Buddhas of the 10 Directions

Is Buddhism a complex religion?

Buddhism is an amazingly complex religious tradition. Buddhist monks don't just sit there and meditate all day. A lot of them don't do any meditation at all. They're studying texts, doing administrative work, raising funds and performing rituals for the lay people, with a particular emphasis on funerals. What is the main problem in Buddhism? In Buddhism, desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods, and immortality, all of which are wants that can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering. However, most Buddhists believe that there is no proof that God exists, so they do not find it helpful to discuss his existence. Some Buddhists think that people believe in a god or gods out of fear of what they do not understand. For Buddhists, this reflects human ignorance. What is the Bible of Buddhism?

Pali canon, also called Tipitaka (Pali: “Triple Basket”) or Tripitaka (Sanskrit), the complete canon, first recorded in Pali, of the Theravada (“Way of the Elders”) branch of Buddhism.

Buddhism is an ancient Indian religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha who was deemed a "Buddha" ("Awakened One"[), although Buddhist doctrine holds that there were other Buddhas before him. Buddhism spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddha's lifetime. During the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two branches: the Mahāsāṃghika and the Sthaviravāda, each of which spread throughout India and split into

numerous sub-sects.  In modern times, two major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravāda in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahāyāna throughout the Himalayas and East Asia. The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but some scholars consider it to be a different branch altogether.

The practice of Buddhism as a distinct and organized religion lost influence after the Gupta Empire, in around the 7th century AD, and the last large state to support it, the Pala Empire, fell in the

12th century. By the end of the 12th century, it had largely disappeared with the exception of the Himalayan region and isolated remnants in parts of south India. However, since the 19th century, modern revivals of Buddhism have included the Maha Bodhi Society, the Vipassana movement, and the Dalit Buddhist movement spearheaded by B R Ambedkar. There has also been a growth in Tibetan Buddhism with the arrival of the Tibetan diaspora and the Tibetan government in exile in India, following the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1950. According to the 2011 Census there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India (0.70% of the total population).

The life of the Buddha

The teacher known as the Buddha lived in northern India sometime between the mid-6th and the mid-4th centuries before the Common Era. In ancient India the title buddha referred to an enlightened being who has awakened from the sleep of ignorance and achieved freedom from suffering. According to the various traditions of Buddhism, buddhas have existed in the past and will exist in the future. Some Buddhists believe that there is only one buddha for each historical age, others that all beings will become buddhas because they possess the buddha nature (tathagatagarbha). The historical figure referred to as the Buddha (whose life is known largely through legend) was born on the northern edge of the Ganges River basin, an area on the periphery of the ancient

civilization of North India, in what is today southern Nepal. He is said to have lived for 80 years. His family name was Gautama (in Sanskrit) or Gotama (in Pali), and his given name was Siddhartha (Sanskrit: “he who achieves his aim”) or Siddhattha (in Pali). He is frequently called Shakyamuni, “the sage of the Shakya clan.” In Buddhist texts he is most commonly addressed as Bhagavat (often

translated as “Lord”), and he refers to himself as the Tathagata, which can mean both “one who has thus come” and “one who has thus gone.” Traditional sources on the date of his death—or, in the language of the tradition, his “passage into nirvana”—range from 2420 to 290 BCE. Scholarship in the 20th century limited that range considerably, with opinion generally divided between those who believed he lived from about 563 to 483 BCE and those who believed he lived about a century later.

Dream of Maya presaging the Buddha's birth

Information about his life derives largely from Buddhist texts, the earliest of which were produced shortly before the beginning of the Common Era and thus several centuries after his death. According to the traditional accounts, however, the Buddha was born into the ruling Shakya clan and was a member of the Kshatriya, or warrior, caste. His mother, Maha Maya, dreamt one night that an elephant entered her womb, and 10 lunar months later, while she was strolling in the garden of Lumbini, her son emerged from under her right arm. His early life was one of luxury and comfort, and

