Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 06:42, 18 December 2024

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Buddhism and Hinduism" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Hinduism and other religions
Indian religions
Buddhism Jainism Sikhism
Abrahamic religions
Baháʼí Faith Christianity Islam Judaism
Hinduism and...
Abortion Apostasy Cattle Blasphemy LGBT Science Theosophy
Hinduism portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Buddhism
Glossary Index Outline
History Timeline The Buddha Pre-sectarian Buddhism Councils Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Decline in the Indian subcontinent Later Buddhists Buddhist modernism
Dharma Concepts Four Noble Truths Noble Eightfold Path Dharma wheel Five Aggregates Impermanence Suffering Not-self Dependent Origination Middle Way Emptiness Morality Karma Rebirth Saṃsāra Cosmology
Buddhist texts Buddhavacana Early Texts Tripiṭaka Mahayana Sutras Pāli Canon Sanskrit literature Tibetan canon Chinese canon Post-canon
Practices Three Jewels Buddhist Paths to liberation Five precepts Perfections Meditation Philosophical reasoning Devotional practices Merit making Recollections Mindfulness Wisdom Sublime abidings Aids to Enlightenment Monasticism Lay life Buddhist chant Pilgrimage Vegetarianism
Nirvāṇa Awakening Four Stages Arhat Pratyekabuddha Bodhisattva Buddha
Traditions Theravāda Pāli Mahāyāna Hinayana Chinese Vajrayāna Tibetan Navayana Newar
Buddhism by country Bhutan Brazil Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar New Zealand Russia Singapore US Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Tibet Vietnam
Buddhism portal
v t e

Buddhism and Hinduism have common origins in the culture of Ancient India. Buddhism arose in the Gangetic plains of Eastern India in the 5th century BCE during the Second Urbanisation (600–200 BCE). Hinduism developed as a fusion or synthesis of practices and ideas from the ancient Vedic religion and elements and deities from other local Indian traditions.

Both religions have many shared beliefs and practices, but also pronounced differences that have led to much debate. Both share belief in karma and rebirth (or reincarnation), they both accept the idea of spiritual liberation (moksha or nirvana) from the cycle of reincarnation and they both promote similar religious practices (such as dhyana, samadhi, mantra, and devotion). Both religions also share many deities (though their nature is understood differently), including Saraswati, Vishnu (Upulvan), Mahakala, Indra, Ganesha, and Brahma.

However, Buddhism notably rejects fundamental Hindu doctrines such as atman (substantial self or soul), Brahman (a universal eternal source of everything) and the existence of a creator God (Ishvara). Instead, Buddhism teaches not-self (anatman) and dependent arising as fundamental metaphysical theories.

Origins

Buddhism

Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of Iron Age India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. This was a period of great intellectual ferment and socio-cultural change known as the Second Urbanisation, marked by the growth of towns and trade, the composition of the Upanishads and the historical emergence of the Śramaṇa traditions.

New ideas developed both in the Vedic tradition in the form of the Upanishads, and outside of the Vedic tradition through the Śramaṇa movements. The term Śramaṇa refers to several Indian religious movements parallel to but separate from the historical Vedic religion, including Buddhism, Jainism and others such as Ājīvika.

Several Śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before the 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre-Mahavira), and these influenced both the āstika and nāstika traditions of Indian philosophy. According to Martin Wilshire, the Śramaṇa tradition evolved in India over two phases, namely Paccekabuddha and Savaka phases, the former being the tradition of individual ascetic and the latter of disciples, and that Buddhism and Jainism ultimately emerged from these. Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical ascetic groups shared and used several similar ideas, but the Śramaṇa traditions also drew upon already established Brahmanical concepts and philosophical roots, states Wiltshire, to formulate their own doctrines. Brahmanical motifs can be found in the oldest Buddhist texts, using them to introduce and explain Buddhist ideas. For example, prior to Buddhist developments, the Brahmanical tradition internalised and variously reinterpreted the three Vedic sacrificial fires as concepts such as Truth, Rite, Tranquility or Restraint. Buddhist texts also refer to the three Vedic sacrificial fires, reinterpreting and explaining them as ethical conduct.

The Śramaṇa religions challenged and broke with the Brahmanic tradition on core assumptions such as Atman (soul, self), Brahman, the nature of afterlife, and they rejected the authority of the Vedas and Upanishads. Buddhism was one among several Indian religions that did so.

Hinduism

Part of a series on
Hinduism
Hindus Mythology
OriginsHistorical History Indus Valley Civilisation Vedic Hinduism Dravidian folk religion Śramaṇa Tribal religions in India Traditional Itihasa-Purana Epic-Puranic royal genealogies Epic-Puranic chronology
Sampradaya (Traditions) Major Sampradaya (Traditions) Vaishnavism Pancharatra Shaivism Kapalika Pashupata Pratyabhijña Shaktism Smartism Other Sampradaya (Traditions)
Deities Absolute Reality / Unifying Force Brahman Trimurti Brahma Vishnu Shiva Tridevi Saraswati Lakshmi Parvati Other major Devas / Devis Vedic Deities: Tridasha Adityas Rudras Vasus Ashvins Mahadevi Other Vedic Deities Post-Vedic: Avatar Dashavatara Durga Navadurga Mahavidya Kartikeya Ganesha Hanuman Radha Shakti Sita Devatas Vishvakarma Kubera
Concepts Worldview Cosmology Mythology Ontology Tattvas Subtle elements Panchikarana Gross elements Guṇas Purusha Prakṛti Supreme reality Brahman Nirguna Saguna Om Saccidānanda God Ishvara Devas / Devi Devatas God in Hinduism God and gender Puruṣārtha (Meaning of life) Dharma Artha Kama Moksha Āśrama (Stages of life) Brahmacharya Gṛhastha Vānaprastha Sannyasa Three paths to liberation Bhakti yoga Jnana yoga Karma yoga Liberation Mokṣa-related topics: Paramātman Maya Karma Saṃsāra Mind Ātman (self) Anātman (non-self) Sūkṣma śarīra (subtle body) Antaḥkaraṇa (mental organs) Prajña (wisdom) Ānanda (happiness) Viveka (discernment) Vairagya (dispassion) Sama (equanimity) Dama (temperance) Uparati (self-settledness) Titiksha (forbearance) Shraddha (faith) Samadhana (concentration) Arishadvargas (six enemies) Ahamkara (attachment) Ethics Niti śastra Yamas Niyama Ahimsa Achourya Aparigraha Brahmacharya Satya Damah Dayā Akrodha Arjava Santosha Tapas Svādhyāya Shaucha Mitahara Dāna Sources of dharma Epistemology Pratyakṣa (perception) Anumāṇa (inference) Upamāṇa (comparison, analogy) Arthāpatti (postulation, presumption) Anupalabdi (non-perception, negation) Śabda (word, testimony)
Practices Worship, sacrifice, and charity Puja Ārtī Prarthana Śrauta Temple Murti Bhakti Japa Bhajana Kīrtana Yajna Homa Tarpana Vrata Prāyaścitta Tirtha Yatra Tirthadana Matha Nritta-Nritya Dāna Sevā Yoga Meditation Tapas Dhyana Samādhāna Nididhyāsana Yoga Sadhu Yogi Yogini Asana Sādhanā Hatha yoga Jnana yoga Bhakti yoga Karma yoga Rāja yoga Kundalini yoga Arts Bharatanatyam Kathak Kathakali Kuchipudi Manipuri Mohiniyattam Odissi Sattriya Bhagavata Mela Yakshagana Dandiya Raas Carnatic music Pandav Lila Kalaripayattu Silambam Adimurai Rites of passage Garbhadhana Pumsavana Pumsavana Simantonayana Simantonnayana Jatakarma Nāmakaraṇa Nishkramana Annaprashana Chudakarana Karnavedha Vidyāraṃbhaṃ Upanayana Keshanta Ritushuddhi Samavartanam Vivaha Antyesti Festivals Diwali Holi Maha Shivaratri Navaratri Durga Puja Ramlila Vijayadashami-Dussehra Raksha Bandhan Ganesh Chaturthi Vasant Panchami Rama Navami Janmashtami Onam Makar Sankranti Kumbh Mela Pongal Ugadi Vaisakhi Bihu Puthandu Vishu Ratha Yatra
Philosophical schools Six Astika schools Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Mīmāṃsā Vedanta Advaita Dvaita Vishishtadvaita Achintya Bheda Abheda Shuddhadvaita Svabhavika Bhedabheda Akshar Purushottam Darshan Other schools Ājīvika Buddhism Jainism Charvaka
Gurus, Rishi, Philosophers Ancient Saptarshi Vashistha Kashyapa Atri Jamadagni Gotama Vishvamitra Bharadwaja Agastya Angiras Aruni Ashtavakra Jaimini Kanada Kapila Patanjali Pāṇini Prashastapada Raikva Satyakama Jabala Valmiki Vyasa Yajnavalkya Medieval Abhinavagupta Adi Shankara Akka Mahadevi Allama Prabhu Alvars Basava Chaitanya Ramdas Kathiababa Chakradhara Chāngadeva Dadu Dayal Eknath Gangesha Upadhyaya Gaudapada Gorakshanatha Haridasa Thakur Harivansh Jagannatha Dasa Jayanta Bhatta Jayatīrtha Jiva Goswami Jñāneśvar Kabir Kanaka Dasa Kumārila Bhaṭṭa Madhusūdana Madhva Matsyendranatha Morya Gosavi Mukundarāja Namadeva Narahari Tirtha Narasimha Saraswati Nayanars Nimbarkacharya Srinivasacharya Prabhākara Purandara Dasa Raghavendra Swami Raghunatha Siromani Raghuttama Tirtha Ram Charan Ramananda Ramanuja Ramprasad Sen Ravidas Rupa Goswami Samarth Ramdas Sankardev Satyanatha Tirtha Siddheshwar Sripada Srivallabha Sripadaraja Surdas Swaminarayan Śyāma Śastri Tukaram Tulsidas Tyagaraja Vācaspati Miśra Vadiraja Tirtha Vallabha Valluvar Vedanta Desika Vidyaranya Vyasaraja Modern Aurobindo Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Bhaktivinoda Thakur Chandrashekarendra Saraswati Chinmayananda Dayananda Saraswati Jaggi Vasudev Krishnananda Saraswati Mahavatar Babaji Mahesh Yogi Narayana Guru Nigamananda Nisargadatta Maharaj Prabhupada Radhakrishnan R. D. Ranade Ramakrishna Rama Tirtha Ramana Maharshi Ravi Shankar Ramdas Samarth Sathya Sai Baba Shirdi Sai Baba Shraddhanand Satyadhyana Tirtha Siddharameshwar Maharaj Sivananda Trailanga U. G. Krishnamurti Upasni Maharaj Vethathiri Maharishi Vivekananda Yogananda
Texts Sources and classification of scripture Śruti Smṛti Ācāra Ātmatuṣṭi Scriptures Timeline of Hindu texts Vedas Rigveda Yajurveda Samaveda Atharvaveda Divisions Samhita Brahmana Aranyaka Upanishads Upanishads Rigveda: Aitareya Kaushitaki Yajurveda: Brihadaranyaka Isha Taittiriya Katha Shvetashvatara Maitri Samaveda: Chandogya Kena Atharvaveda: Mundaka Mandukya Prashna Vedangas Shiksha Chandas Vyākaraṇa Nirukta Kalpa Jyotisha Other scriptures Bhagavad Gita Agamas (Hinduism) Itihasas Ramayana Mahabharata Puranas Vishnu Purana Bhagavata Purana Devi Bhagavata Purana Naradiya Purana Vāmana Purana Matsya Purana Garuda Purana Brahma Purana Brahmanda Purana Brahma Vaivarta Purana Bhavishya Purana Padma Purana Agni Purana Shiva Purana Linga Purana Kūrma Purana Skanda Purana Varaha Purana Markandeya Purana Upavedas Ayurveda Dhanurveda Gandharvaveda Sthapatyaveda Shastras, sutras, and samhitas Dharma Shastra Artha Śastra Shilpa Shastras Kama Sutra Brahma Sutras Samkhya Sutras Mimamsa Sutras Nyāya Sūtras Vaiśeṣika Sūtra Yoga Sutras Pramana Sutras Charaka Samhita Sushruta Samhita Natya Shastra Panchatantra Naalayira Divya Prabandham Tirumurai Ramcharitmanas Yoga Vasistha Swara yoga Panchadasi Stotras, stutis and Bhashya Kanakadhara Stotra Shiva Stuti Vayu Stuti Tamil literature Tirumurai Naalayira Divya Prabandham Tirumurukāṟṟuppaṭai Tiruppukal Kural Kamba Ramayanam/Ramavataram Five Great Epics Eighteen Greater Texts Eighteen Lesser Texts Athichudi Iraiyanar Akapporul Abirami Antati Thiruvilaiyadal Puranam Vinayagar Agaval Other texts
Hindu Culture & Society Society Varna Brahmin Kshatriya Vaishya Shudra Dalit Jāti Gotra Hindu Art Hindu art Hindu iconography Shilpa Shastras Rasa (aesthetics) Indian aesthetics Yantra Hindu Architecture Hindu architecture Hindu temple architecture Vastu shastra Talamana Hindu Music Hindu music Shruti (music) Svara Alankāra Tala (music) Raga Rasa (aesthetics) Sangita Vadya Natya Shastra Food & Diet Customs Ahimsa Diet in Hinduism Sattvic diet Mitahara Jhatka Vrata Time Keeping Practices Hindu units of time Hindu calendar Panchangam Vikram Samvat Shaka era Hindu Pilgrimage Pilgrimage sites Other society-related topics: Discrimination Persecution Nationalism Hindutva Organisations Reform movements
Other topics Hinduism by country Greater India Balinese Hinduism Caribbean Shaktism Template:Hindu scriptures and texts Hinduism & Other Religions Hinduism and Jainism / and Buddhism / and Sikhism / and Judaism / and Christianity / and Islam Other Related Links (Templates) Hindu Scriptures & Texts Hindu Philosphy Sampradayas (Traditions) Shaivism Vaishnavism Shaktism
Glossary Outline Hinduism portal
v t e

Scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions. Among its roots are the historical Vedic religion, itself already the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations", which evolved into the Brahmanical religion and ideology of the Kuru Kingdom of Iron Age northern India; but also the Śramaṇa or renouncer traditions of northeast India, and mesolithic and neolithic cultures of India, such as the religions of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Dravidian traditions, and the local traditions and tribal religions.

