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Pre-sectarian Buddhism

Pre-sectarian Buddhism,[1] also called early Buddhism,[2][3] the earliest Buddhism,[4][5] original Buddhism,[6] and primitive Buddhism,[7] is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various Early Buddhist schools developed, around 250 BCE (followed by later subsects of Buddhism).[8][9]

The contents and teachings of this pre-sectarian Buddhism must be deduced or re-constructed from the earliest Buddhist texts, which by themselves are already sectarian.[quote 1][quote 2][note 1] The whole subject remains intensely debated by scholars, not all of whom believe a meaningful reconstruction is possible.

"Early Buddhism" may also be used for considerably later periods.

Name edit

Various terms are being used to refer to the earliest period of Buddhism:

Some Japanese scholars refer to the subsequent period of the early Buddhist schools as sectarian Buddhism.[2][3]

Timespan edit

 
The Mahajanapadas were sixteen most powerful and vast kingdoms and republics around the lifetime of Gautama Buddha, located mainly across the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains. There were also a number of smaller kingdoms stretching the length and breadth of Ancient India.

Pre-sectarian Buddhism may refer to the earliest Buddhism, the ideas and practices of Gautama Buddha himself. It may also refer to early Buddhism as existing until the first documented split in the sangha.[12] According to Lambert Schmithausen, it is "the canonical period prior to the development of different schools with their different positions."[13]

Contrary to the claim of doctrinal stability, early Buddhism was a dynamic movement.[14] Pre-sectarian Buddhism may have included or incorporated other Śramaṇic schools of thought,[15][note 3] as well as Vedic and Jain ideas and practices.[16][11][17][18]

The period of "Early Buddhism" in the sense of pre-sectarian Buddhism is considered by scholars such as Paul J. Griffiths and Steven Collins to be from the time of the historical Buddha to the reign of Ashoka (c. 268 to 232 BCE).[19][20] The first documented split occurred, according to most scholars, between the second Buddhist council and the third Buddhist council.[21] Lamotte and Hirakawa both maintain that the first schism in the Buddhist sangha occurred during the reign of Ashoka.[22][23] According to scholar Collett Cox "most scholars would agree that even though the roots of the earliest recognized groups predate Aśoka, their actual separation did not occur until after his death."[24]

The first post-schismatic groups are often stated to be the Sthavira nikāya and the Mahāsāṃghika.[note 4] Eventually, eighteen different schools came into existence.[25] The later Mahayana schools may have preserved ideas which were abandoned by the "orthodox" Theravada,[26] such as the Three Bodies doctrine, the idea of consciousness (vijñāna) as a continuum, and devotional elements such as the worship of saints.[11][17][note 5]

Earliest Buddhism and the Śramaṇa movement edit

 
Siddartha Gautama depicted in Greco-Buddhist style during his extreme fasting prior to being "Awakened", 2nd-3rd century, Gandhara (modern eastern Afghanistan), Lahore Museum, Pakistan

Pre-sectarian Buddhism was originally one of the śramaṇic movements.[27][28] The time of the Buddha was a time of urbanisation in India, and saw the growth of the śramaṇas, wandering philosophers that had rejected the authority of Vedas and Brahmanic priesthood,[29] intent on escaping saṃsāra[27][30] through various means, which involved the study of ascetic practices, and ethical behavior.[29]

The śramaṇas gave rise to different religious and philosophical schools, among which pre-sectarian Buddhism itself,[31][32] Yoga and similar schools of Hinduism,[33] Jainism, Ājīvika, Ajñana and Cārvāka were the most important, and also to popular concepts in all major Indian religions such as saṃsāra (endless cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle).[34][note 6] Nevertheless, despite the success that these wandering philosophers and ascetics had obtained by spreading ideas and concepts that would soon be accepted by all religions of India, the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy (āstika) opposed to śramaṇic schools of thought and refuted their doctrines as "heterodox" (nāstika), because they refused to accept the epistemic authority of Vedas.

The ideas of saṃsāra, karma and rebirth show a development of thought in Indian religions: from the idea of single existence, at the end of which one was judged and punished and rewarded for one's deeds, or karma; to multiple existences with reward or punishment in an endless series of existences; and then attempts to gain release from this endless series.[35] This release was the central aim of the Śramaṇa movement.[27] Vedic rituals, which aimed at entrance into heaven, may have played a role in this development: the realisation that those rituals did not lead to an everlasting liberation led to the search for other means.[27]

Scholarship and methodology edit

Earliest Buddhism can only be deduced from the various Buddhist canons now extant, which are all already sectarian collections.[1][quote 1][note 7][note 1] As such any reconstruction is tentative. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pāli Canon, the surviving portions of the scriptures of Sarvastivada, Mulasarvastivada, Mahīśāsaka, Dharmaguptaka and other schools,[36][6] and the Chinese āgamas and other surviving portions of other early canons (such as the Gandharan texts).[note 8][note 9] Early proto-Mahayana texts which contain nearly identical material to that of the Pali Canon such as the Salistamba Sutra are also further evidence.[37]

 
Gandhara birchbark scroll fragments (c. 1st century)

The beginning of this comparative study began in the 19th century, Samuel Beal published comparative translations of the Pali patimokkha and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka pratimoksa (1859), showing they were virtually identical.[38] He followed this up with comparisons between the Chinese sutras and the Pali suttas in 1882, accurately predicting that "when the Vinaya and Āgama collections are thoroughly examined, I can have little doubt we shall find most if not all the Pali Suttas in Chinese form."[39] In the following decades various scholars continued to produce a series of comparative studies, such as Anesaki, Akanuma (who composed a complete catalogue of parallels), Yin Shun and Thich Minh Chau.[40][41][42][43] These studies, as well as recent work by Analayo, Marcus Bingenheimer and Mun-keat Choong, have shown that the essential doctrinal content of the Pali Majjhima and Samyutta Nikayas and the Chinese Madhyama and Samyukta Agamas is mostly the same, (with, as Analayo notes, "occasional divergence in details").[44][45][46]

According to scholars such as Rupert Gethin and Peter Harvey, the oldest recorded teachings are contained in the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka and their various parallels in other languages,[note 10] together with the main body of monastic rules, which survive in the various versions of the patimokkha.[47][48][49][50] Scholars have also claimed that there is a core within this core, referring to some poems and phrases which seem to be the oldest parts of the Sutta Pitaka.[51][note 11]

The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute.[16][52][53][54] According to Tillman Vetter, the comparison of the oldest extant texts "does not just simply lead to the oldest nucleus of the doctrine."[36] At best, it leads to

... a Sthavira canon dating from c. 270 B.C. when the missionary activities during Asoka's reign as well as dogmatic disputes had not yet created divisions within the Sthavira tradition.[36]

According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.[36] Because of this, scholars such as Edward Conze and A.K. Warder have argued that only the material which is common to both the Sthavira and the Mahasamghika canons can be seen as the most authentic, since they were the first communities after the first schism.[55] The problem is that there is little material surviving from the Mahasamghika school. However, what we do have, such as the Mahasamghika pratimoksha and vinaya, is mostly consistent in doctrine with the Sthavira texts.[56][57] Other Mahasamghika sources are the Mahavastu and (possibly) the Śālistamba Sūtra, both of which also contains phrases and doctrines that are found in the Sthavira canons.[58][59]

Further exemplary studies are the study on descriptions of "liberating insight" by Lambert Schmithausen,[60] the overview of early Buddhism by Tilmann Vetter,[52] the philological work on the four truths by K.R. Norman,[61] the textual studies by Richard Gombrich,[54] and the research on early meditation methods by Johannes Bronkhorst.[16]

Scholarly positions edit

According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished regarding the possibility to extract the earliest Buddhism from the Early Buddhist Texts:[62]

  1. "Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"[note 12]
  2. "Skepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"[note 13]
  3. "Cautious optimism in this respect."[note 14]

Optimism regarding the early Buddhist texts edit

In his history of Indian Buddhism (1988), Etienne Lamotte argues that while it "is impossible to say with certainty" what the doctrine of the historical Buddha was, "it is nonetheless a fact that, in order to appreciate early Buddhism, the only valid evidence - or indication - which we possess is the basic agreement between the Nikayas on the one hand and the Agamas on the other".[68]

Likewise, Hajime Nakamura writes in his Indian Buddhism, that "there is no word that can be traced with unquestionable authority to Gotama Sakyamuni as a historical personage, although there must be some sayings or phrases derived from him".[69] Nakamura adds that scholars must critically search the early scriptures for the oldest layer of material to find the "original Buddhism". Nakamura held that some of the earliest material were the gathas (verses) found in the Suttanipata, as well as the Sagatha-vagga of the Samyutta-Nikaya, the Itivuttakas and the Udanas.[69] These texts use less of the doctrinal material that is developed in other texts, are more likely to promote wilderness solitude over communal living and use terminology which is similar to Jain ideas.[70]

British indologist Rupert Gethin writes that "it is extremely likely" that at least some of the suttas in the four main Nikāyas "are among the oldest surviving Buddhist texts and contain material that goes back directly to the Buddha."[49] Gethin agrees with Lamotte that the doctrinal basis of the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas is "remarkably uniform" and "constitute the common ancient heritage of Buddhism."[71]

Richard Gombrich agrees that the four Nikāyas and the main body of monastic rules present "such originality, intelligence, grandeur and—most relevantly—coherence, that it is hard to see it as a composite work" and thus concludes that it is the work of one genius, even if he agrees that when it comes to the Buddha's biography "we know next to nothing".[72]

Peter Harvey affirms that the four older Nikāyas preserve an "early common stock" which "must derive from his [the Buddha’s] teachings" because the overall harmony of the texts suggest a single authorship, even while other parts of the Pali canon clearly originated later.[50]

The British indologist A. K. Warder writes that "we are on safe ground only with those texts the authenticity of which is admitted by all schools of buddhism (including the Mahayana, who admit the authenticity of the early canons as well as their own texts) not with texts only accepted by certain schools."[73] Warder adds that when the extant material of the Tipitakas of the early Buddhist schools is examined "we find an agreement which is substantial, though not complete" and that there is a central body of sutras "which is so similar in all known versions that we must accept these as so many recensions of the same original texts."[74]

Alexander Wynne has also argued for the historical authenticity of the early buddhist texts (contra skeptics like Gregory Schopen) based on the internal textual evidence found inside them as well as archaeological and inscriptional evidence.[75] As noted by T.W. Rhys Davids, Wynne points out the pali texts depict a pre-Asokan north India and he also cites KR Norman who argues that they show no Sinhalese prakrit additions.[75] Reviewing the literature by figures such as Frauwallner, Wynne argues that the pali suttas reached Sri Lanka by 250 BCE and that they preserved certain details about fifth century north India (such as that Uddaka Rāmaputta lived near Rajagrha).[75] Wynne concludes:

The corresponding pieces of textual material found in the canons of the different sects – especially the literature of the Pāli school, which was more isolated than the others – probably go back to pre-sectarian times. It is unlikely that these correspondences could have been produced by the joint endeavour of different Buddhist sects, for such an undertaking would have required organisation on a scale which was simply inconceivable in the ancient world. We must conclude that a careful examination of early Buddhist literature can reveal aspects of the pre-Aśokan history of Indian Buddhism.[75]

Pessimism edit

One of the early Western skeptics was French indologist Émile Senart, who argued in his Essai sur la legende du Buddha (1875) that the legends of Buddha's life were derived from pre-Buddhist myths of solar deities.

The late Edward Conze held that there was an "absence of hard facts" regarding the first period of Buddhism and regarding the teachings of the Buddha, "none of His sayings is preserved in its original form."[76] Since we only possess a small fraction of the Buddhist literature that must have circulated during the early period, Conze held that all the scholarly attempts to reconstruct the 'original' teachings were "all mere guesswork" because "that which we have may have been composed at any time during the first 500 years" and "there is no objective criterion which would allow us to single out those elements in the record which go back to the Buddha Himself."[77] Conze argues that comparative study using the sources of different schools could give us some knowledge of the pre-sectarian period doctrine, but he adds that such knowledge might not take us to the earliest period after the Buddha's nirvana, which is a period that is "shrouded in mystery and to which we cannot penetrate."[78]

Japanese Buddhologist Kogen Mizuno argues in his "Buddhist Sutras" (1982) that the material we possess may not contain the actual words of the Buddha because "they were not recorded as he spoke", but compiled after his death and also because they do not survive in the original language (some form of Magadhi Prakrit) but "transmitted in other Indic languages of later periods, and without doubt conscious and unconscious changes in the Buddha's words were made during several centuries of oral transmission."[79] Mizuno does note that Pali is the oldest of these, but it is still different from old Magadhi and it is from a different region (Western India).[80]

Ronald M. Davidson, a scholar of tantric Buddhism, while acknowledging that most scholars agree that the early community maintained and transmitted a rough body of sacred literature, writes that "we have little confidence that much, if any, of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of the historical Buddha." His view is that:

More persuasively, the Buddhist order in India might be considered the greatest scriptural composition community in human history. Given the extraordinary extent of the material passing at any one time under rubric of the “word of the Buddha,” we might simply pause and acknowledge that Indian Buddhists were extraordinarily facile litterateurs.[81]

The American scholar Gregory Schopen holds that "we cannot know anything definite about the actual doctrinal content of the nikäya/ägama literature much before the fourth century C.E."[82] Schopen is very critical of modern Buddhist studies because of its preference for literary evidence that "in most cases cannot actually be dated and that survives only in very recent manuscript traditions" that have been "heavily edited" and were intended as normative not historical accounts.[83] Schopen believes that the preference for texts over archeology and epigraphy is a mistake and that it is Buddhist epigraphy which are the earliest written sources. Regarding the textual sources, Schopen holds that even the oldest sources such as the Pali canon, "cannot be taken back further than the last quarter of the first century B.C.E, the date of the Alu-vihāra redaction," but that actually it is not until the 5th or 6th centuries CE "that we can know anything definite about the actual contents of this canon."[84] He notes that references to Tipitaka and Nikaya date from much later periods than the Asokan era (such as Kaniska's reign).[85] Only a few texts have been identified in Asoka's edicts (such as his Bhabra Edict), but these are all short verse texts and are nothing like the suttas of the first and second Nikayas.[86] Schopen concludes that it is only "from the end of the fourth century, that some of the doctrinal content of Hinayana canonical literature can finally be definitely dated and actually verified."[86]

Regarding the view of comparative critical scholars that agreement between the different sectarian texts points to a common early source, Schopen counters that since this kind of higher criticism is already being done on texts which belong to "uniformly late stages of the literary tradition." Schopen believes instead that the agreement was produced by the sharing of literature and ideas between the different sects at a later date. Schopen defines this position as:

If all known versions of a text or passage agree, that text or passage is probably late; that is, it probably represents the results of the conflation and gradual leveling and harmonization of earlier existing traditions.[87]

Citing Bareau and Wassilieff, he holds that it is just as likely that textual agreement among the different canons was produced by parallel development and contact between the different Indian traditions.

