Buddhism Notes

These discourses uttered by the Buddha, which deal with realizing True Permanent Reality, ARE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER to those seeking Enlightenment, for those seeking Nirvana (Nibbana), for those seeking the escape from all anguish and suffering, for those seeking the Ultimate Truth.

Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince in a kingdom around what is now the border area between India and Nepal. At the age of 29, desiring to know the path that lead to the ending of all impermanence and anguish, to ensuring his permanent well-being, he renounced everything of the world, becoming a homeless ascetic, vowing to find the way to True Ultimate Reality.

He was a Bohdisattva, which is one who goes through an intense period of development and practice in order to attain the realization of Perfect Wisdom, Total Supreme Enlightenment, Buddhahood.

At the age of 35, by way of total focus of his entire being on this single goal, he accomplished his purpose and attained the realization of Perfect Wisdom. He found the answer that lead to the complete cessation of all impermanence and anguish, that lead to reaching the other shore that is Permanent True Reality – Nirvana. He then began to teach, instruct and guide others who similarly were seeking Wisdom and Enlightenment. It is the teaching of The Buddha that is the foundation of Buddhism.

In fundamental Buddhism, the emphasis is on seeing Truth, on knowing it, and on understanding it. The emphasis is NOT on BLIND faith. The teaching of Buddhism is on "come and see" but never on come and believe. Buddhism is rational and requires personal effort, stating that by only one’s own efforts can Perfect Wisdom be realized. Each individual is responsible for his or her own emancipation from anguish and suffering.

Buddhism allows each individual to study and observe Truth internally and requires no blind faith before acceptance. Buddhism advocates no dogmas, no creeds, no rites, no ceremonies, no sacrifices, no penances, all of which must usually be accepted on blind faith. Buddhism is not a system of faith and worship but rather it is merely a Path to Supreme Enlightenment.

The Buddha referred to his teaching as simply a raft to leave this shore of suffering and impermanence, and to get to the other shore of bliss and safety, True Permanent Reality, Nirvana. Upon realization of Nirvana, the raft is no longer needed.

The Buddha referred to his teaching as the Middle Path, called this because it avoids the extremes of both self-indulgence in the world and the self-mortification of strict asceticism. The path he taught incorporates both intellectual progress plus spiritual progress with practice that reflects compassion, morality, wisdom and concentration while at the same time seeing and understanding the world of existence as it truly is.

It should be noted in this dialogue, which attempts to outline what Buddhism really is, that no coercion, no persecutions and no fanaticisms play any part in Buddhism.

Buddhism is the PATH OF ESCAPE for those seeking the permanent end here and now of all anguish. And what exactly is anguish? Anguish is birth, suffering, pain, sorrow, sickness, disease, old age, decay, death, grief, despair, poverty, evil, lamentations, woe, tribulations, misfortune, war, insanity, hunger, unfulfilled wants, unfulfilled basic needs, association with the unwanted, disassociation from the wanted, and is what is unstable and uncontrollable. Buddhism is for those who have come to see that what has been CREATED is IMPERMANENT; and that whatever is impermanent is inherently ILL. No permanent bliss or happiness is to be found in what is impermanent, only pain and peril.

The aim of living the path of the doctrine of Buddhism is to plunge into Nirvana. It has Nirvana as its goal. Nirvana is its ending. True Reality realized. The Uncreated, the Unborn, the permanent bliss of Nirvana. The Eightfold Noble Path of Buddhism is the means to this end. Eight activities – a very specific course of actions – that must be simultaneously developed to realize the goal, Nirvana.

The first part of the Eightfold Noble Path is RIGHT VIEW or RIGHT UNDERSTANDING. This means knowing the Four Noble Truths.

The First Noble Truth is the knowledge that ALL that has been CREATED is IMPERMANENT. And whatever is impermanent is inherently ILL. And what is impermanent and ill is SELFLESS.

Two is the knowledge that the arising of ill is based on ignorance and it is perpetuated by the craving and intoxication for sensuality and sensations, becoming and rebecoming, delusion and ignorance.

Three is the knowledge that the CEASING of this ill that has arisen, the stopping of all future becomings, is Nirvana. True Reality realized, freed of this ill.

Four is the knowledge of the Eightfold Noble Path that leads to the cessation of this ill and to winning the goal: Nirvana. True Permanent State of Self, Permanent Changeless Absolute Reality ITSELF, Suchness, Perfect Wisdom.

The second part is RIGHT THINKING or RIGHT AIM. This means to aspire to attain realization of Perfect Wisdom, the Ultimate True Permanent Reality. To abstain from all evil acts of thought. To attain the total destruction of all cravings. To renounce all manifesting, all constructions, all that is "created" make-believe.

To develop dispassion, total detachment, absolute renunciation, self-surrender. To bring about the cessation of all "created" realities. To Self-Realize the Incomparable Awakening of Self. To win the freedom of Mind, the freedom through Perfect Intuitive Wisdom, the sane and immune emancipation of Will.

The third part is RIGHT SPEECH. To abstain from all lying speech, all perjurious speech, all evil abusive speech and all frivolous speech. To engage in speech and discussion that pertains to and leads to Nirvana, to what’s actually PERMANENT and REAL.

The fourth part is RIGHT ACTION. To abstain from all killing of all creatures. To abstain from all stealing. To abstain from all sensual and sexual misconduct. To abstain from all evil acts. To abstain from all forms of intoxication.

The fifth part is RIGHT LIVING. To abstain from all evil ways of living; to abstain from all evil methods of livelihood.

The sixth part is RIGHT EFFORT. To destroy all EVIL STATES OF MIND that have already arisen; to keep NEW evil states of mind FROM arising; to maintain and grow GOOD STATES OF MIND that have already arisen; and to make grow NEW good states of mind that have not yet arisen, such as loving kindness for ALL Beings, compassion and pity for ALL creatures, sympathetic joy and equanimity.

The seventh part is RIGHT MINDFULNESS. To contemplate as impermanent, ill and Selfless: Body, Feelings, Perception, Mind, Consciousness, Thought, Mental States, Mental Objects and Mental Activity. To grow revulsion for the world, seeing it for the decaying creation that it is, and to grow dispassion, total detachment, calm, tranquility, seeing that everything is not Self. To disregard all that is perceived, remaining aloof from both the pleasures as well as the pains arising from the creation of senses and sensuality.

The eighth part is RIGHT CONCENTRATION. Aloof from the world, aloof from evil states, aloof from all sensations from the senses, dwelling in solitude, seclusion, ardent, diligent, Self-resolute, develop one-pointedness of Mind through intense meditation and reflection.

To enter in, AND THEN TRANSCEND, eight higher states of consciousness that lead to increasing Intuitive Wisdom, Insight and Direct Super-Knowledge, and to destroying the addictions and cravings, and to realizing True Reality, effectively piercing the shell of ignorance and delusion. As one attains the higher states of Mind, Consciousness, the true nature of how things really are can be seen clearly, both intuitively and with supreme effort, by direct Super-Knowledge. True Reality unfolding, Self-Enlightenment of Self by Self.

The developed links of the Eightfold Noble Path are these: Purity of Moral Habit is of purpose as far as Purity of Mind; Purity of Mind is of purpose as far as Purity of View; Purity of View is of purpose as far as Purity through Crossing Over Doubt; Purity through Crossing Over Doubt is of purpose as far as Purity of Knowledge and Insight into the Path and what is NOT the Path to True Reality; Purity of Knowledge and Insight into the Path and what is NOT the Path to True Reality is of purpose as far as Purity of Knowledge and Insight into the Course, into Progress along the Path; Purity of Knowledge and Insight into the Course, into Progress along the Path is of purpose as far as Purity arising from Knowledge and Insight; Purity arising from Knowledge and Insight is of purpose as far as Nirvana realized, without any attachment remaining for what was created, impermanent, ill and without essence, Selfless.

The Seven Links of Enlightenment to cultivate begin with MINDFULNESS, contemplating body and feelings, mind and mental states, thought and ideas, ardent, clearly conscious of them and mindful of them so as to control the covetousness and dejection common in the world; followed by INVESTIGATION of the Dharma, learning and remembering the doctrine that leads to True Reality, the Uncreated; followed by ENERGY of effort; followed by ZEST; then TRANQUILITY; then CONCENTRATION; and finally EQUANIMITY.

The Five Controlling Factors are: The Power of Faith, the Power of Energy, the Power of Mindfulness, the Power of Concentration, and the Power of Insight.

The Basis of Psychic Power are the features of Desire, Energy, Thought and Investigation, together with the co-factors of Concentration and Struggle, with the focus of will: "I WILL win, attain, realize and abide in Nirvana, the Deathless, the Unborn, True Permanent Absolute Reality Realized, right here and right now." And the practice that leads to the cultivation of Psychic Power to win the goal is the Eightfold Noble Path.

The Three Controlling Faculties are: The Consciousness that says: I shall know the unknown, the Unborn, the Uncreated, ALL of what is to be known, THE True Permanent State of Reality; then followed by the Consciousness of Knowing; and then followed by the Consciousness of One who HAS the knowing.

The True Permanent State of Reality is Nirvana, THAT which is the Unborn, the Unmade, the Unmanifested, the Not-Made, the Unconditioned, the Truth, the Uncreated, the Unconstructed, the Not-Created, the Subtle, the Stable, the Undecaying, the Unaging, the Undying, the Deathless, the Taintless, the Peace, the Bliss, the Purity, the Excellent, the Perfection and Grandeur of Wisdom, the State of Freedom from Ill, the Release from Ill, the Nameless, the Serenity and Purity of Absolute Changeless Reality ITSELF, the Norm, the Wonderful, the Goal, the REAL.

In short, THE END – what always was, not compounded, permanent and IS with ALL that has been CREATED, compounded, impermanent and fleeting, CEASING TO BE. Existence, with its realms of sense, form and formlessness, the physical universe and all realms from the hells to the heavens ARE ALL CONSTRUCTIONS.

Fabricated artificial realities, with Self, THAT WHICH IS ABSOLUTE PERMANENT REALITY ITSELF, experiencing "vicariously" senses, sensations and sense experiences through incalculable manifested creations of Body and Mind -- "Beings" – in incalculable varieties of manifested created worlds of both materiality and immateriality – low, middle and high – realms ranging from the heavens to the hells.

But ALL that is created is impermanent, subject to decay and ending, and thus inherently a state of ill-being, and therefore Selfless, for the true nature of Absolute Reality ITSELF is not truly part of or in these manifestations, this round of playing "sand-castles" -- this vast puppet show of make-believe fiction, this delusion supported by a state of Self-Ignorance.

According to Buddhism, any "Being" that does not resolve to attain Self-Enlightenment and True Reality will continue to "reform" these constructed fabricated realities of sense desire, form and formlessness. Continuous future rebirth will be and each "life" will be good or bad, happiness or unhappiness, pleasure or pain, or a combination of the two, all according to the good or evil PAST deeds done of act, speech and thought, with MIND being the forerunner of all manifestations of constructed realities and created fabricated individual entity within such conditioned, made states of existence.

In short, a pendulum of rebirth, going back and forth continuously between hells, heavens and the physical universe, UNTIL the SELF of each "Being" decides to make an end of all manifesting, an end to living vicariously through constructions of artificial realities, to make an ESCAPE from what has been created, from what has become a tangled decayed, putrid manifested mass of suffering, pain and anguish perpetuated by craving, hatred, lust, delusion, illusion and ignorance.

The evidence of perpetuating, continuous rebirth and reforming, with future "lives" determined according to former deeds done in PAST lives, can be readily seen in the wide diversity of Beings born into this world who immediately have great good fortune or have great misfortune, EVEN THOUGH NO DEEDS OF ANY KIND HAVE YET BEEN DONE IN THEIR NEW LIFE! Think about this and then compare your "present" life to the lives of the other five billion "human" Beings in this world, and indeed to the lives of ALL the world’s different types of Beings.

The goal of Buddhism is to escape this REPEATING ILL that has arisen, this repeating rebirth and reforming, via the destruction of the "craving" for senses and sensations of the senses, for rebecoming as this or that, for delusion and for ignorance.

And if you think the world is NOT really full of despair, suffering, pain and anguish, YOU NEED TO EXAMINE CLOSELY the nature of this world you live in without the "rose-colored glasses."

Just because in this life YOUR suffering and anguish are not "too bad" you may not yet be immune from rebirth where your next life is as horrible as tens of millions of human lives are NOW this very day throughout this world.

Think of "life" and ALL THAT HAS BEEN CREATED as sort of like an addictive repeating daydream – very, very old, incalculable in age, long corrupted, perverted, debased, become tainted by decomposition.

To awake from the fantasy, the first step is for the Self to investigate, analyze and reflect on what is really going on around here, and thus see, that ALL IS IMPERMANENT, and then to see and know that what is impermanent, fleeting and subject to change is inherently ILL, ANGUISH and UNHAPPINESS.

Then, with Perfect Intuitive Wisdom, KNOW that whatever is impermanent, subject to change and therefore ill cannot be SELF IN ITS TRUE NATURE. The Self THEN must begin to look for a means of escape from this addictive daydream, this nightmarish artificial reality that has arisen that IS pain, anguish and suffering.

