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Why is it that Buddhism never compiled a reasonably concise set of canonical texts like the Bible?
One could equally ask, "why didn't Christianity compile a lengthy and diverse set of canonical texts like the Tripiṭaka?"
The thing is, Buddhism does have a canonical set of texts that are widely viewed by all major Buddhist traditions as canonical (as far as ...
22
According to the texts (Cv 10), after the Buddha returned to visit his father in Kapilavatthu, his aunt and step-mother, Mahapajapati Gotami, followed him back to Vesali and eventually ordained her using the eight garu dhammas as her higher ordination. He then gave the injunction that the male monks were to ordain the female monks, which was the beginning of ...
20
The orthodox view is that samatha meditation was not discovered by the Buddha and vipassana meditation was.
On the origins of samatha meditation:
Besides the fact that other teachers at the time of the Buddha and before were practicing what appears to be samatha and jhana, we have the fact that the Bodhisatta went into the first jhana as a young boy, and ...
16
"I also was under the impression that perfectly enlightened beings have obliterated, or rendered ineffective, all of their karma"
The five skhandas are roughly understood as "past kamma". Even arahants experience the fruits of their past kamma and are only free of it in parinibbana. For example, there are suttas describing arahants being hurt. In the case ...
14
India (the modern country) didn't exist when the Buddha was born.
The Buddha was born near modern-day Northern India or Nepal.
Wikipedia's Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent says,
[This] refers to a gradual process of dwindling and replacement of Buddhism in India, which ended around the 12th century. According to Lars Fogelin, this was "...
13
This is from Hajimi Nakamura's "Gotama Buddha" vol. 1
Sorry about the quality...
1st 36 varanasi migadayavana
2nd 37 Vulture Peak Veluvana
3rd 38 Vulture Peak Veluvana
4th 39 Vulture Peak Veluvana
5th 40 Vesali Mahavana
6th(...
13
There is nothing supernatural about chakras. They are psychosomatic phenomena; they exist only in the subjective world of a person. That's why you can't photograph a chakra, or measure its "field intensity" with some kind of device.
If you inspect your subtle tactile perceptions, you will surely notice feelings in and around your chest, stomach, forehead, ...
12
Buddha did not experience suffering(mental). He experienced pain due to poor health during his final days. Enlightened beings do not create new Karmas. Also, they have removed the potential of all their past Karmas to give future births. But they can still face the consequences while they live.
11
It's hard to answer these kind of things with a negative but I'm going to be bold and do that with caveats. I haven't heard of Stoicism itself being directly influenced by Buddhism but.....
There is evidence that Indian Philosophy was influencing Greek philosophy
The founder of skepticism Pyrrho travelled with Alexander the Great into India and was said to ...
10
I think it is mistaken to think that Christianity just has the Bible as it's authority and everything else is dispensable. That idea only showed up at the time of the protestant reformation, and before that, the writings of the Church fathers (which are quite voluminous) and books on theology were regarded as an absolutely essential part of Christian ...
9
The oldest existing manuscript clearly identified as Mahāyāna is a birch bark manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sutra or Discourse on Perfect Wisdom consisting of 8000 [Lines]. This manuscript was carbon dated to 47~147 CE. A version of this text was translated into Chinese in 179 CE by Lokakṣema and was amongst the first few Buddhist texts ...
9
As I was just explaining in a comment to one of my answers, the term "Hinayana" is widely used by Tibetan Buddhism teachers to refer to basic/elementary/foundational (and because of this often simplified) aspects of Buddha-Dharma. If you'd go to their lectures, you'd hear this notion of Hinayana-understanding vs. Mahayana-understanding discussed in almost ...
9
This refers to a dream that Queen Maya had after trying for many years to have a baby with her husband. The reality is, they wrote that he was born to a woman who had been married for twenty years,
This Blog will help to clear your idea. http://www.rightreason.org/2009/the-virgin-birth-of-buddha/
8
I think the invasions of India cannot be a sufficient reason for the decline of Buddhism. Much more is needed to destroy a religion than the destruction of holy sites (think about the followers!). Apart from that, Hinduism must have been at least as offensive to the piety of Muslim invaders - if not more offensive for obvious polytheistic idolatry - than ...
8
In Pāḷi texts, the right shoulder is not specified. The standard description of a monk meeting the Buddha says
ekaṃsaṃ uttarāsaṅgaṃ karoti (Vin 1.46)
he arranged his robe over one shoulder.
However the right side of the body is generally emphasised, e.g.
Atha kho so, bhikkhave, mahābrahmā ekaṃsaṃ uttarāsaṅgaṃ karitvā dakkhiṇaṃ jāṇumaṇḍalaṃ pathaviyaṃ ...
