BUDDHISM. - The term is broadly inclusive and designates not only the philosophical-religious doctrine preached by Gotama Buddha, but also the various forms it took over the centuries. Here we shall speak only of two of them: the ancient, or Hinayāna, and the reformed, or Mahāyāna. The two terms, the first of which is found used for the first time by Fa-hian (ca. 414 A.D.), are ordinarily interpreted as “the lesser vehicle” and “the greater vehicle.” Conceiving the doctrine as a vehicle that transports its followers toward holiness and liberation from rebirth, the ancient Buddhism is called lesser, i.e., inadequate to the purpose, because it liberates only a few followers, namely those who observe the strict monastic discipline, whereas the reformed religion liberates all the faithful, monks and laity alike.
I. Hinayāna
The Buddha repudiated belief in a creator God and lord of the universe, in revelation, and in the efficacy of sacrificial ritual, but he retained the Brahmanic belief in rebirth, according to which life does not end with death but continues (samsāra) in another existence so that each person may receive the reward or punishment of his actions, good or bad. Liberation from the painful cycle of births and deaths is attained by following the path of nirvāna (extinction), discovered by the Buddha. The substance of the original doctrine is found in the Sermon at Benares, which is summarized here.Buddhism begins by defining as ignoble and useless both devotion to pleasures and mortification of the flesh, two ways of life that the Buddha himself had experienced; the middle way between these two extremes is the one that leads to nirvāna. He then enunciates the four noble truths: 1) Life is suffering, and the pain that manifests itself in the chief forms of birth, old age, sickness, and death is inherent in the constituent elements of empirical existence. 2) Pain arises not only from attachment to life and its pleasures, but also from the desire to survive death or from the conviction that with death everything ends even without following the path of nirvāna. 3) Pain is destroyed by extinguishing the thirst for life. 4) The path that leads to liberation from pain is followed by observing eight forms of rectitude: right faith, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. The first requirement is right faith, orthodoxy in beliefs, to avoid falling into heresies, especially regarding the characteristics of every being (animal, human, or god), which are subjection to pain, transitoriness, and the non-existence of the soul as substance. To the substantial and permanent soul, Buddhism substituted the uninterrupted series of states of consciousness; therefore, samsāra should not be understood as transmigration because there is no substance capable of transmigrating, but as rebirth when the last state of consciousness of the dying person, driven by karma, the effect of actions, toward another birth, is perpetuated in a new psycho-physical organism, the life that is fading away. Rectitude of ideas must be accompanied by rectitude of conduct. This is provided by the observance of the ten precepts, the first five of which also bind Buddhist laity. 1) Not to kill (ahiṃsā). 2) Not to take what is not given. 3) Not to commit adultery. 4) Not to lie. 5) Not to use intoxicating drinks. Monks, who are bound to observe chastity, are also forbidden from marriage. The ascent toward enlightenment culminates in mental concentration (samādhi), which, through four degrees of mystical contemplation (dhyāna), reaches a state of ineffable peace, which is the overcoming of pain and joy. The practice of dhyāna, however arduous, is accessible even to laity, but it is not sufficient to attain nirvāna, which only the monk is able to achieve when, after expiating sins and extinguishing passions, he reaches, guided by the four noble truths, nirvāna in life or “visible,” equivalent to holiness. This precedes and prepares for perfect nirvāna or parinirvāna, which the saint attains at death with the destruction of the body. The essence of parinirvāna is shrouded in mystery; it is indeed liberation from rebirth, but it is not possible to know whether the cessation of the pain inherent in existence implies a state of actual blessedness. The sermon contains the affirmation that the thirst for life is the cause of pain, but it does not explain its origin or how it leads to rebirth. The explanation is found in the formula, known as “dependent origination” (pratītya-samutpāda), which is the subject of an entire group of suttas, the Rāja, of the Saṃyuttanikāya.
This is the substance of the ancient doctrine; the practical life of the monastic community (saṅgha) was regulated by a complex of norms that the Pāli canon has preserved for us in the Vinayapiṭaka, the disciplinary section. The oldest part is the Pātimokkha, a “list of offenses” that members of the Order must avoid; it is divided into two parts, one concerning monks and the other concerning nuns. The Khandhakas or “sections” prescribe the rules of daily monastic life, but since the rules are preceded by narratives that explain where and on what occasion they were laid down by the Buddha, the Khandhakas are also a mine of information, not all of it fanciful.
