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112-513: The exact meaning varies between the various Buddhist schools and traditions . The best known interpretation is from the Mādhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism , whose founder was the Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher Nāgārjuna . For Nāgārjuna, the two truths are epistemological truths . The phenomenal world is accorded a provisional existence. The character of the phenomenal world

224-544: A classical Indian language . This language is Pāli , which serves as the school's sacred language and lingua franca . The different sects and groups in Theravāda often emphasize different aspects (or parts) of the Pāli canon and the later commentaries (especially the very influential Visuddhimagga ), or differ in the focus on and recommended way of practice. There are also significant differences in strictness or interpretation of

336-504: A Sutta of direct meaning as a Sutta of indirect meaning. Saṃmuti or samuti (Pāli; Sanskrit: saṃvṛti ), meaning "common consent, general opinion, convention", and paramattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: paramārtha ), meaning "ultimate", are used to distinguish conventional or common-sense language, as used in metaphors or for the sake of convenience, from language used to express higher truths directly. The term vohāra (Pāli; Sanskrit: vyavahāra , "common practice, convention, custom"

448-421: A careful examination of early Buddhist literature can reveal aspects of the pre-Aśokan history of Indian Buddhism. One of the early Western skeptics was French indologist Émile Senart , who argued in his Essai sur la legende du Buddha (1875) that the legends of Buddha's life were derived from pre-Buddhist myths of solar deities . The late Edward Conze held that there was an "absence of hard facts" regarding

560-444: A higher or ultimate reality. Nagarjuna's view is that "the ultimate truth is that there is no ultimate truth". According to Siderits, Nagarjuna is a "semantic anti-dualist" who posits that there are only conventional truths. Jay L. Garfield explains: Suppose that we take a conventional entity, such as a table. We analyze it to demonstrate its emptiness, finding that there is no table apart from its parts [...] So we conclude that it

672-654: A historical personage, although there must be some sayings or phrases derived from him". Nakamura adds that scholars must critically search the early scriptures for the oldest layer of material to find the "original Buddhism". Nakamura held that some of the earliest material were the gathas (verses) found in the Suttanipata , as well as the Sagatha-vagga of the Samyutta-Nikaya, the Itivuttakas and

784-468: A meaningful reconstruction is possible. "Early Buddhism" may also be used for considerably later periods. Various terms are being used to refer to the earliest period of Buddhism: Some Japanese scholars refer to the subsequent period of the early Buddhist schools as sectarian Buddhism . Pre-sectarian Buddhism may refer to the earliest Buddhism, the ideas and practices of Gautama Buddha himself. It may also refer to early Buddhism as existing until

896-552: A moderate skepticism which did not hypothesize about what the original Buddhism may have been and merely focused on looking at the sectarian sources which currently exist (and which do not go back to the earliest period). Filliozat argues that any reconstruction "would remain purely ideal" and might be lacking in key doctrines that might have been lost over time. Since all the canons were edited at different times throughout history, any reconstruction would never arrive at original Buddhism. Polish scholar Stanislaw Schayer (1899 - 1941)

1008-505: A nondual relationship between the two concepts. A metaphor for essence-function is "A lamp and its light", a phrase from the Platform Sutra , where Essence is lamp and Function is light. The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . It is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan , in the eighth century. Ju Mipham (1846–1912) in his commentary to

1120-619: A relative level and an absolute level. Based on their understanding of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra , the Chinese Buddhist monks and philosophers supposed that the teaching of the Buddha-nature was, as stated by that sutra, the final Buddhist teaching, and that there is an essential truth above emptiness ( śūnyatā ) and the two truths. The doctrine of emptiness ( śūnyatā ) is an attempt to show that it

1232-493: A sense that can only be guessed". These terms were used to identify texts or statements that either did or did not require additional interpretation. A nītattha text required no explanation, while a neyyattha one might mislead some people unless properly explained: There are these two who misrepresent the Tathagata . Which two? He who represents a Sutta of indirect meaning as a Sutta of direct meaning and he who represents

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1344-566: A set of polarities: Buddha-nature - sunyata, absolute-relative, sudden and gradual enlightenment. The Prajnaparamita Sutras and Madhyamaka emphasized the non-duality of form and emptiness: form is emptiness, emptiness is form, as the Heart Sutra says. The idea that the ultimate reality is present in the daily world of relative reality fitted into the Chinese culture which emphasized the mundane world and society. But this does not tell how

1456-474: A tentative hypothesis" and that it is also possible that these ideas later entered Buddhism, as a concession to "popular demand, just as the lower goal of birth in heaven ( svarga ) was admitted side by side with Nirvana." Conze thought that both were equally possible. The French scholar Constantin Regamey argues that Schayer's general position is cogent. Regamey argues that the various Buddhist canons, like

1568-725: A third "school" of Indian Mahāyāna. This movement heavily influenced East Asian and Tibetan Mahayana schools such as the Dashabhumika , Huayan , Tiantai , Jonang , Nichiren and Zen sects, as did both Madhyamaka and Yogacara. East Asian Buddhism or East Asian Mahayana refers to the schools that developed in East Asia and use the Chinese Buddhist canon . It is a major religion in China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. East Asian Buddhists constitute