Moderate skepticism and reconstructionism edit

According to Constantin Regamey, the view followed by the "Franco-Belgian" school of buddhology (which applies to figures like Jean Przyluski, Louis de la Vallee Poussin, A. Weller, and A.B. Keith) did not consider the Pali Canon a straightforward "faithful reflection of the teachings of the Buddha".[88] This group of scholars sought to use all available sources to reconstruct the original teachings of the Buddha in a way which diverged from the Pali focused perspective of Anglo-German indologists such as Oldenberg and Frauwallner.[88]

A common position of the Franco-Belgian school was that primitive Buddhism did not have such negative view of nirvana, but that it was a positive reality, a kind of immortal state (amrta) similar to the godly abode of svarga found in the Edicts of Ashoka.[88]

These mainly continental European scholars attempted to reconstruct early Buddhism drawing on many sources, including Mahayana sources, instead of only relying on the Pali Canon. However, in the post-war years, Franco-Belgian scholars like Jean Filliozat mostly stuck to a moderate skepticism which did not hypothesize about what the original Buddhism may have been and merely focused on looking at the sectarian sources which currently exist (and which do not go back to the earliest period). Filliozat argues that any reconstruction "would remain purely ideal" and might be lacking in key doctrines that might have been lost over time. Since all the canons were edited at different times throughout history, any reconstruction would never arrive at original Buddhism.[88]

Polish scholar Stanislaw Schayer (1899 - 1941) was one figure who followed this reconstructionist method to put forth a hypothesis of an alternative early Buddhist worldview. Schayer argued that the Nikayas preserve elements of an archaic form of Buddhism which is close to Brahmanical beliefs,[11][17][89][90] and survived in the Mahayana tradition.[91][92] As noted by Alexander Wynne, Schayer drew on passages "in which "consciousness" (viññana) seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum (e.g. A I.10), as well as the Saddhatu Sutra, which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts."[93] According to Schayer, contrary to popular opinion, the Theravada and Mahayana traditions may be "divergent, but equally reliable records of a pre-canonical Buddhism which is now lost forever."[91] The Mahayana tradition may have preserved a very old, "pre-Canonical" tradition, which was largely, but not completely, left out of the Theravada-canon.[92]

Schayer searched through various early sources for ideas that contradict the dominant doctrinal positions of the early canon. According to Schayer, these ideas have were "transmitted by a tradition old enough and considered to be authoritative by the compilers of the Canon." He thus considers these ideas which were "doctrines contradictory to the generally admitted canonical viewpoint" as "survivals of older, precanonical Buddhism."[94][note 15]

Constantin Regamey has identified four points which are central to Schayer's reconstruction of precanonical Buddhism:[95][88]

  1. The Buddha was considered as an extraordinary supernatural being, in whom ultimate reality was embodied, and who was an incarnation of the mythical figure of the tathagata;
  2. The Buddha's disciples were attracted to his spiritual charisma and supernatural authority;
  3. Nirvana was conceived as the attainment of a "persisting immortality", and the gaining of a deathless sphere from which there would be no falling back (acyuta pada), which is the pinnacle of reality, the supreme point of the dharmadhatu. This nirvana, as a transmundane reality or state, an "eternal vijñana" and is incarnated in the person of the Buddha. The more radical anatman doctrine does not apply to this.
  4. Nirvana can be reached because it already dwells as the inmost "consciousness" of the human being. It is a consciousness which is not subject to birth and death.

According to Ray, Schayer has shown a second doctrinal position alongside that of the more dominant tradition, one likely to be of at least equivalent, if not of greater, antiquity.[96] However, according to Edward Conze, Schayer's views are "merely a tentative hypothesis" and that it is also possible that these ideas later entered Buddhism, as a concession to "popular demand, just as the lower goal of birth in heaven (svarga) was admitted side by side with Nirvana." Conze thought that both were equally possible.[97]

The French scholar Constantin Regamey argues that Schayer's general position is cogent. Regamey argues that the various Buddhist canons, like the Pali canon, have many chronological layers and include "many divergences and contradictions."[88] As such, one cannot rely on any single one of them to construct the original view of the Buddha, especially since the teachings found in them are mostly composed of "terms, formulas, or bare patterns" that can and have been interpreted in many different ways.[88] Regamey argues that a broader historicist method is needed, which draws on numerous sources, historical evidence and the very internal contradictions found in the canon. He argues that a broader historical method can show that early Buddhism might have supported ideas that are similar to Brahamanical theories of consciousness or some Mahayana views on consciousness and Buddhahood.[88]

A similar view is defended by Christian Lindtner. Lindtner argues that some early Buddhist sources point to stainless formless consciousness which is similar to Brahmanical ideas and later Mahayana views. He also argues that ancient Buddhist view of nirvana was likely cosmological (and had similarities with ancient Vedic cosmology) and that it was an eternal realm at the peak of existence (bhutakoti) one could reach by wisdom.[98]

Teachings of earliest Buddhism edit

The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta[note 16] is regarded by the Buddhist tradition as the first discourse of the Buddha.[99] Scholars have noted some persistent problems with this view.[100] Originally the text may only have pointed at "the middle way" as being the core of the Buddha's teaching,[99] which pointed to the practice of dhyana.[52] This basic term may have been extended with descriptions of the eightfold path,[52] itself a condensation of a longer sequence.[101] Some scholars believe that under pressure from developments in Indian religiosity, which began to see "liberating insight" as the essence of moksha,[102] the four noble truths were then added as a description of the Buddha's "liberating insight".[99]

Death, rebirth and karma edit

According to Tilmann Vetter, the Buddha at first sought "the deathless" (amata/amrta), which is concerned with the here and now.[103] According to Edward Conze, Death was an error which could be overcome by those who entered the "doors to the Deathless", "the gates of the Undying."[104] According to Conze, the Buddha saw death as a sign that "something has gone wrong with us."[105] The Buddha saw death as brought on by an evil force, Mára, "the Killer,"[note 17] "who tempts us away from our true immortal selves and diverts us from the path which could lead us back to freedom."[105] Our cravings keep us tied to Mára’s realm. By releasing our attachments we move beyond his realm, and gain freedom from saṃsāra, the beginningless movement of death and rebirth.[105]

Karma is the intentional (cetanā) actions which keep us tied to saṃsāra.[106] Two views on the liberation from saṃsāra can be discerned in the śramaṇic movements. Originally karma meant "physical and mental activity". One solution was to refrain from any physical or mental activity. The other solution was to see the real self as not participating in these actions, and to disidentify with those actions.[107] According to Bronkhorst, the Buddha rejected both approaches.[108] Nevertheless, these approaches can also be found in the Buddhist tradition, such as the four formless jhanas,[109] and disidentification from the constituents of the self.[110][note 18]

Bruce Matthews notes that there is no cohesive presentation of karma in the Sutta Pitaka,[112] which may mean that the doctrine was incidental to the main perspective of early Buddhist soteriology.[112] Schmithausen is a notable scholar who has questioned whether karma already played a role in the theory of rebirth of earliest Buddhism.[113][114] According to Schmithausen, "the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology."[115] According to Vetter, "the deathless" (amata/amrta) is concerned with the here and now. Only after this realization did he become acquainted with the doctrine of rebirth.[103] Bronkhorst disagrees, and concludes that the Buddha "introduced a concept of karma that differed considerably from the commonly held views of his time."[111] According to Bronkhorst, not physical and mental activities as such were seen as responsible for rebirth, but intentions and desire.[108]

Soul edit

According to Bronkhorst, referring to Frauwallner, Schmithausen and Bhattacharya,

It is possible that original Buddhism did not deny the existence of the soul.[116][note 19]

The Four Noble Truths edit

According to Eviatar Shulman, the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths is rooted in "a meditative perception regarding the arising and passing away of mental events" which also includes a "detached attitude" to phenomena.[117] Out of this practice of "meditative observation" developed a theoretical or discursive philosophical understanding.[118]

K.R. Norman concluded that the earliest version of the Dhamma-cakka-ppavattana sutta did not contain the word "noble", but was added later.[61][note 20] Lambert Schmithausen concluded that the four truths were a later development in early Buddhism.[16]

Carol Anderson, following Lambert Schmithausen and K.R. Norman, notes that the four truths are missing in critical passages in the canon,[121] and states:

... the four noble truths were probably not part of the earliest strata of what came to be recognized as Buddhism, but that they emerged as a central teaching in a slightly later period that still preceded the final redactions of the various Buddhist canons.[122]

The four truths probably entered the Sutta Pitaka from the Vinaya, the rules for monastic order. They were first added to enlightenment-stories which contain the Four Jhanas, replacing terms for "liberating insight". From there they were added to the biographical stories of the Buddha:[100]

[I]t is more likely that the four truths are an addition to the biographies of the Buddha and to the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta.[123]

According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas[124][100] in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas.[125] According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight".[126] Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."[125]

This replacement was probably caused by the influence and pressures of the wider Indian religious landscape, "which claimed that one can be released only by some truth or higher knowledge."[102]

The Noble Eightfold Path edit

According to Tilmann Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way".[52] In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.[52] Vetter and Bucknell both note that longer descriptions of "the path" can be found, which can be condensed into the Noble Eightfold Path.[52][101] One of those longer sequences, from the CulaHatthipadopama-sutta, the "Lesser Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant's Footprints", is as follows:[127]

  1. Dhammalsaddhalpabbajja: A layman hears a Buddha teach the Dhamma, comes to have faith in him, and decides to take ordination as a monk;
  2. sila: He adopts the moral precepts;
  3. indriyasamvara: He practises "guarding the six sense-doors";
  4. sati-sampajanna: He practises mindfulness and self-possession (actually described as mindfulness of the body, kāyānupassanā, that is, reflection on the impurities of the body);
  5. jhana 1: He finds an isolated spot, sits down cross-legged, purifies his mind of the hindrances (nivarana), and attains the first rupa-jhana;
  6. jhana 2: He attains the second jhana';
  7. jhana 3: He attains the third jhana;
  8. jhana 4: He attains the fourth jhana;
  9. pubbenivasanussati-nana: he recollects his many former existences in samsara;
  10. sattanam cutupapata-nana: he observes the death and rebirth of beings according to their karmas;
  11. asavakkhaya-nana: He brings about the destruction of the asavas (inflow, mental bias),[128] and attains a profound realization of (as opposed to mere knowledge about) the four noble truths;
  12. vimutti: He perceives that he is now liberated, that he has done what was to be done.

Satipatthana edit

According to Grzegorz Polak, the four upassanā have been misunderstood by the developing Buddhist tradition, including Theravada, to refer to four different foundations. According to Polak, the four upassanā do not refer to four different foundations, but to the awareness of four different aspects of raising mindfulness:[129]

  • the six sense-bases which one needs to be aware of (kāyānupassanā);
  • contemplation on vedanās, which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects (vedanānupassanā);
  • the altered states of mind to which this practice leads (cittānupassanā);
  • the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment (dhammānupassanā).

Dhyāna edit

According to Bronkhorst, dhyana was a Buddhist invention,[16] whereas Alexander Wynne argues that dhyana was incorporated from Brahmanical practices, in the Nikayas ascribed to Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta. These practices were paired to mindfulness and insight, and given a new interpretation.[18] Kalupahana argues that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta.[130] Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices."[131] Gombrich also notes that a development took place in early Buddhism resulting in a change in doctrine, which considered prajna to be an alternative means to "enlightenment".[132]

Dhyāna and insight edit

A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight.[52][16][54] The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of dhyana (jhana).[16] There is a tradition that stresses attaining insight (bodhi, prajñā, kensho) as the means to awakening and liberation. But it has also incorporated the yogic tradition, as reflected in the use of jhana, which is rejected in other sutras as not achieving the final result of liberation.[16][52][54] The problem was famously voiced in 1936 by Louis de La Vallee Poussin, in his text Musila et Narada: Le Chemin de Nirvana.[133][note 21]

Schmithausen[note 22] notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting the core of "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36.[60][16][52] Schmithausen discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in the suttas,[60] to which Vetter adds the sole practice of dhyana itself, which he sees as the original "liberating practice":[134]

  1. The four Rupa Jhanas themselves constituted the core liberating practice of early buddhism, c.q. the Buddha;[135]
  2. Mastering the four Rupa Jhanas, whereafter "liberating insight" is attained;
  3. Mastering the four Rupa Jhanas and the four Arupa Jhanas, where-after "liberating insight" is attained;
  4. Liberating insight itself suffices.

