Buddhism Timeline

560-480 BCE		
Siddhartha Gautama


479 CE 			
1st Council results in four factions one year after Buddha's death

	`								
469 CE 		
Approximately 16 factions ten years after Buddha's death


390 BCE  		
2nd Council declares a minority orthodox (Hinayana) and 
the majority  heretic (Mahayana)

 
297 BCE			
King Asoka converted to Buddhism; Buddha from 
small group to state religion and local religion to world religion 
as Asoka sends out Buddhist missionaries


247 BCE			
Asoka calls 3rd Council to agree on authentic 
Buddhist scriptures


1st century CE		
Perhaps as many as 500 sects of Buddhists

				
200 BCE - 200 CE	
Development of Hinayana Buddhism


2nd century		
Development of Mahayana Buddhism


320 CE to 600 CE	
Development of Vajrayana Buddhism


480 CE			
Bodhidharma goes as a Buddhist missionary to China


6th century CE		
Buddhism enters Japan


5th to 7th century CE	
Rise of Pure Land sects in China


7th to 9th century CE	
Buddhism goes to Tibet; (8th century struggle with 
local nature religion called Bonism which claimed the 
gods were angry with the acceptance of the foreign religion, 
Buddhism, by the Tibetans; Buddhism countered by installing 
local Tibetan dieties as guardian to Buddha and Bodhisattvas 
and by accepting indigenous rituals)


10th to 14th centuries CE		
Buddhism's second revival in Tibet; lamaism 
goes to the Mongol court in northern China, 
11th century reform of sexual tantric tradition


11-13th centuries CE	
India encounter's Islam, iconoclasm


13th century CE	
Founding of Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen sects in Japan


13th century CE	
Decline of Buddhism in northern India


15th century CE	
Decline of Buddhism in southern India


1920s CE		
Soviet Communist attack on Buddhism in Mongolia


1950 CE			
Beginning of Chinese Communist attack on Buddhism


1952 CE			
Formation of World Fellowship of Buddhists



Mahayana Sects

Pure Land

	
goal is eternal after death paradise called the "Pure 
 	Land of the West"
	
many Buddhas and other divine beings, some called
	Bodhisattvas, some called Dhyani Buddhas (these were
	never human but dwelt in heaven and can help humans)
	
Amitabha is most famous Dhyani Buddha and presides 
	over the western paradise called the Pure Land
	
emphasis on faith in Amitabha, just uttering his name
	is of aid
	
priests can marry, have children, eat meat, live in 
	world, organized into churches, Sunday schools with 
  	 sermons and prayers

Intuitive

Zen

 
truths of religion come not through rationality,
	study of the scripture, or faith but by sudden flash
	of insight just like the experience of the Buddha 
	under the Bodhi tree (not gotten from gurus, not from 
	asceticism, but through meditation)
	
5th century--monk Bodhidharma entered China from
	India--from China to Korea and Japan
	
scriptures, monasteries, philanthropy are of no avail
  
legends--meditated till limbs withered, cut off eyelids so 
 	 pictures without eyelids
	
enlightenment is an individual matter--persons and
	institutions cannot help
	
externals of religion are unnecessary, statues are
	attractive but not essential nor is prayer, asceticism
	and rituals
	
reason is to be distrusted, confuse reason and you will find 
 	 truth koan (puzzle) and zazen (sitting)


Vajrayana

Tibetan Buddhism

	
recitation of certain phrases, names, or "magical" words achieves 
  	 certain ends
	
incorporated original religion Bon--incantations, and spells to 
    	protect from demons
	
magic and heavy reliance on manuals (tantras)
	
dieties have two elements male and female and union
	 can be sought through sexual intercourse--this purged
	
Marpa reformed tantric excesses (1020-1097)	
	
Om mani padme hum "om, the jewel of the lotus, hum
	  wards off evil and brings good fortune
	
prayer wheel
	
lama--"superior one"
	
by th 14th century lamas more powerful than kings 	
 	
two orders  Yellow Hat (leader is Dalai Lama)
	 Red Hat Book of the Dead
	
tradition of living masters



The Teachings of the Buddha

Four Noble Truths:

		
Suffering
		
The Cause of Suffering
		
The Cessation of Suffering
		
The Path out of Suffering (The Eightfold Path)

Buddhist Doctrines Characteristic of Early Buddhism

	Interdependent Arising -- No creator God, some evidence
		that he might have believed in gods, demons and so
		forth but these are caught up in suffering also 
		just like humans; explains the arising of this 
		world as the process by which 12 constituent 
		elements are continually arising interdependently
		(ignorance, karmic predispositions, consciousness, 
		name and form, the five sense organs, the mind, contact 
    		feeling-response, craving, grasping for an object, action 
    		toward life, birth, and old age and death), a circular chain
   		with each part dependent on every other part.

	Anatman (anatta) -- nonsoulness, no self
		Soul= collection of five mental and physical aggregates (the 
    		physical body, feelings, understanding, will and consciousness)		 

The Doctrines of Karma and Anatta

How are karma and anatta reconciled?

1. Buddha did not answer--perhaps because it is unimportant.
When you are in a burning building you do not need to know metaphysics.  
You only need to know to escape the fire.

2. Some early texts simply follow the Hindu concept of my past lives, my 
karma, and ignore the anatta doctrine.  Common people are not concerned 
with logical precision.

3. Five skandhas or basic attributes of a person come together at birth and 
disperse at death leaving no enduring self.  However the actions done 
cause the another person who is a collection of five attributes to come 
together.  The first person is related to the second by the principle of 
causality but not identity.  When the flame from one stick ignites another, 
a new flame begins to burn, but nothing passes over.  Thus one person's 
deeds cause another to come alive bearing the weight of the earlier 
person's deeds but nothing like a permanent self passes over.

But moral responsibility is not avoided because:

1. Moral responsibility lies in the intent of action regarless of whether or 
not there is a permanent soul.

2. Some one else will suffer.  The goal is to have all sentient beings escape 
from suffering.  A profound altruism results, action for the sake of others 
in a wide-ranging type of compassion for all living creatures including 
those yet to be born.

3. Philosophical understanding and the popular feelings about karma are at 
odds.  The "common" folk easily tolerate such philosophical confusion.