Has it not yet occurred to you: WHY do I, liable to birth, disease, anguish, decay, aging and death seek those things likewise liable to birth, disease, anguish, decay, aging and death, that which too is impermanent.

Would it not be to my assured permanent well-being that I, although being liable to birth because of Self, to disease, anguish, decay, aging and death, having seen the peril of what is likewise liable to birth, should instead seek Nirvana, TRUE PERMANENT ABSOLUTE REALITY, the permanent security from this CREATED manifested mass of pain, anguish and suffering.

Material shape, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness are an addictive lure to perpetuating false realities within these fabricated realms of existence, these conditioned, made, artificial, temporary, transitory, fictitious states of existence. Ultimately, desire for these constructions MUST be put away in order for the permanent bliss of True Reality to be realized.

And WHAT IS SELF, True Permanent Absolute Reality? From the perspective of a constructed creation in a constructed world in a fabricated reality, a "Selfless" mind could never know the nature of the Uncreated. True Reality of Self is unfathomable, inconceivable, immutable, inscrutable, deep, boundless, unmeasurable, markless, signless, undefinable, incomprehensible.

Only Self, Supremely Awake, can know ITSELF. And the Self of a given manifested created "Being" that is FULLY awake, that is called a BUDDHA.

Now what is seen, heard, sensed, known, attained, sought after, thought out by Mind is impermanent. Perfect "CORRECT" views cannot be created from something created, a construction that is Selfless. Only True Permanent Absolute Reality, through ITS Self-Realization, Intuitive Wisdom and FULL Self-Awakened Enlightenment can KNOW.

Absolute True Reality IS Self. But since ABSOLUTE TRUE REALITY is incomprehensible, is not the view then that "this" – a manifested BEING after dying, I as this personality, this individuality -- will become permanent, lasting eternal, not liable to change, I will stand fast unto the eternal, is this not complete folly since ALL that is created and impermanent is essentially fantasy, a mental puppet show. This is why a Buddhist eliminates all false views and the vain conceit that "IN" what is CREATED and IMPERMANENT there is "anything permanent" that can truly say, "I AM, MINE, I SHALL BE and I AM THE DOER."

Body, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness are not the Self. Self does not have body, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness. Body, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness are not in the Self. The Self is not in the body, feelings, perception, activities, mind/consciousness. These constructed things in fabricated fantasy realities, according to a Being who follows fundamental Buddhism, are looked at as, "These CREATED things are NOT mine, these am I not, these things are not the Self of me, and are not the Self of all Beings in all fabricated realities."

The Ten Fetters that "bind" Beings to perpetuating themselves in artificial, manufactured, fictitious realities are:

Lust and craving for perpetuating formlessness and hereafter’s of Immateriality

Excitement for constructions and perpetuating artificial realities, Self-Delusion and Self-Illusion

Addiction to Self-Deception and a complete state of Self-Ignorance, necessary for the ILLUSION of artificial realities and individuality to seem real, necessary for not seeing the impermanence and ill for what it is, and the pain and peril associated with these addictive, ill-conceived, conditioned, fleeting states of fabricated fictitious existence.

This comprises "the engine" that drives the continuation and repetition for each Point of View of Self.

The goal is to destroy the addictions, the cravings, that perpetuate the manifesting of constructed realities where there is the VICARIOUS experience of senses, sensations and feelings within constructed worlds within fabricated realms, all of which are impermanent, ill and Selfless. This ending of all cravings, addictions and manifesting equals Nirvana, the True Permanent State of Reality, FREED from what has arisen.

Buddhism and the Dharma (dhamma) or doctrine is the Path to ending the addictions, the craving, the becoming again and again of constructed false states of existence; and instead, attaining the goal, THE TRUE STATE OF PERMANENT REALITY. And with the realization of that true state of permanent reality, that is the end of all suffering and anguish, the ending of all rebirth, the ending of all that is created, impermanent, ill and Selfless.

All craving, all addictions, all fetters MUST ultimately be renounced, destroyed, ended, forsaken and abandoned in order to end all rebirth, to end all renewal of false manufactured realities, and to win Nirvana, the Deathless, the true permanent state THAT IS IN FACT THE ONLY TRUE REALITY.

All constructed false states of existence and all constructed creations of all elements of both materiality and immateriality, material shape, body, sense organs, internal and external sense fields, sensations, feelings, experiences, perception, activities, mind, consciousness, thought and mental states are impermanent, ill and without Self. All constructions from a Buddhist perspective are looked at as, "Not mine, these creations am I not, these are not for me the Self, the Self of me." The true nature of Self, which is not OF or IN these things is the Unborn, the Uncreated, the Deathless, THAT which is inconceivable.

"Whatsoever, anywhere, in anything that has become, manifested; is put together, constructed; is thought out and affected, mentally created; is dependent on something else, on anything else, IS IMPERMANENT. What is impermanent that is inherently unhappiness, anguish, ill. What is impermanent, unhappiness, anguish and ill that is not mine, or of me, that am I not, that is not the Self of me."

SELF IS; but this, all else, is not. What is permanent is what is real. What is impermanent is what is not real.

All "this" – everything -- is created, thought out and affected, fleeting, impermanent, and is but a Selfless fantasy, an exhausted intellection, a notion, an imagining, a state of delusion, ALL made of thought, which must inherently end in dissolution. Everything is a decomposing round of make-believe fiction. And for one who no longer has any attachment or desire for what does not exist in truth, there is no longer mental anguish or rebirth.

Things are created, they are inherently subject to decay, and then finally, they are dissolved again.

For a very long, long time each Mind, each "point of view" of Self in this round of make-believe, has been tainted by craving, by lust, by hatred, by delusion and by illusion. And by a tainted Mind, and point of view of Self, "Beings" are tainted. By Purity of Mind, and point of view of Self, Beings are made pure. Mind and each point of view of Self have been ensnared in delusion, addicted to illusion, craving the pleasures of the concept of six spheres of sense; craving individuality and continuing rebirth as this or that; craving false views that support the delusion; and craving ignorance to continue what has been created, what has arisen.

Consider this: If the cravings and fetters of a given Being – a point of view of Self – had been destroyed in the previous "expression" of a constructed reality, there would have been no becoming again, NO new rebirth, no reforming of a new body and mind and continuing point of view. And thus, there would have been no new struggle, no new suffering, pain, anguish, grief, sorrow, lamentations, despair, sickness, disease, old age, decay and death. Each Being, each point of view of Self, must resolve, sooner or later, that IT SHALL NOT BE AGAIN, AND MINE IT SHALL NOT BE. This point of view has come to closure – Nirvana.

But until "a point of view of Self" awakes, makes an end of the craving for senses, sensations and pleasures of the senses; for perpetuating continued individuality, the rebecoming again and again of point of view in these manifestations; for delusion and false views; and for ignorance; then these artificial "created" realities will continue, and the pain and anguish and suffering of them.

And while these fabricated artificial existences continue, there is the CONTINUED PERIL of future pain, anguish and suffering, of future rebirth, manifesting AGAIN within LOWER fabricated worlds of increasing anguish because of past EVIL deeds of thought, word and action.

Until a created "Being" wins Nirvana, comes to closure, winning the Deathless, then for that Being what has been CREATED will continue, each Being wayfaring among constructed worlds and realms – high, middle and low.

There will be fruition of GOOD deeds of thought, speech and action; AND ALSO there will be fruition of EVIL deeds of thought, speech and action.

There will be MERIT in deeds of giving, sacrifice, offering and of loving kindness and compassion in thought, speech and actions toward other Beings (of all types); and there will be DEMERIT in such deeds as lying, slander, gossip, abusive speech, killing, stealing, sensual and sexual misconduct, wrong views and malevolent thought, speech and actions toward other Beings (of all types).

Beings ARE the heirs of their deeds. Deeds determine karma and karma determines future births and future events. This is how things work. This is what determines the different "storylines" for each Being for each life.

And this world is, and the world beyond is. And in this world there are "Beings" who have properly traveled THE RIGHT PATH OF ESCAPE TO NIRVANA, who have won THE GOAL, who have completed "the great quest" for the ultimate truth. They have destroyed the addictions, the cravings, the delusion and illusion, and they have reached Perfection, who of themselves by Supernormal Knowledge have fully realized this world, the world beyond, and WHO SEE THE WAY THINGS TRULY ARE, and proclaim it.

In conclusion, think of Buddhism as a correct means of ESCAPE from a state of make-believe. And escape from the satisfaction of the senses and the peril of the senses. It could be thought of like this: It is like being in a DARK theatre, vicariously enjoying the "make-believe experience" of a movie – fabricated existences in a fabricated reality. But the theatre is very old, decayed, on fire and now a source of pain. The Dharma of Buddhism is the EXIT SIGN.

If you want to escape permanently the pain, anguish and suffering, and continuous cycle of rebirth, struggle, anguish, decay, dying and death, and all the future pain and peril that go with it, you follow the exit sign. Buddhism IS the sign that says: THIS IS THE WAY TO SAFETY, THIS IS THE WAY OUT OF ANGUISH. The choice of when to escape is the decision of each Being.

If you want to pursue this religion, you should reflect on what you have read – investigating, analyzing, testing and weighing up the meaning for yourself.

You should purchase the Pali Text Society translated discourse volumes, beginning with the Middle Length Sayings, for more detailed study; and you should begin the Eightfold Noble Path, a course leading to practice and concentration where Knowledge, Insight and Intuitive Wisdom WILL arise within the SELF of YOU as you progress along the Noble Path, to be maintained until you win The Goal, Nirvana, True Reality Self-Realized, freed from ill, freed from all that has become, freed from all that is created, freed from all that has arisen, freed from this state of Self-Delusion, freed from this round of make-believe fiction.

That concludes our belief of what Fundamental Buddhism is actually all about. For more teaching, you need to invest in the recommended books plus reflect, study, investigate, meditate and concentrate.

The doctrine of an eternal Buddha is not, however, a feature of Theravada Buddhism. Theravada, or The School of the Elders, claims to preserve the original teachings of the Buddha from the First Council of Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism places great value on the Master's words that 'none is eternal', and believes that even the life of an enlightened one does indeed have an end. Interestingly, The Buddha described Nirvana as neither existing, nor not-existing, so what does occur after a Buddha passes away is something known only to the Buddhas.

Also appearing in Theravada Buddhism is the notion of anatta as one of the 'trilakshana' (the three characteristics of reality). This embodies the idea that there is no definite, fixed, unchanging entity constituting a "person" that passes from one life to the next; Theravadin interpretation (along with that of most, if not all, Buddhist schools) of "anatta" also denies the existence of a fixed, unchanging, ever-enduring personal soul. The concept in place of the soul is the 'Bhava' ("becoming"), which is an ongoing flow of karmically projected energies that derive from, and give rise to, volitional thoughts and emotion.

Mahayana Buddhism, regards such teaching as incomplete and offers the complementary doctrine of a pure Selfhood (the eternal yet unsubstantial hypostasis of the Buddha) which no longer generates karma and which subsists eternally in the realm of Nirvana, from which sphere help to suffering worldly beings can be sent forth in the forms of various transitory physical Buddhas ("nirmanakayas"). While the bodies of these corporeal Buddhas are subject to disease, decline and death - like all impermanent things - the salvational Tathagata or Dharmakaya behind them is forever free from impairment, impermanence or mortality. It is this transcendent yet immanent Dharmakaya-Buddha which is taught in certain major Mahayana sutras to be immutable and eternal and is intimately linked with Dharma itself. According to the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, worldly beings fail to see this eternality of the Buddha and his Truth (Dharma). The Buddha comments there: "I say that those who do not know that the Tathagata [Buddha] is eternal are the foremost of the congenitally blind." This view, it should be noted, is typically not found in mainstream Theravada Buddhism.

In the sixth century before the Christian era, religion was forgotten in India. The lofty teachings of the Vedas were thrown into the background. There was much priestcraft everywhere. The insincere priests traded on religion. They duped the people in a variety of ways and amassed wealth for themselves. They were quite irreligious. In the name of religion, people followed in the footsteps of the cruel priests and performed meaningless rituals. They killed innocent dumb animals and did various sacrifices. The country was in dire need of a reformer of Buddha's type. At such a critical period, when there were cruelty, degeneration and unrighteousness everywhere, reformer Buddha was born to put down priestcraft and animal sacrifices, to save the people and disseminate the message of equality, unity and cosmic love everywhere.

Buddha's father was Suddhodana, king of the Sakhyas. Buddha's mother was named Maya. Buddha was born in B.C. 560 and died at the age of eighty in B.C. 480. The place of his birth was a grove known as Lumbini, near the city of Kapilavastu, at the foot of Mount Palpa in the Himalayan ranges within Nepal. This small city Kapilavastu stood on the bank of the little river Rohini, some hundred miles north-east of the city of Varnasi. As the time drew nigh for Buddha to enter the world, the gods themselves prepared the way before him with celestial portents and signs. Flowers bloomed and gentle rains fell, although out of season; heavenly music was heard, delicious scents filled the air. The body of the child bore at birth the thirty-two auspicious marks (Mahavyanjana) which indicated his future greatness, besides secondary marks (Anuvyanjana) in large numbers. Maya died seven days after her son's birth. The child was brought up by Maya's sister Mahaprajapati, who became its foster-mother.