1680-579: A very old, "pre-Canonical" tradition, which was largely, but not completely, left out of the Theravada-canon. Schayer searched through various early sources for ideas that contradict the dominant doctrinal positions of the early canon. According to Schayer, these ideas have were "transmitted by a tradition old enough and considered to be authoritative by the compilers of the Canon." He thus considers these ideas which were "doctrines contradictory to

1792-442: Is a central body of sutras "which is so similar in all known versions that we must accept these as so many recensions of the same original texts." Alexander Wynne has also argued for the historical authenticity of the early buddhist texts (contra skeptics like Gregory Schopen ) based on the internal textual evidence found inside them as well as archaeological and inscriptional evidence. As noted by T.W. Rhys Davids, Wynne points out

1904-445: Is a notable scholar who has questioned whether karma already played a role in the theory of rebirth of earliest Buddhism. According to Schmithausen, "the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology." According to Vetter, "the deathless" ( amata/amrta ) is concerned with the here and now. Only after this realization did he become acquainted with the doctrine of rebirth. Bronkhorst disagrees, and concludes that

2016-568: Is a period that is "shrouded in mystery and to which we cannot penetrate." Japanese Buddhologist Kogen Mizuno argues in his "Buddhist Sutras" (1982) that the material we possess may not contain the actual words of the Buddha because "they were not recorded as he spoke", but compiled after his death and also because they do not survive in the original language (some form of Magadhi Prakrit ) but "transmitted in other Indic languages of later periods, and without doubt conscious and unconscious changes in

2128-613: Is actually the word of the historical Buddha." His view is that: More persuasively, the Buddhist order in India might be considered the greatest scriptural composition community in human history. Given the extraordinary extent of the material passing at any one time under rubric of the “word of the Buddha,” we might simply pause and acknowledge that Indian Buddhists were extraordinarily facile litterateurs. The American scholar Gregory Schopen holds that "we cannot know anything definite about

2240-415: Is also used in more or less the same sense as samuti . The Theravādin commentators expanded on these categories and began applying them not only to expressions but to the truth then expressed: The Awakened One, the best of teachers, spoke of two truths, conventional and higher; no third is ascertained; a conventional statement is true because of convention and a higher statement is true as disclosing

2352-457: Is declared to be neither real nor unreal, but logically indeterminable. Ultimately, all phenomena are empty ( śūnyatā ) of an inherent self or essence due to the non-existence of the self ( anattā ), but temporarily exist depending on other phenomena ( pratītyasamutpāda ). In Chinese Buddhism , the Mādhyamaka thought is accepted, and the two truths doctrine is understood as referring to two ontological truths. Reality exists of two levels,

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2464-426: Is empty. But now let us analyze that emptiness […]. What do we find? Nothing at all but the table’s lack of inherent existence [...] To see the table as empty [...] is to see the table as conventional, as dependent. In Nāgārjuna 's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā the two truths doctrine is used to defend the identification of dependent origination ( pratītyasamutpāda ) with emptiness ( śūnyatā ): The Buddha's teaching of

2576-498: Is just as likely that textual agreement among the different canons was produced by parallel development and contact between the different Indian traditions. According to Constantin Regamey, the view followed by the "Franco-Belgian" school of buddhology (which applies to figures like Jean Przyluski , Louis de la Vallee Poussin , A. Weller, and A.B. Keith ) did not consider the Pali Canon a straightforward "faithful reflection of

2688-484: Is needed, which draws on numerous sources, historical evidence and the very internal contradictions found in the canon. He argues that a broader historical method can show that early Buddhism might have supported ideas that are similar to Brahamanical theories of consciousness or some Mahayana views on consciousness and Buddhahood. A similar view is defended by Christian Lindtner. Lindtner argues that some early Buddhist sources point to stainless formless consciousness which

2800-427: Is neither proper nor strictly justifiable to regard any metaphysical system as absolutely valid. It doesn't lead to nihilism but strikes a middle course ( madhyamāpratipada ) between excessive naïveté and excessive skepticism . Satya is usually taken to mean "truth", but also refers to "a reality", "a genuinely real existent". Satya ( Sat-yá ) is derived from Sat and ya . Sat means being, reality, and

2912-401: Is often divided into three major branches, traditions or categories: Another way of classifying the different forms of Buddhism is through the different monastic ordination traditions. There are three main traditions of monastic law ( Vinaya ) each corresponding to the first three categories outlined above: The terminology for the major divisions of Buddhism can be confusing, as Buddhism

3024-474: Is similar to Brahmanical ideas and later Mahayana views. He also argues that ancient Buddhist view of nirvana was likely cosmological (and had similarities with ancient Vedic cosmology) and that it was an eternal realm at the peak of existence (bhutakoti) one could reach by wisdom. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is regarded by the Buddhist tradition as the first discourse of the Buddha. Scholars have noted some persistent problems with this view. Originally

3136-591: Is tentative. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pāli Canon , the surviving portions of the scriptures of Sarvastivada , Mulasarvastivada , Mahīśāsaka , Dharmaguptaka and other schools, and the Chinese āgamas and other surviving portions of other early canons (such as the Gandharan texts ). Early proto-Mahayana texts which contain nearly identical material to that of