This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between 500-200 BCE and c. 300 CE, in or after the period of the Second Urbanisation, and during the early classical period of Hinduism, when the Epics and the first Puranas were composed. This Brahmanical synthesis incorporated śramaṇic and Buddhist influences and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature. This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism. During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written, which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation." The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasutras and the smritis. Hinduism co-existed for several centuries with Buddhism, to finally gain the upper hand at all levels in the 8th century.

Similarities

Terms and teachings

Buddhism and Hinduism share numerous terms and concepts such as: dharma, karma, samadhi, samsara, dhyana, jñana, klesha, nirodha, samskāra, brahmin, brahmacarya, and nirvana.

The Buddha used numerous religious terms which are also used in Hinduism, though he often used them in different and novel ways. Many terms which Buddhism shares with Hinduism carry a different meaning in the Buddhist tradition. For example, in the Samaññaphala Sutta, the Buddha is depicted presenting a notion of the "three knowledges" (tevijja) – a term also used in the Vedic tradition to describe knowledge of the Vedas – as being not texts, but things that he had experienced. The true "three knowledges" are said to be constituted by the process of achieving enlightenment, which is what the Buddha is said to have achieved in the three watches of the night of his enlightenment.

Karma, rebirth, and samsara

Karma is a central part of Hindu and Buddhist teachings. Karma is a word meaning action or activity and often implies its subsequent results (also called karma-phala, "the fruits of action"). Karma theory is commonly applied to the ethical realm of cause and effect in both Buddhism and Hinduism. In Buddhism and in Hinduism, a person's words, thoughts and actions form the basis for good and bad karma. Good deeds (good karmas) lead to good karmic results (Sanskrit: karma-phala, the fruits of karma) which can include the circumstances of one's future reincarnation. Likewise, evil actions might result in negative karmic consequences.

Thus, the Indian idea of karma is also closely associated with the idea of reincarnation or rebirth. One's karmas in previous lives affect one's present existence, and one's actions in this life will lead to effects in the next life. Both Buddhism and Hinduism accept that living beings are constantly cycling through different bodies and realms of existence, in a repetitive process called saṃsāra (literally "the wandering").

Dharma

Dharma (Sanskrit, Devanagari: धर्म or Pāli Dhamma) is an Indic term common to all Indian religions. Dharma can mean nature, natural law, reality, teaching, religion or duty, and with respect to its significance for spirituality and religion might be considered the way of the higher truths. A Hindu appellation for Hinduism itself is Sanātana Dharma, which translates as "the eternal dharma". Similarly, Buddha Dharma is a common way that Buddhists refer to Buddhism.

In Hinduism, Dharma can refer generally to religious duty or universal order (similar to rta), and also mean social order, right conduct, or simply virtue. In Buddhism, Dharma can mean the true nature of things or the natural law that the Buddha discovered. It can also refer to the teachings of the Buddha, which explain and reveal this nature.

Asceticism and monasticism

Both Buddhism and some forms of Hinduism emphasize the importance of monasticism. In Buddhism, the monastic sangha plays a central role in teaching and passing down the Buddha's Dharma. Monasticism is also seen as an ideal way of life for cultivating the qualities that lead to awakening. In certain sects of Hinduism, the life of the renouncer (sannyasa) is also very important.

Cosmology and deities

Buddhist cosmology and Hindu cosmology share many similarities. Both cosmologies are cyclical and both accept that the universe goes through constant cycles of growth and destruction. Both traditions also accept that there are many different realms or worlds (lokas) other than the human realm. These include various hell realms and celestial deva realms.

Buddhism and Hinduism share some of the same deities, including:

• Saraswati (known as Benzaiten in Japan),
• Vishnu (known as Upulvan in Sri Lanka),
• Shiva (known as Maheśvara in Buddhism)
• Mahākāla (a form of Shiva in Hinduism) is seen as a form of Avalokiteśvara in Mahayana Buddhism
• Indra, Vedic-era Hindu storm god of the Heavens, who is also widely depicted in Buddhist scriptures, see: Śakra
• Ganesh (more widely known as Ganapati in Buddhism)
• Brahma, a key deity in the old Upanishads who is also seen as a protective figure in Buddhism (called Mahabrahma) and also as a class of deities, see: Brahma in Buddhism.
• Lakshmi (in Japanese Buddhism she is known as Kishijoten)
• Tara is an important Buddhist deity in Tibetan Buddhism. In Hinduism, Tara Devi is one of the ten Mahavidyas.

The Buddhist text Mahamayuri Tantra, written during the 1–3rd centuries CE, mentions various deities (such as Maheshvara) throughout South Asia, and invokes them for the protection of the Buddhadharma. It also mentions a large number of Vedic rishis.

Liberation

Both Buddhism and Hinduism teach a similar goal of liberation or spiritual enlightenment from the cycle of rebirths (samsara). Both religions accept that the escape from the cycle of rebirths or samsara is the highest goal of the spiritual life. In both religions, this liberation is considered the complete end of rebirth or reincarnation. In Hinduism, this liberation may be called moksha, nirvana, or kaivalya; and in Buddhism it may be called vimoksha (Pali: vimokha), nirvana (Pali: nibbana) or bodhi (awakening). Both Hinduism and Buddhism use the term Nirvana (or Nibbana in Pali language) for spiritual liberation, which literally means 'blowing out' or 'quenching'. The term is pre-Buddhist, but its etymology is not essentially conclusive for finding out its exact meaning as the highest goal of early Buddhism.

Both religions also venerate the liberated beings who have attain the goal of spiritual liberation. Buddhism calls liberated beings either arhats or Buddhas (awakened ones). In Hinduism, liberated beings are commonly called jivanmuktas, though the term nirvana is also used. The term "Buddha" is also used in some Hindu scriptures. In the Vayu Purana for example, the sage Daksha calls Shiva a Buddha.

Language

Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, is the liturgical language of the Vedic traditions and the primary language of the Vedas, Upanishads, and other Hindu texts.

Early Buddhist texts were written in Pali. However, Buddhism also adopted Sanskrit, especially the Mahayana and Vajrayana branches, and became more prominent as it spread across India. The transition to Sanskrit from Pali is noted through the production of Mahayana sutras, such has Prajnaparamita Sutras and Lotus Sutras.

Sanskrit as a common language enabled Hindu and Buddhist philosophers to cross-pollinate ideas, as seen by the Upanishadic influence on early Buddhist thought.

Practices

Ethics

Both Hinduism and Buddhism promote similar ethical systems. The virtue of non-harming (ahimsa) is a key virtue in both Hindu ethics and Buddhist ethics. Other important shared ethical principles include non-attachment (vairagya), renunciation (nekkhamma), and truthfulness (satya).

Yogic practice, Dhyana and Samadhi

The practice of Yoga is intimately connected to the religious beliefs and practices of both Hinduism and Buddhism. There is a range of common terminology and common descriptions of the meditative states that are seen as the foundation of meditation practice in both Hindu Yoga and Buddhism. Many scholars have noted that the concepts of dhyana and samādhi - technical terms describing stages of meditative absorption – are common to meditative practices in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Most notable in this context is the relationship between the system of four Buddhist dhyana states (Pali: jhana) and the samprajnata samadhi states of Classical Yoga. Also, many (Tibetan) Vajrayana practices of the generation stage and completion stage work with the chakras, inner energy channels (nadis) and kundalini, called tummo in Tibetan.

Yoga scholar Stephen Cope argues that Buddhism and Hindu traditions like Patanjali's Yoga (a system which is very influential on modern Hinduism) are strikingly similar in numerous key ways, having shared a long period of interchange up to about 500 CE.

The following chart compares these two basic religious systems:

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, written some time after 100 BCE, describe eight limbs of yoga, aiming at samadhi, the stilling of the mind and the recognition of purusha as one's true identity. In the Vajrayana Buddhism of Tibet the term "Yoga" is simply used to refer to any type of spiritual practice; from the various types of tantra (like Kriyayoga or Charyayoga) to 'Deity yoga' and 'guru yoga'. In the early translation phase of the Sutrayana and Tantrayana from India, China and other regions to Tibet, along with the practice lineages of sadhana, codified in the Nyingmapa canon, the most subtle 'conveyance' (Sanskrit: yana) is Adi Yoga (Sanskrit). A contemporary scholar with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism, Robert Thurman writes that Patanjali was influenced by the success of the Buddhist monastic system to formulate his own matrix for the version of thought he considered orthodox.

Devotion

Both traditions also make use of devotional practice (bhakti). Devotion in Buddhism is mainly directed towards the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, but may also include some devas. Mindfulness of the Buddha is a widespread practice in all Buddhist traditions and includes chanting or reciting the names or mantras of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The practice of remembering the devas (Pali: devanussati), which might include visualizing them and remembering their qualities, is taught in numerous Buddhist sutras of the Pali Canon and is part of the ten recollections.

In Hinduism, bhakti yoga is focused on God (Ishvara), whether understood as Vishnu, Shiva or Devi. This yoga includes listening to scripture, prayer, chanting, worship services (puja) and other practices.

Mantra

A mantra is a sacred phrase or syllable, typically from the Sanskrit and Pali language. Their use varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra. They are primarily used as spiritual conduits, words or vibrations that instill one-pointed concentration in the devotee. Other purposes have included religious ceremonies to accumulate wealth, avoid danger, or eliminate enemies. Mantras existed in the historical Vedic religion, Zoroastrianism and the Shramanic traditions, and thus they remain important in Buddhism and Jainism as well as other faiths of Indian origin such as Sikhism.

Rituals

Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions in East Asia and Tibet share several common rituals with Hinduism. Some examples include the homa ritual as well as prayers and food offerings for the ancestors and deceased (which was incorporated into the Ghost Festival in East Asian Buddhist traditions).

Symbolism

• Mudras are symbolic hand-gestures in Indian art, Buddhist and Hindu deities are often depicted with specific mudras
• Dharma Wheel: The Dharma Wheel (dharmacakra), which appears on the national flag of India and the flag of the Thai royal family, is a traditional symbol that is used by members of both religions.
• Tilak: Many Hindu devotees mark their heads with a tilak, which is interpreted as a third eye. A similar mark, the urna, is one of the characteristic physical characteristics of the Buddha.
• Swastikas are used in both traditions. It can be either clockwise or counter-clockwise and both are seen in Hinduism and Buddhism. The Buddha is sometimes depicted with a sauwastika on his chest or the palms of his hands.
• The Lotus flower signifies divinity and purity in both traditions
• Mandalas

Differences

Founders

Hinduism has no single historical founder. Modern Hinduism grew out of the interaction between diverse Indian religious groups over centuries of history. Buddhism however does have a single historical founder, Siddhartha Gautama, a Śramaṇa who became the Buddha.

Scriptures

Both traditions have their own canon of scripture and do not accept each other's scriptures as authoritative. Buddhism rejects the Vedas and other Hindu scripture as being authoritative. Instead, Buddhists generally accept the word of the Buddha (Buddhavacana) as being authoritative regarding religious matters. Buddhists also reject the idea that the Vedas are eternal divine scriptures (either as uncreated or as created by a God), which are common Hindu beliefs defended in the Vedanta and Mimamsa philosophies. As such, the Buddhist tradition ignores the very foundation of Hindu brahmanical religion (sruti: authoritative scriptures).

Buddhist perspective

The Buddha is recorded as having criticized the Vedic Brahmanical religion in the Canki Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya no. 95) as a lineage which blindly passes on scriptures without having true knowledge of things:

Suppose there were a file of blind men each in touch with the next: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. So too, Bhāradvāja, in regard to their statement the brahmins seem to be like a file of blind men: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. What do you think, Bhāradvāja, that being so, does not the faith of the brahmins turn out to be groundless?

The Indian Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti pithily expressed his disagreement with the religion of the Vedas as follows:

Accepting the authority of the Vedas, believing in individual agency, hoping for merit from bathing, taking pride in caste, undertaking rites for the removal of evils: these are the five signs of stupidity, the destruction of intelligence.

Later Buddhist authors like Bhavaviveka and Saṅghabhadra argued that the Vedas were authored by ancient people who were spiritually and philosophically unqualified as well as being morally deficient. In his critique, Bhavaviveka actually draws on some passages found in the Hindu Samkhyakarika and in the work of Gaudapada, which holds that Vedic sacrifice is impure and of “mixed nature” (Sanskrit: miśrībhāva). Bhavaviveka points to the presence of killing (found in various sacrifices), sexual promiscuity (in a Vedic ritual called Gosava) and use of alcohol (in a rite called Sautrāmaṇī) in the Vedas to argue that they were authored by evil people and compares them to the foreign scriptures of the "Magas" (i.e. the Persian Magi). Furthermore, in the ninth chapter of his Madhyamakahrdayakārikā (Verses on the Heart of the Middle Way), Bhavaviveka critiques the idea that bad karma can be removed through Vedic ritual, through devotion (bhakti) to the gods or by meditating on the gods and their mantras.

Hindu perspective

Meanwhile, most Hindus see the Vedas as divinely revealed scriptures. Hindu traditions either believe that the Vedas are authorless and eternal, or they hold that the Vedas were created by Ishvara (the supreme God). Many Hindus also hold the Vedas to be a key scriptural authority (Śāstra pramāṇam). In Hinduism, religious philosophies are often classified either as astika (orthodox) or nastika (unorthodox), that is, philosophies that either affirm or reject the authorities of the Vedas. According to this tradition, Buddhism is a nastika school.

Due to the Buddhist rejection of the Vedas (and the Vedic varṇāśrama - 'job and life stage' teaching), many Hindu sources see Buddhists as heretics (pāṣaṇḍa/pākhaṇḍa) and a sign of the dark age, the Kali Yuga. For example, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, an extremely influential Hindu Puranic source, considers Buddhists (as well Jains) to be "pāṣaṇḍas" (heretics, impostors).