On the birth of the child, Siddhartha, the astrologers predicted to its father Suddhodana: "The child, on attaining manhood, would become either a universal monarch (Chakravarti), or abandoning house and home, would assume the robe of a monk and become a Buddha, a perfectly enlightened soul, for the salvation of mankind". Then the king said: "What shall my son see to make him retire from the world ?". The astrologer replied: "Four signs". "What four ?" asked the king. "A decrepit old man, a diseased man, a dead man and a monk - these four will make the prince retire from the world" replied the astrologers.

Suddhodana thought that he might lose his precious son and tried his level best to make him attached to earthly objects. He surrounded him with all kinds of luxury and indulgence, in order to retain his attachment for pleasures of the senses and prevent him front undertaking a vow of solitariness and poverty. He got him married and put him in a walled place with gardens, fountains, palaces, music, dances, etc. Countless charming young ladies attended on Siddhartha to make him cheerful and happy. In particular, the king wanted to keep away from Siddhartha the 'four signs' which would move him to enter into the ascetic life. "From this time on" said the king, "let no such persons be allowed to come near my son. It will never do for my son to become a Buddha. What I would wish to see is, my son exercising sovereign rule and authority over the four great continents and the two thousand attendant isles, and walking through the heavens surrounded by a retinue thirty-six leagues in circumference". And when he had so spoken, he placed guards for quarter of a league, in each of the four directions, in order that none of the four kinds of men might come within sight of his son.

Buddha's original name was Siddhartha. It meant one who had accomplished his aim. Gautama was Siddhartha's family name. Siddhartha was known all over the world as Buddha, the Enlightened. He was also known by the name of Sakhya Muni, which meant an ascetic of the Sakhya tribe.

Siddhartha spent his boyhood at Kapilavastu and its vicinity. He was married at the age of sixteen. His wife's name was Yasodhara. Siddhartha had a son named Rahula. At the age of twenty-nine, Siddhartha Gautama suddenly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to spiritual pursuits and Yogic practices. A mere accident turned him to the path of renunciation. One day he managed, somehow or the other, to get out of the walled enclosure of the palace and roamed about in the town along with his servant Channa to see how the people were getting on. The sight of a decrepit old man, a sick man, a corpse and a monk finally induced Siddhartha to renounce the world. He felt that he also would become a prey to old age, disease and death. Also, he noticed the serenity and the dynamic personality of the monk. Let me go beyond the miseries of this Samsara (worldly life) by renouncing this world of miseries and sorrows. This mundane life, with all its luxuries and comforts, is absolutely worthless. I also am subject to decay and am not free from the effect of old age. Worldly happiness is transitory".

Gautama left for ever his home, wealth, dominion, power, father, wife and the only child. He shaved his head and put on yellow robes. He marched towards Rajgriha, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha. There were many caves in the neighbouring hills. Many hermits lived in those caves. Siddhartha took Alamo Kalamo, a hermit, as his first teacher. He was not satisfied with his instructions. He left him and sought the help of another recluse named Uddako Ramputto for spiritual instructions. At last he determined to undertake Yogic practices. He practiced severe Tapas (austerities) and Pranayama (practice of breath control) for six years. He determined to attain the supreme peace by practicing self-mortification. He abstained almost entirely from taking food. He did not find much progress by adopting this method. He was reduced to a skeleton. He became exceedingly weak.

At that moment, some dancing girls were passing that way singing joyfully as they played on their guitar. Buddha heard their song and found real help in it. The song the girls sang had no real deep meaning for them, but for Buddha it was a message full of profound spiritual significance. It was a spiritual pick-me-up to take him out of his despair and infuse power, strength and courage. The song was:

"Fair goes the dancing when the Sitar is tuned,
Tune us the Sitar neither low nor high,
And we will dance away the hearts of men.
The string overstretched breaks, the music dies,
The string overslack is dumb and the music dies,
Tune us the Sitar neither low nor high."

Buddha realized then that he should not go to extremes in torturing the body by starvation and that he should adopt the golden mean or the happy medium or the middle path by avoiding extremes. Then he began to eat food in moderation. He gave up the earlier extreme practices and took to the middle path.

Once Buddha was in a dejected mood as he did not succeed in his Yogic practices. He knew not where to go and what to do. A village girl noticed his sorrowful face. She approached him and said to him in a polite manner: "Revered sir, may I bring some food for you ? It seems you are very hungry". Gautama looked at her and said, "What is your name, my dear sister ?". The maiden answered, "Venerable sir, my name is Sujata". Gautama said, "Sujata, I am very hungry. Can you really appease my hunger ?"

The innocent Sujata did not understand Gautama. Gautama was spiritually hungry. He was thirsting to attain supreme peace and Self-realization. He wanted spiritual food. Sujata placed some food before Gautama and entreated him to take it. Gautama smiled and said, "Beloved Sujata, I am highly pleased with your kind and benevolent nature. Can this food appease my hunger ?". Sujata replied, "Yes sir, it will appease your hunger. Kindly take it now". Gautama began to eat the food underneath the shadow of a large tree, thenceforth to be called as the great 'Bo-tree' or the tree of wisdom. Gautama sat in a meditative mood underneath the tree from early morning to sunset, with a fiery determination and an iron resolve: "Let me die. Let my body perish. Let my flesh dry up. I will not get up from this seat till I get full illumination". He plunged himself into deep meditation. At night he entered into deep Samadhi (superconscious state) underneath that sacred Bo-tree (Pipal tree or ficus religiosa). He was tempted by Maya in a variety of ways, but he stood adamant. He did not yield to Maya's allurements and temptations. He came out victorious with full illumination. He attained Nirvana (liberation). His face shone with divine splendour and effulgence. He got up from his seat and danced in divine ecstasy for seven consecutive days and nights around the sacred Bo-tree. Then he came to the normal plane of consciousness. His heart was filled with profound mercy and compassion. He wanted to share what he had with humanity. He traveled all over India and preached his doctrine and gospel. He became a saviour, deliverer and redeemer.

Buddha gave out the experiences of his Samadhi: "I thus behold my mind released from the defilement of earthly existence, released from the defilement of sensual pleasures, released from the defilement of heresy, released from the defilement of ignorance."

In the emancipated state arose the knowledge: "I am emancipated, rebirth is extinct, the religious walk is accomplished, what had to be done is done, and there is no need for the present existence. I have overcome all foes; I am all-wise; I am free from stains in every way; I have left everything and have obtained emancipation by the destruction of desire. Myself having gained knowledge, whom should I call my Master ? I have no teacher; no one is equal to me. I am the holy one in this world; I am the highest teacher. I alone am the absolute omniscient one (Sambuddho). I have gained coolness by the extinction of all passion and have obtained Nirvana. To found the kingdom of law (Dharmo) I go to the city of Varnasi. I will beat the drum of immortality in the darkness of this world".

Lord Buddha then walked on to Varnasi. He entered the 'deer-park' one evening. He gave his discourse there and preached his doctrine. He preached to all without exception, men and women, the high and the low, the ignorant and the learned - all alike. All his first disciples were laymen and two of the very first were women. The first convert was a rich young man named Yasa. The next were Yasa's father, mother and wife. Those were his lay disciples.

Buddha argued and debated with his old disciples who had deserted him when he was in the Uruvila forest. He brought them round by his powerful arguments and persuasive powers. Kondanno, an aged hermit, was converted first. The others also soon accepted the doctrine of Lord Buddha. Buddha made sixty disciples and sent them in different directions to preach his doctrine.

Buddha told his disciples not to enquire into the origin of the world, into the existence and nature of God. He said to them that such investigations were practically useless and likely to distract their minds.

The number of Buddha's followers gradually increased. Nobles, Brahmins and many wealthy men became his disciples. Buddha paid no attention to caste. The poor and the outcastes were admitted to his order. Those who wanted to become full members of his order were obliged to become monks and to observe strict rules of conduct. Buddha had many lay disciples also. Those lay members had to provide for the wants of the monks.

In the forest of Uruvila, there were three brothers - all very famous monks and philosophers. They had many learned disciples. They were honoured by kings and potentates. Lord Buddha went to Uruvila and lived with those three monks. He converted those three reputed monks, which caused a great sensation all over the country.

Lord Buddha and his disciples walked on towards Rajgriha, the capital of Magadha. Bimbisara, the king, who was attended upon by 120,000 Brahmins and householders, welcomed Buddha and his followers with great devotion. He heard the sermon of Lord Buddha and at once became his disciple. 110,000 of the Brahmins and householders became full members of Lord Buddha's order and the remaining 10,000 became lay adherents. Buddha's followers were treated with contempt when they went to beg their daily food. Bimbisara made Buddha a present of Veluvanam - a bamboo-grove, one of the royal pleasure-gardens near his capital. Lord Buddha spent many rainy seasons there with his followers.

Every Buddhist monk takes a vow, when he puts on the yellow robe, to abstain from killing any living being. Therefore, a stay in one place during the rainy season becomes necessary. Even now, the Paramahamsa Sannyasins (the highest class of renunciates) of Sankara's order stay in one place for four months during the rainy season (Chaturmas). It is impossible to move about in the rainy season without killing countless small insects, which the combined influence of moisture and the hot sun at the season brings into existence.

Lord Buddha received from his father a message asking him to visit his native place, so that he might see him once more before he died. Buddha accepted his invitation gladly and started for Kapilavastu. He stayed in a forest outside the city. His father and relatives came to see him, but they were not pleased with their ascetic Gautama. They left the place after a short time. They did not make any arrangement for his and his followers' daily food. After all, they were worldly people. Buddha went to the city and begged his food from door to door. This news reached the ears of his father. He tried to stop Gautama from begging. Gautama said: "O king, I am a mendicant - I am a monk. It is my duty to get alms from door to door. This is the duty of the Order. Why do you stop this ? The food that is obtained from alms is very pure". His father did not pay any attention to the words of Gautama. He snatched the bowl from his hand and took him to his palace. All came to pay Buddha their respects, but his wife Yasodhara did not come. She said, "He himself will come to me, if I am of any value in his eyes". She was a very chaste lady endowed with Viveka (discrimination), Vairagya (dispassion) and other virtuous qualities. From the day she lost her husband she gave up all her luxuries. She took very simple food once daily and slept on a mat. She led a life of severe austerities. Gautama heard all this. He was very much moved. He went at once to see her. She prostrated at his feet. She caught hold of his feet and burst into tears. Buddha established an order of female ascetics. Yasodhara became the first of the Buddhistic nuns.

Yasodhara pointed out the passing Buddha to her son through a window and said, "O Rahula! That monk is your father. Go to him and ask for your birthright. Tell him boldly, 'I am your son. Give me my heritage'". Rahula at once went up to Buddha and said, "Dear father, give me my heritage". Buddha was taking his food then. He did not give any reply. The boy repeatedly asked for his heritage. Buddha went to the forest. The boy also silently followed him to the forest. Buddha said to one of his disciples, "I give this boy the precious spiritual wealth I acquired under the sacred Bo-tree. I make him the heir to that wealth". Rahula was initiated into the order of monks. When this news reached the ears of Buddha's father, he was very much grieved because after losing his son, he now lost his grandson also.

Buddha performed some miracles. A savage serpent of great magical power sent forth fire against Buddha. Buddha turned his own body into fire and sent forth flames against the serpent. Once a tree bent down one of its branches in order to help Buddha when he wanted to come up out of the water of a tank. One day five hundred pieces of firewood split by themselves at Buddha's command. Buddha created five hundred vessels with fire burning in them for the Jatilas to warm themselves on a winter night. When there was flood, he caused the water to recede and then he walked over the water.

Ananda, one of Buddha's cousins, was one of the principal early disciples of Buddha and was a most devoted friend and disciple of Buddha. He was devoted to Buddha with a special fervour in a simple childlike way and served him as his personal attendant till the end of his life. He was very popular. he was a very sweet man with pleasant ways. He had no intellectual attainments, but he was a man of great sincerity and loving nature. Devadatta, one of Ananda's brothers, was also in the Order. Devadatta became Buddha's greatest rival and tried hard to oust Buddha and occupy the place himself. A barber named Upali and a countryman called Anuruddha were admitted into the Order. Upali became a distinguished leader of his Order. Anuruddha became a Buddhistic philosopher of vast erudition.

Buddha went to Sravasti, the capital of the kingdom of Kosala. Here a wealthy merchant gave him for residence an extensive and beautiful forest. Buddha spent many rainy seasons there and delivered several grand discourses. Thus Lord Buddha preached his doctrine for over forty-five years traveling from place to place.