3248-586: Is the present participle of the root as , "to be" ( PIE *h₁es- ; cognate to English is ). Ya and yam means "advancing, supporting, hold up, sustain, one that moves". As a composite word, Satya and Satyam imply that "which supports, sustains and advances reality, being"; it literally means, "that which is true, actual, real, genuine, trustworthy, valid". The two truths doctrine states that there is: Chandrakīrti suggests three possible meanings of saṁvṛti : The conventional truth may be interpreted as "obscurative truth" or "that which obscures

3360-594: Is the work of one genius, even if he agrees that when it comes to the Buddha's biography "we know next to nothing". Peter Harvey affirms that the four older Nikāyas preserve an "early common stock" which "must derive from his [the Buddha’s] teachings" because the overall harmony of the texts suggest a single authorship, even while other parts of the Pali canon clearly originated later. The British indologist A. K. Warder writes that "we are on safe ground only with those texts

3472-412: Is variously divided by scholars and practitioners according to geographic, historical, and philosophical criteria, with different terms often being used in different contexts. The following terms may be encountered in descriptions of the major Buddhist divisions: The early Buddhist schools or mainstream sects refers to the sects into which the Indian Buddhist monastic saṅgha split. They are also called

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3584-515: The Madhyamālaṃkāra of Śāntarakṣita (725–788) says: If one trains for a long time in the union of the two truths, the stage of acceptance (on the path of joining), which is attuned to primordial wisdom, will arise. By thus acquiring a certain conviction in that which surpasses intellectual knowledge, and by training in it, one will eventually actualize it. This is precisely how the Buddhas and

3696-668: The Gelug sect in Tibet. The other major school of Indian Mahayana was the Yogācāra ("yoga practice") school, also known as the Vijñānavāda ("the doctrine of consciousness"), Vijñaptivāda ("the doctrine of ideas or percepts"), or Cittamātra ("mind-only") school, founded by Asanga in the 4th century AD. Some scholars also note that the compilers of the Tathāgatagarbha texts constitute

3808-520: The Mahavastu and (possibly) the Śālistamba Sūtra , both of which also contains phrases and doctrines that are found in the Sthavira canons. Further exemplary studies are the study on descriptions of "liberating insight" by Lambert Schmithausen, the overview of early Buddhism by Tilmann Vetter, the philological work on the four truths by K.R. Norman, the textual studies by Richard Gombrich, and

3920-1006: The Sthavira (Elders) Nikaya and the Mahāsāṃghika (Great Community). Most scholars hold that this probably occurred after the time of Ashoka. Out of these two main groups later arose many other sects or schools. From the Sthaviras arose the Sarvāstivāda sects, the Vibhajyavādins , the Theravadins, the Dharmaguptakas and the Pudgalavāda sects. The Sarvāstivāda school, popular in northwest India and Kashmir , focused on Abhidharma teachings. Their name means "the theory that all exists" which refers to one of their main doctrines,

4032-523: The Three Natures and the Trikaya . The Three Natures are: The Lankavatara Sutra took an idealistic turn in apprehending reality. D. T. Suzuki writes the following: The Lanka is quite explicit in assuming two forms of knowledge: the one for grasping the absolute or entering into the realm of Mind-only, and the other for understanding existence in its dual aspect in which logic prevails and

4144-767: The Vinaya Pitaka , the Theravādin Vinaya followed by monastics of this tradition. The various divisions in Theravāda include: Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) Buddhism is category of traditions which focus on the bodhisattva path and affirm texts known as Mahāyāna sutras . These texts are seen by modern scholars as dating as far back as the 1st century BCE. Unlike Theravada and other early schools, Mahāyāna schools generally hold that there are currently many Buddhas which are accessible, and that they are transcendental or supramundane beings. In India, there were two major traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy. The earliest

4256-473: The epistemic authority of Vedas . The ideas of saṃsāra , karma and rebirth show a development of thought in Indian religions: from the idea of single existence, at the end of which one was judged and punished and rewarded for one's deeds, or karma ; to multiple existences with reward or punishment in an endless series of existences; and then attempts to gain release from this endless series. This release

4368-517: The four noble truths were then added as a description of the Buddha's "liberating insight". According to Tilmann Vetter, the Buddha at first sought "the deathless" ( amata/amrta ), which is concerned with the here and now. According to Edward Conze , Death was an error which could be overcome by those who entered the "doors to the Deathless", "the gates of the Undying." According to Conze,

4480-567: The pudgala (person). Their tradition was founded by the elder Vātsīputra circa 3rd century BCE. The Vibhajyavādins were conservative Sthaviras who did not accept the doctrines of either the Sarvāstivāda or the Pudgalavāda. In Sri Lanka, a group of them became known as Theravada, the only one of these sects that survives to the present day. Another sect which arose from the Vibhajyavādins were

4592-510: The "orthodox" Theravada, such as the Three Bodies doctrine , the idea of consciousness ( vijñāna ) as a continuum, and devotional elements such as the worship of saints. Pre-sectarian Buddhism was originally one of the śramaṇic movements . The time of the Buddha was a time of urbanisation in India , and saw the growth of the śramaṇas , wandering philosophers that had rejected

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4704-542: The Bodhisattvas have said that liberation is to be gained. The following sentence from Mipham 's exegesis of Śāntarakṣita 's Madhyamālaṃkāra highlights the relationship between the absence of the four extremes ( mtha'-bzhi ) and the nondual or indivisible two truths ( bden-pa dbyer-med ): The learned and accomplished [masters] of the Early Translations considered this simplicity beyond