This problem has been elaborated by several well-known scholars, including Tilman Vetter,[52] Johannes Bronkhorst,[16] and Richard Gombrich.[54]

The meaning of samadhi edit

Traditionally, meditation is often described as samadhi, one-pointed concentration, and dhyana and samadhi are often referred to interchangeably. Yet, Schmithausen, Vetter and Bronkhorst note that the attainment of insight and mindfulness, which is a cognitive activity, cannot be possible in a state wherein all cognitive activity has ceased.[16][136] Vetter notes that "penetrating abstract truths and penetrating them successively does not seem possible in a state of mind which is without contemplation and reflection."[136]

According to Richard Gombrich, the sequence of the four rupa-jhanas describes two different cognitive states, namely concentration followed by a sharpened attention.[137][quote 8][138] Alexander Wynne further explains that the dhyana-scheme is poorly understood.[139] According to Wynne, words expressing the inculcation of awareness, such as sati, sampajāno, and upekkhā, are mistranslated or understood as particular factors of meditative states,[139] whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving the sense objects.[139][note 23] According to Gombrich, "the later tradition has falsified the jhana by classifying them as the quintessence of the concentrated, calming kind of meditation, ignoring the other - and indeed higher - element.[137]

According to Vetter and Bronkhorst, dhyāna itself constituted the original "liberating practice".[134][16][141] Vetter further argues that the eightfold path constitutes a body of practices which prepare one, and lead up to, the practice of dhyana.[142]

Liberating insight edit

Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.[143][132] According to Johannes Bronkhorst,[16] Tillman Vetter,[52] and K.R. Norman,[131] bodhi was at first not specified. K. R. Norman:

It is not at all clear what gaining bodhi means. We are accustomed to the translation "enlightenment" for bodhi, but this is misleading [...] It is not clear what the buddha was awakened to, or at what particular point the awakening came.[131]

According to Norman, bodhi may basically have meant the knowledge that nibbana was attained,[144][145] due to the practice of dhyana.[131][52]

Bronkhorst notes that the conception of what exactly this "liberating insight" was developed throughout time. Whereas originally it may not have been specified, later on the four truths served as such, to be superseded by pratityasamutpada, and still later, in the Hinayana schools, by the doctrine of the non-existence of a substantial self or person.[146] And Schmithausen notices that still other descriptions of this "liberating insight" exist in the Buddhist canon:

"that the five Skandhas are impermanent, disagreeable, and neither the Self nor belonging to oneself";[note 24] "the contemplation of the arising and disappearance (udayabbaya) of the five Skandhas";[note 25] "the realisation of the Skandhas as empty (rittaka), vain (tucchaka) and without any pith or substance (asaraka).[note 26][147]

The developing importance of liberating insight may have been due to an over-literal interpretation by later scholastics of the terminology used by the Buddha,[148] or to the problems involved with the practice of dhyana, and the need to develop an easier method.[149] According to Vetter it may not have been as effective as dhyana, and methods were developed to deepen the effects of discriminating insight.[149] Insight was also paired to dhyana, resulting in the well-known sila-samadhi-prajna scheme.[149] According to Vetter this kind of preparatory "dhyana" must have been different from the practice introduced by the Buddha, using kasina-exercises to produce a "more artificially produced dhyana", resulting in the cessation of apperceptions and feelings.[150] It also led to a different understanding of the eightfold path, since this path does not end with insight, but rather starts with insight. The path was no longer seen as a sequential development resulting in dhyana, but as a set of practices which had to be developed simultaneously to gain insight.[151]

According to Alexander Wynne, the ultimate aim of dhyana was the attainment of insight,[152] and the application of the meditative state to the practice of mindfulness.[152] According to Frauwallner, mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving, which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects. According to Frauwallner this may have been the Buddha’s original idea.[153] According to Wynne, this stress on mindfulness may have led to the intellectualism which favoured insight over the practice of dhyana.[139]

Insight and dhyana as complementary edit

Rupert Gethin rejects the notion of two opposing paths, arguing that a close study of the bodhipakkhiyādhammās, particularly the bojjhangas, shows how there is no conflict between samadhi and insight practices in early Buddhism, but that "in fact it turns out that the characteristically early Buddhist conception of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is that it consists precisely in the combining of calm and insight."[154]

Bhikkhu Analayo, scholar of the early texts, has also critiqued the view that there are two contrasting views of liberation in the early sources (i.e. dhyana vs insight). According to Analayo, samadhi and insight are actually two complementary aspects of the path to liberation.[155] Analayo refers to Damien Keown[156] who writes that, for the Buddha, "there exist two techniques of meditation precisely because the obstacles to enlightenment are themselves twofold, both moral and intellectual."[157] Analayo also refers to Collett Cox, who noted that it is possible that the Buddhist goal of the elimination of the asravas “subsumes knowledge and concentration as equally cooperative means rather than mutually exclusive ends,” and that this view is also reflected in Abhidharma.[158]

Keren Arbel describes the fourth jhana as "non-reactive and lucid awareness," not as a state of deep concentration.[159] She sees samadhi and insight as closely connected, and argues that in the Pali suttas, "the entrance into the first jhāna is the actualization and embodiment of insight practice."[160]

Dependent origination edit

While Pratītyasamutpāda, "dependent origination," and the twelve nidānas, the links of dependent origination, are traditionally interpreted as describing the conditional arising of rebirth in saṃsāra, and the resultant duḥkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness),[161] an alternate Theravada questions the authenticity of this interpretation, and regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine," which are the source of suffering.[162][163][164]

Scholars have noted inconsistencies in the list, and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists.[165][166][167][168][169][164] The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic-Brahmanic cosmogeny, as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X, 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.[170][168][164][171][172][173] These were integrated with a branched list which describe the conditioning of mental processes,[167][169][164] akin to the five skandhas.[174] Eventually, this branched list developed into the standard twelvefold chain as a linear list.[167][175] While this list may be interpreted as describing the processes which give rise to rebirth, in essence it describes the arising of dukkha as a psychological process, without the involvement of an atman.[169][170]

37 factors of enlightenment edit

According to A.K. Warder the Bodhipakkhiyādhammā, the 37 factors of enlightenment, are a summary of the core Buddhist teachings which are common to all schools.[176][note 27] These factors are summarized in the Maha-parinibbana Sutta,[note 28] which recounts the Buddha's last days, in the Buddha's last address to his bikkhus:

Now, O bhikkhus, I say to you that these teachings of which I have direct knowledge and which I have made known to you — these you should thoroughly learn, cultivate, develop, and frequently practice, that the life of purity may be established and may long endure, for the welfare and happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, well being, and happiness of gods and men.
And what, bhikkhus, are these teachings? They are the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four constituents of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the Noble Eightfold Path. These, bhikkhus, are the teachings of which I have direct knowledge, which I have made known to you, and which you should thoroughly learn, cultivate, develop, and frequently practice.[177]

Alex Wayman has criticized A.K. Warder, for failing to present an integrated picture of early Buddhism.[178] But according to Gethin, the bodhipakkhiyādhammā provide a key to understanding the relationship between calm and insight in early Buddhist meditation theory, bringing together the practice of jhana with the development of wisdom.[179]

Nirvana edit

As cessation and ending of rebirth edit

Most modern scholars such as Rupert Gethin, Richard Gombrich and Paul Williams hold that the goal of early Buddhism, nirvāṇa (nibbana in Pali, also called nibbanadhatu, the property of nibbana), means the 'blowing out' or 'extinguishing' of greed, aversion, and delusion (the simile used in texts is that of a flame going out), and that this signifies the permanent cessation of samsara and rebirth.[180][181][182][183][note 29] As Gethin notes, "this is not a 'thing' but an event or experience" that frees one from rebirth in samsara.[180] Gombrich argues that the metaphor of blowing out refers to fires which were kept by priests of Brahmanism, and symbolize life in the world.[184]

According to Donald Swearer, the journey to nirvana is not a journey to a "separate reality", but a move towards calm, equanimity, nonattachment and nonself.[185] Thomas Kasulis notes that in the early texts, nirvana is often described in negative terms, including “cessation” (nirodha), “the absence of craving” (trsnaksaya), “detachment,” “the absence of delusion,” and “the unconditioned” (asamskrta).[186] He also notes that there is little discussion in the early buddhist texts about the metaphysical nature of nirvana, since they seem to hold that metaphysical speculation is an obstacle to the goal. Kasulis mentions the Malunkyaputta sutta which denies any view about the existence of the Buddha after his final bodily death, all positions (the Buddha exists after death, does not exist, both or neither) are rejected.[186] Likewise, another sutta (AN II 161) has Sāriputta saying that asking the question "is there anything else?" after the physical death of someone who has attained nibbana is conceptualizing or proliferating (papañca) about that which is without proliferation (appapañcaṃ) and thus a kind of distorted thinking bound up with the self.[187]

As a kind of consciousness or a place edit

Edward Conze argued that nirvana was a kind of Absolute. He mentions ideas like the "person" (pudgala), the assumption of an eternal "consciousness" in the Saddhatu sutra, the identification of the Absolute, of Nirvana, with an "invisible infinite consciousness, which shines everywhere" in Digha Nikaya XI 85, and "traces of a belief in consciousness as the nonimpermanent centre of the personality which constitutes an absolute element in this contingent world" as pointing to this.[92]

Influenced by Schayer, M. Falk argues that the early Buddhist view of nirvana is that it is an "abode" or "place" of prajña, which is gained by the enlightened.[note 30][96][note 31] This nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, is immanent within samsara. The three bodies are concentric realities, which are stripped away or abandoned, leaving only the nirodhakaya of the liberated person.[96][note 32] A similar view is also defended by C. Lindtner, who argues that in precanonical Buddhism Nirvana is:

... a place one can actually go to. It is called nirvanadhatu, has no border-signs (animitta), is localized somewhere beyond the other six dhatus (beginning with earth and ending with vijñana) but is closest to akasa and vijñana. One cannot visualize it, it is anidarsana, but it provides one with firm ground under one’s feet, it is dhruva; once there one will not slip back, it is acyutapada. As opposed to this world, it is a pleasant place to be in, it is sukha, things work well.[note 33]

According to Lindtner, Canonical Buddhism was a reaction to this view, but also against the absolutist tendencies in Jainism and the Upanisads. Nirvana came to be seen as a state of mind, instead of a concrete place.[11] Elements of this precanonical Buddhism may have survived the canonisation, and its subsequent filtering out of ideas, and re-appeared in Mahayana Buddhism.[11][89] According to Lindtner, the existence of multiple, and contradicting ideas, is also reflected in the works of Nagarjuna, who tried to harmonize these different ideas. According to Lindtner, this lead him to taking a "paradoxical" stance, for instance regarding nirvana, rejecting any positive description.[11]

