.

The primary source of this information is the excellent introduction by Rupert Gethin, 'The Foundations of Buddhism' (Oxford UP, 1998)

The Mahayana was a new movement in Buddhism that began most likely between 100 BCE and 100 CE. It is not associated with any individual or school, nor is it known from where in India it originated. It is now widely accepted that the Mahayana emerged as a loose confederation of separate groups, each associated with one or more of a number new scriptures, or sutras. Traditionalist, or 'mainstream' Buddhists denied that the new literature was 'the word of the Buddha' (buddhavacana), like the early Buddhist sutras (Pali: suttas). Mahayanists defended their scriptures generally by three methods:

1. They said the new scriptures were the inspired utterances coming from the still-existing Buddha, experienced through meditative visions and dreams.
2. They maintained that the source of the new scriptures was the same Perfect Wisdom that was the basis for the Buddha's own teaching of the Dharma.
3. They claimed that their scriptures were hidden by the Buddha in the underwater world of the serpent-deities (nagas) until there were humans capable of realising their deeper meaning, who would discover the teachings by means of meditative powers.

Three main ingredients of the Mahayana are (Peter Harvey, Introduction to Buddhism, 1990: 89-91):
1. wholehearted adoption of the vehicle of the bodhisattva
2. a new cosmology arising from visualization practices devoutly directed at the Buddha as a glorified, transcendent being.
3. a new perspective on Abhidharma, which derived from meditative insight into the deep 'emptiness' of phenomena and led to a new philosophical outlook.

The Bodhisattva
In mainstream Buddhism there are three types of enlightened beings:
1. arhats
2. solitary Buddhas,
3. and completely and perfectly enlightened Buddhas.

Each attains nirvana and is never again reborn.

According to the Mahayana 1 and 2 are inferior paths. One should become a completely enlightened Buddha. There are two views within Mahayana. One is that arhats and solitary buddhas attain a kind of awakening free from suffering, but this is inferior to the complete enlightenment of an omniscient Buddha. Another is that there is only one true path to complete Buddhahood, and the Buddha taught the other paths to inferior beings as a 'skill in means'. Eventually everyone must follow the path to omniscient Buddhahood.

A bodhisattva is one who vows to attain the complete enlightenment of Buddhahood in order to save all beings from suffering. This desire to become a Buddha for the sake of all beings is called bodhicitta or the 'mind of enlightenment'. It is what motivates the bodhisattva to attain Buddhahood.

Mahayana View of Buddhahood

In Mahayana Buddhism, Buddhas are thought to attain a 'non-abiding' nirvana that is neither outside of samsara, nor within it. This is because Buddhas are thought to possess three bodies:
1. manifestation bodies, or bodies of magical creation (nirmana-kaya) that appear in the worlds to help ordinary suffering beings.
2. enjoyment bodies (sambhoga-kaya) that appear in pure lands called 'buddha-fields' that can be accessed by highly developed spiritual beings, i.e. advanced bodhisattvas. This are cosmic buddhas
3. the Dharma Body (dharma-kaya) that is the body of ultimate truth. It is the ultimate nature of reality.
Manifestation buddhas like Siddhartha Gautama appear in different worlds, live, teach, die, etc. Cosmic Buddhas spend countless aeons in pure lands sending out manifestation buddhas; strictly speaking Dharma Body Buddhas don't do anything at all. According to Mahayana cosmology there are countless Buddhas and advanced bodhisattvas throughout all time and space. Through meditative trance (samadhi), one can have visions of these beings and travel to their worlds. There are Buddhas such as Maitreya, Amitabha, Aksokya. There are also advanced bodhisattvas such as Avalokitesvara (bodhisattva of compassion), Manjusr%u012B (bodhisattva of wisdom), Tara (the saviouress), etc. If prayed to these beings can aid one along the path to enlightenment.

The Vehicle of the Bodhisattva, or the Bodhisattva Path

According to developed Mahayana thought, all bodhisattvas go through ten stages where they develop the 'ten perfections'.
1. generosity
2. good conduct
3. patient acceptance
4. vigour
5. meditation
6. wisdom
7. skill in means
8. determination
9. strength
10. knowledge

See R. Gethin ('Foundations of Buddhism', p. 231) for a description of tenth stage bodhisattvas.