4816-484: The Buddha rejected both approaches. Nevertheless, these approaches can also be found in the Buddhist tradition, such as the four formless jhanas , and disidentification from the constituents of the self. Bruce Matthews notes that there is no cohesive presentation of karma in the Sutta Pitaka, which may mean that the doctrine was incidental to the main perspective of early Buddhist soteriology . Schmithausen

4928-452: The Buddha saw death as a sign that "something has gone wrong with us." The Buddha saw death as brought on by an evil force, Mára , "the Killer," "who tempts us away from our true immortal selves and diverts us from the path which could lead us back to freedom." Our cravings keep us tied to Mára’s realm. By releasing our attachments we move beyond his realm, and gain freedom from saṃsāra ,

5040-500: The Buddha's words were made during several centuries of oral transmission." Mizuno does note that Pali is the oldest of these, but it is still different from old Magadhi and it is from a different region (Western India). Ronald M. Davidson, a scholar of tantric Buddhism , while acknowledging that most scholars agree that the early community maintained and transmitted a rough body of sacred literature, writes that "we have little confidence that much, if any, of surviving Buddhist scripture

5152-489: The Buddha." Gethin agrees with Lamotte that the doctrinal basis of the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas is "remarkably uniform" and "constitute the common ancient heritage of Buddhism." Richard Gombrich agrees that the four Nikāyas and the main body of monastic rules present "such originality, intelligence, grandeur and—most relevantly—coherence, that it is hard to see it as a composite work" and thus concludes that it

5264-483: The Buddhas of the dharma has recourse to two truths: The world-ensconced truth and the truth which is the highest sense. 9. Those who do not know the distribution (vibhagam) of the two kinds of truth Do not know the profound "point" (tattva) in the teaching of the Buddha. 10. The highest sense of the truth is not taught apart from practical behavior, And without having understood the highest sense one cannot understand nirvana. Nāgārjuna based his statement of

5376-496: The Dharma is based on two truths: a truth of worldly convention and an ultimate truth. Those who do not understand the distinction drawn between these two truths do not understand the Buddha's profound truth. Without a foundation in the conventional truth the significance of the ultimate cannot be taught. Without understanding the significance of the ultimate, liberation is not achieved. In Nagarjuna's own words: 8. The teaching by

5488-626: The Dharmaguptakas. This school was influential in spreading Buddhism to Central Asia and to China. Their Vinaya is still used in East Asian Buddhism. The Mahāsāṃghikas also split into various sub groups. One of these were the Lokottaravādins (Transcendentalists), so called because of their doctrine which saw every action of the Buddha, even mundane ones like eating, as being of a supramundane and transcendental nature. One of

5600-617: The Huayan school were in the area of its metaphysics. It taught the doctrine of the mutual containment and interpenetration of all phenomena, as expressed in Indra's net . One thing contains all other existing things, and all existing things contain that one thing. Distinctive features of this approach to Buddhist philosophy include: Huayan teaches the Four Dharmadhatu , four ways to view reality: The teachings of Zen are expressed by

5712-559: The Nikaya Buddhist schools, Ezhuthupally , and in Mahayana Buddhism they are referred to either as the Śrāvaka (disciple) schools or Hinayana (inferior) schools. Most scholars now believe that the first schism was originally caused by differences in vinaya (monastic rule). Later splits were also due to doctrinal differences and geographical separation. The first schism separated the community into two groups,

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5824-575: The Pali Canon such as the Salistamba Sutra are also further evidence. The beginning of this comparative study began in the 19th century, Samuel Beal published comparative translations of the Pali patimokkha and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka pratimoksa (1859), showing they were virtually identical. He followed this up with comparisons between the Chinese sutras and the Pali suttas in 1882, accurately predicting that "when

5936-408: The Pali canon, have many chronological layers and include "many divergences and contradictions." As such, one cannot rely on any single one of them to construct the original view of the Buddha, especially since the teachings found in them are mostly composed of "terms, formulas, or bare patterns" that can and have been interpreted in many different ways. Regamey argues that a broader historicist method

6048-532: The Pali canon, the distinction is not made between a lower truth and a higher truth, but rather between two kinds of expressions of the same truth, which must be interpreted differently. Thus a phrase or passage, or a whole sutta, might be classed as neyyattha or samuti or vohāra , but it is not regarded at this stage as expressing or conveying a different level of truth. Nītattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: nītārtha ), "of plain or clear meaning" and neyyattha (Pāli; Sanskrit: neyartha ), "[a word or sentence] having

6160-544: The Udanas. These texts use less of the doctrinal material that is developed in other texts, are more likely to promote wilderness solitude over communal living and use terminology which is similar to Jain ideas. British indologist Rupert Gethin writes that "it is extremely likely" that at least some of the suttas in the four main Nikāyas "are among the oldest surviving Buddhist texts and contain material that goes back directly to

6272-656: The Vedic scriptures, which combine the ritualistic injunctions of the Brahmana and speculative philosophical questions of the Upanishads as one whole 'revealed' body of work thereby contrasting the jñāna kāņḍa with karmakāņḍa . [REDACTED] Religion portal While the concept of the two truths is associated with the Madhyamaka school, its history goes back to the earliest years of Buddhism . In