Referring to this view, Alexander Wynne holds that there is no evidence in the Sutta Pitaka that the Buddha held this view, at best it only shows that "some of the early Buddhists were influenced by their Brahminic peers".[189] Wynne concludes that the Buddha rejected the views of the vedas and that his teachings present a radical departure from these brahminical beliefs.[189]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c A.K Warder: "...a reconstruction of the original Buddhism presupposed by the traditions of the different schools known to us."[6]
  2. ^ This kernel of doctrine is presumably common Buddhism of the period "before the schisms of the fourth and third centuries BC. It may be substantially the Buddhism of the Buddha himself."[6]
  3. ^ See also Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga#Interpretation as heterodox
  4. ^ Collin Cox: "Virtually all later sources agree that the first schism within the early Buddhist community occurred with the separation of the Mahasamghika school, or "those of the great community," from the remaining monks referred to as Sthaviras, or the "elders."".[21]
  5. ^ See also Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga
  6. ^ Flood & Olivelle: "The second half of the first millennium BCE was the period that created many of the ideological and institutional elements that characterize later Indian religions. The renouncer tradition played a central role during this formative period of Indian religious history [...] Some of the fundamental values and beliefs that we generally associate with Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular were in part the creation of the renouncer tradition. These include the two pillars of Indian theologies: samsara - the belief that life in this world is one of suffering and subject to repeated deaths and births (rebirth); moksa/nirvana - the goal of human existence."[34]
  7. ^ J.W. De Jong: "It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of earliest Buddhism [...] the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him [the Buddha], transmitted and developed by his disciples and, finally, codified in fixed formulas."[5]
  8. ^ Warder: "When we examine the Tripitakas of the eighteen schools, so far as they are extant, we find an agreement which is substantial, though not complete. Even the most conservative of the early schools seem to have added new texts to their collections. However, there is a central body of sutras (dialogues), in four groups, which is so similar in all known versions that we must accept these as so many recensions of the same original texts. These make up the greater part of the Sutra Pitaka."[25]
  9. ^ Most of these non-Indian texts are only available in a Chinese translation, with the exception of some individual scriptures found in Nepal, which are composed in Sanskrit.[6] The Gandhāran Buddhist texts were recovered from Afghanistan. The central body of sutras in these texts is so similar that they are considered to be different recensions of the same text.[6]
  10. ^ The Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya
  11. ^ Nakamura: "It has been made clear that some poem (Gāthā) portions and some phrases represent earlier layers [...] Based upon these portions of the scriptures we can construe aspects of original Buddhism [...] Buddhism as appears in earlier portions of the scriptures is fairly different from what is explained by many scholars as earlier Buddhism or primitive Buddhism.[51]
  12. ^ Well-known proponents of the first position are A.K. Warder[quote 3] and Richard Gombrich.[65][quote 4]
  13. ^ A proponent of the second position is Ronald Davidson.[quote 5]
  14. ^ Well-known proponent of the third position are J.W. de Jong,[5][quote 2] Johannes Bronkhorst[quote 6] and Donald Lopez.[quote 7]
  15. ^ quote from Schayer 1935, p. 124
  16. ^ Sammyuta Nikaya 56:11
  17. ^ "Mara" is deeply rooted in Indo-European mythology. See also Mare (folklore)
  18. ^ According to Bronkhorst, the Buddha's approach was a psychological one. He explains the incorporation of "inactivity asceticism" as effected by followers of the Buddha who misunderstood the Buddha's understanding of karma. Bronkhorst himself asks the question where this different view of karma came from, and speculates that the Buddha may have inherited it from his parents, or "modified his views in this respect in the light of the experiences that led to, or constituted, his liberation."[111]
  19. ^ Bronkhorst: "(Frauwallner 1953: 217-253; Schmithausen 1969: 160-161; Bhattacharya, 1973)."[116] See also Bronkhorst (2009), Buddhist Teaching in India, p.22 ff.
  20. ^ See also:
    • Anderson (1999): "The appearance of the four noble truths in the introduction, enlightenment, and gerundival sets in the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta provide evidence for Norman's correct conclusion that the teaching was probably not part of the earliest version of the Sutta."[119]
    • Batchelor (2012): "In a 1992 paper entitled "The Four Noble Truths," Norman offers a detailed, philological analysis of The First Discourse, and arrives at the startling conclusion that "the earliest form of this sutta did not include the word ariya-saccaؐ (noble truth)" (Norman 2003: 223). On grammatical and syntactical grounds, he shows how the expression "noble truth" was inexpertly interpolated into the text at a later date than its original composition. But since no such original text has come down to us, we cannot know what it did say. All that can reasonably be deduced is that instead of talking of four noble truths, the text merely spoke of "four.""[120]
  21. ^ See Louis de La Vallée Poussin, Musial and Narad. Translated from the French by Gelongma Migme Chödrön and Gelong Lodrö Sangpo.
  22. ^ In his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism
  23. ^ Wynne: "Thus the expression sato sampajāno in the third jhāna must denote a state of awareness different from the meditative absorption of the second jhāna (cetaso ekodibhāva). It suggests that the subject is doing something different from remaining in a meditative state, i.e., that he has come out of his absorption and is now once again aware of objects. The same is true of the word upek(k)hā: it does not denote an abstract 'equanimity', [but] it means to be aware of something and indifferent to it [...] The third and fourth jhāna-s, as it seems to me, describe the process of directing states of meditative absorption towards the mindful awareness of objects.[140]
  24. ^ Majjhima Nikaya 26
  25. ^ Anguttara Nikaya II.45 (PTS)
  26. ^ Samyutta Nikaya III.140-142 (PTS)
  27. ^ In his 1970 publication Indian Buddhism, which predates the discoveries of Norman, Schmithausen, Vetter, Bronkhorst and Gombrich.
  28. ^ Digha Nikaya 10
  29. ^ Samyutta Nikaya IV 251 and IV 261
  30. ^ Digha Nikaya 15, Mahanidana Sutta, which describes a nine-fold chain of causation. Mind-and-body (nama-rupa) and consciousness (vijnana) do condition here each other (verse 2 & 3). In verse 21 and 22, it is stated that consciousness comes into the mother's womb, and finds a resting place in mind-and-body. [188]
  31. ^ M. Falk (1943, Nama-rupa and Dharma-rupa
  32. ^ According to Alexander Wynne, Schayer:"referred to passages in which "consciousness" (vinnana) seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum (e.g. A I.10) 14 as well as the Saddhatu Sutra, which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts — it states that the personality (pudgala) consists of the six elements (dhatu) of earth, water, fire, wind, space and consciousness; Schayer noted that it related to other ancient Indian ideas. Keith’s argument is also based on the Saddhatu Sutra as well as "passages where we have explanations of Nirvana which echo the ideas of the Upanishads regarding the ultimate reality." He also refers to the doctrine of "a consciousness, originally pure, defiled by adventitious impurities."[93]
  33. ^ Lindtner 1997. Cited in Wynne 2007, p. 99.

Quotations edit

  1. ^ a b Leon Hurvitz: "... stressed that the written canon in Buddhism is sectarian from the outset, and that presectarian Buddhism must be deduced from the writings as they now exist."[1](quote via Google Scholar search-engine)
  2. ^ a b J.W. De Jong: "It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of earliest Buddhism [...] the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him [the Buddha], transmitted and developed by his disciples and, finally, codified in fixed formulas."[5]
  3. ^ According to A.K. Warder, in his 1970 publication "Indian Buddhism", from the oldest extant texts a common kernel can be drawn out.[63] According to Warder, c.q. his publisher: "This kernel of doctrine is presumably common Buddhism of the period before the great schisms of the fourth and third centuries BC. It may be substantially the Buddhism of the Buddha himself, although this cannot be proved: at any rate it is a Buddhism presupposed by the schools as existing about a hundred years after the parinirvana of the Buddha, and there is no evidence to suggest that it was formulated by anyone else than the Buddha and his immediate followers."[64]
  4. ^ Richard Gombrich: "I have the greatest difficulty in accepting that the main edifice is not the work of a single genius. By "the main edifice" I mean the collections of the main body of sermons, the four Nikāyas, and of the main body of monastic rules."[54]
  5. ^ Ronald Davidson: "While most scholars agree that there was a rough body of sacred literature (disputed)(sic) that a relatively early community (disputed)(sic) maintained and transmitted, we have little confidence that much, if any, of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of the historic Buddha."[66]
  6. ^ Bronkhorst: "This position is to be preferred to (ii) for purely methodological reasons: only those who seek nay find, even if no success is guaranteed."[62]
  7. ^ Lopez: "The original teachings of the historical Buddha are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to recover or reconstruct."[67]
  8. ^ Gombrich: "I know this is controversial, but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhanas are thus quite unlike the second."[137]

References edit

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  2. ^ a b c Nakamura 1989.
  3. ^ a b c Hirakawa 1990.
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  5. ^ a b c d Jong 1993, p. 25.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Warder 1999.
  7. ^ a b Mizuno Kogen 1982, p. 16.
  8. ^ Sujato 2012, p. [page needed].
  9. ^ Sujato 2012, pp. 81–82.
  10. ^ Gombrich 1997, p. 11 -12.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Lindtner 1997.
  12. ^ Mun-keat 2000, p. ix.
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  15. ^ Vetter 1988, pp. 101–106.
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  • Williams, Paul (2000), Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, Routledge
  • Wynne, Alexander (2007), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, Routledge

Further reading edit

History of Buddhism (general)
  • Bronkhorst, Johannes (1993), The Two Traditions Of Meditation In Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
  • Gombrich, Richard F. (1997), How Buddhism Began, Munshiram Manoharlal
  • Norman, K.R. (1997), A Philological Approach to Buddhism. The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Lectures 1994 (PDF), School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)
  • Samuel, Geoffrey (2010), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century, Cambridge University Press
Early Buddhism
  • Schmithausen, Lambert (1981), On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism". In: Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus (Gedenkschrift für Ludwig Alsdorf), hrsg. von Klaus Bruhn und Albrecht Wezler, Wiesbaden 1981, 199-250
  • Vetter, Tilmann (1988), The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism, BRILL
  • Wynne, Alexander (2007), The Origin of Buddhist Meditation, Routledge
Modern understanding

External links edit

  • A handful of Leaves Essential publications on Buddhist history
  • . Translated from the French by Gelongma Migme Chödrön and Gelong Lodrö Sangpo.

