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Tibetan Buddhism has a unique and special class of texts called terma (Tibetan: gTer-ma). These are texts (or ritual objects, etc.) believed either composed or hidden by tantric masters and/or elementally secreted or encoded in the elements and retrieved, accessed or rediscovered by other tantric masters when appropriate.
In Sri Lanka, the Mahāvaṁsa, which tells the history of Buddhism on the island, was used to provide a mythic authority for the civil war against the Tamil Tigers. This text tells the tale of the revered King Duṭṭhagaminī who expelled the Tamil invaders and felt remorse for killing, a violation of the most fundamental Buddhist precept ...
Throughout the history of Buddhism, Buddhists have also venerated and relied on numerous other supranormal beings or spirits. One important class of beings are the yakṣas, nature-spirits, usually benevolent, who are caretakers of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. [24]
The Buddha's tribe of origin, the Shakyas, seems to have had non-Vedic religious practices which persist in Buddhism, such as the veneration of trees and sacred groves, and the worship of tree spirits (yakkhas) and serpent beings (nagas). They also seem to have built burial mounds called stupas. [87]
Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, is also venerated as a manifestation of God in Hinduism and the Baháʼí Faith. [1] Some Hindu texts regard Buddha as an avatar of the god Vishnu, who came to Earth to delude beings away from the Vedic religion. [2] Some Non-denominational and Quranist Muslims believe he was a prophet.
Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to the West in the 20th century. [12] According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of development which leads to awakening and full liberation from dukkha (lit. ' suffering or unease ' [note 1]).
Buddhism flourished under the Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian kings. One of the most famous Indo-Greek kings is Menander (reigned c. 160–135 BCE). He may have converted to Buddhism [65] and is presented in the Mahāyāna tradition as one of the great benefactors of the faith, on a par with king Aśoka or the later Kushan king Kaniśka.
Although the main source of writings describing eschatological beliefs in Chinese Buddhism are so called “apocryphal” texts, these are an invaluable source of information in the study of Buddhism as it was actually practiced, as the available monastic sources depicting Buddhism are merely the tip of an iceberg, of which the body is still ...