Likewise, as noted by Klaus K. Klostermaier, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, an ancient and authoritative Purana, "presents the Buddha as a heretic and a seducer of people, one of many forms of the māyā-moha (delusive power) of Viṣṇu and recommends complete shunning of Buddhists in order to prevent pollution and punishment."

Epistemology

Since the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, Buddhist philosophy has generally focused on what can be perceived and empirically known. Buddhist thinkers, including Shakyamuni, and later philosophers like Dharmakīrti, based their theories on what was known through ordinary sense experience, as well as through extrasensory perception enabled by high degrees of mental concentration. Buddhist thinkers like Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century) thus only accept two epistemological sources (pramāṇa): perception and inference. Buddhist scriptures are thus seen as secondary sources of knowledge which can guide one on difficult and inaccessible topics (such as karma, soteriology, etc). According to Buddhist thinkers like Dharmakīrti however, scripture is a fallible source of knowledge and thus uncertain.

Hindu philosophical traditions like Nyaya and Vedanta meanwhile generally accept Vedic scriptures as a major source of knowledge. Indeed, in Vedanta, the Vedic sources are the main source of knowledge. Vedāntins thinkers all agree that Vedic scripture (śruti) is the only means of knowledge (pramāṇa) when it comes to spiritual topics. For example, the Vedāntin Rāmānuja states that "with regard to supernatural matters, Scripture alone is the epistemic authority and that reasoning is to be used only in support of Scripture’" (Śrī Bhāṣya 2.1.12).

Thus, classical Hindu thinkers only accepted reasoning and logic (hetu) if it did not contradict the Vedas. As The Laws of Manu states: “If a twice-born disparages by relying on the science of logic (hetuśāstra), he ought to be ostracized by good people as an infidel and a denigrator of the Veda.” Likewise, Hindu philosopher Bhartṛhari writes: “logical reasoning, when not inconsistent with the vedic treatise, is the eye of those who cannot see.”

Metaphysics

Karma

According to Richard Gombrich, Karma in Buddhism carries a significantly different meaning than pre-Buddhist conceptions of karma. For Buddhists, karma is mainly a mental process which is founded on an individual's intention (cetanā). The Buddha equated karma with the psychological impulse or intent behind the action (whether that action is bodily, verbal or mental). Thus, in Buddhism, one's intention has an ethical force that can affect one in the future (in this life or the next).

Meanwhile, according to the most influential school of Hindu philosophy, the Vedanta school, the effects of karma (karma-phala, i.e. the "fruits" of karma) are controlled by God (Isvara). Vedanta argues that without God, one cannot account for the workings of karma.

Ātman

Ātman is a Sanskrit word that means 'self'. For the Upanishads and for much of Hindu philosophy, knowledge of the ātman is seen as essential to attain liberation. A major departure from Hindu and Jain philosophy is the Buddhist rejection of a permanent, self-existent ātman in favour of the theory of not-self (anātman).

In Hindu philosophy, especially in the Vedanta school, ātman is the first principle, the true self of an individual beyond identification with phenomena, the true essence or being of an individual. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, Yajñavalkya (c. 9th century BCE) uses the word to indicate that in which everything exists, which is of the highest value, which permeates everything, which is the essence of all, bliss and beyond description. Older Upanishads such as the Bṛhadāraṇyaka also often describe the self in an apophatic fashion, as in the expression neti neti (not this, not this). Post Buddhist Upanishads, like the Maitri Upanishad, define Ātman as only the defiled individual self, rather than the universal self (i.e. Brahman). The Taittiriya Upanishad further defines Ātman or the self as consisting of five sheaths (koshas: bodily, prana, mind, intellect, and bliss sheath). However, there are exceptions to all of these passages which completely affirm the Self. As buddhologist Joseph Walser notes, the Maitri Upanishad and other texts in the Black Yajurveda make use of the term nirātman (which is linguistically synonymous with the Buddhist term anātman) to refer to a certain yogic state.

Furthermore, different Hindu texts and philosophical traditions describe the Self in various different (often conflicting) ways. Thus, Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) sees the ātman within each living entity as being fully identical with the universal consciousness - Brahman, whereas other schools such as Dvaita (dualism) and Shaiva Siddhanta differentiate between the individual selves in living beings, and the Supreme atma (Paramatma) as being different beings.

In many Buddhist sources the concept of ātman is rejected and critiqued in various ways. In its place, one finds terms like anātman (not-self) and shunyata (emptiness) which are widely accepted throughout Buddhism. In the early Buddhist texts, one finds the Buddha criticizing many theories of a self or ātman as unskillful and based on ignorance (avijja). In fact, according to the Buddha's statement in Khandha Samyutta no. 47, all thoughts about self are necessarily, whether the thinker is aware of it or not, thoughts about the five aggregates or one of them. As such, all these wrong views lead to suffering, since the aggregates are suffering (dukkha), and furthermore, any sense of craving for a permanent existence leads to rebirth in samsara.

Despite the rejection of ātman theories by most Buddhists, there are some similarities between certain concepts in Buddhism and the ātman doctrine. The Upanishadic "self" shares certain characteristics with nibbana; both are described as permanent or stable (dhruva), as blissful, totally beyond suffering, and as unconditioned. Furthermore, as Joseph Walser has discovered, there are very few Pali suttas in which Buddhists confront or debate with brahmins regarding the topic of not-self (and most are about one character: Vacchagotta). Walser argues this indicates that early Buddhist teachers avoided the topic of not-self when teaching Buddhism to brahmins. Thus, it is only later Buddhist philosophers, like Vasubandhu, who directly name Hindu philosophical systems (as well as one Buddhist school, Pudgalavada) as incompatible with true Buddhism due to the not-self doctrine.

There is another important exception to the Buddhist rejection of ātman theory. This is the fact that there are certain Mahayana buddha-nature scriptures, such as the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which affirm a buddhist ātman theory and equate this Buddhist "ātman" or mahātman ("great self") with the doctrine of buddha-nature. As such, modern scholars like Jones argue that these scriptures were self consciously attempting to develop a Buddhist version of ātmavāda theory (“discourse about the self”) as well as trying to adapt the doctrine of not-self (anātman). However, these scriptures also make it clear that their doctrine of self is different than Hindu theories, and they also state that this ātman doctrine is a skillful means that can only be understood by also understanding not-self.

These differences were a key point of debate among Buddhist and Hindu thinkers throughout the history of Indian philosophy. The Hindu Vedanta philosopher Adi Śaṅkara (8th century) penned refutations of the Buddhist arguments against Ātman. Vedanta defenses of the Ātman were in turn countered by Buddhist thinkers like Śāntarakṣita (8th century), who wrote the Tattvasaṃgraha (Compendium on Reality) and his student Kamalaśīla who wrote a commentary entitled Tattvasaṃgraha-pañjikā.

Brahman, the cosmic Self

In Hindu thought, Brahman is a central concept, not so in Buddhism. Hinduism sees Brahman as the Ultimate Reality, which is an immaterial, conscious, all-pervasive and eternal creative cause of all things. In the Upanishads, Brhaman is often described as unchanging Sat-cit-ānanda (truth-consciousness-bliss). In early Upanishads like the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Brahman is the Absolute, the eternal ultimate reality, a non-dual cosmic consciousness which is called "the imperishable". Hindu sources, including the Upanishads, often equate or link Brahman with the self (ātman). This connection is explained in different ways by the different schools of Hindu philosophy and theology. The most basic presupposition of early Brahminic cosmology is the identification of self and the cosmos (instances of this occur at TU II.1 and Mbh XII.195), and liberation for the yogin was thought to only occur at death, with the adept's union with brahman (as at Mbh XII.192.22). In some of the later philosophical traditions, Brahman is a personal God, while in others, it is the impersonal absolute consciousness, a cosmic Self.

In Buddhism meanwhile, the various Hindu theories of Brahman or any ultimate which is "permanent", "always existent" or an "independent existent", are rejected as wrong views. Though the Pāli scriptures do not use the neuter term "Brahman", some sources like the Tevijja sutta (which discusses "union with Brahmā") do discuss Brahminical theories which match the concept.

In the Alagaddupama Sutta (M I 135–136), the Buddha denies the existence of the cosmic self, as conceived in the Upanishadic tradition through the famous phrase "thou art that" (tat tvam asi). The sutta clearly denies that there is an individual or "internal" self which is the same as the entire world or an "external" self, and that one will become the world soul at death. A similar rejection of "internal" self and "external" self occurs at AN II 212. According to Gombrich, both texts are referring to the Upanishadic atman-brahman theories. The Buddha's rejection of these theories is therefore one instance of the Buddha's attack on the whole enterprise of Upanishadic ontology.

Theology

Buddhism does not accept the Hindu theory of a creator deity (Ishvara). While Buddhism inherited some practices and ideas from the previous Indian yogic traditions, its understanding is different from that of Hindu teachings (such as those found in the Bhagavad Gita). This is because, in Buddhism, Nirvana is not attained through bhakti (devotion) to God nor is it attained through a yogic unity with Brahman/God.

In the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha does not provide specific arguments against the existence of God, instead he focuses on the ethical issues that arise from this belief. The Buddha mostly ignored the idea of a God as being irrelevant to his teachings. However, he addresses the idea in a few passages. According to Narada Thera, the Buddha saw the idea of a creator God as problematic and as possibly leading to a kind of fatalism or ethical nihilism that leaves all ethical concerns to a God. In another passage, the Buddha argues that if a Supreme creator exists, the suffering experienced by certain beings would mean that this creator is evil.

The Buddha did not deny the existence of the gods (devas) of the Vedic pantheon, but rather argued that these devas, who may be in a more exalted state than humans, are still nevertheless trapped in the same cycle of suffering as other beings and are not necessarily worthy of veneration and worship. According to Buddhism, the Hindu gods like Brahma and Indra do exist. However, these gods are considered to be mortal (even though they have very long lives) and thus as being subject to rebirth. Buddhist cosmology recognizes various levels and types of devas and of other Buddhist deities, but none of these gods is considered the creator of the world or of the human race.

Later Buddhist philosophers such as Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, and Xuanzang did write more extensive critiques of the Hindu idea of God.

Vajrayana Buddhism contains the idea of the Adi-Buddha ("First Buddha"), which some have compared to God concepts from Vedanta. However, modern Tibetan Buddhist masters like the Dalai Lama and Namkhai Norbu have written that this Adi-Buddha concept is not a God but a symbol for the Dharmakaya or "basis" (ghzi) in Dzogchen thought.

Society and castes

In the early Buddhist texts, the Buddha critiques the Brahmanical religion and social system on certain key points. For example, the Buddha disagreed with the divine basis for caste (jāti) distinctions made in the Brahmanical religion, and he offered ordination to all regardless of caste (whereas in Brahmanism, only those born to brahmins can be priests and study the religious scriptures). In regards to the social system (varna), although Buddha did not try to dismantle this system, he spoke out against Brahmin supremacism and the notion of any varna being superior or inferior to another. Thus, the Buddha also critiqued the idea that brahmins were somehow superior or inherently pure due to their bloodline. The Vasetthasutta argues that the main difference among humans are their actions and occupations, not their bloodline.

Furthermore, the Buddha holds that there is one universal moral law (Dharma) that is valid for everybody. Thus, Buddhism rejects the idea of caste duty (svadharma), the idea that every person is assigned a fixed duty or law based on the caste they are born into. Furthermore, for Buddhists, violence was wrong for all, whether one was part of the warrior caste or not.

While the caste system constitutes an assumed background to the stories told in Buddhist scriptures, they do not agree with the Vedic justification for this system. According to the Aggañña Sutta, all social classes or varnas arose naturally through sociological factors, they were not divinely ordained. As Bronkhorst writes, this sutra rejects the view that the Brahmin caste was born from the mouth of God and thus are special. Instead, it states that this class of people developed because people in the past meditated and compiled scriptures.

In the Aggañña Sutta, Buddha also argues that good and bad deeds are found in all castes and that moral purity comes from one's own actions, not one's birth. Because of this, all castes including untouchables were welcome in the Buddhist order and when someone joined, they renounced all caste affiliation.

The meaning of brahmin

The Buddha defined the word "brahmin" as referring to a spiritually liberated person. This replaced a distinction based on birth with one based on spiritual attainment. The Buddha explains his use of the word brahmin in many places. In the Sutta Nipata (1.7, Vasala Sutta, verse 12), the Buddha states: "not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahmin. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes a brahmin."

An entire chapter of the Dhammapada is devoted to showing how a true brahmin in the Buddha's use of the word is one who is of totally pure mind, namely, an arahant. Similarly, early Buddhist scriptures define purity as determined by one's state of mind, and refer to anyone who behaves unethically, of whatever caste, as "rotting within", or "a rubbish heap of impurity". A defining feature of the Buddha's teachings is self-sufficiency, so much so as to render the brahminical priesthood entirely redundant, since no mediation between oneself and the devas are needed in Buddhism.

The status of brahmins in Buddhism

While the Buddha disagreed with these brahminical ideologies, he was not anti-brahmin nor was he hostile to brahminical religion in its entirety. The early Buddhist texts often depict the Buddha cordially interacting with and teaching brahmins. These sources often state that the Buddha's path is the true fulfillment of the path the brahmins seek and the true meaning of the Vedas. One example is the Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta, in which the Buddha praises the religion of the ancient brahmin sages, though he also states that no brahmins in his time practice "the Brahmin Dharma of the brahmins of old". According to this sutta, brahmins of old begged for their food, did not own land, and practiced non-violent sacrifices.