sectarian, buddhism, also, called, early, buddhism, earliest, buddhism, original, buddhism, primitive, buddhism, buddhism, theorized, have, existed, before, various, early, buddhist, schools, developed, around, followed, later, subsects, buddhism, contents, te. Pre sectarian Buddhism 1 also called early Buddhism 2 3 the earliest Buddhism 4 5 original Buddhism 6 and primitive Buddhism 7 is Buddhism as theorized to have existed before the various Early Buddhist schools developed around 250 BCE followed by later subsects of Buddhism 8 9 The contents and teachings of this pre sectarian Buddhism must be deduced or re constructed from the earliest Buddhist texts which by themselves are already sectarian quote 1 quote 2 note 1 The whole subject remains intensely debated by scholars not all of whom believe a meaningful reconstruction is possible Early Buddhism may also be used for considerably later periods Contents 1 Name 2 Timespan 3 Earliest Buddhism and the Sramaṇa movement 4 Scholarship and methodology 5 Scholarly positions 5 1 Optimism regarding the early Buddhist texts 5 2 Pessimism 5 3 Moderate skepticism and reconstructionism 6 Teachings of earliest Buddhism 6 1 Death rebirth and karma 6 1 1 Soul 6 2 The Four Noble Truths 6 3 The Noble Eightfold Path 6 4 Satipatthana 6 5 Dhyana 6 5 1 Dhyana and insight 6 5 2 The meaning of samadhi 6 5 3 Liberating insight 6 5 4 Insight and dhyana as complementary 6 6 Dependent origination 6 7 37 factors of enlightenment 6 8 Nirvana 6 8 1 As cessation and ending of rebirth 6 8 2 As a kind of consciousness or a place 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Quotations 10 References 11 Sources 11 1 Printed sources 12 Further reading 13 External linksName editVarious terms are being used to refer to the earliest period of Buddhism Pre sectarian Buddhism 1 Early Buddhism 3 2 The earliest Buddhism 10 Original Buddhism 6 note 1 The Buddhism of the Buddha himself 6 note 2 Precanonical Buddhism 11 Primitive Buddhism 7 Some Japanese scholars refer to the subsequent period of the early Buddhist schools as sectarian Buddhism 2 3 Timespan edit nbsp The Mahajanapadas were sixteen most powerful and vast kingdoms and republics around the lifetime of Gautama Buddha located mainly across the fertile Indo Gangetic plains There were also a number of smaller kingdoms stretching the length and breadth of Ancient India Pre sectarian Buddhism may refer to the earliest Buddhism the ideas and practices of Gautama Buddha himself It may also refer to early Buddhism as existing until the first documented split in the sangha 12 According to Lambert Schmithausen it is the canonical period prior to the development of different schools with their different positions 13 Contrary to the claim of doctrinal stability early Buddhism was a dynamic movement 14 Pre sectarian Buddhism may have included or incorporated other Sramaṇic schools of thought 15 note 3 as well as Vedic and Jain ideas and practices 16 11 17 18 The period of Early Buddhism in the sense of pre sectarian Buddhism is considered by scholars such as Paul J Griffiths and Steven Collins to be from the time of the historical Buddha to the reign of Ashoka c 268 to 232 BCE 19 20 The first documented split occurred according to most scholars between the second Buddhist council and the third Buddhist council 21 Lamotte and Hirakawa both maintain that the first schism in the Buddhist sangha occurred during the reign of Ashoka 22 23 According to scholar Collett Cox most scholars would agree that even though the roots of the earliest recognized groups predate Asoka their actual separation did not occur until after his death 24 The first post schismatic groups are often stated to be the Sthavira nikaya and the Mahasaṃghika note 4 Eventually eighteen different schools came into existence 25 The later Mahayana schools may have preserved ideas which were abandoned by the orthodox Theravada 26 such as the Three Bodies doctrine the idea of consciousness vijnana as a continuum and devotional elements such as the worship of saints 11 17 note 5 Earliest Buddhism and the Sramaṇa movement editSee also Early Buddhist schools and History of Buddhism in India nbsp Siddartha Gautama depicted in Greco Buddhist style during his extreme fasting prior to being Awakened 2nd 3rd century Gandhara modern eastern Afghanistan Lahore Museum PakistanPre sectarian Buddhism was originally one of the sramaṇic movements 27 28 The time of the Buddha was a time of urbanisation in India and saw the growth of the sramaṇas wandering philosophers that had rejected the authority of Vedas and Brahmanic priesthood 29 intent on escaping saṃsara 27 30 through various means which involved the study of ascetic practices and ethical behavior 29 The sramaṇas gave rise to different religious and philosophical schools among which pre sectarian Buddhism itself 31 32 Yoga and similar schools of Hinduism 33 Jainism Ajivika Ajnana and Carvaka were the most important and also to popular concepts in all major Indian religions such as saṃsara endless cycle of birth and death and moksha liberation from that cycle 34 note 6 Nevertheless despite the success that these wandering philosophers and ascetics had obtained by spreading ideas and concepts that would soon be accepted by all religions of India the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy astika opposed to sramaṇic schools of thought and refuted their doctrines as heterodox nastika because they refused to accept the epistemic authority of Vedas The ideas of saṃsara karma and rebirth show a development of thought in Indian religions from the idea of single existence at the end of which one was judged and punished and rewarded for one s deeds or karma to multiple existences with reward or punishment in an endless series of existences and then attempts to gain release from this endless series 35 This release was the central aim of the Sramaṇa movement 27 Vedic rituals which aimed at entrance into heaven may have played a role in this development the realisation that those rituals did not lead to an everlasting liberation led to the search for other means 27 Scholarship and methodology editEarliest Buddhism can only be deduced from the various Buddhist canons now extant which are all already sectarian collections 1 quote 1 note 7 note 1 As such any reconstruction is tentative One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon the surviving portions of the scriptures of Sarvastivada Mulasarvastivada Mahisasaka Dharmaguptaka and other schools 36 6 and the Chinese agamas and other surviving portions of other early canons such as the Gandharan texts note 8 note 9 Early proto Mahayana texts which contain nearly identical material to that of the Pali Canon such as the Salistamba Sutra are also further evidence 37 nbsp Gandhara birchbark scroll fragments c 1st century The beginning of this comparative study began in the 19th century Samuel Beal published comparative translations of the Pali patimokkha and the Chinese Dharmaguptaka pratimoksa 1859 showing they were virtually identical 38 He followed this up with comparisons between the Chinese sutras and the Pali suttas in 1882 accurately predicting that when the Vinaya and Agama collections are thoroughly examined I can have little doubt we shall find most if not all the Pali Suttas in Chinese form 39 In the following decades various scholars continued to produce a series of comparative studies such as Anesaki Akanuma who composed a complete catalogue of parallels Yin Shun and Thich Minh Chau 40 41 42 43 These studies as well as recent work by Analayo Marcus Bingenheimer and Mun keat Choong have shown that the essential doctrinal content of the Pali Majjhima and Samyutta Nikayas and the Chinese Madhyama and Samyukta Agamas is mostly the same with as Analayo notes occasional divergence in details 44 45 46 According to scholars such as Rupert Gethin and Peter Harvey the oldest recorded teachings are contained in the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka and their various parallels in other languages note 10 together with the main body of monastic rules which survive in the various versions of the patimokkha 47 48 49 50 Scholars have also claimed that there is a core within this core referring to some poems and phrases which seem to be the oldest parts of the Sutta Pitaka 51 note 11 The reliability of these sources and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings is a matter of dispute 16 52 53 54 According to Tillman Vetter the comparison of the oldest extant texts does not just simply lead to the oldest nucleus of the doctrine 36 At best it leads to a Sthavira canon dating from c 270 B C when the missionary activities during Asoka s reign as well as dogmatic disputes had not yet created divisions within the Sthavira tradition 36 According to Vetter inconsistencies remain and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies 36 Because of this scholars such as Edward Conze and A K Warder have argued that only the material which is common to both the Sthavira and the Mahasamghika canons can be seen as the most authentic since they were the first communities after the first schism 55 The problem is that there is little material surviving from the Mahasamghika school However what we do have such as the Mahasamghika pratimoksha and vinaya is mostly consistent in doctrine with the Sthavira texts 56 57 Other Mahasamghika sources are the Mahavastu and possibly the Salistamba Sutra both of which also contains phrases and doctrines that are found in the Sthavira canons 58 59 Further exemplary studies are the study on descriptions of liberating insight by Lambert Schmithausen 60 the overview of early Buddhism by Tilmann Vetter 52 the philological work on the four truths by K R Norman 61 the textual studies by Richard Gombrich 54 and the research on early meditation methods by Johannes Bronkhorst 16 Scholarly positions editAccording to Schmithausen three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished regarding the possibility to extract the earliest Buddhism from the Early Buddhist Texts 62 Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials note 12 Skepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism note 13 Cautious optimism in this respect note 14 Optimism regarding the early Buddhist texts edit In his history of Indian Buddhism 1988 Etienne Lamotte argues that while it is impossible to say with certainty what the doctrine of the historical Buddha was it is nonetheless a fact that in order to appreciate early Buddhism the only valid evidence or indication which we possess is the basic agreement between the Nikayas on the one hand and the Agamas on the other 68 Likewise Hajime Nakamura writes in his Indian Buddhism that there is no word that can be traced with unquestionable authority to Gotama Sakyamuni as a historical personage although there must be some sayings or phrases derived from him 69 Nakamura adds that scholars must critically search the early scriptures for the oldest layer of material to find the original Buddhism Nakamura held that some of the earliest material were the gathas verses found in the Suttanipata as well as the Sagatha vagga of the Samyutta Nikaya the Itivuttakas and the Udanas 69 These texts use less of the doctrinal material that is developed in other texts are more likely to promote wilderness solitude over communal living and use terminology which is similar to Jain ideas 70 British indologist Rupert Gethin writes that it is extremely likely that at least some of the suttas in the four main Nikayas are among the oldest surviving Buddhist texts and contain material that goes back directly to the Buddha 49 Gethin agrees with Lamotte that the doctrinal basis of the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas is remarkably uniform and constitute the common ancient heritage of Buddhism 71 Richard Gombrich agrees that the four Nikayas and the main body of monastic rules present such originality intelligence grandeur and most relevantly coherence that it is hard to see it as a composite work and thus concludes that it is the work of one genius even if he agrees that when it comes to the Buddha s biography we know next to nothing 72 Peter Harvey affirms that the four older Nikayas preserve an early common stock which must derive from his the Buddha s teachings because the overall harmony of the texts suggest a single authorship even while other parts of the Pali canon clearly originated later 50 The British indologist A K Warder writes that we are on safe ground only with those texts the authenticity of which is admitted by all schools of buddhism including the Mahayana who admit the authenticity of the early canons as well as their own texts not with texts only accepted by certain schools 73 Warder adds that when the extant material of the Tipitakas of the early Buddhist schools is examined we find an agreement which is substantial though not complete and that there is a central body of sutras which is so similar in all known versions that we must accept these as so many recensions of the same original texts 74 Alexander Wynne has also argued for the historical authenticity of the early buddhist texts contra skeptics like Gregory Schopen based on the internal textual evidence found inside them as well as archaeological and inscriptional evidence 75 As noted by T W Rhys Davids Wynne points out the pali texts depict a pre Asokan north India and he also cites KR Norman who argues that they show no Sinhalese prakrit additions 75 Reviewing the literature by figures such as Frauwallner Wynne argues that the pali suttas reached Sri Lanka by 250 BCE and that they preserved certain details about fifth century north India such as that Uddaka Ramaputta lived near Rajagrha 75 Wynne concludes The corresponding pieces of textual material found in the canons of the different sects especially the literature of the Pali school which was more isolated than the others probably go back to pre sectarian times It is unlikely that these correspondences could have been produced by the joint endeavour of different Buddhist sects for such an undertaking would have required organisation on a scale which was simply inconceivable in the ancient world We must conclude that a careful examination of early Buddhist literature can reveal aspects of the pre Asokan history of Indian Buddhism 75 Pessimism edit One of the early Western skeptics was French indologist Emile Senart who argued in his Essai sur la legende du Buddha 1875 that the legends of Buddha s life were derived from pre Buddhist myths of solar deities The late Edward Conze held that there was an absence of hard facts regarding the first period of Buddhism and regarding the teachings of the Buddha none of His sayings is preserved in its original form 76 Since we only possess a small fraction of the Buddhist literature that must have circulated during the early period Conze held that all the scholarly attempts to reconstruct the original teachings were all mere guesswork because that which we have may have been composed at any time during the first 500 years and there is no objective criterion which would allow us to single out those elements in the record which go back to the Buddha Himself 77 Conze argues that comparative study using the sources of different schools could give us some knowledge of the pre sectarian period doctrine but he adds that such knowledge might not take us to the earliest period after the Buddha s nirvana which is a period that is shrouded in mystery and to which we cannot penetrate 78 Japanese Buddhologist Kogen Mizuno argues in his Buddhist Sutras 1982 that the material we possess may not contain the actual words of the Buddha because they were not recorded as he spoke but compiled after his death and also because they do not survive in the original language some form of Magadhi Prakrit but transmitted in other Indic languages of later periods and without doubt conscious and unconscious changes in the Buddha s words were made during several centuries of oral transmission 79 Mizuno does note that Pali is the oldest of these but it is still different from old Magadhi and it is from a different region Western India 80 Ronald M Davidson a scholar of tantric Buddhism while acknowledging that most scholars agree that the early community maintained and transmitted a rough body of sacred literature writes that we have little confidence that much if any of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of the historical Buddha His view is that More persuasively the Buddhist order in India might be considered the greatest scriptural composition community in human history Given the extraordinary extent of the material passing at any one time under rubric of the word of the Buddha we might simply pause and acknowledge that Indian Buddhists were extraordinarily facile litterateurs 81 The American scholar Gregory Schopen holds that we cannot know anything definite about the actual doctrinal content of the nikaya agama literature much before the fourth century C E 82 Schopen is very critical of modern Buddhist studies because of its preference for literary evidence that in most cases cannot actually be dated and that survives only in very recent manuscript traditions that have been heavily edited and were intended as normative not historical accounts 83 Schopen believes that the preference for texts over archeology and epigraphy is a mistake and that it is Buddhist epigraphy which are the earliest written sources Regarding the textual sources Schopen holds that even the oldest sources such as the Pali canon cannot be taken back further than the last quarter of the first century B C E the date of the Alu vihara redaction but that actually it is not until the 5th or 6th centuries CE that we can know anything definite about the actual contents of this canon 84 He notes that references to Tipitaka and Nikaya date from much later periods than the Asokan era such as Kaniska s reign 85 Only a few texts have been identified in Asoka s edicts such as his Bhabra Edict but these are all short verse texts and are nothing like the suttas of the first and second Nikayas 86 Schopen concludes that it is only from the end of the fourth century that some of the doctrinal content of Hinayana canonical