BUDDHISM

What is Buddhism?
• Buddhism, once a religion that can be found
ONLY in Asia, is becoming more popular
worldwide.
• From its beginning in India, it has undergone
significant transformations and has appealed to
many personalities, tastes, and temperaments.
 What is Buddhism?

• Buddhism is a religion builds around

Siddharta Gautama’s experienced of
enlightment around 2,500 years ago, or
around 500 B.C.E. The Buddha offered a
pathway to understand the nature of
suffering and how it can be overcome.
 Buddhism
• The central figure in Buddhism is Siddharta
Gautama, known as the Buddha, meaning “the
Enlightened One,” “the Awakended One,” or
“the One Who Knows.”
• He is also called Buddha Sakyamuni because
he hailed from the Shakyan people who resided
in the northern parts of India and Nepal.
 Buddhism
• It is quite inaccurate to say that Buddhists
worship Buddha as God.
• A Buddhist looks to the Buddha’s teachings
in order to attain enlightenment but does not
worship him as a God.
• The Buddha itself made it clear that he is not
a God and that the individual is solely
responsible for his/her own enlightenment.
 Buddhism

• Buddhism stands different from the majority

of world religions because of its status as a
“nontheistic religion.” While it believes the
God (devas) exist and encourages respect
toward them, it adheres that they are NOT to
be worshipped.
 Buddhism

• According to Buddhist teachings, the

human condition has the combination of
pain and pleasure.
• In Buddhism, being human is actually
better than being God (deva)!
Sources of knowledge
About Buddha and his teachings
• Buddha’s life and teachings are recorded in
documents recorded and preserve by his followers.
• Buddhist scriptural canon is a list of books that
define matters of doctrine and discipline.
• Most of these books contain discourses between
Buddha and his disciples, called suttas (or sutras in
Sanskrit).
• The canon also contains codes of monastic
conduct, commentaries, and stories about
the Buddha and his disciples.
• Because the Buddhism is presently divided
into three major schools (Theravada,
Mahayana, and Vajrayana), there are three
separate canons, with each of the schools
recognizing their own set of writings as
 Pali Canon

• It was written in the language that is close to the

actual one used by the Buddha himself.
• Also called the Tipitaka (literally “Three Baskets”)
• It is the authoritative list of books adopted by the
Theravada school.
• It contains the Sutta-Pitaka (sayings of the
Buddha), the Vinaya-Pitaka (monastic rules of
conduct), and the Abhidhamma-Pitaka (various
philosophical writings).
 Mahayana Canon
• The works has been translated to Chinese, and
eventually to Japanese and Korean.
• The Chinese canon (Ta-ts’ang ching) was produced in
the province of Szechuan during the 10 th century C.E.
• The Mahayana canon is divided into agamas (similar
to the Pali canon’s nikayas), vinayas (rules for monastic
conduct), and the Abidhamma (philosophical writings).
 Tibetan Canon
• The Vajrayana school has the most recent body of
scriptural texts, which were translated to Tibetan.
• The Tibetan Canon is divided into two; (1) the
bKangjur (kanjur), which is believed to be the
words of Buddha himself; and (2) the bStan’gyur
(Tanjur), whisch is believed to be elaborations of
Buddha’s teachings.
• Some of the books in Tanjur are from texts
recognized in the Lama religion, the ancient