6384-677: The Vijnanas are active. The latter is designated Discrimination ( vikalpa ) in the Lanka and the former transcendental wisdom or knowledge ( prajna ). To distinguish these two forms of knowledge is most essential in Buddhist philosophy. When Buddhism came to China from Gandhara (now Afghanistan) and India in the first/second century CE, the two truths teaching was initially understood and interpreted through various ideas in Chinese philosophy , including Confucian and Taoist ideas which influenced

6496-628: The Vinaya and Āgama collections are thoroughly examined, I can have little doubt we shall find most if not all the Pali Suttas in Chinese form." In the following decades various scholars continued to produce a series of comparative studies, such as Anesaki, Akanuma (who composed a complete catalogue of parallels), Yin Shun and Thich Minh Chau . These studies, as well as recent work by Analayo , Marcus Bingenheimer and Mun-keat Choong, have shown that

6608-596: The absolute is present in the relative world. This question is answered in such schemata as the Five Ranks of Tozan and the Oxherding Pictures . The polarity of absolute and relative is also expressed as "essence-function". The absolute is essence, the relative is function. They can't be seen as separate realities, but interpenetrate each other. The distinction does not "exclude any other frameworks such as neng-so or "subject-object" constructions", though

6720-510: The actual contents of this canon." He notes that references to Tipitaka and Nikaya date from much later periods than the Asokan era (such as Kaniska's reign). Only a few texts have been identified in Asoka's edicts (such as his Bhabra Edict), but these are all short verse texts and are nothing like the suttas of the first and second Nikayas. Schopen concludes that it is only "from the end of

6832-414: The actual doctrinal content of the nikäya/ägama literature much before the fourth century C.E." Schopen is very critical of modern Buddhist studies because of its preference for literary evidence that "in most cases cannot actually be dated and that survives only in very recent manuscript traditions" that have been "heavily edited" and were intended as normative not historical accounts. Schopen believes that

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6944-664: The afterlife. From a largely English-language standpoint, and to some extent in most of Western academia, Buddhism is separated into two groups: Theravāda ( lit. 'the Teaching of the Elders' or 'the Ancient Teaching'), and Mahāyāna ( lit. 'the Great Vehicle'). The most common classification among scholars is threefold: Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna . In contemporary Buddhist studies , modern Buddhism

7056-512: The authenticity of which is admitted by all schools of buddhism (including the Mahayana , who admit the authenticity of the early canons as well as their own texts) not with texts only accepted by certain schools." Warder adds that when the extant material of the Tipitakas of the early Buddhist schools is examined "we find an agreement which is substantial, though not complete" and that there

7168-401: The authority of Vedas and Brahmanic priesthood , intent on escaping saṃsāra through various means, which involved the study of ascetic practices , and ethical behavior . The śramaṇas gave rise to different religious and philosophical schools, among which pre-sectarian Buddhism itself, Yoga and similar schools of Hinduism , Jainism , Ājīvika , Ajñana , and Cārvāka were

7280-497: The beginningless movement of death and rebirth . Karma is the intentional ( cetanā ) actions which keep us tied to saṃsāra . Two views on the liberation from saṃsāra can be discerned in the śramaṇic movements. Originally karma meant "physical and mental activity". One solution was to refrain from any physical or mental activity. The other solution was to see the real self as not participating in these actions, and to disidentify with those actions. According to Bronkhorst,

7392-473: The canons of the different sects – especially the literature of the Pāli school, which was more isolated than the others – probably go back to pre-sectarian times. It is unlikely that these correspondences could have been produced by the joint endeavour of different Buddhist sects, for such an undertaking would have required organisation on a scale which was simply inconceivable in the ancient world. We must conclude that

7504-578: The classic scriptures, these esoteric works are known as the Buddhist Tantras . It includes practices that make use of mantras , dharanis , mudras , mandalas and the visualization of deities and Buddhas. Main Esoteric Buddhist traditions include: Various Buddhist new religious movements arose in the 20th century, including the following. Pre-sectarian Buddhism Pre-sectarian Buddhism , also called early Buddhism ,

7616-529: The comparison of the oldest extant texts "does not just simply lead to the oldest nucleus of the doctrine." At best, it leads to ... a Sthavira canon dating from c. 270 B.C. when the missionary activities during Asoka 's reign as well as dogmatic disputes had not yet created divisions within the Sthavira tradition. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies. Because of this, scholars such as Edward Conze and A.K. Warder have argued that only

7728-437: The doctrine that viewed all conditioned phenomena as being mere concepts (Skt. prajñapti ). According to the Indian philosopher Paramartha , a further split among the Mahāsāṃghika occurred with the arrival of the Mahayana sutras. Some sub-schools, such as the Kukkuṭikas , did not accept the Mahayana sutras as being word of the Buddha, whole others, like the Lokottaravādins, did accept them. Although there are differences in

7840-489: The earliest Buddhism , original Buddhism , and primitive Buddhism , is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various Early Buddhist schools developed, around 250 BCE (followed by later subsects of Buddhism ). The contents and teachings of this pre-sectarian Buddhism must be deduced or re-constructed from the earliest Buddhist texts , which by themselves are already sectarian. The whole subject remains intensely debated by scholars, not all of whom believe