The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) Literature
Some of the earliest Mahayana sutras are from a collection known as the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita). The late Edward Conze, the foremost scholar of this literature, divides its development into four phases ('The Prajnaparamita Literature', 2nd Edition, Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1978 1978:1):
1. The elaboration of the basic text (c. 100 BCE-100 CE), which constitutes the original impulse.
2. The expansion of that text (c. 100-300 CE).
3. The restatement of the doctrine (c. 300-500 CE) in:
a. short texts
b. versified summaries
4. The period of Tantric influence and the absorption into magic (c. 600-1200 CE)

Conze identifies the basic text (phase 1) as the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines (Astasahasrika-Prajnaparamita) and its verse summary. The expansion of the basic text includes the Perfection of Wisdom in 18,000, 25,000 and 100,000 lines (phase 2). Famous texts from phase 3 include the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra.

Conze (1978: 2) summaries the religious message of this vast literature in two sentences:
1. 'One should become a bodhisattva (or Buddha-to-be), i.e. one who is content with nothing less than all-knowledge attained through perfect wisdom for the sake of all beings.'
2. 'There is no such thing as a bodhisattva, or as all-knowledge, or as a "being", or the perfection of wisdom, or as an attainment.'

To accept these contradictory propositions is to be perfect. Number 1, is motivated by the bodhisattva's compassion. Number 2, is the result of the bodhisattva's realization of emptiness.

Central to the Abhidharma is the distinction between two levels of truth: the conventional (that of persons and selves) and the ultimate truth (that persons and selves are ultimately simply aggregates of evanescent dharmas-physical and mental events). The main teaching of the Perfection of Wisdom is that from the perspective of perfect wisdom, even this account of the way things are is ultimately arbitrary.

The teaching of the emptiness is an attempt to subvert the Abhidharma theory of dharmas. To see any dharma as existing in itself (independently of everything else) is to grasp at it, to try and hold on to it. All dharmas are like dreams, mirages, bubbles, etc...

Nagarjuna and the Madhyamaka School

Nagarjuna was an Indian Buddhist monk who lived around the 2nd century CE. The Buddhist tradition sees him as the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. Some see his work as a systemisation of the Perfection of Wisdom literature. According to the Tibetan tradition, Nagarjuna visited the Nagas (serpent-deities) underwater and received the Perfection of Wisdom in 100,000 Lines from them. But Nagarjuna does not refer to the Perfection of Wisdom in his most famous works

The most important of Nagarjuna's philosophical texts is the Verses on the Middle Way (Madhyamaka-karika). The central idea of these verses is the notion of 'emptiness' (sunyata). According to Nagarjuna all dharmas (psycho-physical phenomena) lack an essence (svabhava), and therefore may be characterised by their emptiness. In the Verses on the Middle Way, he employs a dialectical logic in order to reduce to absurdity all viewpoints and thereby demonstrate that all views are based on the erroneous belief that language and concepts represent real substantial entities. By seeing that all views are ultimately empty, one is able to give up all attachments and thereby overcome suffering.

Nagarjuna stated that emptiness itself is empty of essence. Thus according to Madhyamaka, the only ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth. Emptiness is simply another way of stating that all things are dependently arisen. Therefore, according to Nagarjuna, there is no difference between nirvana and samsara. Enlightenment means simply that one realises that all things possess only conventional reality, are empty of essence and dependently arisen.

Yogacara Buddhism
Unlike Madhyamaka, there is one thing that possesses essence (svabhava) for Yogacara Buddhism. We get a hint from the other names of the school: Vijnanavada ('Doctrine of Consciousness'), or Cittamatra ('mind-only'). Mental 'stuff' is the only thing that exists. Or more phenomenologically / epistemologically-mental events are the only thing we have access to. According to Paul Williams ('Buddhist Thought', Routledge, 2000: 154), Yogacara was probably the most popular and influential of philosophical schools in India associated with the Mahayana. A number of early sutras such as the Samadhinirmocana, the Pratyutpanna and Dasabhumika suggest that 'all that belongs to the triple world is mind only'. Other sutras such as the Avatamsaka and Lankavatara contain important Yogacara material. But the School did not become a separate philosophical movement until the 4th century with the work of Asanga. Another important early Yogacara thinker was Vasubandhu. There is a legend that he was the brother of Asanga and Asanga converted him to Mahayana Buddhism.