literature can finally be definitely dated and actually verified 86 Regarding the view of comparative critical scholars that agreement between the different sectarian texts points to a common early source Schopen counters that since this kind of higher criticism is already being done on texts which belong to uniformly late stages of the literary tradition Schopen believes instead that the agreement was produced by the sharing of literature and ideas between the different sects at a later date Schopen defines this position as If all known versions of a text or passage agree that text or passage is probably late that is it probably represents the results of the conflation and gradual leveling and harmonization of earlier existing traditions 87 Citing Bareau and Wassilieff he holds that it is just as likely that textual agreement among the different canons was produced by parallel development and contact between the different Indian traditions Moderate skepticism and reconstructionism edit According to Constantin Regamey the view followed by the Franco Belgian school of buddhology which applies to figures like Jean Przyluski Louis de la Vallee Poussin A Weller and A B Keith did not consider the Pali Canon a straightforward faithful reflection of the teachings of the Buddha 88 This group of scholars sought to use all available sources to reconstruct the original teachings of the Buddha in a way which diverged from the Pali focused perspective of Anglo German indologists such as Oldenberg and Frauwallner 88 A common position of the Franco Belgian school was that primitive Buddhism did not have such negative view of nirvana but that it was a positive reality a kind of immortal state amrta similar to the godly abode of svarga found in the Edicts of Ashoka 88 These mainly continental European scholars attempted to reconstruct early Buddhism drawing on many sources including Mahayana sources instead of only relying on the Pali Canon However in the post war years Franco Belgian scholars like Jean Filliozat mostly stuck to a moderate skepticism which did not hypothesize about what the original Buddhism may have been and merely focused on looking at the sectarian sources which currently exist and which do not go back to the earliest period Filliozat argues that any reconstruction would remain purely ideal and might be lacking in key doctrines that might have been lost over time Since all the canons were edited at different times throughout history any reconstruction would never arrive at original Buddhism 88 Polish scholar Stanislaw Schayer 1899 1941 was one figure who followed this reconstructionist method to put forth a hypothesis of an alternative early Buddhist worldview Schayer argued that the Nikayas preserve elements of an archaic form of Buddhism which is close to Brahmanical beliefs 11 17 89 90 and survived in the Mahayana tradition 91 92 As noted by Alexander Wynne Schayer drew on passages in which consciousness vinnana seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum e g A I 10 as well as the Saddhatu Sutra which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts 93 According to Schayer contrary to popular opinion the Theravada and Mahayana traditions may be divergent but equally reliable records of a pre canonical Buddhism which is now lost forever 91 The Mahayana tradition may have preserved a very old pre Canonical tradition which was largely but not completely left out of the Theravada canon 92 Schayer searched through various early sources for ideas that contradict the dominant doctrinal positions of the early canon According to Schayer these ideas have were transmitted by a tradition old enough and considered to be authoritative by the compilers of the Canon He thus considers these ideas which were doctrines contradictory to the generally admitted canonical viewpoint as survivals of older precanonical Buddhism 94 note 15 Constantin Regamey has identified four points which are central to Schayer s reconstruction of precanonical Buddhism 95 88 The Buddha was considered as an extraordinary supernatural being in whom ultimate reality was embodied and who was an incarnation of the mythical figure of the tathagata The Buddha s disciples were attracted to his spiritual charisma and supernatural authority Nirvana was conceived as the attainment of a persisting immortality and the gaining of a deathless sphere from which there would be no falling back acyuta pada which is the pinnacle of reality the supreme point of the dharmadhatu This nirvana as a transmundane reality or state an eternal vijnana and is incarnated in the person of the Buddha The more radical anatman doctrine does not apply to this Nirvana can be reached because it already dwells as the inmost consciousness of the human being It is a consciousness which is not subject to birth and death According to Ray Schayer has shown a second doctrinal position alongside that of the more dominant tradition one likely to be of at least equivalent if not of greater antiquity 96 However according to Edward Conze Schayer s views are merely a tentative hypothesis and that it is also possible that these ideas later entered Buddhism as a concession to popular demand just as the lower goal of birth in heaven svarga was admitted side by side with Nirvana Conze thought that both were equally possible 97 The French scholar Constantin Regamey argues that Schayer s general position is cogent Regamey argues that the various Buddhist canons like the Pali canon have many chronological layers and include many divergences and contradictions 88 As such one cannot rely on any single one of them to construct the original view of the Buddha especially since the teachings found in them are mostly composed of terms formulas or bare patterns that can and have been interpreted in many different ways 88 Regamey argues that a broader historicist method is needed which draws on numerous sources historical evidence and the very internal contradictions found in the canon He argues that a broader historical method can show that early Buddhism might have supported ideas that are similar to Brahamanical theories of consciousness or some Mahayana views on consciousness and Buddhahood 88 A similar view is defended by Christian Lindtner Lindtner argues that some early Buddhist sources point to stainless formless consciousness which is similar to Brahmanical ideas and later Mahayana views He also argues that ancient Buddhist view of nirvana was likely cosmological and had similarities with ancient Vedic cosmology and that it was an eternal realm at the peak of existence bhutakoti one could reach by wisdom 98 Teachings of earliest Buddhism editThe Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta note 16 is regarded by the Buddhist tradition as the first discourse of the Buddha 99 Scholars have noted some persistent problems with this view 100 Originally the text may only have pointed at the middle way as being the core of the Buddha s teaching 99 which pointed to the practice of dhyana 52 This basic term may have been extended with descriptions of the eightfold path 52 itself a condensation of a longer sequence 101 Some scholars believe that under pressure from developments in Indian religiosity which began to see liberating insight as the essence of moksha 102 the four noble truths were then added as a description of the Buddha s liberating insight 99 Death rebirth and karma edit Main articles Karma in Buddhism Rebirth Buddhism and Saṃsara Buddhism According to Tilmann Vetter the Buddha at first sought the deathless amata amrta which is concerned with the here and now 103 According to Edward Conze Death was an error which could be overcome by those who entered the doors to the Deathless the gates of the Undying 104 According to Conze the Buddha saw death as a sign that something has gone wrong with us 105 The Buddha saw death as brought on by an evil force Mara the Killer note 17 who tempts us away from our true immortal selves and diverts us from the path which could lead us back to freedom 105 Our cravings keep us tied to Mara s realm By releasing our attachments we move beyond his realm and gain freedom from saṃsara the beginningless movement of death and rebirth 105 Karma is the intentional cetana actions which keep us tied to saṃsara 106 Two views on the liberation from saṃsara can be discerned in the sramaṇic movements Originally karma meant physical and mental activity One solution was to refrain from any physical or mental activity The other solution was to see the real self as not participating in these actions and to disidentify with those actions 107 According to Bronkhorst the Buddha rejected both approaches 108 Nevertheless these approaches can also be found in the Buddhist tradition such as the four formless jhanas 109 and disidentification from the constituents of the self 110 note 18 Bruce Matthews notes that there is no cohesive presentation of karma in the Sutta Pitaka 112 which may mean that the doctrine was incidental to the main perspective of early Buddhist soteriology 112 Schmithausen is a notable scholar who has questioned whether karma already played a role in the theory of rebirth of earliest Buddhism 113 114 According to Schmithausen the karma doctrine may have been incidental to early Buddhist soteriology 115 According to Vetter the deathless amata amrta is concerned with the here and now Only after this realization did he become acquainted with the doctrine of rebirth 103 Bronkhorst disagrees and concludes that the Buddha introduced a concept of karma that differed considerably from the commonly held views of his time 111 According to Bronkhorst not physical and mental activities as such were seen as responsible for rebirth but intentions and desire 108 Soul edit According to Bronkhorst referring to Frauwallner Schmithausen and Bhattacharya It is possible that original Buddhism did not deny the existence of the soul 116 note 19 The Four Noble Truths edit According to Eviatar Shulman the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths is rooted in a meditative perception regarding the arising and passing away of mental events which also includes a detached attitude to phenomena 117 Out of this practice of meditative observation developed a theoretical or discursive philosophical understanding 118 K R Norman concluded that the earliest version of the Dhamma cakka ppavattana sutta did not contain the word noble but was added later 61 note 20 Lambert Schmithausen concluded that the four truths were a later development in early Buddhism 16 Carol Anderson following Lambert Schmithausen and K R Norman notes that the four truths are missing in critical passages in the canon 121 and states the four noble truths were probably not part of the earliest strata of what came to be recognized as Buddhism but that they emerged as a central teaching in a slightly later period that still preceded the final redactions of the various Buddhist canons 122 The four truths probably entered the Sutta Pitaka from the Vinaya the rules for monastic order They were first added to enlightenment stories which contain the Four Jhanas replacing terms for liberating insight From there they were added to the biographical stories of the Buddha 100 I t is more likely that the four truths are an addition to the biographies of the Buddha and to the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta 123 According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson the four truths became a substitution for prajna or liberating insight in the suttas 124 100 in those texts where liberating insight was preceded by the four jhanas 125 According to Bronkhorst the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of liberating insight 126 Gotama s teachings may have been personal adjusted to the need of each person 125 This replacement was probably caused by the influence and pressures of the wider Indian religious landscape which claimed that one can be released only by some truth or higher knowledge 102 The Noble Eightfold Path edit According to Tilmann Vetter the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term the middle way 52 In time this short description was elaborated resulting in the description of the eightfold path 52 Vetter and Bucknell both note that longer descriptions of the path can be found which can be condensed into the Noble Eightfold Path 52 101 One of those longer sequences from the CulaHatthipadopama sutta the Lesser Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant s Footprints is as follows 127 Dhammalsaddhalpabbajja A layman hears a Buddha teach the Dhamma comes to have faith in him and decides to take ordination as a monk sila He adopts the moral precepts indriyasamvara He practises guarding the six sense doors sati sampajanna He practises mindfulness and self possession actually described as mindfulness of the body kayanupassana that is reflection on the impurities of the body jhana 1 He finds an isolated spot sits down cross legged purifies his mind of the hindrances nivarana and attains the first rupa jhana jhana 2 He attains the second jhana jhana 3 He attains the third jhana jhana 4 He attains the fourth jhana pubbenivasanussati nana he recollects his many former existences in samsara sattanam cutupapata nana he observes the death and rebirth of beings according to their karmas asavakkhaya nana He brings about the destruction of the asavas inflow mental bias 128 and attains a profound realization of as opposed to mere knowledge about the four noble truths vimutti He perceives that he is now liberated that he has done what was to be done Satipatthana edit Main article Satipatthana According to Grzegorz Polak the four upassana have been misunderstood by the developing Buddhist tradition including Theravada to refer to four different foundations According to Polak the four upassana do not refer to four different foundations but to the awareness of four different aspects of raising mindfulness 129 the six sense bases which one needs to be aware of kayanupassana contemplation on vedanas which arise with the contact between the senses and their objects vedananupassana the altered states of mind to which this practice leads cittanupassana the development from the five hindrances to the seven factors of enlightenment dhammanupassana Dhyana edit Main article Buddhist meditation According to Bronkhorst dhyana was a Buddhist invention 16 whereas Alexander Wynne argues that dhyana was incorporated from Brahmanical practices in the Nikayas ascribed to Aḷara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta These practices were paired to mindfulness and insight and given a new interpretation 18 Kalupahana argues that the Buddha reverted to the meditational practices he had learned from Aḷara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta 130 Norman notes that the Buddha s way to release was by means of meditative practices 131 Gombrich also notes that a development took place in early Buddhism resulting in a change in doctrine which considered prajna to be an alternative means to enlightenment 132 Dhyana and insight edit A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight 52 16 54 The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of dhyana jhana 16 There is a tradition that stresses attaining insight bodhi prajna kensho as the means to awakening and liberation But it has also incorporated the yogic tradition as reflected in the use of jhana which is rejected in other sutras as not achieving the final result of liberation 16 52 54 The problem was famously voiced in 1936 by Louis de La Vallee Poussin in his text Musila et Narada Le Chemin de Nirvana 133 note 21 Schmithausen note 22 notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting the core of liberating insight which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36 60 16 52 Schmithausen discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in the suttas 60 to which Vetter adds the sole practice of dhyana itself which he sees as the original liberating practice 134 The four Rupa Jhanas themselves constituted the core liberating practice of early buddhism c q the Buddha 135 Mastering the four Rupa Jhanas whereafter liberating insight is attained Mastering the four Rupa Jhanas and the four Arupa Jhanas where after liberating insight is attained Liberating insight itself suffices This problem has been elaborated by several well known scholars including Tilman Vetter 52 Johannes Bronkhorst 16 and Richard Gombrich 54 The meaning of samadhi edit Traditionally meditation is often described as samadhi one pointed concentration and dhyana and samadhi are often referred to interchangeably Yet Schmithausen Vetter and Bronkhorst note that the attainment of insight and mindfulness which is a cognitive activity cannot be possible in a state wherein all cognitive activity has ceased 16 136 Vetter notes that penetrating abstract truths and penetrating them successively does not seem possible in a state of mind which is without contemplation and reflection 136 According to Richard Gombrich the sequence of the four rupa jhanas describes two different cognitive states namely concentration followed by a sharpened attention 137 quote 8 138 Alexander Wynne further explains that the dhyana scheme is poorly understood 139 According to Wynne words expressing the inculcation of awareness such as sati sampajano and upekkha are mistranslated or understood as particular factors of meditative states 139 whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving the sense objects 139 note 23 According to Gombrich the later tradition has falsified the jhana by classifying them as the quintessence of the concentrated calming kind of meditation ignoring the other and indeed higher element 137 According to Vetter and Bronkhorst dhyana itself constituted the original liberating practice 134 16 141 Vetter further argues that the eightfold path constitutes a body of practices which prepare one and lead up to the practice of dhyana 142 Liberating insight edit Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development 143 132 According to Johannes Bronkhorst 16 Tillman Vetter 52 and K R Norman 131 bodhi was at first not specified K R Norman It is not at all clear what gaining bodhi means We are accustomed to