his father protected him from exposure to the ills of the world, including old age, sickness, and death. At age 16 he married the princess Yashodhara, who would eventually bear him a son. At 29, however, the prince had a profound experience when he first observed the suffering of the world while on chariot rides outside the palace. He resolved then to renounce his wealth and family and live the life of an ascetic. During the next six years, he practiced meditation with several teachers and then, with five companions, undertook a life of extreme self-mortification. One day, while bathing

in a river, he fainted from weakness and therefore concluded that mortification was not the path to liberation from suffering. Abandoning the life of extreme asceticism, the prince sat in meditation under a tree and received enlightenment, sometimes identified with understanding the Four Noble Truths. For the next 45 years, the Buddha spread his message throughout northeastern India, established orders of monks and nuns, and received the patronage of kings and merchants. At the age of 80, he became seriously ill. He then met with his disciples for the last time to impart his final

instructions and passed into nirvana. His body was then cremated and the relics distributed and enshrined in stupas (funerary monuments that usually contained relics), where they would be venerated. The Buddha’s place within the tradition, however, cannot be understood by focusing exclusively on the events of his life and time (even to the extent that they are known). Instead, he must be viewed within the context of Buddhist theories of time and history. Among these theories is the belief that the universe is the product of karma, the law of the cause and effect of actions. The beings of

the universe are reborn without beginning in six realms as gods, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. The cycle of rebirth, called samsara (literally “wandering”), is regarded as a domain of suffering, and the Buddhist’s ultimate goal is to escape from that suffering. The means of escape remains unknown until, over the course of millions of lifetimes, a person perfects himself, ultimately gaining the power to discover the path out of samsara and then revealing that path to the world.

A person who has set out to discover the path to freedom from suffering and then to teach it to others is called a bodhisattva. A person who has discovered that path, followed it to its end, and taught it to the world is called a buddha. Buddhas are not reborn after they die but enter a state beyond suffering called nirvana (literally “passing away”). Because buddhas appear so rarely over the course of time and because only they reveal the path to liberation from suffering, the appearance of a buddha in the world is considered a momentous event.

The story of a particular buddha begins before his birth and extends beyond his death. It encompasses the millions of lives spent on the path toward enlightenment and Buddhahood and the persistence of the buddha through his teachings and his relics after he has passed into nirvana. The historical Buddha is regarded as neither the first nor the last buddha to appear in the world. According to some traditions he is the 7th buddha, according to another he is the 25th, and according to yet another he is the 4th. The next buddha, Maitreya, will appear after Shakyamuni’s teachings and relics have disappeared from the world.

Sites associated with the Buddha’s life became important pilgrimage places, and regions that Buddhism entered long after his death—such as Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and Burma (now Myanmar)—added narratives of his magical visitations to accounts of his life. Although the Buddha did not leave any written works, various versions of his teachings were preserved orally by his disciples. In the centuries following his death, hundreds of texts (called sutras) were attributed to him and would subsequently be translated into the languages of Asia. Donald S. Lopez

Teaching Buddha

The teaching attributed to the Buddha was transmitted orally by his disciples, prefaced by the phrase “evam me sutam” (“thus have I heard”); therefore, it is difficult to say whether or to what extent his discourses have been preserved as they were spoken. They usually allude to the place and time they were preached and to the audience to which they were addressed. Buddhist councils in the first centuries after the Buddha’s death attempted to specify which teachings attributed to the Buddha could be considered authentic.

Suffering, impermanence, and no-self

The Buddha based his entire teaching on the fact of human suffering and the ultimately dissatisfying character of human life. Existence is painful. The conditions that make an individual are precisely those that also give rise to dissatisfaction and suffering. Individuality implies limitation; limitation gives rise to desire; and, inevitably, desire causes suffering, since what is desired is transitory.

Living amid the impermanence of everything and being themselves impermanent, human beings search for the way of deliverance, for that which shines beyond the transitoriness of human existence—in short, for enlightenment. The Buddha’s doctrine offered a way to avoid despair. By following the “path” taught by the Buddha, the individual can dispel the “ignorance” that perpetuates this suffering.