7952-432: The essential doctrinal content of the Pali Majjhima and Samyutta Nikayas and the Chinese Madhyama and Samyukta Agamas is mostly the same, (with, as Analayo notes, "occasional divergence in details"). According to scholars such as Rupert Gethin and Peter Harvey , the oldest recorded teachings are contained in the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka and their various parallels in other languages, together with

8064-685: The few Mahāsāṃghika texts which survive, the Mahāvastu , is from this school. Another sub-sect which emerged from the Mahāsāṃghika was called the Caitika . They were concentrated in Andhra Pradesh and in South India. Some scholars such as A.K. Warder hold that many important Mahayana sutras originated among these groups. Another Mahāsāṃghika sect was named Prajñaptivāda . They were known for

8176-473: The first 500 years" and "there is no objective criterion which would allow us to single out those elements in the record which go back to the Buddha Himself." Conze argues that comparative study using the sources of different schools could give us some knowledge of the pre-sectarian period doctrine, but he adds that such knowledge might not take us to the earliest period after the Buddha's nirvana, which

8288-465: The first documented split in the sangha . According to Lambert Schmithausen , it is "the canonical period prior to the development of different schools with their different positions." Contrary to the claim of doctrinal stability, early Buddhism was a dynamic movement. Pre-sectarian Buddhism may have included or incorporated other Śramaṇic schools of thought , as well as Vedic and Jain ideas and practices. The period of "Early Buddhism" in

8400-425: The first period of Buddhism and regarding the teachings of the Buddha, "none of His sayings is preserved in its original form." Since we only possess a small fraction of the Buddhist literature that must have circulated during the early period, Conze held that all the scholarly attempts to reconstruct the 'original' teachings were "all mere guesswork" because "that which we have may have been composed at any time during

8512-443: The four extremes, this abiding way in which the two truths are indivisible, as their own immaculate way. Schools of Buddhism The schools of Buddhism are the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism which are the teachings off buddhist texts. The schools of Buddhism have existed from ancient times up to the present. The classification and nature of various doctrinal , philosophical or cultural facets of

8624-415: The fourth century, that some of the doctrinal content of Hinayana canonical literature can finally be definitely dated and actually verified." Regarding the view of comparative critical scholars that agreement between the different sectarian texts points to a common early source, Schopen counters that since this kind of higher criticism is already being done on texts which belong to "uniformly late stages of

8736-468: The generally admitted canonical viewpoint" as "survivals of older, precanonical Buddhism." Constantin Regamey has identified four points which are central to Schayer's reconstruction of precanonical Buddhism: According to Ray, Schayer has shown a second doctrinal position alongside that of the more dominant tradition, one likely to be of at least equivalent, if not of greater, antiquity. However, according to Edward Conze , Schayer's views are "merely

8848-512: The historical Buddha was, "it is nonetheless a fact that, in order to appreciate early Buddhism, the only valid evidence - or indication - which we possess is the basic agreement between the Nikayas on the one hand and the Agamas on the other". Likewise, Hajime Nakamura writes in his Indian Buddhism , that "there is no word that can be traced with unquestionable authority to Gotama Sakyamuni as

8960-600: The historical records as to the exact composition of the various schools of early Buddhism, a hypothetical combined list would be as follows: Theravāda is the only extant mainstream non-Mahayana school. They are derived from the Sri Lankan Mahāvihāra sect, which was a branch of the South Indian Vibhajjavādins. Theravāda bases its doctrine on the Pāli Canon , the only complete Buddhist canon surviving in

9072-626: The ideas of Chán (Zen) Buddhism , as can be seen in the Five Ranks and other Chan texts. Chinese thinking often took the two truths to refer to two ontological truths (two ways of being, or levels of existence ): a relative level and an absolute level. For example, Taoists at first misunderstood sunyata (emptiness) to be akin to the Taoist non-being. In Madhyamaka the two truths are two epistemological truths : two different ways to look at reality. Chinese Madhyamaka ( Sanlun ) thus rejected

9184-472: The literary tradition." Schopen believes instead that the agreement was produced by the sharing of literature and ideas between the different sects at a later date. Schopen defines this position as: If all known versions of a text or passage agree, that text or passage is probably late; that is, it probably represents the results of the conflation and gradual leveling and harmonization of earlier existing traditions. Citing Bareau and Wassilieff, he holds that it

9296-407: The main body of monastic rules, which survive in the various versions of the patimokkha . Scholars have also claimed that there is a core within this core, referring to some poems and phrases which seem to be the oldest parts of the Sutta Pitaka. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Tillman Vetter,

9408-555: The material which is common to both the Sthavira and the Mahasamghika canons can be seen as the most authentic, since they were the first communities after the first schism. The problem is that there is little material surviving from the Mahasamghika school. However, what we do have, such as the Mahasamghika pratimoksha and vinaya , is mostly consistent in doctrine with the Sthavira texts. Other Mahasamghika sources are

9520-545: The most important, and also to popular concepts in all major Indian religions such as saṃsāra (endless cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). Nevertheless, despite the success that these wandering philosophers and ascetics had obtained by spreading ideas and concepts that would soon be accepted by all religions of India , the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy ( āstika ) opposed to śramaṇic schools of thought and refuted their doctrines as "heterodox" ( nāstika ), because they refused to accept