Many brahmins entered the sangha and became disciples of the Buddha. Indeed, many of his key disciples were brahmins, including Sariputta, Mahakassapa, Mahakaccana, and Moggallana. This trend continued into the medieval period. Later Buddhist authors like Asvaghosa, Matrceta, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Candragomin also came from brahmin families. Some early sources even praise brahmins as believers in karma and practitioners of asceticism. Furthermore, Walser's analysis of the Pali sources shows that most brahmin Buddhist monks were taught teachings which mostly avoided the not-self doctrine and instead focused on samadhi. According to Walser, this indicates that there was a special place for brahmin monks within the sangha and that there might have been Buddhist brahmin monks living independently in brahmin villages. He notes that such a "buddhist brahmin" appears in the later Harshacarita. He further argues that "in the sutras favoring Brahmins that appear interested in having Brahmins contribute to Buddhism as Brahmins, there is little evidence for any kind of solid boundary between Buddhism and Brahmanism". Rather, it seems that more exclusivist distinctions between Vedic religion and Buddhism appeared in the works of later thinkers.

Religious practices

Early Buddhist texts are often critical of prevailing religious practices and social institutions. Therefore, the Buddhist tradition has always rejected the view that certain Vedic rituals are efficacious or good. It especially rejects animal sacrifice which is taught in the Vedas (such as the Vedic Horse Sacrifice).

However, the Buddha did not reject all sacrifices. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya the Buddha states: “I do not praise all sacrifice, nor do I withhold praise from all sacrifice."

In the Sutta Pitaka, the Buddha critiques certain Vedic sacrifices while praising non-violent action as follows:

The horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, sammāpāsa, vājapeyya, niraggaḷa: the grand sacrifices, fraught with violence, do not bring great fruit. The great seers of right conduct do not attend sacrifice where goats, rams, cattle, and various creatures are slain. But when they regularly offer by family custom, sacrifices free from violence, no goats, sheep and cattle, and various creatures are slain. That sacrifice of the great seers of right conduct attend. The wise person should offer this; this sacrifice is very fruitful. For one who makes such sacrifice, it is indeed better, never worse. Such a sacrifice is truly vast and deities too are pleased.

Animal sacrifice in Hinduism is still practiced in some minority sects of Hinduism.

The Buddha also rejected other Vedic practices and rituals, such as ritual bathing in rivers. In the Vatthasutta (MN 7), the Buddha states that bathing in rivers "can't cleanse a cruel and criminal person from their bad deeds."

The Samaññaphala Sutta is another early Buddhist text which addresses and critiques numerous practices that were performed by brahmin priests or other Indian contemplatives at the time of the Buddha. Some of these practices include owning luxurious furniture and furnishings, wearing scents, cosmetics, jewelry and extensive decorations, talking about kings, armies, matters of state and gossiping. The text also rejects numerous ways of making a living that the Buddha held was not proper for a true ascetic such as: fortunetelling and forecasting the future, predicting eclipses, predicting the weather or disease, accounting, composing poetry, calculating auspicious dates, collecting debts, using spells against people, worshiping the sun, acting as an oracle, demonology, protection spells, fertility spells, ceremonial bathing, offering sacrificial fires, and administering various medicines and surgery.

However, some of these practices which were commonly done by brahmins were eventually adopted by some Buddhists, giving rise to practices like Buddhist medicine, Buddhist magic, Buddhist poetry, Tibetan medicine, Tibetan astrology, weather-making and so on. Similarly, fire sacrifices (homa) were adopted by Vajrayana Buddhism in scriptures like the Mahavairocana sutra.

Meditation

Meditation was an aspect of the practice of sramana yogis in the centuries preceding the Buddha. The Buddha built upon these ideas and developed new ideas regarding mediation and how it leads to liberation. Perhaps one original idea developed by the Buddha was that meditation and ethics also needed to be coupled with a "religious insight" (prajñā).

Early Buddhist texts are probably the earliest describing meditation states and methods. Early Buddhist texts also describe meditative practices and states that existed before the Buddha, as well as those first developed within Buddhism. A common set of four meditative states called jhanas (dhyanas) are widely discussed in Buddhist sutras. These states of meditative absorption and deep focus are seen as the key defining elements in Buddhist "right samadhi" (samma samdhi), the last part of the noble eightfold path.

The first usage of the term samadhi is found in early Buddhist texts. Later Hindu texts like the Yoga sutras also use the term samadhi to mean a deeply focused state of mind. However, they also understand this as leading to knowledge of the self or purusha, while Buddhists see samadhi as leading to insight into impermanence and not-self instead.

While there is no convincing evidence for meditation in pre-Buddhist early Brahminic texts, Wynne argues that formless meditation originated in the Brahminic or Shramanic tradition, based on strong parallels between Upanishadic cosmological statements and the meditative goals of the two teachers of the Buddha as recorded in the early Buddhist texts. He mentions less likely possibilities as well. Having argued that the cosmological statements in the Upanishads also reflect a contemplative tradition, he argues that the Nasadiya Sukta contains evidence for a contemplative tradition, even as early as the late Rg Vedic period.

Two Upanishads written after the rise of Buddhism also contain full-fledged descriptions of yoga as a means to liberation.

Spiritual liberation

Hindu theories of liberation are focused on a substantial unchanging self (atman) or on unity with God (Ishvara), while Buddhist rejects both an unchanging self and a God, arguing that even consciousness (vijñana) is in flux. In Hinduism, the ultimate goal is to realize the Self as the highest reality (Brahman or Ishvara) or to serve God in his eternal realm (such as Vishnu's Vaikuntha or Krishna's Goloka). In the Buddha's system by contrast, one must train the mind in meditation (dhyana) and gain insight (vipasyana) into the four noble truths and dependent arising. This can eventually lead to nirvana, the complete end of suffering.

Liberation for the Brahminic yogin was thought to be the permanent realization at death of a nondual universal consciousness (brahman) which is seen as blissful (ananda) and eternal (anantam). The Buddha rejected this view. Yet he was still influenced by Indian ideas of liberation and thus he adopted and gave new meaning to Vedic metaphors for liberation (like nirvana, "becoming cool", "going out").

The Buddha taught that brahmanical states of oneness do not offer a decisive and permanent end to suffering either during life or after death and he also argued against the metaphysical theories that were at their foundation. These theories were based on the Upanishadic idea that was a unity between the personal atman and the universal brahman. The Buddha, in contrast, argued that states of consciousness are caused and conditioned by a yogi's mental states and meditative techniques. Thus, for the Buddha, none of these conditioned states of yogic consciousness could be an eternal Self.

Nonduality

Both the Buddha's conception of the liberated person and the goal of early Brahminic yoga can be characterized as non-dual, but in different ways. The nondual goal in early Brahminism was conceived in ontological terms; the goal was that into which one merges after death. According to Wynne, liberation for the Buddha "... is nondual in another, more radical, sense. This is made clear in the dialogue with Upasiva, where the liberated sage is defined as someone who has passed beyond conceptual dualities. Concepts that might have some meaning in ordinary discourse, such as consciousness or the lack of it, existence and non-existence, etc., do not apply to the sage. For the Buddha, propositions are not applicable to the liberated person, because language and concepts (Sn 1076: vaadapathaa, dhammaa), as well as any sort of intellectual reckoning (sankhaa) do not apply to the liberated sage.

Conversion

Since the Hindu scriptures are essentially silent on the issue of religious conversion, the issue of whether Hindus proselytize is open to interpretations. Those who view Hinduism as an ethnicity more than as a religion tend to believe that to be a Hindu, one must be born a Hindu. However, those who see Hinduism primarily as a philosophy, a set of beliefs, or a way of life generally believe that one can convert to Hinduism by incorporating Hindu beliefs into one's life and by considering oneself a Hindu. The Supreme Court of India has taken the latter view, holding that the question of whether a person is a Hindu should be determined by the person's belief system, not by their ethnic or racial heritage.

Buddhism spread throughout Asia via proselytism and conversion. Buddhist scriptures depict such conversions in the form of lay followers declaring their support for the Buddha and his teachings, or via ordination as a Buddhist monk. Buddhist identity has been broadly defined as one who "takes Refuge" in the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, echoing a formula seen in Buddhist texts. In some communities, formal conversion rituals are observed. No specific ethnicity has typically been associated with Buddhism, and as it spread beyond its origin in India immigrant monastics were replaced with newly ordained members of the local ethnic or tribal group.

Interactions

Hinduism and Buddhism have engaged in inter-religious exchange and dialogue for over two thousand years.

Influence of Vedic religion on early Buddhism

Early Buddhist scriptures do not mention schools of learning directly connected with the Upanishads. Though the earliest Upanishads had been completed by the Buddha's time, they are not cited in the early Buddhist texts as Upanishads or Vedanta. For the early Buddhists they were likely not thought of as having any outstanding significance in and of themselves, and as simply one section of the Vedas.

Certain Buddhist teachings appear to have been formulated in response to ideas presented in the early Upanishads — some cases concurring with them, and in other cases criticizing or re-interpreting them.

The influence of Upanishads, the earliest philosophical texts of Hindus, on Buddhism has been a subject of debate among scholars. While Radhakrishnan, Oldenberg and Neumann were convinced of Upanishadic influence on the Buddhist canon, Eliot and Thomas highlighted the points where Buddhism was opposed to Upanishads.

Buddhism may have been influenced by some Upanishadic ideas, it however discarded their orthodox tendencies. In Buddhist texts, the Buddha is presented as rejecting Upanishadic avenues to salvation as "pernicious views". Later schools of Indian religious thought were influenced by this interpretation and novel ideas of the Buddhist tradition of beliefs.

According to early Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha learned the two formless attainments from two teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta respectively, prior to his enlightenment. It is most likely that they belonged to the Brahmanical tradition. However, he realized that the states that they taught did not lead to awakening and thus he left their communities.

Furthermore, the early Buddhist texts mention ideas similar to those expounded in the early Upanishads, before controverting them and using them in different ways.

Religious borrowing and appropriation

Buddha in Hinduism

Between 450 CE and the sixth century, Hindus came to see the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. The first account of this appears in the Vishnu Purana. The word Buddha is also mentioned in several of the Puranas, which are held by modern scholars to have been composed after the Buddha's time.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa states that "when the Kali Age has begun, in order to delude the enemies of the gods, Visnu will be born as the Buddha." In the Bhagavata and Vishnu Puranas, the main purpose of this incarnation was to destroy certain demons who had managed to learn Vedic rites and asceticism. For this purpose, Vishnu descended as the Buddha and taught a heresy to the demons so that they would abandon the Vedas and asceticism and lose their power, allowing them to be destroyed. According to the Vishnu Purana, these demons also taught this heresy to others who became Buddhists and abandoned the true Dharma. This allowed the gods to kill them. Similarly, the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa states that during the first stage of the Kali Yuga, when Vishnu was born as Shakyamuni, "the path of the Vedas was destroyed and all men became Buddhists. Those who sought refuge with Vishnu were deluded."

In spite of the isolated presence of a negative association of the Buddha avatar with demons and heresy, some Hindus in the post-Puranic period also came to accept the Buddha avatar's teaching as being a positive teaching. Thus, the Varaha Purana and the Matsya Purana associate the Buddha avatar with beauty. The Devibhagavata Purana states that Vishnu "became incarnate as the Buddha in order to stop the slaughter of animals and to destroy the sacrifices of the wicked." Likewise, the Vaishnava poet Jayadeva (12th century) states that Vishnu became Buddha out of compassion for animals and to end bloody sacrifices.

Helmuth von Glasenapp held that the Buddha avatar myths came from a desire in Hinduism to absorb Buddhism peacefully.

Hindu deities in Buddhism

Through its history, Buddhism borrowed and integrated various Hindu deities (or the qualities of Hindu deities) into their tradition. Mahayana Buddhist texts like the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra consider Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma and Saraswati as being bodhisattvas as well as emanations of Avalokiteshvara. Similarly, the popular Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī is a Mahayana dhāraṇī said to have been recited by Avalokiteshvara which praises the names of Harihara (a composite of Shiva and Vishnu).

Other Hindu deities adopted into Buddhism include Hayagrīva and Ganesh. During the tantric age, the Buddhist Vajrayana tradition adopted fierce tantric deities like Mahakala and Bhairava.

Theravada Buddhism also adopted some Hindu deities, the most important of which is Upulvan (i.e. Vishnu), who is seen as a guardian of Sri Lanka and as a bodhisattva.

Debate

Buddhist and Hindu philosophers often engaged in debate in ancient India. This was done in person and also in written texts. According to Bronkhorst, consistent systematic debates between Buddhists and Hindus intensifies after the 5th century CE, though discussions had also occurred previously.

Buddhist philosophers often criticized Hindu thinkers. Some of the most common targets for criticism were the theory of the atman and the theory of Ishvara (a creator God). Both views are criticized by Buddhist thinkers like Vasubandhu. The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna is known for his extensive critiques of Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy. The Buddhist Bhavaviveka outlined numerous Hindu philosophies in his Madhyamakahrdaya and attempted to refute them.

In turn, Hindu theologians like Adi Śaṅkara, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and various Nyaya school philosophers (like Vātsāyana) likewise critiqued Buddhist thought in their various works. Śaṅkara accuses the Buddha of being "a man given to make incoherent assertions" and "propound absurd doctrines."

According to Śaṅkara, the Buddhist not-self doctrine fails because a cognizer beyond cognition can be demonstrated from difference between the existence of the witness consciousness and what it knows (the numerous diverse ideas). Furthermore, a conscious agent would avoid infinite regress, since there would be no necessity to posit another knower. Śaṅkara thought that no doubts could be raised about the Self, for the act of doubting implies at the very least the existence of the doubter (even though Buddhism does have corresponding theories of the mind and consciousness, see: citta and eight consciousnesses).

Vidyaranya, another Advaita Vedantic philosopher, expresses this argument as:

No one can doubt the fact of his own existence. Were one to do so, who would the doubter be?

The Vedanta critiques were answered by later Buddhist thinkers. According to Klostermaier:

Kumārila Bhaṭṭa in his Śloka-vārttika, a thoroughly systematic work, attacked Buddhism methodically. It provoked the Buddhist scholar Śāntarakṣita to counterattack Hinduism in great detail in his magnum opus Tattva-saṅgraha. Quoting extensively from the Śloka-vārttika, Śāntarakṣita demolishes the Hindu positions with great ingenuity and a certain sense of humor. This polemical exchange between Hindus and Buddhists was continued on both sides for centuries. It became customary for Hindu scholars to refute rival Buddhist schools in their writings before expounding their own teachings.