the translation enlightenment for bodhi but this is misleading It is not clear what the buddha was awakened to or at what particular point the awakening came 131 According to Norman bodhi may basically have meant the knowledge that nibbana was attained 144 145 due to the practice of dhyana 131 52 Bronkhorst notes that the conception of what exactly this liberating insight was developed throughout time Whereas originally it may not have been specified later on the four truths served as such to be superseded by pratityasamutpada and still later in the Hinayana schools by the doctrine of the non existence of a substantial self or person 146 And Schmithausen notices that still other descriptions of this liberating insight exist in the Buddhist canon that the five Skandhas are impermanent disagreeable and neither the Self nor belonging to oneself note 24 the contemplation of the arising and disappearance udayabbaya of the five Skandhas note 25 the realisation of the Skandhas as empty rittaka vain tucchaka and without any pith or substance asaraka note 26 147 The developing importance of liberating insight may have been due to an over literal interpretation by later scholastics of the terminology used by the Buddha 148 or to the problems involved with the practice of dhyana and the need to develop an easier method 149 According to Vetter it may not have been as effective as dhyana and methods were developed to deepen the effects of discriminating insight 149 Insight was also paired to dhyana resulting in the well known sila samadhi prajna scheme 149 According to Vetter this kind of preparatory dhyana must have been different from the practice introduced by the Buddha using kasina exercises to produce a more artificially produced dhyana resulting in the cessation of apperceptions and feelings 150 It also led to a different understanding of the eightfold path since this path does not end with insight but rather starts with insight The path was no longer seen as a sequential development resulting in dhyana but as a set of practices which had to be developed simultaneously to gain insight 151 According to Alexander Wynne the ultimate aim of dhyana was the attainment of insight 152 and the application of the meditative state to the practice of mindfulness 152 According to Frauwallner mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects According to Frauwallner this may have been the Buddha s original idea 153 According to Wynne this stress on mindfulness may have led to the intellectualism which favoured insight over the practice of dhyana 139 Insight and dhyana as complementary edit Rupert Gethin rejects the notion of two opposing paths arguing that a close study of the bodhipakkhiyadhammas particularly the bojjhangas shows how there is no conflict between samadhi and insight practices in early Buddhism but that in fact it turns out that the characteristically early Buddhist conception of the path leading to the cessation of suffering is that it consists precisely in the combining of calm and insight 154 Bhikkhu Analayo scholar of the early texts has also critiqued the view that there are two contrasting views of liberation in the early sources i e dhyana vs insight According to Analayo samadhi and insight are actually two complementary aspects of the path to liberation 155 Analayo refers to Damien Keown 156 who writes that for the Buddha there exist two techniques of meditation precisely because the obstacles to enlightenment are themselves twofold both moral and intellectual 157 Analayo also refers to Collett Cox who noted that it is possible that the Buddhist goal of the elimination of the asravas subsumes knowledge and concentration as equally cooperative means rather than mutually exclusive ends and that this view is also reflected in Abhidharma 158 Keren Arbel describes the fourth jhana as non reactive and lucid awareness not as a state of deep concentration 159 She sees samadhi and insight as closely connected and argues that in the Pali suttas the entrance into the first jhana is the actualization and embodiment of insight practice 160 Dependent origination edit Main article Pratityasamutpada While Pratityasamutpada dependent origination and the twelve nidanas the links of dependent origination are traditionally interpreted as describing the conditional arising of rebirth in saṃsara and the resultant duḥkha suffering pain unsatisfactoriness 161 an alternate Theravada questions the authenticity of this interpretation and regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of I and mine which are the source of suffering 162 163 164 Scholars have noted inconsistencies in the list and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists 165 166 167 168 169 164 The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic Brahmanic cosmogeny as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 170 168 164 171 172 173 These were integrated with a branched list which describe the conditioning of mental processes 167 169 164 akin to the five skandhas 174 Eventually this branched list developed into the standard twelvefold chain as a linear list 167 175 While this list may be interpreted as describing the processes which give rise to rebirth in essence it describes the arising of dukkha as a psychological process without the involvement of an atman 169 170 37 factors of enlightenment edit According to A K Warder the Bodhipakkhiyadhamma the 37 factors of enlightenment are a summary of the core Buddhist teachings which are common to all schools 176 note 27 These factors are summarized in the Maha parinibbana Sutta note 28 which recounts the Buddha s last days in the Buddha s last address to his bikkhus Now O bhikkhus I say to you that these teachings of which I have direct knowledge and which I have made known to you these you should thoroughly learn cultivate develop and frequently practice that the life of purity may be established and may long endure for the welfare and happiness of the multitude out of compassion for the world for the benefit well being and happiness of gods and men And what bhikkhus are these teachings They are the four foundations of mindfulness the four right efforts the four constituents of psychic power the five faculties the five powers the seven factors of enlightenment and the Noble Eightfold Path These bhikkhus are the teachings of which I have direct knowledge which I have made known to you and which you should thoroughly learn cultivate develop and frequently practice 177 Alex Wayman has criticized A K Warder for failing to present an integrated picture of early Buddhism 178 But according to Gethin the bodhipakkhiyadhamma provide a key to understanding the relationship between calm and insight in early Buddhist meditation theory bringing together the practice of jhana with the development of wisdom 179 Nirvana edit As cessation and ending of rebirth edit Most modern scholars such as Rupert Gethin Richard Gombrich and Paul Williams hold that the goal of early Buddhism nirvaṇa nibbana in Pali also called nibbanadhatu the property of nibbana means the blowing out or extinguishing of greed aversion and delusion the simile used in texts is that of a flame going out and that this signifies the permanent cessation of samsara and rebirth 180 181 182 183 note 29 As Gethin notes this is not a thing but an event or experience that frees one from rebirth in samsara 180 Gombrich argues that the metaphor of blowing out refers to fires which were kept by priests of Brahmanism and symbolize life in the world 184 According to Donald Swearer the journey to nirvana is not a journey to a separate reality but a move towards calm equanimity nonattachment and nonself 185 Thomas Kasulis notes that in the early texts nirvana is often described in negative terms including cessation nirodha the absence of craving trsnaksaya detachment the absence of delusion and the unconditioned asamskrta 186 He also notes that there is little discussion in the early buddhist texts about the metaphysical nature of nirvana since they seem to hold that metaphysical speculation is an obstacle to the goal Kasulis mentions the Malunkyaputta sutta which denies any view about the existence of the Buddha after his final bodily death all positions the Buddha exists after death does not exist both or neither are rejected 186 Likewise another sutta AN II 161 has Sariputta saying that asking the question is there anything else after the physical death of someone who has attained nibbana is conceptualizing or proliferating papanca about that which is without proliferation appapancaṃ and thus a kind of distorted thinking bound up with the self 187 As a kind of consciousness or a place edit Edward Conze argued that nirvana was a kind of Absolute He mentions ideas like the person pudgala the assumption of an eternal consciousness in the Saddhatu sutra the identification of the Absolute of Nirvana with an invisible infinite consciousness which shines everywhere in Digha Nikaya XI 85 and traces of a belief in consciousness as the nonimpermanent centre of the personality which constitutes an absolute element in this contingent world as pointing to this 92 Influenced by Schayer M Falk argues that the early Buddhist view of nirvana is that it is an abode or place of prajna which is gained by the enlightened note 30 96 note 31 This nirvanic element as an essence or pure consciousness is immanent within samsara The three bodies are concentric realities which are stripped away or abandoned leaving only the nirodhakaya of the liberated person 96 note 32 A similar view is also defended by C Lindtner who argues that in precanonical Buddhism Nirvana is a place one can actually go to It is called nirvanadhatu has no border signs animitta is localized somewhere beyond the other six dhatus beginning with earth and ending with vijnana but is closest to akasa and vijnana One cannot visualize it it is anidarsana but it provides one with firm ground under one s feet it is dhruva once there one will not slip back it is acyutapada As opposed to this world it is a pleasant place to be in it is sukha things work well note 33 According to Lindtner Canonical Buddhism was a reaction to this view but also against the absolutist tendencies in Jainism and the Upanisads Nirvana came to be seen as a state of mind instead of a concrete place 11 Elements of this precanonical Buddhism may have survived the canonisation and its subsequent filtering out of ideas and re appeared in Mahayana Buddhism 11 89 According to Lindtner the existence of multiple and contradicting ideas is also reflected in the works of Nagarjuna who tried to harmonize these different ideas According to Lindtner this lead him to taking a paradoxical stance for instance regarding nirvana rejecting any positive description 11 Referring to this view Alexander Wynne holds that there is no evidence in the Sutta Pitaka that the Buddha held this view at best it only shows that some of the early Buddhists were influenced by their Brahminic peers 189 Wynne concludes that the Buddha rejected the views of the vedas and that his teachings present a radical departure from these brahminical beliefs 189 See also editAtthakavagga and Parayanavagga Buddhist Paths to liberation Basic Points Unifying the Theravada and the Mahayana Buddhist councils History of Buddhism Index of Buddhism related articles Outline of BuddhismNotes edit a b c A K Warder a reconstruction of the original Buddhism presupposed by the traditions of the different schools known to us 6 This kernel of doctrine is presumably common Buddhism of the period before the schisms of the fourth and third centuries BC It may be substantially the Buddhism of the Buddha himself 6 See also Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga Interpretation as heterodox Collin Cox Virtually all later sources agree that the first schism within the early Buddhist community occurred with the separation of the Mahasamghika school or those of the great community from the remaining monks referred to as Sthaviras or the elders 21 See also Atthakavagga and Parayanavagga Flood amp Olivelle The second half of the first millennium BCE was the period that created many of the ideological and institutional elements that characterize later Indian religions The renouncer tradition played a central role during this formative period of Indian religious history Some of the fundamental values and beliefs that we generally associate with Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular were in part the creation of the renouncer tradition These include the two pillars of Indian theologies samsara the belief that life in this world is one of suffering and subject to repeated deaths and births rebirth moksa nirvana the goal of human existence 34 J W De Jong It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of earliest Buddhism the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him the Buddha transmitted and developed by his disciples and finally codified in fixed formulas 5 Warder When we examine the Tripitakas of the eighteen schools so far as they are extant we find an agreement which is substantial though not complete Even the most conservative of the early schools seem to have added new texts to their collections However there is a central body of sutras dialogues in four groups which is so similar in all known versions that we must accept these as so many recensions of the same original texts These make up the greater part of the Sutra Pitaka 25 Most of these non Indian texts are only available in a Chinese translation with the exception of some individual scriptures found in Nepal which are composed in Sanskrit 6 The Gandharan Buddhist texts were recovered from Afghanistan The central body of sutras in these texts is so similar that they are considered to be different recensions of the same text 6 The Digha Nikaya Majjhima Nikaya Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya Nakamura It has been made clear that some poem Gatha portions and some phrases represent earlier layers Based upon these portions of the scriptures we can construe aspects of original Buddhism Buddhism as appears in earlier portions of the scriptures is fairly different from what is explained by many scholars as earlier Buddhism or primitive Buddhism 51 Well known proponents of the first position are A K Warder quote 3 and Richard Gombrich 65 quote 4 A proponent of the second position is Ronald Davidson quote 5 Well known proponent of the third position are J W de Jong 5 quote 2 Johannes Bronkhorst quote 6 and Donald Lopez quote 7 quote from Schayer 1935 p 124 Sammyuta Nikaya 56 11 Mara is deeply rooted in Indo European mythology See also Mare folklore According to Bronkhorst the Buddha s approach was a psychological one He explains the incorporation of inactivity asceticism as effected by followers of the Buddha who misunderstood the Buddha s understanding of karma Bronkhorst himself asks the question where this different view of karma came from and speculates that the Buddha may have inherited it from his parents or modified his views in this respect in the light of the experiences that led to or constituted his liberation 111 Bronkhorst Frauwallner 1953 217 253 Schmithausen 1969 160 161 Bhattacharya 1973 116 See also Bronkhorst 2009 Buddhist Teaching in India p 22 ff See also Anderson 1999 The appearance of the four noble truths in the introduction enlightenment and gerundival sets in the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta provide evidence for Norman s correct conclusion that the teaching was probably not part of the earliest version of the Sutta 119 Batchelor 2012 In a 1992 paper entitled The Four Noble Truths Norman offers a detailed philological analysis of The First Discourse and arrives at the startling conclusion that the earliest form of this sutta did not include the word ariya sacca noble truth Norman 2003 223 On grammatical and syntactical grounds he shows how the expression noble truth was inexpertly interpolated into the text at a later date than its original composition But since no such original text has come down to us we cannot know what it did say All that can reasonably be deduced is that instead of talking of four noble truths the text merely spoke of four 120 See Louis de La Vallee Poussin Musial and Narad Translated from the French by Gelongma Migme Chodron and Gelong Lodro Sangpo In his often cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of Liberating Insight and Enlightenment in Early Buddhism Wynne Thus the expression sato sampajano in the third jhana must denote a state of awareness different from the meditative absorption of the second jhana cetaso ekodibhava It suggests that the subject is doing something different from remaining in a meditative state i e that he has come out of his absorption and is now once again aware of objects The same is true of the word upek k ha it does not denote an abstract equanimity but it means to be aware of something and indifferent to it The third and fourth jhana s as it seems to me describe the process of directing states of meditative absorption towards the mindful awareness of objects 140 Majjhima Nikaya 26 Anguttara Nikaya II 45 PTS Samyutta Nikaya III 140 142 PTS In his 1970 publication Indian Buddhism which predates the discoveries of Norman Schmithausen Vetter Bronkhorst and Gombrich Digha Nikaya 10 Samyutta Nikaya IV 251 and IV 261 Digha Nikaya 15 Mahanidana Sutta which describes a nine fold chain of causation Mind and body nama rupa and consciousness vijnana do condition here each other verse 2 amp 3 In verse 21 and 22 it is stated that consciousness comes into the mother s womb and finds a resting place in mind and body 188 M Falk 1943 Nama rupa and Dharma rupa According to Alexander Wynne Schayer referred to passages in which consciousness vinnana seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum e g A I 10 14 as well as the Saddhatu Sutra which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist texts it states that the personality pudgala consists of the six elements dhatu of earth water fire wind space and consciousness Schayer noted that it related to other ancient Indian ideas Keith s argument is also based on the Saddhatu Sutra as well as passages where we have explanations of Nirvana