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Buddha's Dispensation
The Buddha's Dispensation (Pali: ''Buddha-sāsana'') is the teaching - and dissemination of that teaching - of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. In Theravada Buddhism that teaching is considered to reside within the Pali Canon and those existing, practical traditions that remain faithful to that dispensation. The Historical Mission of the Buddha In his first sermon, ' The Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma', the Buddha explains that as a result of what he had discovered from his years long spiritual quest as a '' Samana'', it had become incumbent upon him to explain this discovery to humanity out of compassion for their welfare and happiness. The essence of this teaching was the '' Four Noble Truths''. Humanity was in a general state of suffering and alienation yet were unaware that there was a ''Path'' out of this condition. In order to escape this condition of suffering it was necessary to undertake a course of self-discipline (Pali: '' Vinaya'') that involved adopting a stri ...
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Siddhartha Gautama
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic ( sa, śramaṇa). After leading a life of begging, asceticism, and meditation, he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in what is now India. The Buddha thereafter wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain, teaching and building a monastic order. He taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to Nirvana, that is, freedom from ignorance, craving, rebirth, and suffering. His teachings are summarized in the Noble Eightfold Path, a training of the mind that includes meditation and instruction in Buddhist ethics such as right effort, mindfulness, and ''jhana''. He died in Kushi ...
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Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed Theravādins, have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhism), Buddha Dhamma'' in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia. The Pāli Canon is the most complete Buddhist canon surviving in a Indo-Aryan languages, classical Indian language, Pali, Pāli, which serves as the school's sacred language and ''lingua franca''.Crosby, Kate (2013), ''Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, and Identity'', p. 2. In contrast to ''Mahāyāna'' and ''Vajrayāna'', Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of doctrine (''pariyatti'') and monastic discipline (''vinaya''). One element of this conservatism is the fact that Theravāda rejects the authenticity of the Mahayana sutras (which appeared c. ...
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Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During the First Buddhist Council, three months after the parinibbana of Gautama Buddha in Rajgir, Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka, and Upali recited the Vinaya Pitaka. The Arhats present accepted the recitations and henceforth the teachings were preserved orally by the Sangha. The Tipitaka that was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Asoka were initially preserved orally and were later written down on palm leaves during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BCE, approximately 454 years after the death of Gautama Buddha. The claim that the texts were "spoken by the Buddha", is meant in this non-literal sense. The existence of the bhanaka tradition existing until later periods, along with other sources, shows that oral tradition conti ...
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Sampradaya
''Sampradaya'' ( sa, सम्प्रदाय; ), in Indian origin religions, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, can be translated as 'tradition', 'spiritual lineage', 'sect', or 'religious system'. To ensure continuity and transmission of dharma, various ''sampradayas'' have the Guru-shishya parampara in which parampara or lineage of successive ''gurus'' (masters) and '' shishyas'' (disciples) serves as a spiritual channel and provides a reliable network of relationships that lends stability to a religious identity. Shramana is vedic term for seeker or shishya. Identification with and followership of ''sampradayas'' is not static, as ''sampradayas'' allows flexibility where one can leave one ''sampradaya'' and enter another or practice religious syncretism by simultaneously following more than one ''sampradaya''. '' Samparda'' is a punjabi language term, used in Sikhism, for ''sampradayas''. Guru-shishya parampara Sampradayas are living traditions of ...
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Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
The ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'' (Pali; Sanskrit: ''Dharmacakrapravartana Sūtra''; English: ''The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Dharma Sutta'' or ''Promulgation of the Law Sutta'') is a Buddhist text that is considered by Buddhists to be a record of the first sermon given by Gautama Buddha, the Sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath. The main topic of this sutta is the Four Noble Truths,_which_refer_to_and_express_the_basic_orientation_of_Buddhism.html" ;"title="Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ..., which refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism">Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ..., which refer to and express the basic orientation of Buddhism in a formulaic expression. This sutta also refers to the Buddhist concepts of the Middle Way, impermanence, and Pratītyasamutpāda, dependent origination. According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha delivered this discourse on the day of Asalha Puja, in the month of Ashadha, in a deer sanctu ...