Buddha died of an illness brought on by some error in diet. He became ill through eating Sukara-maddavam, prepared for him by a lady adherent named Cundo. The commentator explains the word as meaning 'hog's flesh'. Subadhara Bhikshu thinks it means something which wild boars are fond of and says that it has something of the nature of a truffle. Dr. Hoey says that it is not boar's flesh but Sukarakanda or hog's root, a bulbous root found chiefly in the jungle and which Hindus eat with great joy. It is a Phalahar that is eaten on days of fasting.

Buddha said to Ananda, "Go Ananda, prepare for me, between twin Sal trees, a couch with the head northward. I am exhausted and would like to lie down". A wonderful scene followed. The twin Sal trees burst into full bloom although it was not the blossoming season. Those flowers fell on the body of Buddha out of reverence. Divine coral tree flowers and divine sandalwood powders fell from above on Buddha's body out of reverence.

Lord Buddha said, "Come now, dear monks. I bid you farewell. Compounds are subject to dissolution. Prosper ye through diligence and work out your salvation".

The spirit of Ahimsa (non-violence) was ever present with Gautama from his very childhood. One day, his cousin Devadatta shot a bird. The poor creature was hurt and fell to the ground. Gautama ran forward, picked it up and refused to hand it over to his cousin. The quarrel was taken up before the Rajaguru who, however, decided in favour of Gautama to the great humiliation of Devadatta.

In his wanderings, Gautama one day saw a herd of goats and sheep winding their way through a narrow valley. Now and then the herdsman cried and ran forward and backward to keep the members of the fold from going astray. Among the vast flock Gautama saw a little lamb, toiling behind, wounded in one part of the body and made lame by a blow of the herdsman. Gautama's heart was touched and he took it up in his arms and carried it saying, "It is better to relieve the suffering of an innocent being than to sit on the rocks of Olympus or in solitary caves and watch unconcerned the sorrows and sufferings of humanity". Then, turning to the herdsman he said, "Whither are you going, my friend, with this huge flock so great a hurry ?". "To the king's palace" said the herdsman, "We are sent to fetch goats and sheep for sacrifice which our master - the king - will start tonight in propitiation of the gods." Hearing this, Gautama followed the herdsman, carrying the lamb in his arms. When they entered the city, word was circulated that a holy hermit had brought the sacrifices ordered by the king. As Gautama passed through the streets, people came out to see the gracious and saintly figure of the youth clad in the yellow robes of a Sadhu (renunciate) and all were struck with wonder and awe at his noble mien and his sweet expression. The king was also informed of the coming of the holy man to the sacrifice. When the ceremonies commenced in the presence of the king, there was brought a goat ready to be killed and offered to the gods. There it stood with its legs tied up and the high priest ready with a big bloodthirsty knife in his hand to cut the dumb animal's throat. In that cruel and tragic moment, when the life of the poor creature hung by a thread, Gautama stepped forward and cried, "Stop the cruel deed, O king!". And as he said this, he leaned forward and unfastened the bonds of the victim. "Every creature" he said, "loves to live, even as every human being loves to preserve his or her life". The priest then threw the knife away like a repentant sinner and the king issued a royal decree throughout the land the next day, to the effect that no further sacrifice should be made in future and that all people should show mercy to birds and beasts alike.

Kisagotami, a young woman, was married to the only son of a rich man and they had a male child. The child died when he was two years old. Kisagotami had intense attachment for the child. She clasped the dead child to her bossom, refused to part with it, and went from house to house, to her friends and relatives, asking them to give some medicine to bring the child back to life. A Buddhist monk said to her: "O good girl! I have no medicine. But go to Lord Buddha. He can surely give you a very good medicine. He is an ocean of mercy and love. The child will come back to life. Be not troubled". She at once ran to Buddha and said, "O venerable sir! Can you give any medicine to this child ?". Buddha replied, "Yes. I will give you a very good medicine. Bring some mustard seed from some house where no child or husband or wife or father or mother or servant had died". She said, "Very good, sir, I shall bring it in a short time".

Carrying her dead child in her bossom, Kisagotami went to a house and asked for some mustard seed. The people of the house said, "O lady, here is mustard seed. Take it". Kisagotami asked, "In your house, has any son or husband or wife, father or mother or servant died ?". They replied, "O lady! You ask a very strange question. Many have died in our house". Kisagotami went to another house and asked the same. The owner of the house said, "I have lost my eldest son and my wife". She went to a third house. People of the house answered, "We have lost our parents". She went to another house. The lady of the house said, "I lost my husband last year". Ultimately Kisagotami was not able to find a single house where no one had died. Viveka and Vairagya dawned in her mind. She buried the dead body of her child. She began to reflect seriously on the problem of life and death in this world.

Kisagotami then went to Lord Buddha and prostrated at his lotus feet. Buddha said to her, "O good girl! Have you brought the mustard seed ?". Kisagotami answered, "I am not able to find a single house where no one has died". Then Buddha said, "All the objects of this world are perishable and impermanent. This world is full of miseries, troubles and tribulations. Man or woman is troubled by birth, death, disease, old age and pain. We should gain wisdom from experience. We should not expect for things that do not and will not happen. This expectation leads us to unnecessary misery and suffering. One should obtain Nirvana. Then only all sorrows will come to an end. One will attain immortality and eternal peace". Kisagotami then became a disciple of Buddha and entered the Order of Nuns.

Once Buddha went to the house of a rich Brahmin with bowl in hand. The Brahmin became very angry and said, "O Bhikshu, why do you lead an idle life of wandering and begging ? Is this not disgraceful ? You have a well-built body. You can work. I plough and sow. I work in the fields and I earn my bread at the sweat of my brow. I lead a laborious life. It would be better if you also plough and sow and then you will have plenty of food to eat". Buddha replied, "O Brahmin! I also plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat". The Brahmin said, "You say you are an agriculturist. I do not see any sign of it. Where are your plough, bullocks and seeds ?". Then Buddha replied, "O Brahmin! Just hear my words with attention. I sow the seed of faith. The good actions that I perform are the rain that waters the seeds. Viveka and Vairagya are parts of my plough. Righteousness is the handle. Meditation is the goad. Sama and Dama - tranquillity of the mind and restraint of the Indriyas (senses) - are the bullocks. Thus I plough the soil of the mind and remove the weeds of doubt, delusion, fear, birth and death. The harvest that comes in is the immortal fruit of Nirvana. All sorrows terminate by this sort of ploughing and harvesting". The rich arrogant Brahmin came to his senses. His eyes were opened. He prostrated at the feet of Buddha and became his lay adherent.

Lord Buddha preached: "We will have to find out the cause of sorrow and the way to escape from it. The desire for sensual enjoyment and clinging to earthly life is the cause of sorrow. If we can eradicate desire, all sorrows and pains will come to an end. We will enjoy Nirvana or eternal peace. Those who follow the Noble Eightfold Path strictly, viz., right opinion, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right employment, right exertion, right thought and right self-concentration will be free from sorrow. This indeed, O mendicants, is that middle course which the Tathagata has thoroughly comprehended, which produces insight, which produces knowledge, which leads to calmness or serenity, to supernatural knowledge, to perfect Buddhahood, to Nirvana.

"This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the noble truth of suffering. Birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, association with unloved objects is painful, separation from loved objects is painful, the desire which one does not obtain, this is too painful - in short, the five elements of attachment to existence are painful. The five elements of attachment to earthly existence are form, sensation, perception, components and consciousness.

"This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the truth of the cause of suffering. It is that thirst which leads to renewed existence, connected with joy and passion, finding joy here and there, namely, thirst for sensual pleasure, and the instinctive thirst for existence. This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the noble truth of cessation of suffering, which is the cessation and total absence of desire for that very thirst, its abandonment, surrender, release from it and non-attachment to it. This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the noble truth of the course which leads to the cessation of suffering. This is verily the Noble Eightfold Path, viz., right opinion, etc."

Theravada (pronounced — more or less — "terra-VAH-dah"), the "Doctrine of the Elders," is the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration from the Tipitaka, or Pali canon, which scholars generally agree contains the earliest surviving record of the Buddha's teachings.1 For many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant religion of continental Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) and Sri Lanka. Today Theravada Buddhists number well over 100 million worldwide.2 In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the West.

The Buddha — the "Awakened One" — called the religion he founded Dhamma-vinaya — "the doctrine and discipline." To provide a social structure supportive of the practice of Dhamma-vinaya (or Dhamma for short [Sanskrit: Dharma]), and to preserve these teachings for posterity, the Buddha established the order of bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns)— the Sangha — which continues to this day to pass his teachings on to subsequent generations of laypeople and monastics, alike.

As the Dhamma continued its spread across India after the Buddha's passing, differing interpretations of the original teachings arose, which led to schisms within the Sangha and the emergence of as many as eighteen distinct sects of Buddhism.3 One of these schools eventually gave rise to a reform movement that called itself Mahayana (the "Greater Vehicle")4 and that referred to the other schools disparagingly as Hinayana (the "Lesser Vehicle"). What we call Theravada today is the sole survivor of those early non-Mahayana schools.5 To avoid the pejorative tone implied by the terms Hinayana and Mahayana, it is common today to use more neutral language to distinguish between these two main branches of Buddhism. Because Theravada historically dominated southern Asia, it is sometimes called "Southern" Buddhism, while Mahayana, which migrated northwards from India into China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea, is known as "Northern" Buddhism.6

The language of the Theravada canonical texts is Pali (lit., "text"), which is based on a dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan that was probably spoken in central India during the Buddha's time.7 Ven. Ananda, the Buddha's cousin and close personal attendant, committed the Buddha's sermons (suttas) to memory and thus became a living repository of these teachings.8 Shortly after the Buddha's death (ca. 480 BCE), five hundred of the most senior monks — including Ananda — convened to recite and verify all the sermons they had heard during the Buddha's forty-five year teaching career.9 Most of these sermons therefore begin with the disclaimer, "Evam me sutam" — "Thus have I heard."

After the Buddha's death the teachings continued to be passed down orally within the monastic community, in keeping with an Indian oral tradition that long predated the Buddha.10 By 250 BCE the Sangha had systematically arranged and compiled these teachings into three divisions: the Vinaya Pitaka (the "basket of discipline" — the texts concerning the rules and customs of the Sangha), the Sutta Pitaka (the "basket of discourses" — the sermons and utterances by the Buddha and his close disciples), and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (the "basket of special/higher doctrine" — a detailed psycho-philosophical analysis of the Dhamma). Together these three are known as the Tipitaka, the "three baskets." In the third century BCE Sri Lankan monks began compiling a series of exhaustive commentaries to the Tipitaka; these were subsequently collated and translated into Pali beginning in the fifth century CE. The Tipitaka plus the post-canonical texts (commentaries, chronicles, etc.) together constitute the complete body of classical Theravada literature.

Pali was originally a spoken language with no alphabet of its own. It wasn't until about 100 BCE that the Tipitaka was first fixed in writing, by Sri Lankan scribe-monks who wrote the Pali phonetically using their own Sinhala alphabet.11 Since then the Tipitaka has been transliterated into many different scripts (Devanagari, Thai, Burmese, Roman, Cyrillic, to name a few). Although English translations of the most popular Tipitaka texts abound, many students of Theravada find that learning the Pali language — even just a little bit here and there — greatly deepens their understanding and appreciation of the Buddha's teachings.

No one can prove that the Tipitaka contains any of the words actually uttered by the historical Buddha. Practicing Buddhists have never found this problematic. Unlike the scriptures of many of the world's great religions, the Tipitaka is not regarded as gospel, as an unassailable statement of divine truth, revealed by a prophet, to be accepted purely on faith. Instead, its teachings are meant to be assessed firsthand, to be put into practice in one's life so that one can find out for oneself if they do, in fact, yield the promised results. It is the truth towards which the words in the Tipitaka point that ultimately matters, not the words themselves. Although scholars will continue to debate the authorship of passages from the Tipitaka for years to come (and thus miss the point of these teachings entirely), the Tipitaka will quietly continue to serve — as it has for centuries — as an indispensable guide for millions of followers in their quest for Awakening.

Shortly after his Awakening, the Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. He taught these truths not as metaphysical theories or as articles of faith, but as categories by which we should frame our direct experience in a way that conduces to Awakening:

Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble Truths, because of our inexperience in framing the world in their terms, we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging, illness, death, and rebirth. Craving propels this process onward, from one moment to the next and over the course of countless lifetimes, in accordance with kamma (Skt. karma), the universal law of cause and effect. According to this immutable law, every action that one performs in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself — eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and happiness will ultimately ensue.12 As long as one remains ignorant of this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment, in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell.

The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt. Nirvana).

Because the roots of ignorance are so intimately entwined with the fabric of the psyche, the unawakened mind is capable of deceiving itself with breathtaking ingenuity. The solution therefore requires more than simply being kind, loving, and mindful in the present moment. The practitioner must equip him- or herself with the expertise to use a range of tools to outwit, outlast, and eventually uproot the mind's unskillful tendencies. For example, the practice of generosity (dana) erodes the heart's habitual tendencies towards craving and teaches valuable lessons about the motivations behind, and the results of, skillful action. The practice of virtue (sila) guards one against straying wildly off-course and into harm's way. The cultivation of goodwill (metta) helps to undermine anger's seductive grasp. The ten recollections offer ways to alleviate doubt, bear physical pain with composure, maintain a healthy sense of self-respect, overcome laziness and complacency, and restrain oneself from unbridled lust. And there are many more skills to learn.