which echo the ideas of the Upanishads regarding the ultimate reality He also refers to the doctrine of a consciousness originally pure defiled by adventitious impurities 93 Lindtner 1997 Cited in Wynne 2007 p 99 Quotations edit a b Leon Hurvitz stressed that the written canon in Buddhism is sectarian from the outset and that presectarian Buddhism must be deduced from the writings as they now exist 1 quote via Google Scholar search engine a b J W De Jong It would be hypocritical to assert that nothing can be said about the doctrine of earliest Buddhism the basic ideas of Buddhism found in the canonical writings could very well have been proclaimed by him the Buddha transmitted and developed by his disciples and finally codified in fixed formulas 5 According to A K Warder in his 1970 publication Indian Buddhism from the oldest extant texts a common kernel can be drawn out 63 According to Warder c q his publisher This kernel of doctrine is presumably common Buddhism of the period before the great schisms of the fourth and third centuries BC It may be substantially the Buddhism of the Buddha himself although this cannot be proved at any rate it is a Buddhism presupposed by the schools as existing about a hundred years after the parinirvana of the Buddha and there is no evidence to suggest that it was formulated by anyone else than the Buddha and his immediate followers 64 Richard Gombrich I have the greatest difficulty in accepting that the main edifice is not the work of a single genius By the main edifice I mean the collections of the main body of sermons the four Nikayas and of the main body of monastic rules 54 Ronald Davidson While most scholars agree that there was a rough body of sacred literature disputed sic that a relatively early community disputed sic maintained and transmitted we have little confidence that much if any of surviving Buddhist scripture is actually the word of the historic Buddha 66 Bronkhorst This position is to be preferred to ii for purely methodological reasons only those who seek nay find even if no success is guaranteed 62 Lopez The original teachings of the historical Buddha are extremely difficult if not impossible to recover or reconstruct 67 Gombrich I know this is controversial but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhanas are thus quite unlike the second 137 References edit a b c d Hurvitz 1976 a b c Nakamura 1989 a b c Hirakawa 1990 Gombrich 1997 p 11 12 a b c d Jong 1993 p 25 a b c d e f g h Warder 1999 a b Mizuno Kogen 1982 p 16 Sujato 2012 p page needed Sujato 2012 pp 81 82 Gombrich 1997 p 11 12 a b c d e f g Lindtner 1997 Mun keat 2000 p ix Schmithausen 1987 Part I Earliest Buddhism Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference Vol II Earliest Buddhism and Madhyamaka ed David Seyfort Ruegg and Lambert Schmithausen Leiden Kern Institute pp 1 4 Warder 2000 p 262 Vetter 1988 pp 101 106 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bronkhorst 1993 a b c Lindtner 1999 a b Wynne 2007 Griffiths Paul J 1983 Buddhist Jhana A Form Critical Study Religion 13 pp 55 68 Collins Steven 1990 On the Very Idea of the Pali Canon Journal of the Pali Text Society 15 pp 89 126 a b Cox 2004 p 502 Lamotte Etienne 1988 History of Indian Buddhism From the Origins to the Saka Era translated from the French by Sara Boin Webb Louvain Peeters Press Hirakawa Akira 1990 A History of Indian Buddhism From Sakyamuni to Early Mahayana tr Paul Groner University of Hawaii Press Cox 1995 p 23 a b Warder 1999 p 5 Potter 1996 pp 31 32 a b c d Samuel 2010 p page needed Nilakanta Sastri 1988 p 300 a b Warder 2004 p 32 33 Norman 1997 p 28 Warder 2004 p 35 Svarghese 2008 p 259 260 Samuel 2008 p 8 a b Flood amp Olivelle 2003 p 273 274 Norman 1997 p 28 29 a b c d Vetter 1988 p ix Potter 1996 p 32 Beal Samuel 1884 Buddhism in China Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Sujato amp Brahmali 2015 p 40 Anesaki Masaharu The Four Buddhist Agamas in Chinese a concordance of their parts and of the corresponding counterparts in the Pali Nikayas Kelly and Walsh 1908 Chau Thich Minh The Chinese Madhyama Agama and the Pali Majjhima Nikaya A Comparative Study Saigon Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies 1964 Akanuma C The Comparative Catalogue of Chinese Agamas amp Pali Nikayas Hajinkaku Shobō 1958 Yin Shun Za ahan jing Han Ba duizhaobiao A Comparative Table of SA to the Pali texts In FSA Foguang Tripitaka Vol 4 1983 pp 3 72 Analayo 2011 p 891 A Digital Comparative Edition and Partial Translation of the Shorter Chinese Saṁyukta Agama T 100 Translated by Bingenheimer Marcus 2011 Archived from the original on 2015 06 08 Choong Mun keat The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A Comparative Study Based on the Sutraṅga Portion of the Pali Saṁyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Saṁyuktagama Harrassowitz 2000 Nishimoto Ryuzan Rajuyaku Juju Bikuni Haradaimokusha Kaihon no Shutsugen narabini Shobu Sō Ni Kaihon no Taishō Kenkyu In Otani Gakuhō 9 2 May 1928 pp 27 60 Sujato amp Brahmali 2015 pp 39 41 a b Gethin 2008 p xviii a b Harvey 1990 p 3 a b Nakamura 1989 p 57 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Vetter 1988 Schmithausen 1990 a b c d e f Gombrich 1997 Sujato amp Brahmali 2015 p 45 Pachow W A Comparative Study of the Pratimoksha On the Basis of its Chinese Tibetan Sanskrit and Pali Versions Motilal Banarsidass 2000 Frauwallner 1956 Rahula Bhikkhu Telwatte A Critical Study of the Mahavastu Motilal Banarsidass 1978 Reat Noble Ross The Historical Buddha and his Teachings In Potter 1996 pp 3 57 a b c Schmithausen 1981 a b Norman 1992 a b Bronkhorst 1993 p vii Warder 1999 p 0 Warder 1999 p inside flap Bronkhorst 1993 p viii Davidson 2003 p 147 Lopez 1995 p 4 Lamotte Etienne History of Indian Buddhism From the Origins to the Saka Era Publications de l Institut orientaliste de Louvain Universite catholique de Louvain Institut orientaliste 1988 p 639 a b Nakamura 1980 p 57 Nakamura 1980 pp 57 58 Gethin 2008 p xxi Gombrich 2006a p 21 Warder 2000 p 4 Warder 2000 p 5 a b c d Wynne Alexander 2005 The Historical Authenticity of Early Buddhist Literature Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sudasiens Vienna Journal of South Asian Studies Wien Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften XLIX 35 70 Conze 2000 p 1 Conze 2000 p 2 Conze 2000 p 3 Mizuno Kogen 1982 pp 22 26 Mizuno Kogen 1982 p 29 Davidson 2004 p 147 Schopen 1997 p 30 Schopen 1997 p 1 Schopen 1997 pp 23 24 Schopen 1997 p 24 a b Schopen 1997 p 25 Schopen 1997 pp 26 27 a b c d e f g h Regamey Constantin The Question of Primitive Buddhism in the Closing works of Stanislaw Schayer The Eastern Buddhist 48 1 23 47 c 2019 The Eastern Buddhist Society a b Akizuki 1990 p 25 27 Ray 1999 p page needed a b Reat Noble Ross 1998 The Salistamba Sutra Motilal Banarsidass p xi a b c Conze 1967 p 10 a b Wynne 2007 p 99 Ray 1999 p 374 Ray 1999 pp 374 377 a b c Ray 1999 p 375 Conze 1967 p 11 Lindtner Christian 1997 The Problem of Precanonical Buddhism Buddhist Studies Review 14 2 109 139 doi 10 1558 bsrv v14i2 14851 S2CID 247883744 a b c Vetter 1988 p xxviii a b c Anderson 1999 a b Bucknell 1984 a b Vetter 1988 p xxxiii a b Bronkhorst 1998 p 3 Conze 2008 p vi a b c Conze 2008 p viii Bronkhorst 1998 Bronkhorst 1998 p 13 14 a b Bronkhorst 1998 p 14 Bronkhorst 1998 p 14 15 Bronkhorst 1998 p 15 a b Bronkhorst 1998 p 16 a b Matthews 1986 p 124 Schmithausen 1986 Bronkhorst 1998 p 13 Schmithausen 1986 p 206 207 a b Bronkhorst 1993 p 99 Shulman 2014 p 187 Shulman 2014 pp 188 189 Anderson 1999 p 20 Batchelor 2012 p 92 Anderson 1999 p viii Anderson 1999 p 21 Anderson 1999 p 17 Bronkhorst 1993 pp 99 100 102 111 a b Bronkhorst 1993 p 108 Bronkhorst 1993 p 107 Bucknell 1984 p 11 12 Carr amp Mahalingam 1997 p 948 Polak 2011 Kalupahana 1994 p 24 a b c d Norman 1997 p 29 a b Gombrich 1997 p 131 Bronkhorst 1993 pp 133 134 a b Vetter 1988 pp xxi xxii Vetter 1988 pp xxi xxxvii a b Vetter 1988 p xxvii a b c Wynne 2007 p 140 note 58 Gombrich Richard 18 February 2011 Religious Experience in Early Buddhism Seminar Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies a b c d Wynne 2007 p 106 Wynne 2007 p 106 107 Cousins 1996 p 58 Vetter 1988 p xxx Vetter 1988 pp xxxiv xxxvii Norman 1997 p 30 Vetter 1988 pp xxix xxxi Bronkhorst 1993 pp 100 101 Bronkhorst 1993 p 101 Gombrich 1997 p 96 134 a b c Vetter 1988 p xxxv Vetter 1988 p xxxvi Vetter 1988 pp xxxvi xxxvii a b Wynne 2007 p 105 Williams 2000 p 45 Gethin 2001 p xiv Analayo 2017 p 98 Analayo 2016 p 40 Keown Damien 1992 2001 The Nature of Buddhist Ethics p 79 82 New York Palgrave Cox Collett 1992 1994 Attainment through Abandonment The Sarvastivada Path of Removing Defilements in Paths to Liberation The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought R E Buswell jr and R M Gimello ed 63 105 Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Arbel 2017 Arbel 2016 Harvey 2015 pp 50 59 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4 Conze Edward 1967 Thirty years of Buddhis Studies Selected essays by Edward Conze PDF Bruno Cassirer Conze Edward 2000 Buddhism A Short History Oneworld Conze Edward 2008 Buddhism A Short History Oneworld Cousins L S 1996 The dating of the historical Buddha a review article Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Third Series 6 1 57 63 doi 10 1017 S1356186300014760 S2CID 162929573 Cox Collett 1995 Disputed Dharmas Early Buddhist Theories on Existence Tokyo The Institute for Buddhist Studies ISBN 4 906267 36 X Cox Collett Mainstream Buddhist Schools In Buswell 2004 Davidson Ronald M 2003 Indian Esoteric Buddhism Social History of the Tantric Movement Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 12618 2 Davidson Ronald M 2004 Indian Esoteric Buddhism Social History of the Tantric Movement Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 8 120 81991 7 Flood Gavin Olivelle Patrick 2003 The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism Blackwell Frauwallner Erich 1956 The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature Serie Orientale Roma Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente Frauwallner Erich 1973 Chapter 5 The Buddha and the Jina History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1 The philosophy of the Veda and of the epic The Buddha and the Jina The Samkhya and the classical Yoga system translated by V M Bedekar Motilal Banarsidass Gethin Rupert 1998 Foundations of Buddhism Oxford University Press Gethin Rupert 2001 1992 The Buddhist Path to Awakening 2nd ed Oxford Oneworld Publications Gethin Rupert 2008 Sayings of the Buddha New Translations from the Pali Nikayas Oxford World s Classics Oxford University Press Gombrich Richard F 1997 How Buddhism Began The conditioned genesis of the early teachings Munshiram Manoharlal ISBN 978 8 121 50812 4 Gombrich Richard F 2006 How Buddhism Began The conditioned genesis of the early teachings 2nd ed Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 37123 0 Gombrich Richard F 2006a Theravada Buddhism A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices Routledge ISBN 978 1 134 90352 8 Gombrich Richard F 2009 Chapter 9 Causation and non random process What the Buddha Thought Equinox Harrison Paul Mahasamghika School In Buswell 2004 Harvey Peter 1990 An Introduction to Buddhism Teachings History and Practices Introduction to Religion Cambridge University Press Harvey Peter 2015 The Conditioned Co arising of Mental and Bodily Processes within Life and Between Lives in Emmanuel Steven M ed A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy John Wiley amp Sons ISBN 978 1 119 14466 3 Hirakawa 1990 History of Indian Buddhism volume 1 Hawai i University Press Hurvitz Leon 1976 Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma Columbia University Press Jones Dhivan Thomas 2009 New Light on the Twelve Nidanas Contemporary Buddhism 10 2 10 2 241 259 doi 10 1080 14639940903239793 S2CID 145413087 Jong J W de 1993 The Beginnings of Buddhism The Eastern Buddhist 26 2 Jurewicz Joanna 2000 Playing with Fire The pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought PDF Journal of the Pali Text Society 26 77 103 archived from the original PDF on 2015 04 09 retrieved 2018 10 12 Kalupahana David J 1994 A history of Buddhist philosophy Delhi Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited Lindtner Christian 1997 The Problem of Precanonical Buddhism Buddhist Studies Review 14 2 2 doi 10 1558 bsrv v14i2 14851 S2CID 247883744 Lindtner Christian 1999 From Brahmanism to Buddhism Asian Philosophy 9 1 5 37 doi 10 1080 09552369908575487 Lopez Donald S 1995 Buddhism in Practice PDF Princeton University Press archived from the original PDF on 2017 07 08 Matthews Bruce 1986 Post Classical Developments In The Concepts of Karma and Rebirth in Theravada Buddhism In Ronald W Neufeldt ed Karma and rebirth Post classical developments SUNY Mizuno Kogen 1982 Buddhist Sutras Origin Development Transmission Kosei Mun keat Choong 2000 The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism A comparative study based on the Sutranga portion of the Pali Sarpyutta Nikaya and the Chinese Sarpyuktagama Harrassowitz Verlag Nakamura Hajime 1980 Indian Buddhism a survey with bibliographical notes Intercultural Research Institute monograph series KUFS Publication Nakamura Hajime 1989 Indian Buddhism Motilal Banarsidass Nilakanta Sastri K A 1988 Age of the Nandas and Mauryas Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 0466 1 Norman K R 1992 The Four Noble Truths Collected Papers vol 2 Pali Text Society published 2003 pp 210 223 Norman K R 1997 A Philological Approach to Buddhism The Bukkyo Dendo Kybkai Lectures 1994 PDF School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Polak Grzegorz 2011 Reexamining Jhana Towards a Critical Reconstruction of Early Buddhist Soteriology UMCS Potter Karl H ed 1996 Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies Part VII Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A D Motilall Banarsidass Ray Reginald 1999 Buddhist Saints in India A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations Oxford University Press Samuel Geoffrey 2008 The Origins of Yoga and Tantra Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century Cambridge University Press Samuel Geoffrey 2010 The Origins of Yoga and Tantra Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century Cambridge University Press Schmithausen Lambert 1981 On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of Liberating Insight and Enlightenment in Early Buddhism in Klaus Bruhn and Albrecht Wezler ed Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus Gedenkschrift fur Ludwig Alsdorf Studies on Jainism and Buddhism Memorial for Ludwig Alsdorf Wiesbaden pp 199 250 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Schmithausen Lambert 1986 Critical Response in Ronald W Neufeldt ed Karma and rebirth Post classical developments SUNY Schmithausen Lambert 1990 Buddhism and Nature Tokyo OCLC 697272229 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Schopen Gregory 1997 Bones Stones and Buddhist Monks University of Hawai i Press ISBN 9780824817480 Schumann Hans Wolfgang 1997 1976 Boeddhisme Stichter scholen systemen Buddhism Founder schools systems Asoka Shulman Eviatar April 2008 Early Meanings of Dependent Origination Journal of Indian Philosophy 36 2 297 317 doi 10 1007 s10781 007 9030 8 S2CID 59132368 Shulman Eviatar 2014 Rethinking the Buddha Early Buddhist Philosophy as Meditative Perception Cambridge University Press Sujato Bhante 2012 Sects amp Sectarianism The Origins of Buddhist Schools PDF Santipada ISBN 9781921842061 archived from the original PDF on December 18 2018 Sujato Bhante Brahmali Bhikkhu 2015 The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts PDF Chroniker Press ISBN 9781312911505 Svarghese Alexander P 2008 India History Religion Vision And Contribution To The World Vetter Tilmann 1988 The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism BRILL Walshe Maurice 1995 The Long Discourses of the Buddha A Translation of the Digha Nikaya Wisdom Publications Warder A K 1999 Indian Buddhism Delhi a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Warder A K 2000 Indian Buddhism Motilal Banarsidass Publ Warder A K 2004 Indian Buddhism 3rd Revised edition Motilal Banarsidass Publ Wayman Alex 1971 Buddhist Dependent Origination History of Religions 10 3 185 203 doi 10 1086 462628 JSTOR 1062009 S2CID 161507469 Wayman Alex 1984a Dependent Origination the Indo Tibetan Vision Buddhist Insight Essays Motilal Banarsidass pp 163 192 Wayman Alex 1984b The Intermediate State Dispute in Buddhism Buddhist Insight Essays Motilal Banarsidass pp 251 266 Wayman Alex 1990 1984 Elder George R ed Budddhist Insight Essays Motilall Banarsidass ISBN 978 81 208 0675 7 Williams Paul 2000 Mahayana Buddhism The Doctrinal Foundations Routledge Wynne Alexander 2007 The Origin of Buddhist Meditation RoutledgeFurther reading editHistory of Buddhism general Bronkhorst Johannes 1993 The Two Traditions Of Meditation In Ancient India Motilal Banarsidass Publ Gombrich Richard F 1997 How Buddhism Began Munshiram Manoharlal Norman K R 1997 A Philological Approach to Buddhism The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Lectures 1994 PDF School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Samuel Geoffrey 2010 The Origins of Yoga and Tantra Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century Cambridge University PressEarly BuddhismSchmithausen Lambert 1981 On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of Liberating Insight and Enlightenment in Early Buddhism In Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus Gedenkschrift fur Ludwig Alsdorf hrsg von Klaus Bruhn und Albrecht Wezler Wiesbaden 1981 199 250 Vetter Tilmann 1988 The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism BRILL Wynne Alexander 2007 The Origin of Buddhist Meditation RoutledgeModern understandingExternal links editA handful of Leaves Essential publications on Buddhist history Louis de La Vallee Poussin Musial and Narad Translated from the French by Gelongma Migme Chodron and Gelong Lodro Sangpo Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pre sectarian Buddhism amp oldid 1189249947, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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