In the Samdhinirmocana Sutra the antidote to nihilism is said to be the 'three aspects' (trisvabhava). This teaching of the three aspects explains what Mind is, and the relationship of Mind to phenomenal illusion (Williams 2000: 156). First of the three aspects is the 'constructed aspect' (parikalpitasvabhava). This is the world of subject-object duality ('grasper'; grahaka and 'grasped'; grahya). It is the world of

the unenlightened and also the realm of linguistic operation. Yogacara maintains that there is only one substratum underlying delusion and enlightenment, therefore, this duality is the wrenching apart of what is actually a unity, one basic 'substance' (ekadravya). The second is aspect is the 'dependent aspect' (paratantrasvabhava). It is the flow of cognitive experiences (vijnapti), the substratum, that which is erroneously polarised into subjects and objects. This flow of experiences is mentalistic and, although it is beyond language, is nevertheless real in some sense or there would be no experience at all. The third aspect is the 'perfected aspect' (parinispannasvabhava). This is the true nature of things as seen through meditation. Yogacara texts define this as emptiness, but it is a different emptiness than the Madhyamaka. They mean empty of the subject-object duality. Thus, the perfected aspect is the very absence of the constructed aspect in the dependent aspect. Therefore the ultimate reality in the ontological sense is the dependent aspect. The highest realisation, the perfected aspect, is the realisation that there is no subject-object duality in the dependent aspect.

Buddhism Beyond India

Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and SE Asia: Southern Buddhism

Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE. For the next thousand years or so Sri Lanka was a great centre of Buddhist learning. Beginning in the 5th century CE, a series of commentators drawing on traditions and textual resources of the Mahavihara, or 'Great Monastery' established in the 3rd century CE, developed the classical doctrinal form of the Theravada as their writings come down to us. The 5th century also saw the basic content and structure of the Pali canon established:
1. the Vinaya comprised of two works
2. the Sutta Pitaka comprised of the 4 major Nikayas and the Khuddaka Nikaya
3. the Abhidhamma Pitaka of seven works

Destructive wars seem to have lead to the disappearance of the order of nuns in the 10th or 11th century. The three ancient lineages (centred on the Mahavihara, Abhayagiri and Jetavanna monasteries) in Sri Lanka seem to have been re-established through contact with Burma.

In 1165, King Parakrama Bahu I unified the Sangha according to the rule of the Mahavira monastery. Other teachings, including aspects of Mahayana and Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, continued to exert influence in Sri Lanka in this period. From the 16th century, Sri Lanka has been affected by foreign powers such as the Portuguese (1505-1658), Dutch (1658-1796) and British (1815-1948). The modern period has seen new developments in Sri Lankan Buddhism, sometimes called 'Protestant Buddhism'

Whereas the Buddhism in SE Asia prior to the 12th century had been the religion of a small number of religious virtuosos and elite lay people, the Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka introduced by the Burmese monks became a popular religion. By the early 15th century at the very latest, the vast majority of people living in what is today Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos had become adherents of Theravada Buddhism.

The Thai, like other Theravada Buddhist peoples of Southeast Asia, adopted the ideal that every male should spend a period of time as a member of the Buddhist order. This ideal was realised by a boy becoming a novice for a period of time. As a novice, a boy learned to read and write Buddhist texts for copying purposes and memorised chants for rituals. This led to a very high degree of literacy in premodern Thailand among males (higher than France in the 17th century).

Among the Thai and Lao, it was thought that not only should a boy become a novice, but that a man should become a monk for at least a short time. After a few monks or years, most men returned to lay life.
Percentages of males who realised this ideal in pre-modern Thailand is not know, but even today in many villages, up to 2/3 of the men follow this ideal.
Although most men return to lay life, some stay and become life-long monks. Some monks become meditation experts and are thought to become powerful fields of merit. But more often, monks devote themselves to the study of Buddhist scriptures.

China, Korea and Japan: East Asian Buddhism

Buddhism began to enter China during the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), probably in the 1st century BCE or CE, principally via the ancient Silk routes through central Asia. From China Buddhism entered the Korean peninsula (fourth century) and thence Japan (sixth century).

The T'ang dynasty (618-907) witnessed the greatest flourishing of Buddhism in China. Buddhism continued to flourish in China until the end of the 13th century, from the 15th century is seems to have declined. The Communist take-over in 1949 and the 'Cultural Revolution' of 1966-72' witnessed the widespread suppression of Buddhism by the Chinese government.