According to the Buddha of the early texts, reality, whether of external things or the psychophysical totality of human individuals, consists of a succession and concatenation of microelements called dhammas (these “components” of reality are not to be confused with dhamma meaning “law” or “teaching”). The Buddha departed from traditional Indian thought in not asserting an essential or ultimate reality in things. Moreover, he rejected the existence of the soul as a metaphysical substance, though he recognized the existence of the self as the subject of action in a practical and moral sense. Life is a stream of becoming, a series of manifestations and extinctions. The concept of the individual ego is a popular delusion; the objects with which people identify themselves—fortune, social position, family, body, and even mind—are not their true selves. There is nothing permanent, and, if only the permanent deserved to be called the self, or atman, then nothing is self.

To make clear the concept of no-self (anatman), Buddhists set forth the theory of the five aggregates or constituents (khandhas) of human existence: (1) corporeality or physical forms (rupa), (2) feelings or sensations (vedana), (3) ideations (sanna), (4) mental formations or dispositions (sankhara), and (5) consciousness (vinnana). Human existence is only a composite of the five aggregates, none of which is the self or soul. A person is in a process of continuous change, and there is no fixed underlying entity.

Karma

The belief in rebirth, or samsara, as a potentially endless series of worldly existences in which every being is caught up was already associated with the doctrine of karma (Sanskrit: karman; literally “act” or “deed”) in pre-Buddhist India, and it was accepted by virtually all Buddhist traditions. According to the doctrine, good conduct brings a pleasant and happy result and creates a tendency toward similar good acts, while bad conduct brings an evil result and creates a tendency toward similar evil acts. Some karmic acts bear fruit in the same life in which they are committed, others in the immediately succeeding one, and others in future lives that are more remote. This furnishes the basic context for the moral life. The acceptance by Buddhists of the teachings of karma and rebirth and the concept of the no-self gives rise to a difficult problem: how can rebirth take place without a permanent subject to be reborn? Indian non-Buddhist philosophers attacked this point in Buddhist thought, and many modern scholars have also considered it to be an insoluble problem. The relation between existences in rebirth has been explained by the analogy of fire, which maintains itself unchanged in appearance and yet is different in every moment—what may be called the continuity of an ever-changing identity.

The Four Noble Truths

Awareness of these fundamental realities led the Buddha to formulate the Four Noble Truths: the truth of misery (dukkha; literally “suffering” but connoting “uneasiness” or “dissatisfaction”), the truth that misery originates within the craving for pleasure and for being or nonbeing (samudaya), the truth that this craving can be eliminated (nirodhu), and the truth that this elimination is the result of following a methodical way or path (magga).

The law of dependent origination

The Buddha, according to the early texts, also discovered the law of dependent origination (paticca-samuppada), whereby one condition arises out of another, which in turn arises out of prior conditions. Every mode of being presupposes another immediately preceding mode from which the subsequent mode derives, in a chain of causes. According to the classical rendering, the 12 links in the chain are: ignorance (avijja), karmic predispositions (sankharas), consciousness (vinnana), form and body (nama-rupa), the five sense organs and the mind (salayatana), contact (phassa), feeling-

response (vedana), craving (tanha), grasping for an object (upadana), action toward life (bhava), birth (jati), and old age and death (jaramarana). According to this law, the misery that is bound with sensate existence is accounted for by a methodical chain of causation. Despite a diversity of interpretations, the law of dependent origination of the various aspects of becoming remains fundamentally the same in all schools of Buddhism.

The Eightfold Path

The law of dependent origination, however, raises the question of how one may escape the continually renewed cycle of birth, suffering, and death. It is not enough to know that misery pervades all existence and to know the way in which life evolves; there must also be a means to overcome this process. The means to this end is found in the Eightfold Path, which is constituted by right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditational attainment.

Nirvana

The aim of Buddhist practice is to be rid of the delusion of ego and thus free oneself from the fetters of this mundane world. One who is successful in doing so is said to have overcome the round of rebirths and to have achieved enlightenment. This is the final goal in most Buddhist traditions, though in some cases (particularly though not exclusively in some Pure Land schools in China and Japan) the attainment of an ultimate paradise or a heavenly abode is not clearly distinguished from the attainment of release.