9632-453: The numerically largest body of Buddhist traditions in the world, numbering over half of the world's Buddhists. East Asian Mahayana began to develop in China during the Han dynasty (when Buddhism was first introduced from Central Asia ). It is thus influenced by Chinese culture and philosophy . East Asian Mahayana developed new, uniquely Asian interpretations of Buddhist texts and focused on

9744-483: The ontological reading of the two truths. However, drawing on buddha-nature thought (such as that of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra ) and on Yogacara sources, other Chinese Buddhist thinkers defended the view that the two truths did refer to two levels of reality (which were nevertheless non-dual and inferfused), one which was conventional, illusory and impermanent, and another which

9856-456: The pali texts depict a pre-Asokan north India and he also cites KR Norman who argues that they show no Sinhalese prakrit additions. Reviewing the literature by figures such as Frauwallner, Wynne argues that the pali suttas reached Sri Lanka by 250 BCE and that they preserved certain details about fifth century north India (such as that Uddaka Rāmaputta lived near Rajagrha ). Wynne concludes: The corresponding pieces of textual material found in

9968-519: The preference for texts over archeology and epigraphy is a mistake and that it is Buddhist epigraphy which are the earliest written sources. Regarding the textual sources, Schopen holds that even the oldest sources such as the Pali canon, "cannot be taken back further than the last quarter of the first century B.C.E, the date of the Alu-vihāra redaction," but that actually it is not until the 5th or 6th centuries CE "that we can know anything definite about

10080-465: The reign of Ashoka. According to scholar Collett Cox "most scholars would agree that even though the roots of the earliest recognized groups predate Aśoka , their actual separation did not occur until after his death." The first post-schismatic groups are often stated to be the Sthavira nikāya and the Mahāsāṃghika . Eventually, eighteen different schools came into existence. The later Mahayana schools may have preserved ideas which were abandoned by

10192-470: The research on early meditation methods by Johannes Bronkhorst . According to Schmithausen , three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished regarding the possibility to extract the earliest Buddhism from the Early Buddhist Texts : In his history of Indian Buddhism (1988), Etienne Lamotte argues that while it "is impossible to say with certainty" what the doctrine of

10304-574: The schools of Buddhism is vague and has been interpreted in many different ways, often due to the sheer number (perhaps thousands) of different sects, subsects, movements, etc. that have made up or currently make up the whole of Buddhist traditions. The sectarian and conceptual divisions of Buddhist thought are part of the modern framework of Buddhist studies , as well as comparative religion in Asia . Some factors in Buddhism appear to be consistent, such as

10416-433: The sense of pre-sectarian Buddhism is considered by scholars such as Paul J. Griffiths and Steven Collins to be from the time of the historical Buddha to the reign of Ashoka (c. 268 to 232 BCE). The first documented split occurred, according to most scholars, between the second Buddhist council and the third Buddhist council . Lamotte and Hirakawa both maintain that the first schism in the Buddhist sangha occurred during

10528-432: The senses, while mithya-samvrti or "false samvrti" refers to false cognitions of "things" which do not exist as they are perceived. Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā provides a logical defense for the claim that all things are empty ( sunyata ) of an inherently-existing self-nature. Sunyata, however, is also shown to be "empty", and Nagarjuna's assertion of "the emptiness of emptiness" prevents sunyata from constituting

10640-543: The study of sutras . East Asian Buddhist monastics generally follow the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya . Esoteric Buddhism, also known as Vajrayāna, Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Secret Mantra, and Tantric Buddhism is often placed in a separate category by scholars due to its unique tantric features and elements. Esoteric Buddhism arose and developed in medieval India among esoteric adepts known as Mahāsiddhas . Esoteric Buddhism maintains its own set of texts alongside

10752-469: The teachings of the Buddha". This group of scholars sought to use all available sources to reconstruct the original teachings of the Buddha in a way which diverged from the Pali focused perspective of Anglo-German indologists such as Oldenberg and Frauwallner . A common position of the Franco-Belgian school was that primitive Buddhism did not have such negative view of nirvana , but that it

10864-424: The text may only have pointed at "the middle way " as being the core of the Buddha's teaching, which pointed to the practice of dhyana . This basic term may have been extended with descriptions of the eightfold path , itself a condensation of a longer sequence. Some scholars believe that under pressure from developments in Indian religiosity, which began to see "liberating insight" as the essence of moksha ,

10976-406: The true characteristics of events. The Prajñaptivāda school took up the distinction between the conventional ( saṃvṛti ) and ultimate ( paramārtha ) truths, and extended the concept to metaphysical-phenomenological constituents ( dharma ), distinguishing those that are real ( tattva ) from those that are purely conceptual, i.e., ultimately nonexistent ( prajñāpti ). The distinction between

11088-507: The true nature" as a result. It is constituted by the appearances of mistaken awareness. Conventional truth would be the appearance that includes a duality of apprehender and apprehended, and objects perceived within that. Ultimate truths are phenomena free from the duality of apprehender and apprehended. Buddha's teaching of Dharma may be viewed as a path ( mārga ) of release from suffering or Dukkha . The first Noble Truth equates life-experiences with pain and suffering. Buddha's language