8
It did not. The Canon is an integral part of Mahayana, has always been.
In Chinese Mahayana, the Canon is included in the form of Agamas (translated to Chinese). In Tibetan Mahayana, the Canon is a part of Kangyur (translated from Chinese or Sanskrit to Tibetan). Most of those are the same sutras as in Pali, just with slightly different wording. Some are ...
8
I encourage you to read the following: Bhikkhu Sujato & Bhikkhu Brahmali. The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts.
In this work, their project is to investigate the question of authencity systematically. In that, the approach is quiet academic and might be to your liking.
Page 7, they state a feature of the early Buddhist texts:
The Buddha’s ...
8
Lumbini, Nepal has been recognized as the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama since a stone pillar was placed at the site by the emperor Ashoka circa 245 BCE.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbini
8
Prince Siddhartha was raised, according to Buddhist texts, in Kapilawastu (I will not present sources for this as I think this would be undisputed).
The modern name for Kapilawastu is unknown: I will quote a note from Wikipedia page for Gautama Buddha.
The exact location of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa in Uttar Pradesh,...
7
There is a legend that Bodhidharma instructed the monks at the Shaolin Monastery in ways to increase their physical fitness. These exercises later became the Shaolon kung fu. As one of the documents involved seems to be a forgery, scholars now doubt this connection.
Also see here and here.
Additionally the concept of Do has influenced many japanese ...
7
In Theravada, robes may be made of six types of material, including linen, cotton, silk, wool, jute, or hemp (Mv.VIII.3.1). I've got a wool robe myself and it works fine in Canadian winters, so that shouldn't be a factor.
There may have been other geographic-based reasons, though; other aspects of monastic discipline might have made it difficult to practice ...
7
The origin of 108 in the ancient buddhist scriptures seems to be from the total number of feelings classified in different ways by the Buddha:
"Monks, I will teach you a one-hundred-and-eight exposition that is a
Dhamma exposition. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."
"As you say, lord," the monks responded.
The Blessed One ...
7
As far as I know Queen Maya is not described as a virgin anywhere in the Pali canon, but she was believed to be sterile by most Burmese Buddhists. The account of the Buddha's birth is derived from Acchariyabbhuta dhamma Sutta of Majjhima Nikaya
7
Was Buddha born of a Virgin?
No. Tathagata Buddha was born as normal human being. He was named "Siddhartha Gautama". His birth is elaborated in some details over here
About the reference which you have given, the source from where you "got" this information - in my opinion this source is dangerous and is against Buddhist vision itself. It equates Krishna ...
7
Taking refuge in the 3 jewels of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha was recommended by the Buddha as providing protection from certain afflictions. It is specifically mentioned in the Dhajagga-paritta ("Banner Protection") - SN 11.3. Dhajagga-paritta is about the recollections of the Three Jewels, and is for the lay followers for protection against fear, trembling ...
6
Why did physical representations of the Buddha only start to appear a few centuries after his death?
It seems that recent scholarship on Buddhism, at least outside the field of art history, has tended to downplay this change. Donald Lopez has written, in a chapter called “The Idol” in his From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha (pp.37-8):
Art historians have observed this absence [of early Buddha images] and inferred that the Buddha, or his ...
6
The Buddha praised princess Yashodara's virtue by dispensing the Channakinnara Jataka when he visited her at Kapilavatthu. Yashodara has never been a wife to another man since the life when Bodhisatva received the confirmation from Deepankara Buddha to become a Buddha in the future. The Bodhisatva was always her husband.
So the Bodhisatva and his family ...
6
I’m not sure what you mean by six stages here. Actually, it seems that the rebirth/samsara concept was not that old when Buddhism came on the scene. Gananath Obeyesekere is an anthropologist who wrote a book about rebirth across a range of cultures. He begins by trying to situate the Buddhist idea of ethical rebirth in the history of Indian religion:
I ...
6
Based on the Introduction in "Buddhist Religions" by Robinson, Johnson, and Thanissaro (5th ed.), one option could be to use Śrāvakayāna. Those authors discuss Buddhism as being more like three (at least) religions within a single family, than one single religion. Those three are:
The Theravāda tradition, centered on the Pali Canon, and dominated by the ...
6
The number 108 comes from the Vedas - so it predates Buddhism by at least a millennium. I did a lot of research on the topic last year, and found that there were two major numerological memes in Asia: 7/21 and 27/108. The latter goes back to Vedas and the earlier seems to be of Chinese origins.
Interaction of two memes is reflected in design of Zen mala, ...
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