Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the world's great religious-philosophical traditions, with approximately 520 million adherents worldwide. Founded in the fifth century BCE in the Gangetic plain of northern India by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), it spread across South, Southeast, Central and East Asia and has, since the nineteenth century, become a globally diasporic faith. Its doctrines of the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and dependent origination have made it perhaps the most philosophically engaged of the world religions.

Founder and history

Siddhartha Gautama was born at Lumbini (in modern Nepal) into the Shakya kshatriya clan; tradition assigns his life to c. 563–483 BCE, while contemporary scholarship often prefers c. 480–400 BCE. The four canonical episodes of his life are:

Event	Place	Significance
Birth	Lumbini	Marked by Ashoka's pillar (3rd c. BCE)
Enlightenment	Bodh Gaya, under the Bodhi tree	Age 35; became Buddha
First sermon	Sarnath, Deer Park	"Setting in motion of the Wheel of Dharma"
Parinirvana	Kushinagar	Age 80

After his death, Buddhist councils systematised the teachings:

• First Council — Rajagriha, c. 483 BCE; oral codification of the Tripitaka.
• Second Council — Vaishali, c. 383 BCE; split on monastic discipline.
• Third Council — Pataliputra, c. 250 BCE; under Emperor Ashoka (r. 268–232 BCE); missionaries sent to Sri Lanka, Greek world, Egypt.
• Fourth Council — Kashmir, c. 1st c. CE; under Kanishka; Sarvastivadin canon.

Scriptures

Buddhist scripture is divided across schools:

Theravada: the Pali Canon (Tripitaka)

The Tipitaka (Pali, "Three Baskets") is the canonical scripture of Theravada Buddhism, written down in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE:

1. Vinaya Pitaka — monastic discipline.
2. Sutta Pitaka — discourses of the Buddha (including the Dhammapada, Suttanipata).
3. Abhidhamma Pitaka — philosophical-psychological analysis.

Mahayana

Adds vast new sutras composed in Sanskrit from the first century BCE onward:

• Prajnaparamita Sutras — including the Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra.
• Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika) — central to East Asian Buddhism.
• Avatamsaka Sutra — vision of the interpenetrating cosmos.
• Sukhavativyuha — Pure Land texts.
• Lankavatara, Vimalakirti sutras.

Vajrayana

Adds the tantras (Guhyasamaja, Hevajra, Kalachakra), commentaries and lineage texts of Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhism.

Core doctrines

The Four Noble Truths (chattāri ariyasaccāni)

Taught in the first sermon at Sarnath:

1. Dukkha — there is suffering.
2. Samudaya — suffering arises from craving (tanha).
3. Nirodha — suffering can be ended by extinguishing craving.
4. Magga — the way to that ending is the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path (ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga)

Path	Pali	Group
Right view	sammā-diṭṭhi	Wisdom
Right intention	sammā-saṅkappa	Wisdom
Right speech	sammā-vācā	Ethics
Right action	sammā-kammanta	Ethics
Right livelihood	sammā-ājīva	Ethics
Right effort	sammā-vāyāma	Concentration
Right mindfulness	sammā-sati	Concentration
Right concentration	sammā-samādhi	Concentration

Other key doctrines

• Three Marks of Existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), anatta (non-self).
• Pratityasamutpada (dependent origination) — twelve-link causal chain explaining samsara.
• Karma and rebirth — actions condition future existence; no permanent self transmigrates.
• Nirvana — extinction of craving, ignorance and aversion; the unconditioned.

The three vehicles (yanas)

Theravada ("Way of the Elders")

The oldest surviving school; uses Pali; emphasises monastic discipline and the arhat ideal. Dominant in Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos.

Mahayana ("Great Vehicle")

Arose in the first century BCE; emphasises the bodhisattva ideal — the being who postpones final nirvana to save all sentient creatures. Dominant in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam. Major schools:

• Madhyamaka — founded by Nagarjuna (c. 150 CE); doctrine of shunyata (emptiness).
• Yogacara — founded by Asanga and Vasubandhu (4th c.); "mind-only" idealism.
• Pure Land — devotion to Amitabha Buddha and Sukhavati paradise.
• Chan / Zen — meditation-centred; Bodhidharma (5th c.) to China, Dogen (1200–1253) to Japan.
• Tiantai, Huayan, Nichiren — East Asian schools.

Vajrayana ("Diamond Vehicle")

Tantric Buddhism that flourished in India 6th–12th c. CE and survives in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, parts of Nepal, Ladakh and Sikkim. Uses mantras, mandalas, mudras and yidam visualisation. Four main Tibetan schools: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, Gelug. The Dalai Lama is the senior religious-political head of the Gelug school.

Buddhist sangha and monasticism

Buddhism's distinctive social form is the sangha — the monastic community of bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns). The sangha lives by the Vinaya discipline (227 rules in Theravada). Lay Buddhists support the sangha and observe the Five Precepts (no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no intoxicants).

Festivals

• Vesak / Buddha Purnima — celebrates the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana on the same full-moon day (May).
• Magha Puja — assembly of 1,250 arhats (February).
• Asalha Puja — first sermon (July).
• Losar — Tibetan New Year.
• Hanamatsuri — Japanese Buddha's Birthday (April).

Contemporary status

Buddhism is the majority religion of Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan and Mongolia; a major presence in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan; and a growing Western religion since D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts and the post-1959 Tibetan diaspora. The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Conclusion

Buddhism's reach from Sri Lanka to Japan and now to the global West makes it perhaps the most adaptable of the world religions, expressing its core ethical psychology — the analysis of suffering and the extinction of craving — across radically different cultural forms while maintaining clear doctrinal continuity through the Tripitaka and the Mahayana sutras.