11200-484: The two "are completely different from each other in terms of their way of thinking". In Korean Buddhism, essence-function is also expressed as "body" and "the body's functions": [A] more accurate definition (and the one the Korean populace is more familiar with) is "body" and "the body's functions". The implications of "essence/function" and "body/its functions" are similar, that is, both paradigms are used to point to

11312-615: The two truths ( satyadvayavibhāga ) was fully developed by Nāgārjuna ( c.  150  – c.  250 CE ) of the Madhyamaka school. The Madhyamikas distinguish between loka-samvriti-satya , "world speech truth" c.q. "relative truth" c.q. "truth that keeps the ultimate truth concealed", and paramarthika satya , ultimate truth. Loka-samvriti-satya can be further divided in tathya-samvrti or loka-samvrti , and mithya-samvrti or aloka-samvrti , "true samvrti" and "false samvrti". Tathya-samvrti or "true samvrti" refers to "things" which concretely exist and can be perceived as such by

11424-553: The two truths on the Kaccāyanagotta Sutta. In the Kaccāyanagotta Sutta, the Buddha , speaking to the monk Kaccayana Gotta on the topic of right view, describes the middle Way between nihilism and eternalism: By and large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence and non-existence. But when one sees the origination of the world as it actually is with right discernment, "non-existence" with reference to

11536-521: The ultimate reality or substratum (e.g. A I.10), as well as the Saddhatu Sutra , which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts." According to Schayer, contrary to popular opinion, the Theravada and Mahayana traditions may be "divergent, but equally reliable records of a pre-canonical Buddhism which is now lost forever." The Mahayana tradition may have preserved

11648-865: The view that all dharmas exist in the past, present and in the future. This is an eternalist theory of time. Over time, the Sarvāstivādins became divided into various traditions, mainly the Vaibhāṣika (who defended the orthodox "all exists" doctrine in their Abhidharma compendium called the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra ), the Sautrāntika (who rejected the Vaibhāṣika orthodoxy) and the Mūlasarvāstivāda . The Pudgalavāda sects (also known as Vātsīputrīyas ) were another group of Sthaviras which were known for their unique doctrine of

11760-464: The vocabulary of Chinese Buddhism . As such, Chinese Buddhist translations and treatises made use of native Chinese terminology, such as "T’i -yung" (體用, "Essence and Function") and " Li-Shih " (理事, Noumenon and Phenomenon) to refer to the two truths. These concepts were later developed in the Chinese Buddhist traditions like the Wéishí and Huayan schools. The doctrines of these schools also influenced

11872-453: The world does not occur to one. When one sees the cessation of the world as it actually is with right discernment, "existence" with reference to the world does not occur to one. According to Chattopadhyaya, although Nagarjuna presents his understanding of the two truths as a clarification of the teachings of the Buddha, the two truths doctrine as such is not part of the earliest Buddhist tradition. The Yogacara school of Buddhism distinguishes

11984-460: Was a positive reality, a kind of immortal state ( amrta ) similar to the godly abode of svarga found in the Edicts of Ashoka . These mainly continental European scholars attempted to reconstruct early Buddhism drawing on many sources, including Mahayana sources, instead of only relying on the Pali Canon. However, in the post-war years, Franco-Belgian scholars like Jean Filliozat mostly stuck to

12096-721: Was eternal, unchanging and pure. The Huayan school or Flower Garland is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that flourished in China during the Tang period . It is based on the Sanskrit Flower Garland Sutra (S. Avataṃsaka Sūtra , C. Huayan Jing ) and on a lengthy Chinese interpretation of it, the Huayan Lun . The name Flower Garland is meant to suggest the crowning glory of profound understanding. The most important philosophical contributions of

12208-399: Was one figure who followed this reconstructionist method to put forth a hypothesis of an alternative early Buddhist worldview. Schayer argued that the Nikayas preserve elements of an archaic form of Buddhism which is close to Brahmanical beliefs, and survived in the Mahayana tradition. As noted by Alexander Wynne, Schayer drew on passages "in which "consciousness" ( viññana ) seems to be

12320-467: Was simple and colloquial. Naturally, various statements of Buddha at times appear contradictory to each other. Later Buddhist teachers were faced with the problem of resolving these contradictions. Nagarjuna and other teachers introduced an exegetical technique of distinguishing between two levels of truth, the conventional and the ultimate. A similar method is reflected in the Brahmanical exegesis of

12432-622: Was the Mādhyamaka ("Middle Way"), also known as the Śūnyavāda (" Emptiness ") school. This tradition followed the works of the philosopher Nāgārjuna ( c.  150 – c.  250 CE ). Two subsects of the Madhyamaka school that developed were the Svatantrika , founded by the 6th-century Indian philosopher Bhāviveka , and the Prasangika , founded by Chandrakirti and later advanced by Je Tsongkhapa , 14th-century founder of

12544-417: Was the central aim of the Śramaṇa movement. Vedic rituals , which aimed at entrance into heaven, may have played a role in this development: the realisation that those rituals did not lead to an everlasting liberation led to the search for other means. Earliest Buddhism can only be deduced from the various Buddhist canons now extant, which are all already sectarian collections. As such any reconstruction

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