II. Mahāyāna
The new form that Buddhism took in northwest India at the beginning of the common era had in Nāgārjuna (end of the 2nd century) its most fervent apostle, but not its founder. We do not know the history of the movement that gave rise to the new doctrine, but the councils are sufficient proof of the dissensions, later becoming schisms, by which the community was plagued after the death of the Buddha. The Mahāsāṃghikas or “members of the great community” were among the first schismatics, and those among them who regarded buddhas as “supernatural beings” (lokottāra) must be regarded as the forerunners of Mahāyāna. To them is attributed the Mahāvastu, which reflects a period of transition from Hinayāna to Mahāyāna because it expounds the theory of the ten bhūmis or “stages” of perfection, through which the follower of Mahāyāna attains the dignity of a buddha. According to the new doctrine, every person is a bodhisattva, i.e., “a being (destined) for enlightenment,” a buddha in potency, who, by supernatural inspiration or out of love for his neighbor, decides to practice the perfections (pāramitās) and vows to become a buddha. The first enemy to overcome is selfishness; therefore, he practices charity by sharing with others not only his material goods but also the merit derived from his good actions. Sāntideva (7th century A.D.) says in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, III, 10: “My life in all my rebirths, the merit I have acquired, present and future, with indifference I sacrifice for the salvation of all creatures.” But where will a wretched sinner find the strength to carry out such a sublime sacrifice? In the aid of the great bodhisattvas who have preceded him on the path to enlightenment, merciful saints who could have entered nirvāna, like the historical Buddha, but have renounced it in order to be able to assist, remaining in the world, the spiritual and temporal needs of suffering humanity. From the celestial worlds where they reside, they hear and grant the prayers of the devout. The most invoked is AvalokiteśARA (v.) “the Lord of Compassion,” who according to Mahāyānayāna is the spiritual son of the Buddha Amitābha, “of boundless splendor,” whom he procreates by emanation so that he may spread the Good Law in the world. After Avalokiteśvara, Manjūsīrī is noted for his importance; celebrated in the Gaṇḍavyūha (c. 4th century A.D.) as the only one capable of promoting full enlightenment. Other bodhisattvas are Vajrapāṇi, “he who holds a thunderbolt,” and Maitreya, “the benevolent,” the future human Buddha; other Buddhas: Vairocaṇa, “the radiant,” and Amoghasiddhi, “of infallible success.” To provide a guiding principle for the numerous family of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, created by popular imagination, there arose in Nepal after the 7th century the doctrine of the Ādibuddha or Primordial Buddha, who, through the power of his meditation, would procreate five spiritual Buddhas, among them Amitābha, king of Sukhāvatī, “the (region of) bliss.” From these Buddhas would in turn emanate five bodhisattvas, among whom Avalokiteśvara, and the bodhisattvas would, by magical power, give rise to human Buddhas: Gautama, son of Avalokiteśvara, and other mythical Buddhas. The obscure origin of this doctrine has led some to think of a possible derivation from Persian Gnosticism.
A valid aid in the struggle against egoism was offered to the Mahāyānist by the theory of emptiness (śūnya), which belongs to the Mādhyamika philosophy founded by Nāgārjuna. The Buddha had denied the existence of a metaphysical Self, replacing it with a changing personality composed of psycho-physical elements in perpetual transformation. Nāgārjuna went further, denying the existence of these elements themselves, since they are interrelated by cause and effect and thus lack substantial reality. The conviction that the Self does not exist, the source of altruism, is as necessary to the bodhisattva as the exercise of charity. The reform carried out by the Mahāyānists is summarized in the following innovations: practice of the perfections and hence an active life in society and the family; reversibility of merit, in contrast to the doctrine of personal and irreversible karma; intuitive knowledge of the doctrine of emptiness; cult of the great bodhisattvas, dispensers of graces, and remission of sins, as a consequence of the doctrine of grace. This religion of love was patronized and adopted by the Kuṣāṇa kings, the Scythian conquerors of Kashmir and the Punjab, at whose courts lived Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna (c. 2nd century A.D.), apostles of the new doctrine. For the second time, Buddhism became the state religion, and the image of the Buddha appears on the coins of Kanishka. Toward the ancient doctrine, the Mahāyānist showed himself conciliatory, admitting that it was authentic but provisional. Gautama revealed it in a form suited to the obtuseness of his contemporaries, in preparation for the Mahāyāna. The followers of the Hīnayāna, however, remained firm in their recognition of the authenticity of the Mahāyāna sūtras, which do not constitute a true canon but are works of diverse origin and period, united only by the common title of “Sūtras of vast measure” (Vaipulyasūtra). The most important is the “Lotus of the Good Law” (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, c. 200 A.D.), which celebrates the historical Buddha, called the ascetic of the Śākyas, a god above other gods, who seemingly entered nirvāṇa but lives in eternal life. Chapter 24 is devoted to the great bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, dispenser of the most varied temporal graces.