Intellectual influences

Both Hindu and Buddhist philosophers were influenced by each others works. Buddhist philosophers like Vasubandhu and Dignaga were influenced by the works of the Nyaya school to develop more sophisticated forms of Buddhist epistemology.

Various thinkers of the Advaita Vedanta school, like Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, were also influenced by Buddhist ideas of the Madhyamaka school. Furthermore, later Advaita philosophers like Śrīharṣa (11th century), and Citsukha (13th century) adopted and utilized many of the arguments of the Buddhist Nagarjuna to show the illusory nature of the world.

Some Hindu philosophers (like the Saiva Utpaladeva) were also influenced by the work of Buddhist epistemologists like Dignaga and Dharmakirti.

Co-existence and shared religious sites

Many examples exist of temples and religious sites which are or were used by both faiths. These include the Swayambhunath, Bodh Gaya, Boudhanath, Muktinath, Mount Kailash, Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves, Elephanta Caves, Budhanilkantha and Angkor Wat.

Royal support and religious competition

Buddhism originated in India and rose to prominence in the Mauryan era through royal support. It started to decline after the Gupta era and virtually disappeared from the Indian subcontinent in the 11th century CE, except in some countries like Nepal. It has continued to exist outside of India and has become the major religion in several Asian countries.

In later years, there is significant evidence that both Buddhism and Hinduism were supported by Indian rulers, regardless of the rulers' own religious identities. Buddhist kings continued to revere Hindu deities and teachers and many Buddhist temples were built under the patronage of Hindu rulers. Kalidasa's work shows the ascension of Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism.

By the eighth century, Shiva and Vishnu had replaced Buddha in pujas of royalty.

Persecution of Buddhists

Another story is recounted by D N Jha, based on Rajatarangini, persecution of Buddhists also happened in the time of King Gonandiya-Ashoka (different from King Ashoka of Mauryan Empire). Jha writes that according to a book Rajatarangini, dated to the 12th century, Jalauka was a Shaivite and was responsible for the destruction of many Buddhist monasteries. The story of Jalauka is essentially legendary, and its to be noted that no independent corroboration of the Kashmir tradition has ever been discovered. Patanjali, a famous grammarian stated in his Mahabhashya that Brahmins and Śramaṇa, which included Buddhists, were eternal enemies. With the emergence of Hindu rulers of the Gupta Empire, Hinduism saw a major revivalism in the Indian subcontinent which challenged Buddhism which was at that time at its zenith. Even though Gupta empire was tolerant towards Buddhism and patronized Buddhist arts and religious institutions, Hindu revivalism generally became a major threat to Buddhism which led to its decline.

A Buddhist illustrated palm leaf manuscript from Pala period (one of the earliest Indian illustrated manuscripts to survive in modern times) is preserved in University of Cambridge library. Composed in the year 1015, the manuscript contains a note from the year 1138 by a Buddhist believer called Karunavajra which indicates that without his efforts, the manuscript would have been destroyed during a political struggle for power. The note states that 'he rescued the Perfection of Wisdom, incomparable Mother of the Omniscient' from falling into the hands of unbelievers (who according to Camillo Formigatti were most probably people of Brahmanical affiliation). In 1794 Jagat Singh, Dewan (minister) of Raja Chet Singh of Banaras began excavating two pre Ashokan era stupas at Sarnath for construction material. Dharmarajika stupa was completely demolished and only its foundation exists today while Dhamekh stupa incurred serious damage. During excavation a green marble relic casket was discovered from Dharmarajika stupa which contained Buddha's ashes was subsequently thrown into Ganges river by Jagat Singh according to his Hindu faith. The incident was reported by a British resident and timely action of East India Company officials saved Dhamekh Stupa from demolition.

The Asokavadana legend has been likened to a Buddhist version of Pushyamitra's attack of the Mauryas, reflecting the declining influence of Buddhism in the Shunga Imperial court. Later Shunga kings were seen as amenable to Buddhism and as having contributed to the building of the stupa at Bharhut. The decline of Buddhism in India did not set in until the Gupta dynasty.

Archeological remains of stupas have been found in Deorkothar that suggest deliberate destruction, conjectured to be one mentioned in Divyavadana about Pushyamitra. However, it is unclear whether the stupas were destroyed in ancient India or a much later period, and the existence of religious violence between Hinduism and Buddhism in ancient India has been disputed. It is unclear when the Deorkothar stupas were destroyed, and by whom. The fictional tales of Divyavadana is considered by scholars as being of doubtful value as a historical record. Moriz Winternitz, for example, stated, "these legends scarcely contain anything of much historical value". Similarly, Paul Williams states that the persecution claims with alleged dates of Buddha's nirvana (400 BCE) and the subsequent Pusyamitra reign, as depicted in the Mahasanghika school of early Buddhism are the "most far fetched of all the arguments and hardly worth of any further discussion".

Notable views

By Hindus

According to Klostermaier, while "virtually all the later commentators of the Vedānta-sūtras include anti-Buddhist polemics in their works", "anti-Buddhist polemic continued in Hindu scholarly literature and became a standard part of the Hindu scholastic curriculum" (even after the decline of Buddhism in India).

However, during the Modern Era, as Buddhism became appreciated by European scholars, Hindu scholars also began to address Buddhism with a more friendly attitude. Swami Vivekananda often described the Buddha in positive terms, and also visited Bodh Gaya several times. He nevertheless sometimes expressed an ambivalent attitute towards Buddhism. Vivekananda wrote that "Hinduism cannot live without Buddhism and Buddhism not without Hinduism. The Buddhists cannot stay without the brain and philosophy of the Brahmins, nor the Brahmins without the heart of the Buddhists. Let us then join the wonderful intellect of the Brahmin with the heart, the noble soul, the wonderful humanizing power of the Great Master." However, he also wrote that "in spite of its wonderful moral strength, Buddhism was extremely iconoclastic and much of its force being spent in merely negative attempts, it had to die out in the land of its birth and what remained of it became full of superstitions and ceremonials, a hundred times cruder than those it was intended to suppress."

Vivekananda particularly criticised Buddhism for its extreme emphasis on the monastic way of life.

Vivekananda said that though the goals of Buddhism and the Vedic religion are same, the means adopted by Buddhism were wrong and brought degradation upon the people. Vivekananda said Buddhism not only curtailed the different needs of life that the Vedic religion held harmoniously for the people, namely dharma, artha, kama, moksha, but also hermetically sealed them and presented only monasticism as the ideal. Accusing Buddhism's emphasis on monasticism as a cause for its own downfall, as well as for that of the Indian nation, Vivekananda said "The real cause of the downfall is here. Monasticism is all very good for a few; but when you preach it in such a fashion that every man or woman who has a mind immediately gives up social life, when you find over the whole of India monasteries, some containing a hundred thousand monks, sometimes twenty thousand monks in one building—huge, gigantic buildings, these monasteries, scattered all over India and, of course, centres of learning, and all that—who were left to procreate progeny, to continue the race? Only the weaklings. All the strong and vigorous minds went out. And then came national decay by the sheer loss of vigour..." Vivekananda said Buddha ruined India, inasmuch as Christ ruined the Greco-Roman world, and while Europe was later saved by the reformation protestants, India was by the likes of Kumarila, Shankara, and Ramanuja who had firmly re-established the Vedic religion.

Other famous Hindu figures saw the Buddha as a great Hindu that greatly influenced Hinduism. Gandhi called the Buddha "a Hindu of Hindus" who "was saturated with the best that was in Hinduism" and "gave life to some of the teachings that were buried in the Vedas and which were overgrown with weeds". Gandhi also said:

It is my deliberate opinion that the essential part of the teachings of the Buddha now forms an integral part of Hinduism. It is impossible for Hindu India today to retrace her steps and go behind the great reformation that Gautama effected in Hinduism. What Hinduism did not assimilate of what passes as Buddhism today was not an essential part of the Buddha's life and his teachings.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan has claimed that the Buddha did not look upon himself as an innovator, but only a restorer of the way of the Upanishads. However, there is no evidence that the Buddha accepted the Upanishads.

Steven Collins sees such Hindu claims regarding Buddhism as part of a modernist effort to show that Hinduism is unique in its universalism regarding world religions.

Other modern Hindus, like Vir Savarkar, criticize Buddhism on nationalist grounds. Savarkar saw Buddhism as the cause for India's downfall, since it spread the doctrine of ahimsa (nonviolence) among the warrior class and deprived India of its warriors, which allowed the Huns and other invaders to conquer India.

Buddhists

Ancient Buddhists philosophers like Dharmakirti have historically been staunch critics of Hindu belief and practice. Perhaps the most vehement modern Buddhist critic of Hinduism was the Indian jurist Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Ambedkar blamed the Hindu caste ideology found in Hindu śāstras like the Manusmṛti for the marginalized state of the Indian Dalits. Because of this he renounced Hinduism, converted to Buddhism and convinced many Dalits to follow suit, launching the Dalit Buddhist movement.

However, other Buddhists have emphasized the similarities and harmony between Buddhism and Hinduism. The 14th Dalai Lama, in his address to the 1st World Hindu Congress (2014), said that Buddhism and Hinduism are like spiritual brothers which share teachings on compassion, self-discipline, ethics (sila), concentration (samatha) and wisdom (prajña) and who mainly differ in their views of atman and anatman.

The Dalai Lama has also spoken about how Buddhists and Hindus, though they differ in their belief in a creator God, have also learned much from each other through intellectual contact and debate and that this way of dialogue between different religions is part of the greatness of India.

See also

• Brahma (Buddhism)
• Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu
• Buddhism and Eastern religions
• Buddhism and Jainism
• Creator in Buddhism
• Index of Buddhism-related articles
• Jambudvipa
• Mindful yoga

Notes

1. ^ Lockard (2007, p. 50): "The encounters that resulted from Aryan migration brought together several very different peoples and cultures, reconfiguring Indian society. Over many centuries a fusion of Aryan and Dravidian occurred, a complex process that historians have labeled the Indo-Aryan synthesis." Lockard: "Hinduism can be seen historically as a synthesis of Aryan beliefs with Harappan and other Dravidian traditions that developed over many centuries."
2. ^ Hiltebeitel (2007, p. 12): "A period of consolidation, sometimes identified as one of "Hindu synthesis," Brahmanic synthesis," or "orthodox synthesis," takes place between the time of the late Vedic Upanishads (c. 500 BCE) and the period of Gupta imperial ascendency" (c. 320-467 CE)."
3. ^ See also:
   • J.H. Hutton (1931), in Ghurye (1980, pp. 3–4)
   • Zimmer (1951, pp. 218–219)
   • Tyler (1973), India: An Anthropological Perspective, Goodyear Publishing Company. In: Sjoberg (1990, p. 43).
   • Sjoberg (1990)
   • Flood (1996, p. 16)
   • Vijay Nath (2001)
   • Werner (2005, pp. 8–9)
   • Lockard (2007, p. 50)
   • Hiltebeitel (2007)
   • Hopfe & Woodward (2008, p. 79)
   • Samuel (2010)
4. While some interpretations state that Buddhism may have originated as a social reform, other scholars state that it is incorrect and anachronistic to regard the Buddha as a social reformer. Buddha's concern was "to reform individuals, help them to leave society forever, not to reform the world... he never preached against social inequality". Richard Gombrich, quoted by Christopher Queen.
5. See:
   • White (2006, p. 28): "he religion of the Vedas was already a composite of the indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations."
   • Gombrich (1996, pp. 35–36): "It is important to bear in mind that the Indo-Aryans did not enter an uninhabited land. For nearly two millennia they and their culture gradually penetrated India, moving east and south from their original seat in the Punjab. They mixed with people who spoke Munda or Dravidian languages, who have left no traces of their culture beyond some archaeological remains; we know as little about them as we would about the Indo-Aryans if they had left no texts. In fact we cannot even be sure whether some of the archaeological finds belong to Indo-Aryans, autochthonous populations, or a mixture. It is to be assumed – though this is not fashionable in Indian historiography – that the clash of cultures between Indo-Aryans and autochtones was responsible for many of the changes in Indo-Aryan society. We can also assume that many – perhaps most – of the indigenous population came to be assimilated into Indo-Aryan culture.
6. The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas (Johnson 2009, p. 247). They may have existed in some oral form before being written down (Johnson 2009, p. 247).
7. Michaels (2004, p. 38): "The legacy of the Vedic religion in Hinduism is generally overestimated. The influence of the mythology is indeed great, but the religious terminology changed considerably: all the key terms of Hinduism either do not exist in Vedic or have a completely different meaning. The religion of the Veda does not know the ethicised migration of the soul with retribution for acts (karma), the cyclical destruction of the world, or the idea of salvation during one's lifetime (jivanmukti; moksa; nirvana); the idea of the world as illusion (maya) must have gone against the grain of ancient India, and an omnipotent creator god emerges only in the late hymns of the rgveda. Nor did the Vedic religion know a caste system, the burning of widows, the ban on remarriage, images of gods and temples, Puja worship, Yoga, pilgrimages, vegetarianism, the holiness of cows, the doctrine of stages of life (asrama), or knew them only at their inception. Thus, it is justified to see a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions." See also Halbfass 1991, pp. 1–2
8. University of Oslo: "During the period following Ashoka, until the end of the 7th century AD, the great gift ceremonies honoring the Buddha remained the central cult of Indian imperial kingdoms".

1. Ghurye: He considers modern Hinduism to be the result of an amalgam between pre-Aryan Indian beliefs of Mediterranean inspiration and the religion of the Rigveda. "The Tribal religions present, as it were, surplus material not yet built into the temple of Hinduism".
2. Tyler, in India: An Anthropological Perspective (1973), p. 68, as quoted by Sjoberg, calls Hinduism a "synthesis" in which the Dravidian elements prevail: "The Hindu synthesis was less the dialectical reduction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy than the resurgence of the ancient, aboriginal Indus civilization. In this process the rude, barbaric Aryan tribes were gradually civilised and eventually merged with the autochthonous Dravidians. Although elements of their domestic cult and ritualism were jealously preserved by Brahman priests, the body of their culture survived only in fragmentary tales and allegories embedded in vast, syncretistic compendia. On the whole, the Aryan contribution to Indian culture is insignificant. The essential pattern of Indian culture was already established in the third millennium B.C., and ... the form of Indian civilization perdured and eventually reasserted itself.
3. Hopfe & Woodward (2008, p. 79): "The religion that the Aryans brought with them mingled with the religion of the native people, and the culture that developed between them became classical Hinduism."

