Religion paper

-THE EVOLUTION OF BUDDHISM

Origins: under Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, in NE India/Nepal about 530 BCE

Spread: under King Ashoka, (ruled from 268-239 BCE)

To: Sri Lanka and SE Asia

Division: into Theravada and Mahayana Schools in First Cen. BCE

Further Expansion:

China (First Century CE)

In China, Buddhism encounters Confucianism (which stresses social harmony) and Taoism (which stresses harmony with nature) and adds a stress on inner harmony to the culture.

Japan (Sixth Century CE)

In Japan, Buddhism encounters Shinto (which stresses veneration of kami, divine forces in nature).

Key Budd. Schools: Pure Land (devotional), Zen (meditation or insight-centered)

Tibet (Seventh-Eighth Centuries CE)

Tibetan Buddhism is called Vajrayana (Thunderbolt/Diamond Vehicle) or tantric Buddhism.

Key Figure: the Dalai Lama, believed to be a (re)incarnation of past lamas (leaders) and of the Bodhisattva, Avalokitesvara.

U.S.A. and Canada (late 19th Century)

Buddhism comes to North America via Chinese and Japanese immigrants and, since the mid-70s, via immigrants from SE Asia, especially Vietnam. (About half of Orange County’s approx. 190,000 Vietnamese are Buddhist, most of the rest Christian.) There are an estimated 500,000 Buddhists in southern California. The largest Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere, Hsi Lai, is located in Hacienda Heights. In the 1990s the first comprehensive Buddhist university in the USA, U. of the West, was founded in Rosemead CA. Not long thereafter Soka Univ. opened in Laguna Hills.

Confederation: Formation of World Fellowship of Buddhists in 1952

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THE FIVE SKANDHAS: form (the physical body), feelings/emotions, will/volition, perceptions, and awareness/consciousness. These are what transmigrate/reincarnate from one life to the next (not the soul=anatman).

THE KEY BUDDHIST INSIGHT: Impermanence—nothing lasts forever. The unrestricted desire for impermanent things in life (health, wealth, prestige, etc.) is what causes suffering.