Buddhism: origins, beliefs, schools, and global influence

Development

Buddhism originated in the Indian subcontinent through Siddhartha Gautama. According to tradition, at the age of 35, through the experience of "awakening", he attained an inner transformation and a succession of insights that enabled him to formulate the Buddhist doctrine. After (according to tradition) initial hesitation, he soon also began to spread the doctrine, won the first disciples and founded the Buddhist community. Until his death at the age of about 80 years, he finally wandered through northern India teaching.

From the north Indian homeland of Siddhartha Gautama, Buddhism first spread to the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and Central Asia. A total of six Buddhist councils contributed to the "canonization" of the teachings and, together with the further spread in East and Southeast Asia, to the development of various traditions. Northern Buddhism (Mahayana) reached Central and East Asia via the Silk Road, where other traditions developed, such as Chan (China), Zen (Japan), and Amitabha Buddhism (East Asia). Buddhism also entered the Himalayan region directly from northern India, where Vajrayana emerged (Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, and others). Aspects of Buddhism also penetrated other religious traditions or gave impulses for their institutionalization (cf. Bön and Shintō or Shinbutsu-Shūgō). From South India and Sri Lanka, Southern Buddhism (Theravada) reached the countries of Southeast Asia, where it supplanted Mahayana. Buddhism interacted in many ways with the religions and philosophies of the countries in which it spread. It was also combined with religious and philosophical traditions whose teachings differed greatly from those of the original Buddhism.

Teaching

The foundations of Buddhist practice and theory have been formulated by the Buddha in the form of the Four Noble Truths: The First Noble Truth is that life is generally characterized by suffering (dukkha) from birth, old age, sickness, and death, as well as more subtle forms of suffering that are often not recognized as such by human beings, such as clinging to happiness that is, however, impermanent (in this context, it is noted that the word "dukkha" also extends to meanings such as "unsatisfactoriness, frustration"). The Second Noble Truth is that this suffering arises as a function of causes, namely essentially through the Three Mind Poisons, which in German translation are usually referred to as "greed", "hatred" and "ignorance / delusion". The Third Noble Truth states that suffering, being caused by causes, can be abolished in the future if only these causes can be dissolved, and that complete freedom from suffering can then be attained (thus also freedom from birth and death). The Fourth Noble Truth states that there are means to this dissolution of the causes of suffering, and thus to the arising of real happiness: this is the practice of the exercises of the Noble Eightfold Path. They consist of: right knowledge, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right practice, right mindfulness, and right meditation, where right means the conformity of practice to the Four Noble Truths, that is, the avoidance of suffering.

According to Buddhist teachings, all unenlightened beings are subject to an endless suffering cycle (samsara) of birth and rebirth. The goal of Buddhist practice is to emerge from this cycle of otherwise perpetual suffering. This goal is to be achieved through the avoidance of suffering, i.e. ethical behaviour, the cultivation of the virtues (Five Silas), the practice of "immersion" (Samadhi, cf. meditation) and the development of compassion (here clearly distinguished from pity) for all beings and all-embracing wisdom (Prajna) as results of the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. On this path, suffering and imperfection are overcome and through enlightenment (awakening) the state of nirvana is realized. Nirvana is not simply a state in which no suffering is felt, but a comprehensive transformation of the mind in which all dispositions to ever bring about suffering have also disappeared. It is a transcendent state that cannot be grasped linguistically or by the everyday mind, but could in principle be realized by any sentient being.

By taking refuge in the Buddha (the state), the Dharma (the teaching and path to that state), and the Sangha (the community of practitioners), one attests to one's willingness to recognize and practice the Four Noble Truths and to belong to the community of practitioners of the Dharma. The Sangha itself is divided into the practitioners of the lay community and the ordained practitioners of the monastic or nunnery orders.

The dates of Siddhartha Gautama's life are traditionally considered the starting point for the chronology of South Asian history, but they are disputed. The conventional dating (563-483 BC) is hardly held today. Recent scholarship holds that Siddhartha was not born in 563 BC, but several decades, perhaps a century, later. The currently prevailing approaches to dating the death vary between c. 420 and c. 368 BC.

According to tradition, Siddhartha was born in Lumbini in the north Indian principality of Kapilavastu, now part of Nepal, as the son of the ruling house of Shakya. Hence he bears the epithet Shakyamuni, "sage of the house of Shakya".

At the age of 29, he realized that wealth and luxury are not the basis of happiness. Realizing that suffering such as aging, illness, death and pain are inseparable from life, he set out to explore various religious teachings and philosophies to find the true nature of human happiness. Six years of asceticism, study and then meditation finally led him to the path of the middle. Under a poplar fig in Bodhgaya in what is now northern India, he had the experience of awakening (bodhi). A little later he gave his first teaching in Isipatana, today's Sarnath, and thus set the "wheel of teaching" (Dharmachakra) in motion.

Thereafter, as a Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching and transmitting the teaching, the Dharma, to the community he established. This Quadruple Community consisted of the monks (bhikkhu) and nuns (bhikkhuni) of Buddhist monasticism, as well as male laymen (Upāsaka) and female laymen (Upasika). The Buddhist calendar begins with his (alleged) year of death at the age of 80.