1. ^ "University of Oslo, The Mauryan Empire, study course" (PDF). Retrieved 11 April 2024.

References

1. Samuel 2010.
2. ^ Lockard 2007, p. 50.
3. ^ Hiltebeitel 2007, p. 12.
4. Y. Masih in A Comparative Study of Religions (2000), Motilal Banarsidass Publishers: Delhi, ISBN 81-208-0815-0 Page 18. "There is no evidence to show that Jainism and Buddhism ever subscribed to vedic sacrifices, vedic deities or caste. They are parallel or native religions of India and have contributed much to the growth of even classical Hinduism of the present times."
5. Gethin (2008), p. xv.
6. Abraham Eraly (2011). The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin Books. pp. 538, 571. ISBN 978-0-670-08478-4.
7. Gombrich (1988), pp. 26–41.
8. ^ Queen, Christopher. "Introduction: The Shapes and Sources of Engaged Buddhism". In Queen & King (1996), pp. 17–18.
9. Gombrich (1988), pp. 30–31.
10. Hajime Nakamura (1983). A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 102–104, 264–269, 294–295. ISBN 978-81-208-0651-1.; Quote: "But the Upanishadic ultimate meaning of the Vedas, was, from the viewpoint of the Vedic canon in general, clearly a new idea.."; p. 95: The Upanishads in particular were part of the Vedic corpus (...) When these various new ideas were brought together and edited, they were added on to the already existing Vedic..."; p. 294: "When early Jainism came into existence, various ideas mentioned in the extant older Upanishads were current,....".
11. Klaus G. Witz (1998). The Supreme Wisdom of the Upaniṣads: An Introduction. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 1–2, 23. ISBN 978-81-208-1573-5.; Quote: "In the Aranyakas therefore, thought and inner spiritual awareness started to separate subtler, deeper aspects from the context of ritual performance and myth with which they had been united up to then. This process was then carried further and brought to completion in the Upanishads. (...) The knowledge and attainment of the Highest Goal had been there from the Vedic times. But in the Upanishads inner awareness, aided by major intellectual breakthroughs, arrived at a language in which Highest Goal could be dealt with directly, independent of ritual and sacred lore".
    Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle (1994). The Origin and Development of Early Indian Contemplative Practices. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 58 with footnote 148, 22–29, 87–103, for Upanishads–Buddhist Sutta discussion see 65–72. ISBN 978-3-447-03479-1.
12. Patrick Olivelle (1992). The Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–5, 68–71. ISBN 978-0-19-536137-7.;
    Christoph Wulf (2016). Exploring Alterity in a Globalized World. Routledge. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-1-317-33113-1.; Quote: "But he talks about the simultaneous emergence of a Vedic and a non-Vedic asceticism. (...) Thus, the challenge for old Vedic views consisted of a new theology, written down in the early Upanishads like the Brhadaranyaka and the Mundaka Upanishad. The new set of ideas contained the...."
13. AL Basham (1951), History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas – a Vanished Indian Religion, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1204-8, pp. 94–103
14. ^ Reginald Ray (1999), Buddhist Saints in India, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-513483-4, pp. 237–240, 247–249
15. Martin Wiltshire (1990), Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism, De Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-009896-9, p. 293
16. Samuel 2010, pp. 123–125.
17. Martin Wiltshire (1990), Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism, De Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-009896-9, pp. 226–227
18. Shults (2014), p. 126.
19. Shults (2014), p. 127.
20. Shults (2014), pp. 125–129.
21. P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, ISBN 978-94-010-7810-8, pp. 1–30
22. Jaini (2001), pp. 47–48.
23. ^ Mark Siderits (2007). Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction. Ashgate. p. 16 with footnote 3. ISBN 978-0-7546-5369-1.
24. Ghurye 1980, p. 4.
25. Sjoberg 1990, p. 43.
26. ^ Flood 1996, p. 16.
27. Samuel 2010, pp. 41–42.
28. White 2006, p. 28.
29. ^ Gomez 2013, p. 42.
30. Doniger 2010, p. 66.
31. Jones & Ryan 2006, p. xvii.
32. Narayanan 2009, p. 11; Lockard 2007, p. 52; Hiltebeitel 2007, p. 3; Jones & Ryan 2006, p. xviii.
33. Tiwari 2002, p. v; Lockard 2007, p. 52; Zimmer 1951, pp. 218–219; Larson 1995, p. 81.
34. Tiwari 2002, p. v.
35. ^ Larson 2009.
36. Fuller 2004, p. 88.
37. Cousins 2010.
38. Hiltebeitel 2007, p. 13.
39. Vijay Nath 2001, p. 21.
40. ^ Vijay Nath 2001, p. 19.
41. Samuel 2010, pp. 193–228.
42. Raju 1992, p. 31.
43. ^ Cope, Stephen (2006). The wisdom of yoga : a seeker's guide to extraordinary living. New York: Bantam Books. pp. 276-278. ISBN 978-0-553-38054-5. OCLC 64098584.
44. (Gombrich 1997, pp. 29–30)
45. "The brahmin by caste alone, the teacher of the Veda, is (jokingly) etymologized as the 'non-meditator' (ajhāyaka). Brahmins who memorize the three Vedas (tevijja) really know nothing: it is the process of achieving Enlightenment—what the Buddha is said to have achieved in the three watches of that night—that constitutes the true 'three knowledges.' " R.F. Gombrich in Paul Williams, ed., "Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious studies." Taylor and Francis 2006, page 120.
46. Halbfass, Wilhelm (2000). Karma und Wiedergeburt im indischen Denken (in German). Munich, Germany: Diederichs. ISBN 978-3-89631-385-0.
47. Lawrence C. Becker & Charlotte B. Becker, Encyclopedia of Ethics, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-415-93672-1, Hindu Ethics, pp 678
48. Parvesh Singla. The Manual of Life – Karma. Parvesh singla. pp. 5–7. GGKEY:0XFSARN29ZZ. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
49. "Karma" in: John Bowker (1997), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press.
50. James Lochtefeld (2002), The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Rosen Publishing, New York, ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, pp 351–352
51. Soiver, Deborah A. (November 1991). The Myths of Narasimha and Vamana: Two Avatars in Cosmological Perspective. State University of New York Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7914-0799-8.
52. Buswell, Robert E., ed. (2004), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pp. 711–712. MacMillan Reference Books, ISBN 978-0-02-865718-9
53. David Kalupahana (1975), Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, The University Press of Hawaii, p. 19.
54. Hajime Nakamura (1989), A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990 (Reprint), p. 136.
55. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, . See note 2.
56. The Mahamayuri Vidyarajni Sutra 佛母大孔雀明王經 Translated into English by Cheng Yew Chung based on Amoghavajra's Chinese Translation (Taisho Volume 19, Number 982)
57. Paul Williams, Buddhism: The early Buddhist schools and doctrinal history; Theravāda doctrine. Taylor & Francis, 2005, p. 147.
58. " A common error in examining the concept such as nirvana is to focus too much on the exact denotation of the term at the expense of its wider associations and context, not taking into the account number of synonyms frequently used to describe it. A specific example might be that nirvana is 'amrta', or the deathlessness, but it is important that this refers to the nectar that confers immortality upon gods. In the Buddhist context it refers to a condition in which there is no death, though it is clearly intended to have the positive associations of Indian myth." Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward Craig, 6. Synonyms for Nirvana, p. 11, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1998, ISBN 0-415-07310-3, ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3
59. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward Craig, 1. Origins and etymology of the word Nirvana, p. 9, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1998, ISBN 0-415-07310-3, ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3
60. On World Religions: Diversity, Not Dissension, p. 78, Anindita N. Balslev, SAGE Publications
61. "namah suddhaya buddhaya"; P. 67 Cultural History From The Vayu Purana By Devendrakumar Rajaram Patil, Rajaram D. K. Patil
62. Burrow, T. (1957). "Histoire de la langue sanskrite". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 19 (3): 594–595. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00133737. ISSN 1474-0699.
63. Cousins, L. S. (1996). Bechert, Heinz (ed.). "The Dating of the Historical Buddha: A Review Article". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 6 (1): 57–63. doi:10.1017/S1356186300014760. ISSN 1356-1863.
64. Lamotte, Etienne (1988). History of Indian Buddhism: from the origins to the Saka era. Publications de l'Institut orientaliste de Louvain (in English and French). Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste. ISBN 978-90-6831-100-6.
65. Gombrich, Richard F. (2009). What the Buddha thought. Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies monographs. London; Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub. ISBN 978-1-84553-612-1. OCLC 276274638.
66. The Yoga Tradition: its literature, philosophy and practice By Georg Feuerstein. ISBN 81-208-1923-3. p. 111
67. Samadhi: The Numinous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga By Stuart Ray Sarbacker. ISBN 0-7914-6553-5. p. 77
68. Robert Thurman, "The Central Philosophy of Tibet. Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 34.
69. Shaw, Sarah (2006). Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon, p. 223, Routledge.
70. Ellen Koskoff (2013), The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-99404-0, pages 992-993
71. "Is there any sense in chanting Avesta prayers" (PDF). parsizoroastrianism.com. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
72. R.K. Payne: The Tantric Ritual of Japan. Feeding the Gods: the Shingon Fire Ritual., and Koenraad Elst: Who is a Hindu? 2001
73. Buddha image Archived March 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
74. "Hinduism and Buddhism". Vanessa Arellano.
75. ^ Bartley, Christopher (2015). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, p. 158. Bloomsbury Academic.
76. Tola, Fernando. Dragonetti, Carmen (2009). "Brahamanism and Buddhism: Two Antithetic Conceptions of Society in Ancient India." p. 26: "This also implied the denial of the Shruti provided with characteristics which grant it the status of a substance. All this carried with itself also the negation of the authority of all the sacred texts of Brahmanism. Buddhism does not acknowledge to them any value as ultimate criterion of truth, as depository of the norms which regulate man's conduct as a member of society and in his relations with the Gods. Buddhism ignores the Shruti, the very foundation of Brahmanism."
77. "With Caṅkī [Caṅkīsutta MN 95] [PTS 2.164–2.177]". SuttaCentral. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
78. Bartley, Christopher (2015). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, p. 155. Bloomsbury Academic.
79. Ham, Hyoung Seok (2016). Buddhist Critiques of the Veda and Vedic Sacrifice: A Study of Bhāviveka's Mīmāṃsā Chapter of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and Tarkajvālā, pp. 99-102. University of Michigan.
80. Ham, Hyoung Seok (2016). Buddhist Critiques of the Veda and Vedic Sacrifice: A Study of Bhāviveka's Mīmāṃsā Chapter of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and Tarkajvālā, pp. 119-133. University of Michigan.
81. Ham, Hyoung Seok (2016). Buddhist Critiques of the Veda and Vedic Sacrifice: A Study of Bhāviveka's Mīmāṃsā Chapter of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and Tarkajvālā, pp. 64-67. University of Michigan.
82. Scharfe, Hartmut (2002), Handbook of Oriental Studies, pp. 13-14. Brill Academic, ISBN 978-90-04-12556-8
83. Ham, Hyoung Seok (2016). Buddhist Critiques of the Veda and Vedic Sacrifice: A Study of Bhāviveka's Mīmāṃsā Chapter of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and Tarkajvālā. University of Michigan.
84. Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999). The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21972-4. p. 2.
85. Valpey, Kenneth Russell; Gupta, Ravi Mohan (2013). The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, sacred text and living tradition, p. 146. Columbia University Press.
86. Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 372. SUNY Press.
87. David Kalupahana (1975), Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, The University Press of Hawaii, p. 185.
88. Randall Collins (2000), The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, Harvard University Press, p. 202.
89. A.K. Warder (1998), A Course in Indian Philosophy, Second edition published by Motilal Banarsidass, p. 81.
90. David Kalupahana (1977), Buddhist philosophy: A Historical Analysis, Published by University of Hawaii Press, pp. 23–24.
91. ^ Tom Tillemans (2011), Dharmakirti, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
92. Chatterjee, Satischandra (1 January 2016). The Nyaya Theory of Knowledge: A Critical Study of Some Problems of Logic and Metaphysics. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 319. ISBN 978-81-208-4082-9. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
93. Das, Kanti Lal; Mukherjee, Anirban (2008). Language and Ontology. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-7211-228-8.
94. ^ Bartley, Christopher (2015). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, p. 176. Bloomsbury Academic.
95. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, pp. 186. BRILL
96. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, pp. 187. BRILL
97. (Gombrich 1997, p. 37)
98. Gombrich, Richard F. (1997), How Buddhism Began. The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, p. 51. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd
99. Flood, Gavin Dennis (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism, pp. 231–232, 238. Cambridge University Press.
100. Francis X Clooney (1993), Theology After Vedanta: An Experiment in Comparative Theology, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-1365-4, pages 68-71
101. Brahma Sutras (Shankara Bhashya) (5 March 2014). "Chapter III, Section II, Adhikarana VIII". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
102. David Gordon White (1998). The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-226-89499-7. NOTE: Similar identification also made in the Hathayogapradipika (4.50)
103. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner, ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press 1989, p. 100.
104. Deussen, Paul and Geden, A. S. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Cosimo Classics (June 1, 2010). P. 86. ISBN 1-61640-240-7.
105. Raju, Poolla Tirupati. Structural Depths of Indian Thought. SUNY Series in Philosophy. P. 26. ISBN 0-88706-139-7.
106. Swami Prabhavananda, The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal, "AJA - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Text". Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
107. ^ Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind. Curzon Press, 1995, page 34.
108. DasGupta, Surendranath. A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. P. 46. ISBN 978-0-521-11629-9.
109. ^ Walser, Joseph (2017). "When Did Buddhism Become Anti-Brahmanical? The Case of the Missing Soul". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 86 (1): 94–125. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfx024.
110. Bhagavata Purana 3.28.41 Archived February 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
111. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, The Not-Self Strategy. Archived 2013-02-04 at the Wayback Machine. For the sutta see .
112. Nanavira Thera, Nibbana and Anatta. . Early Writings -> Nibbana and Anatta -> Nibbana, Atta, and Anatta.
113. Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, 2nd edition, Routledge, London and New York, 2009, pp. 108-109.
114. ^ Jones, C.V. (2020). The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, pp. 55-60. University of Hawaii Press.
115. Jones, C.V. (2020). The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman, pp. 1-3. University of Hawaii Press.
116. Williams, Paul (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, p. 108. Routledge.
117. ^ Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 373. SUNY Press.
118. P. T. Raju (2006), Idealistic Thought of India, Routledge, ISBN 978-1406732627, page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII
119. Lochtefeld, James G. (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Vol. 1. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 122. ISBN 978-0823931798.
120. Eliot Deutsch (1980), Advaita Vedanta : A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0824802714, Chapter 1
121. Karel Werner (1994), The Yogi and the Mystic: Studies in Indian and Comparative Mysticism, Routledge, p. 24.
122. Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, pp. 50, 96.
123. Stephen Philips (1998), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Brahman to Derrida (Editor; Edward Craig), Routledge, ISBN 978-0415187077, pages 1–4
124. Klaus K. Klostermaier (2007), A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791470824, Chapter 12: Atman and Brahman – Self and All
125. For dualism school of Hinduism, see: Francis X. Clooney (2010), Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199738724, pages 51–58, 111–115; For monist school of Hinduism, see: B. Martinez-Bedard (2006), Types of Causes in Aristotle and Sankara, Thesis – Department of Religious Studies (Advisors: Kathryn McClymond and Sandra Dwyer), Georgia State University, pages 18–35
126. Hajime Nakamura, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One, Reprint by Motilal Banarsidass, 1990, pp. 137–138. "It has the dharma of non-perishing" is Nakamura's translation of "acavanadhammam".
127. Steven Collins (2000), Aggañña sutta, Sahitya Akademi, p. 58.
128. Peter Harvey (1995), The Selfless Mind, Curzon Press, p. 234.