The good qualities that emerge and mature from these practices not only smooth the way for the journey to Nibbana; over time they have the effect of transforming the practitioner into a more generous, loving, compassionate, peaceful, and clear-headed member of society. The individual's sincere pursuit of Awakening is thus a priceless and timely gift to a world in desperate need of help.

The Eightfold Path is best understood as a collection of personal qualities to be developed, rather than as a sequence of steps along a linear path. The development of right view and right resolve (the factors classically identified with wisdom and discernment) facilitates the development of right speech, action, and livelihood (the factors identified with virtue). As virtue develops so do the factors identified with concentration (right effort, mindfulness, and concentration). Likewise, as concentration matures, discernment evolves to a still deeper level. And so the process unfolds: development of one factor fosters development of the next, lifting the practitioner in an upward spiral of spiritual maturity that eventually culminates in Awakening.

The long journey to Awakening begins in earnest with the first tentative stirrings of right view — the discernment by which one recognizes the validity of the four Noble Truths and the principle of kamma. One begins to see that one's future well-being is neither predestined by fate, nor left to the whims of a divine being or random chance. The responsibility for one's happiness rests squarely on one's own shoulders. Seeing this, one's spiritual aims become suddenly clear: to relinquish the habitual unskillful tendencies of the mind in favor of skillful ones. As this right resolve grows stronger, so does the heartfelt desire to live a morally upright life, to choose one's actions with care.

At this point many followers make the inward commitment to take the Buddha's teachings to heart, to become "Buddhist" through the act of taking refuge in the Triple Gem: the Buddha (both the historical Buddha and one's own innate potential for Awakening), the Dhamma (both the Buddha's teachings and the ultimate Truth towards which they point), and the Sangha (both the unbroken monastic lineage that has preserved the teachings since the Buddha's day, and all those who have achieved at least some degree of Awakening). With one's feet thus planted on solid ground, and with the help of an admirable friend or teacher (kalyanamitta) to guide the way, one is now well-equipped to proceed down the Path, following in the footsteps left by the Buddha himself.

Right view and right resolve continue to mature through the development of the path factors associated with sila, or virtue — namely, right speech, right action, and right livelihood. These are condensed into a very practical form in the five precepts, the basic code of ethical conduct to which every practicing Buddhist subscribes: refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and using intoxicants. Even the monks' complex code of 227 rules and the nuns' 311 ultimately have these five basic precepts at their core.

Having gained a foothold in the purification of one's outward behavior through the practice of sila, the essential groundwork has been laid for delving into the most subtle and transformative aspect of the path: meditation and the development of samadhi, or concentration. This is spelled out in detail in the final three path factors: right effort, by which one learns how to favor skillful qualities of mind over unskillful ones; right mindfulness, by which one learns to keep one's attention continually grounded in the present moment of experience; and right concentration, by which one learns to immerse the mind so thoroughly and unwaveringly in its meditation object that it enters jhana, a series of progressively deeper states of mental and physical tranquillity.

Right mindfulness and right concentration are developed in tandem through satipatthana ("frames of reference" or "foundations of mindfulness"), a systematic approach to meditation practice that embraces a wide range of skills and techniques. Of these practices, mindfulness of the body (especially mindfulness of breathing) is particularly effective at bringing into balance the twin qualities of tranquillity (samatha) and insight (vipassana), or clear-seeing. Through persistent practice, the meditator becomes more adept at bringing the combined powers of samatha-vipassana to bear in an exploration of the fundamental nature of mind and body.13 As the meditator masters the ability to frame his immediate experience in terms of anicca (inconstancy), dukkha, and anatta (not-self), even the subtlest manifestations of these three characteristics of experience are brought into exquisitely sharp focus. At the same time, the root cause of dukkha — craving — is relentlessly exposed to the light of awareness. Eventually craving is left with no place to hide, the entire karmic process that fabricates dukkha unravels, the eightfold path reaches its noble climax, and the meditator gains, at long last, his or her first unmistakable glimpse of the Unconditioned — Nibbana.

This first enlightenment experience, known as stream-entry (sotapatti), is the first of four progressive stages of Awakening, each of which entails the irreversible shedding or weakening of several fetters (samyojana), the manifestations of ignorance that bind a person to the cycle of birth and death. Stream-entry marks an unprecedented and radical turning point both in the practitioner's current life and in the entirety of his or her long journey in samsara. For it is at this point that any lingering doubts about the truth of the Buddha's teachings disappear; it is at this point that any belief in the purifying efficacy of rites and rituals evaporates; and it is at this point that the long-cherished notion of an abiding personal "self" falls away. The stream-enterer is said to be assured of no more than seven future rebirths (all of them favorable) before eventually attaining full Awakening.

But full Awakening is still a long way off. As the practitioner presses on with renewed diligence, he or she passes through two more significant landmarks: once-returning (sakadagati), which is accompanied by the weakening of the fetters of sensual desire and ill-will, and non-returning (agati), in which these two fetters are uprooted altogether. The final stage of Awakening — arahatta — occurs when even the most refined and subtle levels of craving and conceit are irrevocably extinguished. At this point the practitioner — now an arahant, or "worthy one" — arrives at the end-point of the Buddha's teaching. With ignorance, suffering, stress, and rebirth having all come to their end, the arahant at last can utter the victory cry first proclaimed by the Buddha upon his Awakening:

"Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done! There is nothing further for the sake of this world."

The arahant lives out the remainder of his or her life inwardly enjoying the bliss of Nibbana, secure at last from the possibility of any future rebirth. When the arahant's aeons-long trail of past kamma eventually unwinds to its end, the arahant dies and he or she enters into parinibbana — total Unbinding. Although language utterly fails at describing this extraordinary event, the Buddha likened it to what happens when a fire finally burns up all its fuel.

Buddhism is sometimes naïvely criticized as a "negative" or "pessimistic" religion and philosophy. Surely life is not all misery and disappointment: it offers many kinds of happiness and sublime joy. Why then this dreary Buddhist obsession with unsatisfactoriness and suffering?

The Buddha based his teachings on a frank assessment of our plight as humans: there is unsatisfactoriness and suffering in the world. No one can argue this fact. Dukkha lurks behind even the highest forms of worldly pleasure and joy, for, sooner or later, as surely as night follows day, that happiness must come to an end. Were the Buddha's teachings to stop there, we might indeed regard them as pessimistic and life as utterly hopeless. But, like a doctor who prescribes a remedy for an illness, the Buddha offers both a hope (the third Noble Truth) and a cure (the fourth). The Buddha's teachings thus give cause for unparalleled optimism and joy. The teachings offer as their reward the noblest, truest kind of happiness, and give profound value and meaning to an otherwise grim existence. One modern teacher summed it up well: "Buddhism is the serious pursuit of happiness."

Until the late 19th century, the teachings of Theravada were little known outside of southern Asia, where they had flourished for some two and one-half millennia. In the past century, however, the West has begun to take notice of Theravada's unique spiritual legacy in its teachings of Awakening. In recent decades this interest has swelled, with the monastic Sangha from various schools within Theravada establishing dozens of monasteries across Europe and North America. Increasing numbers of lay meditation centers, founded and operated independently of the monastic Sangha, strain to meet the demands of lay men and women — Buddhist and otherwise — seeking to learn selected aspects of the Buddha's teachings.

The turn of the 21st century presents both opportunities and dangers for Theravada in the West: Will the Buddha's teachings be patiently studied and put into practice, and allowed to establish deep roots in Western soil, for the benefit of many generations to come? Will the current popular Western climate of "openness" and cross-fertilization between spiritual traditions lead to the emergence of a strong new form of Buddhist practice unique to the modern era, or will it simply lead to confusion and the dilution of these priceless teachings? These are open questions; only time will tell.

Spiritual teachings of every description inundate the media and the marketplace today. Many of today's popular spiritual teachings borrow liberally from the Buddha, though only rarely do they place the Buddha's words in their true context. Earnest seekers of truth are therefore often faced with the unsavory task of wading through fragmentary teachings of dubious accuracy. How are we to make sense of it all?

Fortunately the Buddha left us with some simple guidelines to help us navigate through this bewildering flood. Whenever you find yourself questioning the authenticity of a particular teaching, heed well the Buddha's advice to his stepmother:

[The teachings that promote] the qualities of which you may know, 'These qualities lead to passion, not to dispassion; to being fettered, not to being unfettered; to accumulating, not to shedding; to self-aggrandizement, not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to entanglement, not to seclusion; to laziness, not to aroused persistence; to being burdensome, not to being unburdensome': You may definitely hold, 'This is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher's instruction.'

[As for the teachings that promote] the qualities of which you may know, 'These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome': You may definitely hold, 'This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher's instruction.'

The truest test of these teachings, of course, is whether they yield the promised results in the crucible of your own heart. The Buddha presents the challenge; the rest is up to you.

1. Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction (fifth edition) by R.H. Robinson, W.L. Johnson, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 2005), p. 46.

2. This estimate is based on data appearing in » CIA World Factbook 2004. South Asia's largest Theravada Buddhist populations are found in Thailand (61 million Theravadans), Myanmar (38 million), Sri Lanka (13 million), and Cambodia (12 million).

4. Mahayana today includes Zen, Ch'an, Nichiren, Tendai, and Pure Land Buddhism.

5. Guide Through The Abhidhamma Pitaka by Nyanatiloka Mahathera (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971), pp. 60ff.

6. A third major branch of Buddhism emerged much later (ca. 8th century CE) in India: Vajrayana, the "Diamond Vehicle." Vajrayana's elaborate system of esoteric initiations, tantric rituals, and mantra recitations eventually spread north into central and east Asia, leaving a particularly strong imprint on Tibetan Buddhism. See Buddhist Religions, pp. 124ff. and chapter 11.

7. Modern scholarship suggests that Pali was probably never spoken by the Buddha himself. In the centuries after the Buddha's death, as Buddhism spread across India into regions of different dialects, Buddhist monks increasingly depended on a common tongue for their Dhamma discussions and recitations of memorized texts. It was out of this necessity that the language we now know as Pali emerged. See Bhikkhu Bodhi's Introduction in Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1999), pp. 1ff, and n. 1 (p. 275) and "The Pali Language and Literature" by the Pali Text Society (» http://www.palitext.com/subpages/lan_lite.htm; 15 April 2002).

8. Great Disciples of the Buddha by Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 1997), pp. 140, 150.

10. The Hindu Vedas, for example, predate the Buddha by at least a millennium (Buddhist Religions, p. 2).

13. This description of the unified role of samatha and vipassana is based upon the Buddha's meditation teachings as presented in the suttas (see "One Tool Among Many" by Thanissaro Bhikkhu). The Abhidhamma and the Commentaries, by contrast, state that samatha and vipassana are two distinct meditation paths (see, for example, The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by H. Gunaratana, ch. 5). It is difficult to reconcile these two views just from studying the texts; any remaining doubts and concerns about the roles of samatha and vipassana are best resolved through the actual practice of meditation.

Theravada Buddhism focused primarily on meditation and concentration, the eighth of the Eightfold Noble Path; as a result, it centered on a monastic life and an extreme expenditure of time in meditating. This left little room for the bulk of humanity to join in, so a new schism erupted within the ranks of Buddhism in the first century AD, one that would attempt to reformulate the teachings of Buddha to accomodate a greater number of people. They called their new Buddhism, the "Greater Vehicle" (literally, "The Greater Ox-Cart") or Mahayana, since it could accomodate more people and more believers from all walks of life. They distinguished themselves from mainstream Theravada Buddhism by contemptuously referring to Theravada as Hinayana, or "The Lesser Vehicle."

   The Mahayanists, however, did not see themselves as creating a new start for Buddhism, rather they claimed to be recovering the original teachings of Buddha, in much the same way that the Protestant reformers of sixteenth century Europe claimed that they were not creating a new Christianity but recovering the original form. The Mahayanists claimed that their canon of scriptures represented the final teachings of Buddha; they accounted for the non-presence of these teachings in over five hundred years by claiming that these were secret teachings entrusted only to the most faithful followers.

   Whatever the origins of Mahayan doctrines, they represent a significant departure in the philosophy. Like the Protestant Reformation, the overall goal of Mahayana was to extend religious authority to a greater number of people rather than concentrating it in the hands of a few. The Mahayanists managed to turn Buddhism into a more esoteric religion by developing a theory of gradations of Buddhahood. At the top was Buddhahood itself which was preceded by a series of lives, the bodhisattvas.

   This idea of the bodhisattva was one of the most important innovations of Mahayana Buddhism. The boddhisattva , or "being of wisdom," was originally invented to explain the nature of Buddha's earlier lives. Before Buddha entered his final life as Siddhartha Gautama, he had spent many lives working towards Buddhahood. In these previous lives he was a bodhisattva , a kind of "Buddha-in-waiting," that performed acts of incredible generosity, joy, and compassion towards his fellow human beings. An entire group of literature grew up around these previous lives of Buddha, called the Jataka or "Birth Stories."