The living process is again likened to a fire. Its remedy is the extinction of the fire of illusion, passions, and cravings. The Buddha, the Enlightened One, is one who is no longer kindled or inflamed. Many poetic terms are used to describe the state of the enlightened human being—the harbour of refuge, the cool cave, the place of bliss, the farther shore. The term that has become famous

in the West is nirvana, translated as passing away or dying out—that is, the dying out in the heart of the fierce fires of lust, anger, and delusion. But nirvana is not extinction, and indeed the craving for annihilation or nonexistence was expressly repudiated by the Buddha. Buddhists search for salvation, not just nonbeing. Although nirvana is often presented negatively as “release from suffering,” it is more accurate to describe it in a more positive fashion: as an ultimate goal to be sought and cherished.

In some early texts the Buddha left unanswered certain questions regarding the destiny of persons who have reached this ultimate goal. He even refused to speculate as to whether fully purified saints, after death, continued to exist or ceased to exist. Such questions, he maintained, were not relevant to the practice of the path and could not in any event be answered from within

the confines of ordinary human existence. Indeed, he asserted that any discussion of the nature of nirvana would only distort or misrepresent it. But he also asserted with even more insistence that nirvana can be experienced—and experienced in the present existence—by those who, knowing the Buddhist truth, practice the Buddhist path.Edited from an article by Giuseppe TucciHajime NakamuraFrank E. Reynolds in Encyclopedia Brittanica

Historical development-India-Expansion of Buddhism

The Buddha was a charismatic leader who founded a distinctive religious community based on his unique teachings. Some of the members of that community were, like the Buddha himself, wandering ascetics. Others were laypersons who venerated the Buddha, followed certain aspects of his teachings, and provided the wandering ascetics with the material support that they required.

In the centuries following the Buddha’s death, the story of his life was remembered and embellished, his teachings were preserved and developed, and the community that he had established became a significant religious force. Many of the wandering ascetics who followed the Buddha settled in permanent monastic establishments and developed monastic rules. At the same time, the Buddhist laity came to include important members of the economic and political elite.

Ashoka: empire c. 250 BCE

During its first century of existence, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in Magadha and Kosala throughout much of northern India, including the areas of Mathura and Ujjayani in the west. According to Buddhist tradition, invitations to the Council of Vesali (Sanskrit: Vaishali), held just over a century after the Buddha’s death, were sent to monks living throughout northern and central India. By the middle of the 3rd century BCE, Buddhism had gained the favour of a Mauryan king, Ashoka, who had established an empire that extended from the Himalayas in the north to almost as far as Sri Lanka in the south.

To the rulers of the republics and kingdoms arising in northeastern India, the patronage of newly emerging sects such as Buddhism was one way of counterbalancing the political power exercised by Brahmans (high-caste Hindus). The first Mauryan emperor, Chandragupta (c. 321–c. 297 BCE), patronized Jainism and, according to some traditions, finally became a Jain monk. His grandson, Ashoka,

who ruled over the greater part of the subcontinent from about 268 to 232 BCE, traditionally played an important role in Buddhist history because of his support of Buddhism during his lifetime. He exerted even more influence posthumously, through stories that depicted him as a chakravartin (“world monarch”; literally “a great wheel-rolling monarch”). He is portrayed as a paragon of Buddhist kingship who accomplished many fabulous feats of piety and devotion. It is therefore very difficult to distinguish the Ashoka of history from the Ashoka of Buddhist legend and myth.