129. Hajime Nakamura, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One. Reprint by Motilal Banarsidass, 1990, p. 137.
130. Richard Francis Gombrich, How Buddhism began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, page 38.
131. ^ Richard Francis Gombrich. How Buddhism began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 39.
132. Richard Francis Gombrich, How Buddhism began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 40.
133. See also Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, p. 116.
134. ^ Harvey, Peter (2019). "Buddhism and Monotheism", p. 1. Cambridge University Press.
135. Blackburn, Anne M.; Samuels, Jeffrey (2003). "II. Denial of God in Buddhism and the Reasons Behind It". Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia. Pariyatti. pp. 128–146. ISBN 978-1-928706-19-9.
136. Easwaran, Eknath (2007). The Dhammapada: (Classics of Indian Spirituality). Nilgiri Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-58638-020-5.
137. Hayes, Richard P., "Principled Atheism in the Buddhist Scholastic Tradition", Journal of Indian Philosophy, 16:1 (1988:Mar) pgs 9-10
138. ^ Dr V. A. Gunasekara. "The Buddhist Attitude to God". Statement made to a Multi-religious Seminar. Archived from the original on 8 April 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2007.
139. Narada Thera (2006) "The Buddha and His Teachings," pp. 268-269, Jaico Publishing House.
140. ^ Westerhoff, Jan. “Creation in Buddhism” in Oliver, Simon. The Oxford Handbook of Creation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, forthcoming
141. Kapstein, Matthew T. The Buddhist Refusal of Theism, Diogenes 2005; 52; 61.
142. Hayes, Richard P., "Principled Atheism in the Buddhist Scholastic Tradition", Journal of Indian Philosophy, 16:1 (1988:Mar.) pg 11-15.
143. B. Alan Wallace, "Is Buddhism Really Non-Theistic?" in Snow Lion Newsletter, Winter 2000, ISSN 1059-3691, Volume 15, Number 1. https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/is-buddhism-really-nontheistic/
144. The Dalai Lama (2020). Dzogchen: Heart Essence of the Great Perfection. p. 188. Shambhala Publications.
145. Norbu, Namkhai; Clemente, Adriano (1999). The Supreme Source: The Kunjed Gyalpo, the Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde, p. 94. Snow Lion Publications.
146. K.N. Upadhaya, The Impact of Early Buddhism on Hindu Thought. Philosophy East and West Vol.18(1968) pp.163-173, accessed at http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew27039.htm Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine.
147. Mrozik, Susanne. "Upali" in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pg. 870. "All account emphasize that caste has no bearing on a person's status in the monastic community."
148. Venkatesh, Krishnan (9 February 2017). "The Buddha Talks to a Brahmin Supremacist". Tricycle. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
149. ^ Tola, Fernando. Dragonetti, Carmen (2009). "Brahamanism and Buddhism: Two Antithetic Conceptions of Society in Ancient India."
150. Omvedt (2003), p. 76.
151. ^ Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, p. 101. BRILL
152. Cohen, Richard S. "India" in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p. 358. "Though Buddhist texts take the existence of "caste" for granted, they attempt neither to justify the social system, nor to disseminate it."
153. Omvedt, Gail (2003). Buddhism in india : challenging Brahmanism and caste. New Delhi: Sage Publications. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7619-9664-4.
154. ^ Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, p. 100. BRILL
155. Walshe, Maurice (2005). The Long Discourses of the Buddha. Wisdom Publications Inc. p. 216.
156. Mrozik, Susanne. "Upali" in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pg. 870.
157. Kancha Ilaiah, "God as Political Philosopher: Buddha's Challenge to Brahminism" p. 169
158. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Handful of Leaves Vol 1, 2nd edition, page 391.
159. See for example Dhp XXVI, Brahmanavagga, or Majjhima Nikaya 3.24, or especially MN 98 for three of many examples.
160. Translated by Piyadassi Thera: .
161. Dhammapada XXVI, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu: .
162. Sue Hamilton, Early Buddhism: A New Approach: The I of the Beholder. Routledge 2000, pp. 47, 49.
163. Sue Hamilton, Early Buddhism: A New Approach: The I of the Beholder. Routledge 2000, p. 49.
164. ^ "Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta". SuttaCentral. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
165. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, pp. 173-174. BRILL
166. Tola, Fernando. Dragonetti, Carmen (2009). "Brahamanism and Buddhism: Two Antithetic Conceptions of Society in Ancient India." p. 26.
167. ^ Kurfirtova, Marie Hana. 2017. Compassionate Sacrifice: The Buddhist Incorporation of Vedic Homa Rituals. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School.
168. "MN 7, SuttaCentral". SuttaCentral. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
169. ^ Walshe, Maurice (trans.) (1995). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-103-3.
170. Michael Carrithers, The Buddha. Taken from Founders of Faith, published by Oxford University Press, 1986, page 30.
171. Alexander Wynne, The origin of Buddhist meditation. Routledge, 2007, p. 72.
172. Dharmacarini Manishini, Western Buddhist Review. Accessed at "Kamma in Context: The Mahakammavibhangasutta and the Culakammavibhangasutta". Archived from the original on 8 August 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
173. Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, page 44.
174. ^ Nanamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) (1995, ed. Bhikkhu Bodhi). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-072-X.
175. Alexander Wynne, The origin of Buddhist meditation. Routledge, 2007, p. 73.
176. Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India. Franz Steiner Verlag Weisbaden GmbH, pages 1-17.
177. Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
178. ^ Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, page 51.
179. Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, page 56.
180. Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Harvard University Press, 2000, page 199.
181. Bryant, Edwin Francis, (2003). Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God: Srimad Bhagavata Purana, Penguin Classics, UK.
182. Bryant, Edwin F. (2017). Bhakti Yoga: Tales and Teachings from the Bhagavata Purana, pp. 56-58, 73- 75. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
183. ^ Richard Gombrich, How Buddhism began: the Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 58.
184. Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, page 109.
185. Michael Carrithers, The Buddha, 1983, page 36. Found in Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press, 1986.
186. Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, p. 21.
187. ^ Michael Carrithers, The Buddha, 1983, pp. 41–42. Found in Founders of Faith, Oxford University Press, 1986.
188. Alexander Wynne, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. Routledge 2007, p. 42.
189. Alexander Wynne 2007, page 109
190. ^ "Read & Learn". www.himalayanacademy.com.
191. Brahmachari Siddheshwar Shai v. State of West Bengal (Supreme Court of India), available at Archived October 30, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
192. Dutt, Nalinaksha. Early History Of The Spread Of Buddhism and The Buddhist Schools. Cosmo Publications, 2005. Pp. 72-78. ISBN 81-307-0092-1.
193. Hunter, W. W. The Indian Empire: Its People, History, and Products. Routledge, 2000. P. 149. ISBN 0-415-24495-1.
194. Cornille, Catherine (ed.) (2013), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue p. 188. Wiley-Blackwell.
195. Hajime Nakamura, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One. Reprint by Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1990, pp. 133–134.
196. Helmuth von "Vedanta and Buddhism, A Comparative Study" (1950) 1950 Proceedings of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur
197. (Gombrich 1997, p. 31)
198. "We may distinguish among Upanishads in terms of relative age. First are early, pre-Buddhist Upanishads (Chandogya, Brahadanyaka, Aitreya, Taittiriya, Kauitaki, and somewhat later Kena and Isa)." Fahlbusch et al. (2008) The Encyclopedia of Christianity: Volume 5: Si-Z p. 645, Translated by Geoffrey William Bromiley, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 0-8028-2417-X, 978-0-8028-2417-2
199. Pratt, James Bissett (1996), The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage, Asian Educational Services, p. 90, ISBN 978-81-206-1196-2
200. Upadhyaya, Kashi Nath (1998), Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgītā, Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 103–104, ISBN 978-81-208-0880-5
201. Hajime Nakamura (1990) A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One. p.139, Reprint by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
202. K. N. Upadhaya (1968) "The Impact of Early Buddhism on Hindu Thought (with Special Reference to the Bhagavadgiitaa)" Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine, Philosophy East and West Vol.18 pp.163-173, University of Hawaii Press
203. Steven Sutcliffe, Religion: Empirical Studies. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004, page 135.
204. John J. Holder, Early Buddhist Discourses. Hackett Publishing Company, 2006, page xi.
205. Hajime Nakamura, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy: Part One. Reprint by Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1990, p. 135.
206. ^ Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 188. University of California Press.
207. Vinay Lal. (2007). India and its neighbors ucla.edu
208. Bhag-P 1.3.24 Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine "Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist."
209. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 189. University of California Press.
210. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 203. University of California Press.
211. ^ Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 204. University of California Press.
212. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 206. University of California Press.
213. Studholme, Alexander (2002). The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra. State University of New York Press. p. 39-40.
214. Chandra, Lokesh (1988). The Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara. pp 32, 187. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. ISBN 81-7017-247-0.
215. "Bhairava" in Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.
216. Bulcsu Siklós, The Vajrabhairava tantras: Tibetan and Mongolian versions, English translation and annotations, Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1996
217. Holt, J. (2000). The Hindu Buddha and the Buddhist Visnu: Religious Transformations in Indian and Sri Lanka. University of Calgary.
218. Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy (1976). Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, p. 208. University of California Press.
219. "1959-156-1: Acarya Bhavaviveka Converts a Nonbeliever to Buddhism". Philadelphia Museum of Art: Acarya Bhavaviveka Converts a Nonbeliever to Buddhism. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
220. Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, p. 191. BRILL
221. Gold, Jonathan C. (2021), "Vasubandhu", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 18 July 2022
222. Bartley, Christopher (2015). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, p. 97. Bloomsbury Academic.
223. Eckel, Malcolm David. (2008). Bhāviveka and his Buddhist Opponents, p. 3. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 70, ISBN 978-0-674-03274-3. This contains a translation of chapters 4 and 5.
224. Bartley, Christopher (2015). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas from Original Sources, pp. 122-127, 167-171, 212-220. Bloomsbury Academic.
225. ^ Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 374. SUNY Press.
226. Darling, Gregory Joseph. An Evaluation of the Vedāntic Critique of Buddhism. Motilal Banarasidass Publishers. Delhi, 1987. P. 315-316. ISBN 978-81-208-0363-3.
227. Deutsch, Eliot. Advaita Vedānta: A Philosophical Reconstruction. East-West Center Press, 1969. P. 50. ISBN 0-8248-0271-3.
228. Matilal, Bimal Krishna (author), Ganeri, Jonardon (editor) & (Tiwari, Heeraman)(1998). The Character of Logic in India. Albany, NY, USA: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-3739-6 (HC:acid free), p.4
229. ^ Cornille, Catherine (ed.) (2013), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue p. 199. Wiley-Blackwell.
230. Cornille, Catherine (ed.) (2013), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue p. 200. Wiley-Blackwell.
231. Torella, Raffaele. "The Pratyabhijñā and the logical-epistemological school of Buddhism" in Goudriaan ed. (1992) Ritual and Speculation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honor of Andre Padoux pp. 327-346. SUNY Press.
232. January 2008, VOL. 213, #1
233. Hill, Christopher. South Asia: An Environmental History. ABC-CLIO 2008, page 35. "Through Kalidas' work we begin to see the ascension of Hinduism, taking the place of Buddhism as the dominant religion."
234. Morley, Grace. 2005. Indian Sculpture. Roli Books. pg. 28. "By the end of the Gupta period Buddhism was no longer dominant, even in the north, where it had prevailed for so long."
235. Inden, Ronald. "Ritual, Authority, And Cycle Time in Hindu Kingship." In JF Richards, ed., Kingship and Authority in South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, p.67, 55"before the eighth century, the Buddha was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies through which a king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a stupa....This pattern changed in the eighth century. The Buddha was replaced as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods (except under the Palas of eastern India, the Buddha's homeland)...Previously the Buddha had been accorded imperial-style worship (puja). Now as one of the Hindu gods replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship."
236. Holt, John. The Buddhist Visnu. Columbia University Press, 2004, p.12,15 "The replacement of the Buddha as the "cosmic person" within the mythic ideology of Indian kingship, as we shall see shortly, occurred at about the same time the Buddha was incorporated and subordinated within the Brahmanical cult of Visnu."
237. ^ Jha, DN (1 June 2018). "Monumental Absence The destruction of ancient Buddhist sites". Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
238. Smith, Vincent A. (1908). The Early History of India. Oxford University. p. 180. ISBN 9788185205212. OCLC 235958116. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
239. Harper, Francesca (12 May 2015). "The 1,000-year-old manuscript and the stories it tells". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
240. Schumann, Hans Wolfgang (2004). The Historical Buddha: The Times, Life, and Teachings of the Founder of Buddhism. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 70. ISBN 9788120818170.
241. Hirakawa, Akira; Groner, Paul (1993). A history of Indian Buddhism : from Śākyamuni to early Mahāyāna. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 223. ISBN 81-208-0955-6.
242. "Article on Deokothar Stupas possibly being targeted by Pushyamitra". Archaeology.org. 4 April 2001. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
243. Akira Hirakawa, Paul Groner, A History of Indian Buddhism: From Sakyamuni to Early Mahayan, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1996, ISBN 81-208-0955-6, p. 223
244. O'Neill, Tom (January 2008). India's Ancient Art. Benoy K. Behl. National Geographic Magazine. The flow between faiths was such that for hundreds of years, almost all Buddhist temples, including the ones at Ajanta, were built under the rule and patronage of Hindu kings.
245. ^ Andy Rotman (Translator), Paul Harrison et al (Editors), Divine Stories - The Divyāvadāna Part 1, Wisdom Publications, Boston, ISBN 0-86171-295-1, Introduction, Preview summary of book Archived 2017-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
246. Paul Williams (2005). Buddhism: Buddhist origins and the early history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Routledge. pp. 66 footnote 8. ISBN 978-0-415-33227-9.
247. Akira Hirakawa, Paul Groner, A History of Indian Buddhism: From Sakyamuni to Early Mahayan, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1996, ISBN 978-81-208-0955-0, p. 223
248. B.M. Barua (March 1930). "Old Buddhist Shrines at Bodh-Gaya Inscriptions". The Indian Historical Quarterly. VI (1): 1–31. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
249. Sister Nivedita: The Master as I Saw Him. Koenraad Elst 2001: Who is a Hindu
250. ^ Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 375. SUNY Press.
251. ^ Swami Vivekananda (1959). The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5 (Seventh ed.). Advaita Ashram. pp. 454–455. ISBN 9788175058668.
252. Swami Vivekananda (2003). Buddha And His Message (Second ed.). Advaita Ashram. pp. 44–45. ISBN 8175052457.
253. ^ Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 376. SUNY Press.
254. Radhakrishnan. Indian Philosophy, vol.2, p. 469.
255. Michael Carrithers, The Buddha. Taken from Founders of Faith, published by Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 38.
256. Collins, Steven (1990). Selfless Persons. Cambridge University Press, p. 9.
257. Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 379. SUNY Press.
258. Klostermaier, Klaus K. (2007). A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, p. 378. SUNY Press.
259. Misra, Neelesh. "Dalai Lama Criticizes Proselytizing". ABC News. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
260. The 14th Dalai Lama, (official website) (18 July 2022). "His Holiness the Dalai Lama Chief Guest at 1st World Hindu Congress". dalailama.com. Retrieved 18 July 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
261. Venkat, Vidya (16 June 2018). "India is our Aryabhoomi, says the Dalai Lama". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 18 July 2022.