The final, most refined form of Mahāyāna was Tantrism, born from the mysticism of the Yogācāra school (4th century A.D.), combined with the magical practices of Śaiva Yoga. The supreme gnosis is still that of emptiness, but the means to attain it are not only asceticism and meditation but also formal magical rhythms and the artificial stimulation of the senses. This form of Buddhism took root in Tibet (7th century A.D.) due to a certain affinity it had with the ancient Bon religion.
III. B. CHINESE. — Buddhism entered China from India at the beginning of the 1st century. The story that Emperor Ming (58–66) sent to Central India to seek Buddhist books, prompted by a dream, is pure legend. Later, however, pilgrimages to India for study and the collection of sacred texts were undertaken by Fa-hsien (399–414), Hsüan-tsang (629–645), and I-tsing (671–695), whose travel accounts survive. The new religion flourished under the Eastern Han dynasty (25–221), and by the 2nd century it was already fully developed. The Mahāyāna prevailed, although monasticism was modeled on the Hīnayāna discipline of the Pāli canon. The ten commandments, the rules of the Pātimokkha, and especially the norms of life prescribed for the Buddha’s disciples by the Brahmajālasutta (Fan-wang-king) were observed. Religious life was conventual, as wandering monks had nearly disappeared. Only a few monasteries were granted by the emperor the privilege of conferring monastic ordination, which, through the stages of śrāmaṇera and arhat, led to the dignity of bodhisattva. The preaching of the Sūtras and the Vinaya was an important part of the monks’ activity, who also served as translators and copyists. Sacred texts were believed to possess the power to ward off misfortunes, and thus in the golden age of Chinese Buddhism the sūtras reached the enormous number of 2,213, according to a catalog of 518 A.D. The cult of the Buddhas Śākyamuni (Gautama) and Amitābha and of the bodhisattvas Maitreya and Avalokiteśvara or Kuan-yin, who enjoyed special veneration, was widespread. An Indian mystic, Bodhidharma (in Chinese: Ta-mo), who landed in Canton in 520, introduced into the monasteries the practice of mystical contemplation (ch’an, from Sanskrit dhyāna) and founded one of the most important schools of Chinese Buddhism, known as the Ch’an school.
During the Sung dynasty (960–1279), the Confucian revival led to a fierce persecution of Buddhists, and 260,000 clergy—monks and nuns—were forced to return to secular life. Buddhism took refuge in lay secret societies, inspired by a syncretism that led them to adopt principles of Taoism and even Confucianism. When religious tolerance was restored by Khubilai, founder of the Mongol dynasty (1274), two monastic communities formed in China: that of the Fo-si or Buddhists (Fo is the Chinese translation of Buddha) and that of the [b]Lamas in the provinces bordering Tibet and Mongolia. The Fo-si have no hierarchy; each monastery stands alone. The [b]Lamas, however, belong to a hierarchically ordered organization.
IV. B. JAPANESE. — Japan became acquainted with Buddhism in its Mahāyāna form in 552 A.D. On that year, sūtras and images of the Buddha, along with the news that all countries between India and Korea had accepted the new religion, arrived at the Japanese imperial court via Korea. At court, opinions on the adoption of Buddhism remained divided for a long time; only in 593 did Prince Umayado, regent of Empress Suikō, promulgate the first constitution, in which faith in the “three jewels” (the Buddha, the Doctrine, the Community) was proclaimed the foundation of virtuous life. He had Buddhist temples and seminaries, hospitals, and hospices built, and by 624 Buddhism already had in Japan 46 temples, 816 monks or bonzes, and 569 nuns. The rivalry with Shinto, the national religion predating Buddhism, was resolved by the monk Gyōki (d. 822), who recognized the ancestral goddess Amaterasu as a manifestation of the Buddha Vairocana, the personified universe, who had a bronze statue over fifteen meters high in the temple of Nara. From then until
At the end of the Tokugawa regime (1868), the importance of Japanese Mahāyāna Buddhism continued to grow. In 1925, the temples and monasteries of the various Buddhist sects numbered 71,114, the clergy 185,000, and the faithful 47 million, according to data from the "East Asian Buddhist Congress." The divisions within the Buddhist community, which began in the 8th century with reformist monks, increased in subsequent centuries, reaching a total of fifty-eight. One of the most important is the Zen sect (from Skt. *dhyāna*, meditation), which, neglecting doctrinal and ritual matters, teaches enlightenment through mental concentration. This sect (13th century), now predominantly monastic, had the greatest number of followers among the military class.
The imperial restoration of 1868 restored Shintoism to its status as the state religion, separating it from Buddhism, with which it had been associated by Gyōki. Buddhism suffered persecution; temples were devastated, images destroyed, and monks encouraged to secularize. Only in 1872 were they granted equal status with Shinto priests and officially recognized as *kyōdō-shoku*, moral teachers.