Ashokan pillar

The first actual Buddhist “texts” that are still extant are inscriptions (including a number of well-known Ashokan pillars) that Ashoka had written and displayed in various places throughout his vast kingdom. According to these inscriptions, Ashoka attempted to establish in his realm a “true dhamma” based on the virtues of self-control, impartiality, cheerfulness, truthfulness, and goodness. Although he promoted Buddhism, he did not found a state church, and he was known for his respect for other religious traditions. He sought to maintain unity in the Buddhist monastic community,

however, and he promoted an ethic that focused on the layperson’s obligations in this world. His aim, as articulated in his edicts, was to create a religious and social milieu that would enable all “children of the king” to live happily in this life and to attain heaven in the next. Thus, he set up medical assistance for human beings and beasts, maintained reservoirs and canals, and promoted trade. He established a system of dhamma officers (dhamma-mahamattas) in order to help govern the empire. And he sent diplomatic emissaries to areas beyond his direct political control.

Gupta dynasty: empire in 4th century

Ashoka’s empire began to crumble soon after his death, and the Mauryan dynasty was finally overthrown in the early decades of the 2nd century BCE. There is some evidence to suggest that Buddhism in India suffered persecution during the Shunga-Kanva period (185–28 BCE). Despite occasional setbacks, however, Buddhists persevered, and before the emergence of the Gupta dynasty, which created the next great pan-Indian empire in the 4th century CE, Buddhism had become a leading if not dominant religious tradition in India.

During the approximately five centuries between the fall of the Mauryan dynasty and the rise of the Gupta dynasty, major developments occurred in all aspects of Buddhist belief and practice. Well before the beginning of the Common Era, stories about the Buddha’s many previous lives, accounts of important events in his life as Gautama, stories of his “extended life” in his relics, and other aspects of his sacred biography were elaborated on. In the centuries that followed, groups of these stories were collected and compiled in various styles and combinations.

Great Stupa

Beginning in the 3rd century BCE and possibly earlier, magnificent Buddhist monuments such as the great stupas at Bharhut and Sanchi were built. During the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE, similar monuments were established virtually throughout the subcontinent. Numerous monasteries emerged too, some in close association with the great monuments and pilgrimage sites. Considerable evidence, including inscriptional evidence, points to extensive support from local rulers, including the women of the various royal courts.

During this period Buddhist monastic centres proliferated, and there developed diverse schools of interpretation concerning matters of doctrine and monastic discipline. Within the Hinayana tradition there emerged many different schools, most of which preserved a variant of the Tipitaka (which had taken the form of written scriptures by the early centuries of the Common Era), held distinctive doctrinal positions, and practiced unique forms of monastic discipline. The traditional number of schools is 18, but the situation was very complicated, and exact identifications are hard to make.

About the beginning of the Common Era, distinctively Mahayana tendencies began to take shape. It should be emphasized, however, that many Hinayana and Mahayana adherents continued to live together in the same monastic institutions. In the 2nd or 3rd century the Madhyamika school, which has remained one of the major schools of Mahayana philosophy, was established, and many other expressions of Mahayana belief, practice, and communal life appeared. By the beginning of the Gupta era, the Mahayana had become the most dynamic and creative Buddhist tradition in India.

At this time Buddhism also expanded beyond the Indian subcontinent. It is most likely that Ashoka sent a diplomatic mission to Sri Lanka and that Buddhism was established there during his reign. By the beginning of the Common Era, Buddhism, which had become very strong in northwestern India, had followed the great trade routes into Central Asia and China. According to later tradition, this expansion was greatly facilitated by Kanishka, a great Kushana king of the 1st or 2nd century CE, who ruled over an area that included portions of northern India and Central Asia.

Buddhism under the Guptas and Palas

By the time of the Gupta dynasty (c. 320–c. 600 CE), Buddhism in India was being influenced by the revival of Brahmanic religion and the rising tide of bhakti (a devotional movement that emphasized the intense love of a devotee for a personal god). During this period, for example, some Hindus practiced devotion to the Buddha, whom they regarded as an avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu deity Vishnu, and some Buddhists venerated Hindu deities who were an integral part of the wider religious context in which they lived.

Throughout the Gupta and Pala periods, Hinayana Buddhists remained a major segment of the Indian Buddhist community. Their continued cultivation of various aspects of Buddhist teaching led to the emergence of the Yogachara school, the second great tradition of Mahayana philosophy. A third major Buddhist tradition, the Vajrayana, or Tantric tradition, developed out of the Mahayana school and

became a powerful and dynamic religious force. The new form of text associated with this tradition, the tantras, appeared during the Gupta period, and there are indications that distinctively Tantric rituals began to be employed at this time as well. It was during the Pala period (8th–12th centuries), however, that the Vajrayana tradition emerged as the most dynamic component of Indian Buddhist life.