   While we do not know much about the earliest forms of Buddhism, there is some evidence that the earliest followers believed that there was only the one Buddha and that no more would follow. Soon, however, a doctrine of the Maitreya , or "Future Buddha," began to assert itself. In this, Buddhists believed that a second Buddha would come and purify the world; they also believed that the first Buddha prophesied this future Buddha. If a future Buddha was coming, that meant that the second Buddha is already on earth passing through life after life. So someone on earth was the Maitreya . It could be the person serving you food. It could be a child playing in the street. It could be you. What if there was more than one Maitreya? Five? Ten? A billion? That certainly raises the odds that you or someone you know is a future Buddha.

   The goal of Theravada Buddhism is practically unattainable. In order to make Buddhism a more esoteric religion, the Mahayanists invented two grades of Buddhist attainment below becoming a Buddha. While the Buddha was the highest goal, one could become a pratyeka-buddha , that is, one who has awakened to the truth but keeps it secret. Below the pratyeka-buddha is the arhant , or "worthy," who has learned the truth from others and has realized it as truth. Mahayana Buddhism establishes the arhant as the goal for all believers. The believer hears the truth, comes to realize it as truth, and then passes into Nirvana . This doctrine of arhanthood is the basis for calling Mahayan the "Greater Vehicle," for it is meant to include everyone.

   Finally, the Mahayanists completed the conversion of Buddhism from a philosophy to religion. Therevada Buddhism holds that Buddha was a historical person who, on his death, ceased to exist. There were, however, strong tendencies for Buddhists to worship Buddha as a god of some sort; these tendencies probably began as early as Buddha's lifetime. The Mahayanists developed a theology of Buddha called the doctrine of "The Three Bodies," or Trikaya. The Buddha was not a human being, as he was in Theravada Buddhism, but the manifestation of a universal, spiritual being. This being had three bodies. When it occupied the earth in the form of Siddhartha Gautama, it took on the Body of Magical Transformation (nirmanakaya ). This Body of Magical Transformation was an emanation of the Body of Bliss (sambhogakaya ), which occupies the heavens in the form of a ruling and governing god of the universe. There are many forms of the Body of Bliss, but the one that rules over our world is Amithaba who lives in a paradise in the western heavens called Sukhavati, or "Land of Pure Bliss." Finally, the Body of Bliss is an emanation of the Body of Essence (dharmakaya ), which is the principle underlying the whole of the universe. This Body of Essence, the principle and rule of the universe, became synonymous with Nirvana . It was a kind of universal soul, and Nirvana became the transcendent joining with this universal soul.

Tibetan Buddhism derives from the confluence of Buddhism and yoga which started to arrive in Tibet from India briefly around the late eighth century and then more steadily from the thirteenth century onwards. Indian Buddhism around that time had incorporated both Hindu yogic and tantric practices along with the classical teachings of the historical Buddha who lived around 500 BC. It acknowledged that there were two paths to enlightenment (complete transcendence of identification with the personal ego). One path was that taught in the sutras according to the historical teachings. The heart of sutra practice was based on morality, concentration, and wisdom (not identifying with the personal ego). The other path, which has become the cornerstone of Tibetan variations, was tantric. This practice blended the sutra teachings with techniques adapted from Hindu systems of yoga and tantra.

Tantric systems transform the basic human passions of desire and aversion for the purpose of spiritual development. Rather than denying such primal urges, tantra purifies them into wholesome and helpful forces. It is very much like trying to deal with a wild horse charging towards you. One way is denial: put up your hands and shout out, "stop, stop!" Probably you will be bowled over by the animal. Another, more clever, approach is to step aside and then jump on its back as it charges past you. In such a case, you have a chance to start coaxing it to move in certain directions, and over time you may be able to direct it into a stable. Truthfully, one needs some skill in both self-control and acceptance if one is to be successful with tantric work.

Tibetan Tantra ( also known as the Vajrayana ) incorporates the major aspects of both the Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist teachings. It is basically an esoteric extension on these themes. Hinayana and Mahayana are two schools of Buddhist practice that have basically similar goals and techniques but somewhat differing philosophies. For instance, Theravadin Buddhism ( known for its Vipassana meditation ) is a Hinayana teaching and Zen Buddhism is a Mahayana teaching. Tantra itself has various schools which can be grouped by the relative emphasis they place on working with exoteric and esoteric practices.

Lamrim ( literally, stages of the path ) These are indispensable topics for reflection and contemplation and also the meditations and activities that should naturally follow on from them. The Lamrim embodies the necessary prerequisites for tantra. It is set out as a progressive set of steps.

The Preciousness of Human Life ( the importance of using life for something valuable )

Death and Impermanence ( uncertainty of death and the unsatisfactory nature of this world )

Taking Refuge from Samsara ( the cycle of endless grasping and eventual disappointment )

Karma ( the law of cause and effect which works in this world as well as at esoteric levels )

Developing Renunciation for Samsara ( integrating spiritual understanding and values )

Developing Equanimity ( accepting, and seeing past, both good and bad experience )

Recognizing that all Beings are as Precious as our Mothers ( the beginnings of bodhichitta )

Equalizing Self and Others ( realising that we all want, and deserve, to be happy )

Exchanging Self with Others ( this is the core practice for developing bodhichitta--it involves developing the wish to voluntarily take on others' problems and freely give them one's own happiness in exchange. A sketch of the technique is as follows: breathe in others' woes as black smoke--let it settle into the heart, then breathe out all one's own happiness as white light--let it expand to fill all the cosmos. A practitioner should imagine and rejoice at the effect of both the in- and out-breath. For, on the in-breath, the reality and weight of all the problems in this world sink into the heart and help to dissolve the ego. Likewise, the out-breath brings relief and joy to all others. )

Taking Responsibility to Relieve Others' Burdens ( "exchanging self with others" in action )

Bodhichitta ( the desire to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all beings )

Superior Seeing ( developing emptiness--that is, non-identification with the personal ego )

Common Preliminary Tantric Practices These are the beginning activities that are unique to the Vajrayana path.

Prostrations ( physical prostration, visualisation and prayer for taking refuge )

Mandala Offering ( visualisation and prayer for developing surrender and gaining merit )

Guru Yoga ( visualisation, mantra recitation and prayer for developing devotion and receiving blessings )

Generation Stage of Tantra These are preparatory practices that utilise imagination and much visualisation. They prepare the psychological and psychic groundwork for the spiritual energy that will be developed and harnessed in the following completion stage practices.

Beginning Meditation ( visualisation of oneself as a deity in the centre of a mandala full of other deities )

Subtle Meditation ( visualisation of a body mandala which corresponds to points on the subtle nervous system )

Completion Stage of Tantra These are very advanced meditations that primarily utilise subtle energies known as winds ( prana and chi are some other names for this energy ). These winds normally circulate throughout the psychic nervous system. When they are collected into a central place they provide great stability and clarity for the meditator. The normal collection point is commonly known as a chakra. It corresponds to a node or plexus in the psychic nervous system and acts as a link between the psychic, or astral, level of existence and our normal level of experience.

Tibetan yoga employs a simplified version of the metaphysical structure that is used in Hindu yoga. According to the Tibetan scheme there are three realms to consider in spiritual practice. These correspond to the Emanation Body ( this world ), the Enjoyment Body ( the astral dimension ), and the Truth Body ( a dimension that is much deeper--that is, much more subtle--than the astral ).

Isolated Body, Speech, and Mind ( progressive isolation of consciousness from this level of reality )

Illusory Body ( development of an astral body. Consciousness now is based in the astral not the physical )

Clear Light ( development of a very subtle consciousness at the Truth Body level )

Union or Full Enlightenment ( linking the Truth Body consciousness to the Enjoyment, or astral, Body )

Meditation on emptiness is integral throughout this practice. A simple way to understand emptiness is as follows. In the physical world, the personal ego has a relative span and will cease when the body does. So relative to it, the soul, or Enjoyment Body, is much more important since it will continue on after death. Thus saying the ego or self is empty means it is better to ground awareness in the soul and experience the ego as a garment, rather than only experiencing the ego and having no real connection with the soul. Thus emptiness is a statement about priority--we should consider the bigger context of our experience in order to live more wisely and wholesomely.

The same principle of emptiness applies as progressively higher levels of reality are experienced. Hence, when the Enjoyment Body, or soul, becomes a living reality for the meditator, she or he continues to take it as relatively real and keeps grounding awareness in the encircling context. The context, or deeper level, for the soul is the Truth Body ( which is just a more subtle version of the soul ). So as a meditator realises the Truth Body, the Enjoyment Body becomes the new object for meditation on emptiness.

To recapitulate the entire process: at the beginning we have a body and mind (the personal ego or self ). Next an astral body ( Enjoyment Body ) is developed and it is as if the physical body and personal ego have become the "body" and the astral body has become the "mind". Next a very subtle body ( Truth Body ) is developed and the final result is that the astral body becomes the "body" and the Truth Body becomes the "mind". At each stage of this sequence, the "body" is subjectively experienced as being empty by the "mind".

What is the experience of emptiness like? At the beginning level of physical body and mind, emptiness means that one does not identify with any experience whatsoever. Any sight, sound, or other sense is recognised and honoured for what it is, but it is not clung to. Similarly, all thoughts and feelings are also taken in this way--as being real and valuable, but not as being in one's possession so that one does not cling to the experience of them. It is as if all experiences, whether external ( in the world "out there" ) or internal ( inner thoughts, hopes, feelings, and desires ), are viewed as clouds passing by. The reality is the sky which the clouds float by in. And if the sky is noticed, it too is taken as just another cloud wafting by. The result of this amazing relation to one's experience is an enormous sense of relief, peace, and clarity. At first it seems that one will die if one doesn't cling to experience, but after awhile it becomes apparent that one continues to live on anyway. We are more than just the experiences that we engage in.

The same process applies at progressively more subtle levels of experience. The contents of experience become more and more amazing and wonderful ( to our normal way of thinking ) but the most skilful way of relating to them still remains the practice of mindfulness ( emptiness meditation ). So once a yogi creates an astral body and can experience reality at that level, he or she works at non-identification with the astral body. And similarly, once a Truth Body exists, meditation on its emptiness continues as well.

This is also a very advanced teaching whose end result is the same as for the tantric path. Its techniques and emphasis are a bit different. Primarily, Dzogchen underscores direct perception of the fundamental nature of reality. So instead of working to create higher energy bodies such as the astral body, it seeks to ground awareness directly back into the Truth Body. And as mentioned above, this Body reaches the limits of human experience and expression so that its subjective experience is one of all-encompassing emptiness. That is, there is nothing more to be said about this level with the common tools of human experience--words and emotions. The main practice is similar to Zen meditation and consists of holding a constant perceptual openness to all experience. For such practice to lead to more subtle insight, however, a Dzogchen practitioner needs to receive empowerments ( transmission of spiritual energy ) from a qualified teacher. These act somewhat as a self-correcting guidance system to help a meditator to gradually open to the deeper dimensions of reality. Some Dzogchen meditations are similar to tantric visualisation and energetic practices. The basic prerequisites for Dzogchen are similar to Tantra.

The relationship amongst the major schools of Buddhism can be understand in terms of the four-fold classification shown in the following table.

Rate of Change ===> Level of Existence \| V	Gradual Path ( sequential ) establish morality first, then develop wisdom	Fast Path ( direct ) mainly focus on developing wisdom
Exoteric meditate on 5 senses and the mind	Hinayana, most Mahayana e.g. Theravadin with Vipassana meditation	Mahayana e.g. Zen with zazen meditation
Esoteric meditate on subtle energies	Vajrayana e.g. Highest Yoga Tantra with tummo meditation	Dzogchen e.g. "radiance" meditation and non-dual contemplation

The three yanas ( vehicles, or schools ) of Buddhism teach a similar approach to enlightenment. It consists of morality, concentration, and wisdom. They differ in the emphasis placed on these areas and also on the level of reality that is primarily worked with. The main goal and result of each school is moving beyond identification with the personal ego. The resulting wisdom, or enlightenment, is experienced at various levels of reality--from the physical-astral interface for Vipassana and Zen, to the astral-very deep interface for Tantra and Dzogchen.

The Sutra and Vajrayana teachings place great emphasis on building a proper moral basis upon which to build the insights of emptiness. In contrast, both Zen and Dzogchen place most of their focus upon directly working to develop the wisdom of emptiness. In practice, both the Gradual and Fast Paths have strengths and weaknesses. The gradual approach guarantees a steady mind and heart when one begins to experience very deep states of meditation. This is extremely useful as the power of the subconscious mind that can be unleashed in such states is enormous and can lead to psychological imbalance if one is not basically well-rounded by such a stage of practice. The drawback, of course, is that it takes a long time to really begin to purify one's mind and heart. Many great masters have spent their entire lives with the purification and transformation of mind and heart as their chief practice.

