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Chapter 7: The Religious Development of Buddhism
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:
• Explain the original tenets of Buddhism and their effects on the Indian populace.
• Recognize a common theme that runs through Buddhism and other great religions of
leader as divine, with followers endowing religious practice with myth and ritual.
Chapter Summary
Classical Buddhism is devoid of supreme deities and its austere path to salvation
involving intense self-study and a rejection of the world finds little reception among the
masses. As so often occurs in religion, the followers imbued the founder with god-like
attributes and this resulted in a more hospitable receptacle for the yearning of human
beings for the answers they sought. The influx of laypersons from a variety of statuses,
cultures and traditions gives Buddhism its heterogeneity and thus it is accurately called a
family of religions.
In India Mahayanist Buddhism was the dominant expression of Buddhism and
added to the glorification of Gautama and the identification of other deities which found
acceptance by believers seeking the reassurance of higher powers. The spread of
Buddhism in China was enhanced by the intellectual appeal of the Mahayana doctrines
and survived the changes in ruling emperors. It spread from China to Korea and from
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Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. The Founder as a Refuge
B. Lay Interests Asserted
C. A Family of Religions
II. The Spread of Buddhism in India and Southeast Asia
A. The First Two Centuries in India
B. Asoka
1. The Rock Edicts
2. Systematic Moral Education
3. Missionaries
C. Sri Lanka (Formerly Ceylon)
D. Burma and Southeast Asia
E. The General Character of the Theravada
1. A Monk’s Daily Routine
2. A Monk’s Meditation
III. The Rise of the Mahayana in India
A. The Name
B. The Locus: Northwest India
C. The First Step: Further Glorification of Gautama
D. The Next Step: Discovering Other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
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V. The Help-of-Others Message of the Mahayana
A. The Divine Authors of Salvation
1. Manushi Buddhas
2. Bodhisattvas
VI. The Mahayana Philosophies of Religion
A. The Background: The Theravadin Schools
1. The Sthaviravadins
2. Sammatiya
3. The Sarvastivadins
B. Two Mahayana Schools
1. Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika
F. Comparison with Vedanta Monism
VII. Mahayana Schools of Thought in China and Japan
A. Pure Land Schools: Jing-tu and Jōdo
1. The Jōdo Sect in Japan
2. The Jōdo–Shinshū
B. Meditative Schools: Chan and Zen
1. Actualizing Nonduality
2. Methods for Halting Duality Reasoning
VIII. Buddhism in Tibet
A. The Early “Red Hat” Sect
B. Tibetan Tantric Doctrine
C. Cosmic Spousal Pairs: Upaya and Prajna
IX. Buddhism Today
A. Myanmar (Burma)
B. Sri Lanka
Discussion Questions
1. In original Buddhism, one academic points out that the gods are virtually dethroned;
their heavenly seats become merely transitory places of reward, no deity in the
complete sense of the word exists, worship seems an absurdity, prayer has no place,
and true knowledge can be found only in the narrow circle of monks. Yet, as in other
great religions, believers saw divinity in the Buddha and brought long-established
customs and traditions into an active worship process. Why do you think Buddhism
and other religions evolved along these lines and explain why this process was
necessary for the propagation of the faith?