Also during the Gupta period, there emerged a new Buddhist institution, the Mahavihara (“Great Monastery”), which often functioned as a university. This institution enjoyed great success during the reign of the Pala kings. The most famous of these Mahaviharas, located at Nalanda, became a major centre for the study of Buddhist texts and the refinement of Buddhist thought, particularly Mahayana and Vajrayana thought. The monks at Nalanda also developed a curriculum that went far beyond traditional Buddhism and included much Indian scientific and cultural knowledge. In subsequent years other important Mahaviharas were established, each with its own distinctive emphases and characteristics. These great Buddhist monastic research and educational institutions exerted a profound religious and cultural influence not only in India but throughout many other parts of Asia as well.

Although Buddhist institutions seemed to be faring well under the Guptas, Chinese pilgrims visiting India between 400 and 700 CE discerned a decline in the Buddhist community and the beginning of the absorption of Indian Buddhism by Hinduism. Among these pilgrims was Faxian, who left China in 399, crossed the Gobi, visited various holy places in India, and returned to China with numerous Buddhist scriptures and statues. The most famous of the Chinese travelers, however, was the 7th-century monk Xuanzang. When he arrived in northwestern India, he found “millions of monasteries” reduced to ruins by the Huns, a nomadic Central Asian people. In the northeast Xuanzang visited various holy places and studied Yogachara philosophy at Nalanda. After visiting Assam and southern India, he returned to China, carrying with him copies of more than 600 sutras.

After the destruction of numerous Buddhist monasteries in the 6th century CE by the Huns, Buddhism revived, especially in the northeast, where it flourished for many more centuries under the kings of the Pala dynasty. The kings protected the Mahaviharas, built new centres at Odantapuri, near Nalanda, and established a system of supervision for all such institutions. Under the Palas the Vajrayana form of Buddhism became a major intellectual and religious force. Its adherents introduced important innovations into Buddhist doctrine and symbolism. They also advocated the practice of new Tantric forms of ritual practice that were designed both to generate magical power and to facilitate more rapid progress along the path to enlightenment. During the reigns of the later Pala kings, contacts with China decreased as Indian Buddhists turned their attention toward Tibet and Southeast Asia.

The demise of Buddhism in India

With the collapse of the Pala dynasty in the 12th century, Indian Buddhism suffered yet another setback, from which it did not recover. Although small pockets of influence remained, the Buddhist presence in India became negligible.

Scholars do not know all the factors that contributed to Buddhism’s demise in its homeland. Some have maintained that it was so tolerant of other faiths that it was simply reabsorbed by a revitalized Hindu tradition. This did occur, though Indian Mahayanists were occasionally hostile toward bhakti and toward Hinduism in general. Another factor, however, was probably much more important. Indian Buddhism, having become primarily a monastic movement, seems to have lost touch with its lay supporters. Many monasteries had become very wealthy, so much so that they were able to employ indentured slaves and paid labourers to care for the monks and to tend the lands they owned. Thus, after the Muslim invaders sacked the Indian monasteries in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Buddhist laity showed little interest in a resurgence.

Buddhists do not believe in any kind of deity or god, although there are supernatural figures who can help or hinder people on the path towards enlightenment. Is there one or many Buddhas?

Theravada tradition maintains that there can be up to five Buddhas in a kalpa or world age and that the current kalpa has had four Buddhas, with the current Buddha, Gotama, being the fourth and the future Buddha Metteyya being the fifth and final Buddha of the kalpa. Can there be multiple Buddhas at once?

Mahayana Buddhists also recognize Shakyamuni, Maitreya, and the Buddhas of previous ages. Yet they don't limit themselves to one Buddha per age. There could be infinite numbers of Buddhas. Indeed, according to the Mahayana teaching of Buddha Nature, "Buddha" is the fundamental nature of all beings.