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Four Noble Truths
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones".[aFour Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encyclopaedia Britannica, Quote: "Although the term Four Noble Truths is well known in English, it is a misleading translation of the Pali term Chattari-ariya-saccani (Sanskrit: Chatvari-arya-satyani), because noble (Pali: ariya; Sanskrit: arya) refers not to the truths themselves but to those who recognize and understand them. A more accurate rendering, therefore, might be “four truths for the [spiritually] noble” [...]";[''Arhat (Buddhism)'' Encyclopædia Britannica The truths are: * '' dukkha'' (literally "suffering"; here "unsatisfactoriness") is an innate characteristic of existence in the realm of '' samsara'';
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Noble Eightfold Path
The Noble Eightfold Path (Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth, in the form of nirvana. The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right ''samadhi'' ('meditative absorption or union'; alternatively, equanimous meditative awareness). In early Buddhism, these practices started with understanding that the body-mind works in a corrupted way (right view), followed by entering the Buddhist path of self-observance, self-restraint, and cultivating kindness and compassion; and culminating in ''dhyana'' or ''samadhi'', which reinforces these practices for the development of the body-mind. In later Buddhism, insight ('' prajñā'') became the central soteriological instrument, leading to a different concept and structure of the path, in which the "goal" of the Buddhist pa ...
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Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism.Stargardt, Janice. ''Tracing Thoughts Through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma.'', Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000, page 25. Early in the language's history, it was written in the Brahmi script. Origin and development Etymology The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound , with being interpreted as the name of a particular ...
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Vinaya
The Vinaya (Pali & Sanskrit: विनय) is the division of the Buddhist canon ('' Tripitaka'') containing the rules and procedures that govern the Buddhist Sangha (community of like-minded ''sramanas''). Three parallel Vinaya traditions remain in use by modern ''sanghas'': the Theravada (Sri Lanka & Southeast Asia), Mulasarvastivada (Tibetan Buddhism and the Himalayan region) and Dharmaguptaka (East Asian Buddhism). In addition to these Vinaya traditions, Vinaya texts of several extinct schools of Indian Buddhism are preserved in the Tibetan and East Asian canons, including those of the Kāśyapīya, the Mahāsāṃghika, the Mahīśāsaka, and the Sarvāstivāda The word ''Vinaya'' is derived from a Sanskrit verb that can mean to lead, take away, train, tame, or guide, or alternately to educate or teach. It is often translated as 'discipline', with ''Dhamma-vinaya'', 'doctrine and discipline', used by the Buddha to refer to his complete teachings, suggesting its integral ...
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Buddhist Ethics
Buddhist ethics are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the Enlightenment in Buddhism, enlightened perspective of the Buddha. The term for ethics or morality used in Buddhism is ''Śīla'' or ''sīla'' (Pāli). ''Śīla'' in Buddhism is one of three sections of the Noble Eightfold Path, and is a code of conduct that embraces a commitment to harmony and self-restraint with the principal motivation being nonviolence, or freedom from causing harm. It has been variously described as virtue, moral discipline and precept. ''Sīla'' is an internal, aware, and intentional ethical behavior, according to one's commitment to the path of liberation. It is an ethical compass within self and relationships, rather than what is associated with the English word "morality" (i.e., obedience, a sense of obligation, and external constraint). ''Sīla'' is one of the Threefold Training, three practices foundational to Buddhism and the non-sectarian Vipassana movement; ''sīla,'' ''Samadhi#Bu ...
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Bhavana
''Bhāvanā'' (Pali;Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" a Sanskrit: भावना, also ''bhāvanā''Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0755-bhAvodaya.pdf .) literally means "development" or "cultivating" or "producing" in the sense of "calling into existence".Nyanatiloka (1980), p. 67. It is an important concept in Buddhist practice (''Patipatti''). The word ''bhavana'' normally appears in conjunction with another word forming a compound phrase such as ''citta-bhavana'' (the development or cultivation of the heart/mind) or ''metta-bhavana'' (the development/cultivation of lovingkindness). When used on its own, ''bhavana'' signifies contemplation and 'spiritual cultivation' generally. Etymology ''Bhavana'' derives from the word ''Bhava'' meaning ''becoming'' or the sub ...
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