The fast approach provides the quickest means to experience awareness beyond that normally associated with the ego. Its drawback, is the potential fragility of the ego to withstand such rapid and deep-reaching change--the very thing gradual paths strive to guard against.

An analogous situation holds for the exoteric and esoteric schools. Exoteric traditions are more solid and balanced since they mostly work with the perceptions and energies of the physical plane. So even though it is not uncommon to be visited with various astral experiences during advanced stages of Zen or Vipassana meditation, the emphasis of such schools is to continue grounding back to this earth--to the sights, sounds, tastes and thoughts that comprise ordinary experience. The drawback is that the primal energies that underpin the physical world are only indirectly addressed.

Esoteric traditions, on the other hand, determine to apply themselves directly to the forces that underlie ordinary existence. They reach for the essential nature of the experience of living which manifests as subtle energy and consciousness. The drawback is that similar to reaching too far, too fast, into the psyche as for the fast traditions, esoteric work can reach too far, too fast into subtler fields of energy. This can manifest variously as, for instance, unwanted communication with other beings, energetic imbalances of the body and mind, and uncontrolled effects on the environment and other beings.

The confluence of Buddhism and other mystical teachings in the West is resulting in a blending of these various approaches to spirituality. It is likely that, along with the aforementioned paths, a blending of them which puts emphasis somewhere in between along both axes of the above table will develop as a useful approach for those who wish to remain in a regular lifestyle.

Name: Zen Buddhism; the mystical school of Buddhism
(Zen in Chinese= ch'an-na, which transliterates the sanskrit term dhyana, which means "meditation")

At the age of 29, Siddhartha Guatama was deeply troubled by the suffering he saw around him, and he renounced his privileged life to seek understanding. After 6 years of struggling as an ascetic, he finally achieved Enlightenment at age 35. After this, he was known as the Buddha ("One who is awake"). After all of these experiences, Guatama realized that everything is subject to change and that suffering and discontentment are the result of the attachment to circumstances and things which, by their nature, are not permanent. From that point on, the teachings of Zen Buddhism have been passed down from teacher to students. Around 475 AD, Bodhidharma traveled from India to China and introduced teachings there. (This is why some references cite Bodhidharma as the founding father of Zen Buddhism.)

Cult or Sect: Negative sentiments are typically implied when the concepts "cult" and "sect" are employed in popular discourse. Since the Religious Movements Homepage seeks to promote religious tolerance and appreciation of the positive benefits of pluralism and religious diversity in human cultures, we encourage the use of alternative concepts that do not carry implicit negative stereotypes. For a more detailed discussion of both scholarly and popular usage of the concepts "cult" and "sect," please visit our Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" page, where you will find additional links to related issues.

According to Benjamin Radcliff, the key beliefs of Zen focus primarily on The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path.

The first truth is the observation that suffering or unhappiness, referred to as dukkha, is pervasive in life. Dukka is explained to be suffering or unhappiness of any kind. (i.e. the desire for wealth or respect, the distaste for bad weather).

The second truth explains that the cause of dukkha is craving or clutching at life. Our unhappiness results from our desiring to make life fit our preconceptions of what should be or what we would like it to be.

The third truth explains that dukkha can be ended by ending the craving, which in turn, can be achieved by following the fourth truth.
The fourth truth reveals to follow The Noble Eightfold Path.

The first and second relate to right views and right understanding of the mind. These proposals require proper understanding of Buddha's method (nature of dukkha).

The third, fourth, and fifth paths refer to right speech, right conduct, and right vocation. They offer simple suggestions of prudence. One should follow "the path" to achieve spiritual goodness.

The sixth, seventh and eighth paths apply to meditation. Right effort, right awareness(smiriti), and right contemplation (smadhi) are necessary to achieve complete meditation.

In general, Zen is different from other religious groups. Zen is not a religion in the sense that religion is generally understood. Zen has no God to worship, no ceremonial rights to observe, no "future abode" to which the dead are destined. Zen is free of all dogmatic principles that Christianity and other religions are tied to. Zen has no set doctrines which are imposed on its followers for acceptance. Zen teachings come out of one's own mind. It is addressed to the human heart. It is a living experience, a "creative impulse."

All major religions, Buddhism included, have split into schools and sects. But the different sects of Buddhism have never gone to war with each other and they go to each others temples and worship together. This understanding by the different Buddhist sects is vary rare. Buddhism has evolved in different forms so it can be relevant to different cultures. For example, the practice of Zen Buddhism is different among the Chinese, Americans, and Japanese. Because Zen Buddhism is the creation of the T'ang dynasty in China (where it originated), it is difficult for Anglo-Saxons and the Japanese to absorb anything quite so Chinese as Zen. The Chinese practice involves the achievement and respect for a vision of a universal way of nature, wherein good and evil are both considered as parts of existence. Japanese Zen promotes rigid self-discipline and was popular among the Samurai class. Meanwhile, American Zen is self-conscious and subjective and is used to justify life and one's desires. The types of Buddhism all may seem very different but at the center of all of them is the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path.

Traditionally, Zen traces its roots back to Indian Buddhism; it takes its name from the Sanskrit term, dhyāna, which means meditative concentration (zen is short for the rarely-used form zenna). According to traditional accounts, Chinese Zen was established in approximately 500 CE by an Indian monk named Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma is said to have been the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen and the last Indian successor in a line begun by the Buddha's disciple Mahakaśyapa.

An early Zen text, the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, describes Bodhidharma travelling by sea, circa 520, to the territory of the Liang Dynasty in southern China. There, in a famous exchange with Emperor Wu, he explained that good deeds done with selfish intention were useless for gaining enlightenment. This argument having met with imperial disapproval, Bodhidharma travelled north to Shaolin Temple near the Song Mountains, where he established himself as a teacher. Martial arts legend also states that kung fu was also taught by Bodhidharma at Shaolin.

Shortly before his death, Bodhidharma appointed his disciple Huike to succeed him, making Huike the first Chinese patriarch and the second patriarch of Zen in China. The transmission then passed to the second, third, and fourth patriarchs, of whom little is known beyond their names. The sixth and last patriarch, Huineng (638-713), was one of the giants of Zen history, and all surviving schools regard him as their ancestor. However, the dramatic story of Huineng's life tells that there was a controversy over his claim to the title of patriarch: after being chosen by the Hongren, the fifth patriarch, he had to flee by night to Nanhua Temple in the south to avoid the wrath of Hongren's jealous senior disciples. In the middle of the 8th century, monks claiming to be the successors to Huineng, calling themselves the Southern school, cast themselves in opposition to those claiming to succeed Hongren's student Shenxiu (神秀). It was at this point, the debates between these rival factions, that Zen enters the realm of fully documented history. The Southern school eventually became predominant and their rivals died out.

Later, Korean monks studying in China learned what was by then called Ch'an, and which had by then been profoundly influenced by Chinese Taoism and to a lesser degree Confucianism. After the tradition was expanded to Korea, it came to be called Seon there (sometimes misspelled as Soen in the West).

It is important to note, however, that Chan, Seon and Zen continued to develop separately in their home countries, and all maintain separate identities to this day. Although lineage lines in China, Korea, Japan and elsewhere appear to show direct descent from Bodhidharma, changes in belief and practice have inevitably appeared with the profusion of Chan/Seon/Zen.

The Japanese Rinzai Zen philosopher D.T. Suzuki maintained that a Zen satori (awakening) has always been the goal of the training, but that which distinguished the tradition as it developed in China, Korea, and Japan was a way of life radically different from that of Indian Buddhists. In India, the tradition of the mendicant (holy beggar, or bhikku in Pali) prevailed, but in China social circumstances led to the development of a temple and training-center system in which the abbot and the monks all performed mundane tasks. These included food gardening or farming, carpentry, architecture, housekeeping, administration, and the practice of folk medicine. Consequently, the enlightenment sought in Zen had to stand up well to the demands and potential frustrations of everyday life.

The following are the six Patriarchs of Zen in China as listed in traditional sources:

The schools of Zen that currently exist in Japan are the Soto (曹洞), Rinzai (臨済), and Obaku (黃檗). Of these, Soto is the largest and Obaku the smallest.

The Rinzai school was original founded in China by Linji Yiyuan, who is known as Rinzai Gigen in Japanese; it was introduced to Japan in 1191 by Myōan Eisai. Soto is the Japanese branch of another Chinese school, Caodong; it was brought to Japan in the early 13th century by Dogen, who had studied under Eisai. Obaku was introduced in the 17th century by Ingen, a Chinese monk.

Some contemporary Japanese Zen teachers, such as Daiun Harada and Shunryu Suzuki, have criticized Japanese Zen as being a formalized system of empty rituals in which very few Zen practitioners ever actually attain realization. They assert that almost all Japanese temples have become family businesses handed down from father to son, and the Zen priest's function has largely been reduced to officiating at funerals.

The Japanese Zen establishment—including the Soto sect, the major branches of Rinzai, and several renowned teachers— has been criticized for its involvement in Japanese militarism and nationalism during World War II and the preceding period. A notable work on this subject was Zen at War (1998) by Brian Victoria, an American-born Soto priest.

Zen is a branch of Buddhism and as such is based on and deeply rooted in the Buddha's teachings. It is also very much the child of China and has some teaching derived from Confucianism and Taoism. The Zen branch calls itself the Buddha Heart School and traces its lineage back to the Buddha, with the Flower Sermon being the first transmission of the Dharma. It's common for daily chanting to include the lineage of the school, reciting the names of all "dharma ancestors" and teachers that have transmitted Zen teaching.

Zen is part of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism (Northern) and some practical differences are to be found with the Theravadins (Southern). For example, Zen and other Mahayana traditions place greater emphasis on the practice of the Paramitas (Path of Perfection) and less on the Eightfold Path, although familiarity with the Eightfold Path is still required. Another difference is in sutra study; Zen and other Mahayana traditions focus on the Mahayana Canon, while the Southern schools place emphasis on Tripitaka study.

All Zen schools, Rinzai or Soto, are versed in Buddhist Doctrine and Buddhist Philosophy, including the Precepts, Four Noble Truths, Pratitya Samutpada, Three Signs of Being, Five Skandhas, Three Fires, Four Right Efforts, Five Hindrances, Ten Fetters, and the Bhavacakra (and its symbolic representation). At the same time, Zen's emphasis on direct seeing into one's nature keeps it lively and at the edge of the tradition.

This openness has allowed non-Buddhists to practice Zen, especially outside of Asia, and even for the curious phenomenon of an emerging Christian Zen lineage, as well as one or two lines that call themselves "nonsectarian." With no official governing body, it's perhaps impossible to declare any authentic lineage "heretical." Some schools emphasize lineage and trace their line of teachers back to Japan, Korea, Vietnam or China; other schools do not.

Zen teachings are deeply rooted in the Buddhist textual tradition, drawing primarily on Mahāyāna sutras composed in India and China, particularly the Heart Sutra; the Diamond Sutra; the Lankavatara Sutra; the Samantamukha Parivarta, a chapter of the Lotus Sutra; and the Platform Sutra of Huineng. The body of Zen doctrine also includes the recorded teachings of masters in the various Zen traditions.

Zen is not primarily an intellectual philosophy nor a solitary pursuit. Zen temples emphasize meticulous daily practice, and hold intensive monthly meditation retreats. Practicing with others is valued as a way to avoid the traps of ego. In explaining the Zen Buddhist path to Westerners, Japanese Zen teachers have frequently made the point that Zen is a way of life and not solely a state of consciousness. D.T. Suzuki wrote that the aspects of this life are: a life of humility; a life of labor; a life of service; a life of prayer and gratitude; and a life of meditation.

Zen teachings often criticize textual hermeneutics and the pursuit of worldly accomplishments, concentrating primarily on meditation in pursuit of an unmediated awareness of the processes of the world and of the mind. Zen, however, is not a purely passive doctrine: the Chinese Chan master Baizhang (720-814 CE) left behind a famous saying which had been the guiding principle of his life, "A day without work is a day without eating."

Zen sitting meditation, the core of zen practice, is called zazen. During zazen, practitioners usually assume a sitting position such as the lotus, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures. Awareness is directed towards one's posture and breathing. Often, a square or round cushion ([[zafu]]) placed on a padded mat (zabuton) is used to sit on; in some cases, a chair may be used. In Rinzai Zen, practitioners typically sit facing the center of the room; while Soto practitioners traditionally sit facing a wall.

In Soto Zen, shikantaza meditation ("just-sitting") that is, a meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of this practice can be found in Dogen's Shobogenzo. Rinzai Zen, instead, emphasizes attention to the breath and koan practice (q.v.).

The amount of time spent daily in zazen by practitioners varies. Dogen recommends that 5 minutes or more daily is beneficial for householders. The key is daily regularity, as Zen teaches that the ego will naturally resist, and the discipline of regularity is essential. Practicing Zen monks may perform four to six periods of zazen during a normal day, with each period lasting thirty to forty minutes. Normally, a monastery will hold a monthly retreat period (sesshin), lasting between one and seven days. During this time, zazen is practiced more intensively: monks may spend four to eight hours in meditation each day, sometimes supplemented by further rounds of zazen late at night.