The Schools of East Asian Buddhism

The schools of Chinese Buddhism divide into two main categories:
1. Those that have a more or less direct Indian counterpart
2. Those that are native to China

The schools native to China are:
1. Ch'an (Zen)
2. Pure Land
3. T'ien-t'ai
4. Hua-yen

The Ch'an tradition looks to the legendary figure of Bodhidharma as its founder. He is said to have brought Ch'an, or the 'meditation school', from India to China in the 5th or 6th century CE. According to this tradition, the lineage of teachings are passed down in a direct mind-to-mind transmission from master to student going back to the time of the Buddha.

A major split occurred in Ch'an tradition between those who believed in 'sudden enlightenment' and those that believed in 'gradual enlightenment'.

Ch'an is most famous for its emphasis on sitting meditation and the use of riddles (Chinese: kung; Japanese: Koan) to jolt the student from their habitual patterns of thought and prompt them into an awakening experience. The two most important Japanese Schools of Zen are called Rinzai and Soto.

The inspiration for Chinese and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism comes from three Buddhist scriptures:
1. The larger Sukhavativyuha
2. the smaller Sukhavativyuha
3. the Amitayurdhyana

The goal of Pure Land is to attain rebirth in the Buddha Amitabha's Pure Buddha Land, called Sukhavati. This is achieved through faith in this Buddha, visualisation and recitation of his name.

Both Tien-t'ai and Hua-yen schools try to reconcile the various Buddhist teachings and sutras by picking out one sutra as supreme and interpreting the others in its light. For Tien-t'ai this was the Lotus Sutra. For Hua-yen this was the Avatamsaka Sutra. Both schools developed highly philosophical arguments based on the notion that all phemonena 'interpenetrate' each other, so that a single mote of dust contains countless worlds.

Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibetan tradition makes reference to a first and second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet. The first diffusion occurred during the reign of the King Khri Srong-lde-brtsan (756-97?), when the Indian monk Santaraksita was invited to establish the first monastery, bSam-yas. Santaraksita is said to have required the aid of an Indian Yogin named Padmasambhava to subdue to demons of Tibet. After a period of suppression, the second diffusion of Buddhism began in the 11th century under the leadership of a Buddhist scholar and meditation master named Atisa (982-1054). Atisa also wrote a short but extremely influential summary of Buddhist practice called 'Lamp on the Path to Awakening' (Bodhipathapradipa). This text became the basis of the teachings on the stages of the path called in Tibetan Lam rim.

Tibetan Buddhist teaching and practice divides into two main types:

1. the conventional Mahayana 'gradual path' (Lam rim) of the perfections and stages as taught in the sutras and expounded by the tradition
2. the esoteric path of the tantras.

Tantra represents the final development of Indian Buddhism. It should not be regarded as a further development in Buddhist thought, but is rather a particular approach to the practice of the Buddhist path occurring within the general Mahayana philosophical framework. Tantra is also referred to as the 'the vehicle of spells' (mantrayana) and 'the vehicle of the diamond thunderbolt (vajrayana)

The Tibetan tradition links the practice of Tantra in India and its transmission to Tibet to a group of 84 'accomplished ones', or Siddhas. These are legendary figures know for their magic powers, and unconventional behaviour.

The Vajrayana is seen as a powerful and extremely effective method for attaining complete Buddhahood in a single lifetime, but is thought to require complete commitment and dedication.

The Tantras are generally classified according to a hierarchical scheme of four classes:
1. action
2. performance
3. yoga
4. supreme yoga

Effective practice of any Tantra requires the appropriate 'consecration' and instruction from a teacher who is a master of that Tantra. The practice of all stages of the Tantras involve complex and elaborate visualisations, prayers, mantras and rituals. The performance and yoga Tantras contain special visualisation on 'chosen deities' and buddhas; through a gradual process of identification with these beings, the practitioner is thought to develop special spiritual qualities. The higher Tantras focus on the inner workings of esoteric physiology in order to transform the unenlightened body into a perfect body of a buddha. These Tantras describe the practice of sexual union in order to unite the female energy (associated with wisdom) to the male energy (associated with compassion). Such practices may be visualised and would have to be by ordained monks in order for them not to break their monastic vows.

There are 4 main schools of Tibetan Buddhism:
1. rNying-ma-pas
2. bKa'-brgyud-pas
3. Sa-skya-pas
4. dGe-lugs-pas