Bibliography

• Cousins, L.S. (2010), "Buddhism", The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-195504-9
• Doniger, Wendy (2010), The Hindus: An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7
• Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-43878-0
• Fuller, C. J. (2004), The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-12048-5
• Gethin, Rupert (2008), Sayings of the Buddha, Oxford University Press
• Ghurye, Govind Sadashiv (1980), The Scheduled Tribes of India, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 978-1-4128-3885-6
• Gombrich, Richard F. (1988), Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-07585-5
• Gombrich, Richard F. (1996), Theravāda Buddhism. A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-07585-5
• Gombrich, Richard (1997). How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. ISBN 81-215-0812-6.
• Gomez, Luis O. (2013), Buddhism in India. In: Joseph Kitagawa, "The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture", Routledge, ISBN 978-1-136-87590-8
• Halbfass, Wilhelm (1991), Tradition and Reflection, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-0361-7
• Hiltebeitel, Alf (2002), Hinduism. In: Joseph Kitagawa, "The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture", Routledge, ISBN 978-1-136-87597-7
• Hiltebeitel, Alf (2007), Hinduism. In: Joseph Kitagawa, "The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture". Digital printing 2007, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-136-87590-8
• Hopfe, Lewis M.; Woodward, Mark R. (2008), Religions of the World, Pearson Education, ISBN 978-0-13-606177-9
• Jaini, Padmanabh S. (2001), Collected Paper on Buddhist Studies, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1776-0
• Johnson, W.J. (2009), A Dictionary of Hinduism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-861025-0
• Jones, Constance; Ryan, James D. (2006), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8160-7564-5
• Larson, Gerald (1995), India's Agony Over Religion, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-2411-7
• Larson, Gerald James (2009), Hinduism. In: "World Religions in America: An Introduction", pp. 179-198, Westminster John Knox Press, ISBN 978-1-61164-047-2
• Lockard, Craig A. (2007), Societies, Networks, and Transitions. Volume I: to 1500, Cengage Learning, ISBN 978-0-618-38612-3
• Michaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism. Past and present, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
• Narayanan, Vasudha (2009), Hinduism, The Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-4358-5620-2
• Nath, Vijay (2001), "From 'Brahmanism' to 'Hinduism': Negotiating the Myth of the Great Tradition", Social Scientist, 29 (3/4): 19–50, doi:10.2307/3518337, JSTOR 3518337
• Queen, Christopher S.; King, Sallie B., eds. (1996). Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2844-3.
• Raju, P. T. (1992), The Philosophical Traditions of India, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Robinson, Richard; Johnson, Willard; Thanissaro, Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) (2005). Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. ISBN 0-534-55858-5.
• Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press
• Shults, Brett (2014), "On the Buddha's Use of Some Brahmanical Motifs in Pali Texts", Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 6: 121–129, archived from the original on 27 April 2016, retrieved 20 May 2016
• Sjoberg, Andree F. (1990), "The Dravidian Contribution to the Development of Indian Civilization: A Call for a Reassessment", Comparative Civilizations Review, 23: 40–74
• Tiwari, Shiv Kumar (2002), Tribal Roots of Hinduism, Sarup & Sons
• Werner, Karel (2005), A Popular Dictionary of Hinduism, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-135-79753-9
• White, David Gordon (2006), Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-02783-8
• Zaehner, R. C. (1969), The Bhagavad Gītā, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-501666-1
• Zimmer, Heinrich (1951), Philosophies of India, Princeton University Press

External links

• Hindu and Buddhist gods
• Gandhi and Lord Buddha
• Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same? by David Loy, National Univ. of Singapore.
• Buddhism, the Fulfilment of Hinduism
• Enlightenment: Buddhism Vis-à-Vis Hinduism by Acharya Mahayogi Sridhar Rana

v t e    Topics in Buddhism
Outline Glossary Index
Foundations	Four Noble Truths Three Jewels Buddha Dharma Sangha Noble Eightfold Path Nirvana Middle Way
The Buddha	Tathāgata Birthday Four sights Eight Great Events Great Renunciation Physical characteristics Life of Buddha in art Footprint Relics Iconography in Laos and Thailand Films Miracles Family Suddhodāna (father) Māyā (mother) Mahapajapati Gotamī (aunt, adoptive mother) Yaśodharā (wife) Rāhula (son) Ānanda (cousin) Devadatta (cousin) Places where the Buddha stayed Buddha in world religions
Bodhisattvas	Avalokiteśvara Guanyin Mañjuśrī Mahāsthāmaprāpta Ākāśagarbha Kṣitigarbha Samantabhadra Vajrapāṇi Skanda Tārā Metteyya/Maitreya
Disciples	Kaundinya Assaji Sāriputta Mahamoggallāna Ānanda Mahākassapa Aṅgulimāla Anuruddha Mahākaccana Nanda Subhūti Puṇṇa Mantānīputta Upāli Mahapajapati Gotamī Khema Uppalavanna Asita Channa Yasa
Key concepts	Avidyā (Ignorance) Bardo Bodhicitta Buddha-nature Dhamma theory Dharma Enlightenment Five hindrances Indriya Karma Kleshas Mental factors Mindstream Parinirvana Pratītyasamutpāda Rebirth Saṃsāra Saṅkhāra Skandha Śūnyatā Taṇhā (Craving) Tathātā Ten Fetters Three marks of existence Anicca Dukkha Anattā Two truths doctrine
Cosmology	Ten spiritual realms Six Paths Deva realm Human realm Asura realm Hungry Ghost realm Animal realm Naraka Three planes of existence
Branches	Mahayana Zen Chinese Chan Japanese Zen Korean Seon Vietnamese Thiền Pure Land Tiantai Huayan Risshū Nichiren Madhyamaka Yogachara Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhism Chinese Esoteric Buddhism Shingon Dzogchen Theravada Navayana Early Buddhist schools Pre-sectarian Buddhism Basic points unifying Theravāda and Mahāyāna Southern, Eastern and Northern Buddhism
Practices	Bhavana Bodhipakkhiyādhammā Brahmavihara Mettā Karuṇā Mudita Upekkha Buddhābhiṣeka Dāna Devotion Deity yoga Dhyāna Faith Five Strengths Iddhipada Meditation Mantras Kammaṭṭhāna Recollection Smarana Anapanasati Samatha-vipassanā (Vipassana movement) Shikantaza Zazen Tukdam Koan Ganana Mandala Tonglen Tantra Tertön Terma Merit Mindfulness Mindful Yoga Satipatthana Nekkhamma Nianfo Pāramitā Paritta Puja Offerings Prostration Music Refuge Sādhu Satya Sacca Seven Factors of Enlightenment Sati Dhamma vicaya Pīti Passaddhi Śīla Five precepts Eight precepts Bodhisattva vow Pratimokṣa Threefold Training Śīla Samadhi Prajñā Vīrya Four Right Exertions Twenty-two vows of Ambedkar
Nirvana	Bodhi Bodhisattva Buddhahood Pratyekabuddhayāna Four stages of awakening Sotāpanna Sakadagami Anāgāmi Arhat
Monasticism	Bhikkhu Bhikkhunī Śrāmaṇera Śrāmaṇerī Anagārika Ajahn Sayadaw Zen master Rōshi Lama Rinpoche Geshe Tulku Western tulku Kappiya Donchee Householder Upāsaka and Upāsikā Achar Śrāvaka Ten principal disciples Shaolin Monastery
Major figures	The Buddha Nagasena Aśvaghoṣa Nagarjuna Asanga Vasubandhu Kumārajīva Buddhaghosa Buddhapālita Dignāga Bodhidharma Zhiyi Emperor Wen of Sui Songtsen Gampo Xuanzang Shandao Padmasambhava Saraha Atiśa Naropa Karmapa Hōnen Shinran Dōgen Nichiren Shamarpa Dalai Lama Panchen Lama Ajahn Mun B. R. Ambedkar Ajahn Chah Thích Nhất Hạnh
Texts	Early Buddhist texts Tripiṭaka Mahayana sutras Pali Canon Chinese Buddhist canon Tibetan Buddhist canon Dhammapada Sutra Vinaya Madhyamakālaṃkāra Abhidharmadīpa
Countries	Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Pakistan Philippines Russia Buryatia Kalmykia Tuva (ru) Singapore Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Tibet Vietnam Africa Senegal South Africa Central Asia Uzbekistan Middle East Iran Saudi Arabia Western countries Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Costa Rica Czech Republic France Germany Italy Mexico New Zealand Norway Poland Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom United States Venezuela
History	Timeline Ashoka Kanishka Buddhist councils History of Buddhism in India Decline of Buddhism in India Huichang persecution of Buddhism Greco-Buddhism Gandharan Buddhism Texts Menander I Buddhism and the Roman world Buddhism in the West Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Persecution of Buddhists In Afghanistan In Vietnam Rimé movement Banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal Dalit Buddhist movement Chinese invasion of Tibet 1959 Tibetan uprising Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism Buddhist modernism Vipassana movement 969 Movement Engaged Buddhism Women in Buddhism
Philosophy	Abhidharma Atomism Buddhology Creator Buddhism and democracy Economics Eight Consciousnesses Engaged Buddhism Eschatology Ethics Evolution Humanism Logic Reality Secular Buddhism Socialism The unanswerable questions
Culture	Architecture Temple Vihāra Kyaung Wat Ordination hall Stupa Pagoda Burmese pagoda Candi Dzong architecture List of Buddhist architecture in China Japanese Buddhist architecture Buddhist temples in Korea Thai temple art and architecture Tibetan Buddhist architecture Art Greco-Buddhist Bodhi Tree Budai Buddha in art Calendar Cuisine Funeral Holidays Vesak Uposatha Māgha Pūjā Asalha Puja Vassa Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Kasaya Mahabodhi Temple Mantra Om mani padme hum Mudra Music Pilgrimage Lumbini Maya Devi Temple Bodh Gaya Sarnath Kushinagar Poetry Prayer beads Hama yumi Prayer wheel Symbolism Dharmachakra Flag Bhavacakra Swastika Thangka Temple of the Tooth Vegetarianism
Miscellaneous	Abhijñā Amitābha Brahmā Dharma talk Hinayana Iddhi Kalpa Koliya Lineage Māra Siddhi Sacred languages Pāḷi Sanskrit
Comparison	Baháʼí Faith Christianity Influences Comparison East Asian religions Gnosticism Hinduism Jainism Judaism Psychology Science Theosophy Violence Western philosophy
Lists	Bodhisattvas Buddhas Buddhists Suttas Sutras Temples Festivals
Category Buddhism portal