This Japanese scroll calligraphy of Bodhidharma reads “Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha”. It was created by Hakuin Ekaku (1685 to 1768)

Dogen's teacher Rujing was said to sleep fewer than four hours each night, spending the balance in zazen[1]. However, in practice, it is not uncommon for monks to actually sleep during zazen.[citation needed] Some meditation researchers have theorized that Zen adepts who are able to achieve the deeper levels of samadhi in meditation are actually fulfilling the same need as REM sleep, so that when zazen time is added to actual sleep time, they are in effect still getting the normal amount of daily sleep that the brain requires. However, such ability to enter into deep samadhi during zazen is apparently fairly rare[citation needed], and may not arise even after decades of meditation.

Meditation as a practice can be applied to any posture. Walking meditation is called kinhin. Successive periods of zazen are usually interleaved with brief periods of walking meditation to relieve the legs.

Because the Zen tradition emphasizes direct communication over scriptural study, the role of the Zen teacher has traditionally been central. Generally speaking, a Zen teacher is a person ordained in any tradition of Zen to teach the dharma, guide students of meditation, and perform rituals.

An important concept for all Zen sects in East Asia is the notion of Dharma transmission the claim of a line of authority that goes back to the Buddha via the teachings of each successive master to each successive student student. This concept relates to the ideas expressed in a description of Zen attributed to Bodhidharma:

Since at least the Middle Ages, Dharma transmission has become a normative aspect of all Zen sects. Normally, every Zen teacher must stand within one lineage or another. Some sects, including most Japanese lines, possess formal lineage charts documenting the lineage back to Gautama Buddha, drawn up for the ceremonial practice of transmission.

In Japan during the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), some came to question the lineage system and its legitimacy. The Zen master Dokuan Genko (1630–1698), for example, openly questioned the necessity of written acknowledgement from a teacher, which he dismissed as "paper Zen." The only genuine transmission, he insisted, was the individual's independent experience of Zen enlightenment, an intuitive experience that needs no external confirmation. An occasional teacher in Japan during the Tokugawa period did not adhere to the lineage system; these were termed mushi dokugo (無師獨悟, "independently enlightened without a teacher") or jigo jisho (自悟自証, "self-enlightened and self-certified"). They were generally dismissed and perhaps of necessity leave no independent transmission. Nevertheless, modern Zen Buddhists also consider questions about the dynamics of the lineage system, inspired in part by academic research into the history of Zen.

Honorific titles associated with teachers typically include, in Chinese, Fashi (法師) or Chanshi (禪師); in Korean, Sunim or Seon Sa (선사); in Japanese, Osho (和尚), Roshi (老師), or Sensei (先生); and in Vietnamese, Thầy. Note that many of these titles are not specific to Zen but are used generally for Buddhist priests; some, such as sensei are not even specific to Buddhism.

The English term Zen master is often used to refer to important teachers, especially ancient and medieval ones. However, there is no specific criterion by which one may be called a Zen master. The term is less common in reference to modern teachers.

Some Zen Buddhists practice meditation on koans during zazen. A koan is a story or dialog, generally related to Zen or other Buddhist history; the most typical form is an anecdote involving early Chinese Zen masters. Koan practice is particularly emphasized by the Japanese Rinzai schools, but it is also occurs in other forms of Zen.

In some sense, a koan embodies a realized principle, or law of reality. Koans often appear paradoxical or linguistically meaningless dialogs or questions. The 'answer' to the koan involves a transformation of perspective or consciousness, which may be either radical or subtle, possibly akin to the experience of metanoia in Christianity. They are a tool to allow the student to approach enlightenment by essentially 'short-circuiting' the logical way we order the world.

The Zen student's mastery of a given koan is presented to the teacher in a private interview, referred to as dokusan (独参), daisan (代参), or sanzen (参禅). Zen teachers advise that the problem posed by a koan is to be taken quite seriously, and to be approached as literally a matter of life and death. Koans do not have "no answer". There is a sharp distinction between right and wrong ways of answering a koan—although there may be many "right answers", practitioners are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the koan and of Zen through their answers.

While there is no single correct answer for any given koan, there are compilations of accepted answers to koans that serve as references for teachers. These collections are of great value to modern scholarship on the subject.

Mu, in Japanese, means "no thing" or "the absence of a thing". It does not mean "nothing", for in zen, nothing is still something.

Some of the traditional Zen fables describe Zen masters using controversial methods of teaching, the meaning of which is not always clear. For example, although Zen and Buddhism deeply respect life and teach non-violence, the founder of the Rinzai Zen school, Linji Gigen, said: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch."

When first visiting Zen temples and centers, people who are familiar with iconoclastic stories of medieval Zen master encounters are sometimes surprised by the conservative and ritualistic nature of the practice. For example, when Philip Kapleau first encountered Soen Nakagawa, a Japanese priest, at his temple, Kapleau was disturbed at the sight of Nakagawa bowing to a statue of an earlier Zen master. Kapleau exclaimed, "The old Chinese masters burned or spit on Buddha statues! Why do you bow down before them?", to which Nakagawa replied, "If you want to spit, you spit. I prefer to bow."[2]

Most Zen monasteries and training centers, in the East and abroad, emphasize regular meditation, both on a daily basis and in monthly retreat, as well as a discipline based in practice schedules and everyday household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and gardening as an essential part of the path to enlightenment.

Although it is difficult to trace when the West first became aware of Zen as a distinct form of Buddhism, the visit of Soyen Shaku, a Japanese Zen monk, to Chicago during the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 is often pointed to as an event that enhanced its profile in the Western world. It was during the late 1950s and the early 1960s that the number of Westerners, other than the descendents of Asian immigrants, pursuing a serious interest in Zen reached a significant level.

In Europe, the Expressionist and Dada movements in art tend to have much in common thematically with the study of koans and actual Zen. The early French surrealist René Daumal translated D.T. Suzuki as well as Sanskrit Buddhist texts.

The British-American philosopher Alan Watts took a close interest in Zen Buddhism and wrote and lectured extensively on it during the 1950s. He understood it as a vehicle for a mystical transformation of consciousness, and also as a historical example of a non-Western, non-Christian way of life that had fostered both the practical and fine arts.

The Dharma Bums, a novel written by Jack Kerouac and published in 1959, gave its readers a look at how a fascination with Buddhism and Zen was being absorbed into the bohemian lifestyles of a small group of American youths, primarily on the West Coast. Beside the narrator, the main character in this novel was "Japhy Ryder", a thinly-veiled depiction of Gary Snyder. The story was based on actual events taking place while Snyder prepared, in California, for the formal Zen studies that he would pursue in Japanese monasteries between 1956 and 1968.

While Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig, was a 1974 bestseller, it in fact has little to do with Zen per se. Rather it deals with the notion of the metaphysics of "quality" from the point of view of the main character. Pirsig was attending the Minnesota Zen Center at the time of writing the book[2]. He explains how, despite its title, the book "should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice."

Over the last fifty years, mainstream forms of Zen, led by teachers who trained in East Asia and by their successors, have begun to take root in the west. In North America, the Zen lineages derived from the Japanese Soto school are the most numerous type. Among these are the the lineage of the San Francisco Zen Center, established by Shunryu Suzuki; the White Plum Asanga, founded by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and the Ordinary Mind school, founded by Joko Beck, one of Maezumi's heirs; and the Katagiri lineage, founded by Dainin Katagiri, which has a significant presence in the midwest.

The Sanbo Kyodan is a Japan-based reformist Zen group, founded in 1954 by Yasutani Hakuun, which has had an significant influence on Zen in the West. Sanbo Kyodan Zen is based primarily on the Soto tradition, but also incorporates Rinzai-style koan practice. Yasutani's approach to Zen first became prominent in the English-speaking world through Philip Kapleau's book The Three Pillars of Zen (1965), which was one of the first books to introduce Western audiences to Zen as a practice rather than simply a philosophy. Among the Zen groups in North America, Hawaii, Europe, and New Zealand which derive from Sanbo Kyodan are those associated with Kapleau, Robert Aitken, and John Tarrant.

Not all the successful Zen teachers in the West have been from Japanese traditions. There have also been teachers of Chan, Seon, and Thien Buddhism.

The first Chinese Buddhist priest to teach Westerners in North America was Hsuan Hua, who taught Zen, Chinese Pure Land, Tiantai, Vinaya, and Vajrayana Buddhism in San Francisco during the early 1960s. He went on the found the City Of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery and retreat center located on a 237 acre (959,000 m²) property near Ukiah, California. Another Chinese Zen teacher with a Western following is Sheng-yen, a master trained in both the Caodong and Linji schools (equivalent to the Japanese Soto and Rinzai, respectively). He first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, and, in 1980, founded the Ch’an Mediation Society in Queens, New York.[3].

Two notable Vietnamese Zen teachers have been influential in Western countries: Thich Thien-An and Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Thien-An came to America in 1966 as a visiting professor at UCLA and taught traditional Thien meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh was a monk in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, during which he was a peace activist. In response to these activities, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1966, he left Vietnam in exile and now resides at Plum Village, a monastery in France. He has written more than one hundred books about Buddhism, which have made him one of the very few most prominent Buddhist authors among the general readership in the West. In his books and talks, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes mindfulness (sati) as the most important practice in daily life.

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view.
In the United States, two pan-lineage organizations have formed in the last few years. The oldest is the American Zen Teachers Association which includes the majority of Zen teachers in North America[citation needed] and sponsors an annual conference. North American Soto teachers in North America, led by the heirs of Taizan Maezumi and Shunryu Suzuki, have also formed a Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

(Dharma poem by Hakuin Ekaku [1685-1768]. Read as part of the ceremony at the end of the day during sesshin.)

All beings by nature are Buddha,
as ice by nature is water;
apart from water there is no ice,
apart from beings no Buddha.
How sad that people ignore the near
and search for truth afar,
like someone in the midst of water
crying out in thirst,
like a child of a wealthy home
wandering among the poor.
Lost on dark paths of ignorance
we wander through the six worlds,
from dark path to dark path we wander,
when shall we be freed from birth and death?
For this the zazen of the Mahayana
deserves the highest praise:
offerings, precepts, paramitas,
Nembutsu, atonement, training--
the many other virtues--
all rise within zazen.
Even those with proud attainments
wipe away immeasurable crimes--
where are all the dark paths then?
the Pure Land itself is not far.
Those who hear this truth even once
and listen with a grateful heart,
treasuring it, revering it,
gain blessings without end.
Much more, if you dedicate yourself
and confirm your own self-nature--
that self-nature is no nature--
you are far beyond mere argument.
The oneness of cause and effect is clear,
not two, not three, the path is put right;
with form that is no form
going and coming--never astray,
with thought that is no thought
singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.
Boundless and free is the sky of samadhi,
bright the full moon of wisdom,
truly is anything missing now?
Nirvana is here, before your eyes,
this very place is the Lotus Land,
this very body the Buddha.

Infinite realms of light and dark convey the Buddha Mind; birds and trees and stars and we ourselves come forth in perfect harmony;
we recite our gatha and our sutra for the many beings of the world;
in grateful thanks to all our many guides along the ancient way:
All Buddhas throughout space and time
all Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas;
the great Prajna Paramita.

Assembly:
When I regard the true nature of the many dharmas,
I find them all to be sacred forms of the Tathagata's never-failing essence.
Each particle of matter, each moment,
is no other than the Tathagata's inexpressible radiance.
With this realization, our virtuous ancestors gave tender care
to beasts and birds with compassionate minds and hearts.
Among us, in our own daily lives, who is not reverently grateful for the protections of life:
food, drink, and clothing! Though they are inanimate things,
they are nonetheless the warm flesh and blood, the merciful incarnations of Buddha.
All the more, we can be especially sympathetic and affectionate with foolish people,
particularly with someone who becomes a sworn enemy and persecutes us with abusive language.
That very abuse conveys the Buddha's boundless loving-kindness.
It is a compassionate device to liberate us entirely from the mean-spirited delusions
we have built up with our wrongful conduct from the beginningless past.
With our open response to such abuse we completely relinquish ourselves,
and the most profound and pure faith arises.
At the peak of each thought a lotus flower opens, and on each flower there is revealed a Buddha.
Everywhere is the Pure Land in its beauty.
We see fully the Tathagata's radiant light right where we are.
May we retain this mind and extend it throughout the world
so that we and all beings become mature in Buddha's wisdom.

Zen in the various Asian languages
Chinese Name
Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin	Chán
Mandarin Wade-Giles	Ch'an
Cantones e Jyutping	Sim
Shanghainese (Wu)	Zeu [zø]
Traditional Chinese	禪
Simplified Chinese	禅
Japanese Name
Romaji	Zen
Kanji	禅
Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Seon
McCune-Reischauer	Sŏn
Hangul	선
Hanja	禪
Pali Name
Romanization	Jhāna
Devanāgarī	झान
Sinhala	ඣාන
Sanskrit Name
Romanization	Dhyāna
Devanāgarī	ध्यान
Vietnamese Name
Quốc ngữ	Thiền
Hán tự	禅