Yes there were two Buddha's.

The Avatar - Godhead Buddha born near Gaya and the Siddhartha who became Buddha. The two figures got merged. They shared the same lineage of Rishi Gautama. Do Buddhist believe in multiple gods?

Buddhism teaches that none of these gods is a creator or an eternal being, though they can live very long lives. In Buddhism, the devas are also trapped in the cycle of rebirth and are not necessarily virtuous. Thus, while Buddhism includes multiple gods, its main focus is not on them.

The three Buddhist deities Vajrapāṇi, Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara.

The painting shows the three Buddhist deities Vajrapāṇi (above), Mañjuśrī (below left) and Avalokiteśvara (below right). These three deities are known as "rigs gsum mgon po" or Lords of the three enlightened families or groups, the three families being the vajra family, the Tathāgata (Buddha) family, and the padma (lotus) family. They are also known as the 'three Bodhisattvas of the heart' who respectively represent power (nus pa), discernment (śes rab) and compassion (sñiṅ rje)

The central figure is Vajrapāṇi. His outstretched right hand forms the fascination gesture and holds a vajra (thunderbolt), his left hand forms the preaching gesture, with his little finger extended, while the middle and ring fingers are bent. The serpent in his head dress wears a crown and may represent the nāga (snake spirit) king. Vajrapāṇi wears Bodhisattva ornaments. Around his neck he wears a serpent necklace and around his hips a tiger skin. His body is blue except for the inner sides of his hands, which are pink

At the bottom lefthand side is a yellow Mañjuśrī whose left hand forms the preaching gesture, with index and middle finger crossed. Above his left shoulder is a book on a lotus flower from which spring either two lotus blossoms or two pieces of myrobalan fruit. His right hand lifts the sword of wisdom or discernment, and he is seated in meditation posture

At the bottom righthand side is a white four-handed Avalokiteśvara, the deity of compassion and charity. His top right hand holds a rosary, his top left hand a white lotus flower. His lower hands form the karuṇā mudrā (compassion gesture) which is like the namaskāra mudrā (prayer gesture) but with only the fingertips touching. His legs are in meditation posture

trikaya, (Sanskrit: “three bodies”), in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha: the dharmakaya (body of essence), the unmanifested mode, and the supreme state of absolute knowledge; the sambhogakaya (body of enjoyment), the heavenly mode; and the nirmanakaya (body of transformation), the earthly mode, the Buddha as he appeared on earth or manifested himself in an earthly bodhisattva, an earthly king, a painting, or a natural object, such as a lotus. The concept of trikaya applies not only to the historical Buddha, Gautama, but to all other buddhas as well.

Chapter 1

Arrival of Esoteric Buddhism

Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script for the Pratisara Mantra, from the Later Tang. 927 CE The Kaiyuan's Three Great Enlightened Masters, Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra, established Esoteric Buddhism in China from AD 716 to 720 during the reign of emperor Xuanzong. They came to Daxing Shansi (大興善寺, Great Propagating Goodness Temple), which was the predecessor of Temple of the Great Enlightener Mahavairocana. Daxing Shansi was established in the ancient capital Chang'an, today's Xi'an, and became one of the four great centers of scripture translation supported by the imperial court. They had translated many Buddhist scriptures, sutra and tantra, from Sanskrit to Chinese. They had also assimilated the prevailing teachings of China: Taoism and Confucianism, with Buddhism, and had further evolved the practice of the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist tradition.

They brought to the Chinese a mysterious, dynamic, and magical teaching, which included mantra formula and detailed rituals to protect a person or an empire, to affect a person's fate after death, and, particularly popular, to bring rain in times of drought. It is not surprising, then, that all three masters were well received by the emperor Tang Xuanzong, and their teachings were quickly taken up at the Tang court and among the elite. Mantrayana altars were installed in temples in the capital, and by the time of emperor Tang Daizong (r. 762–779) its influence among the upper classes

outstripped that of Daoism. However, relations between Amoghavajra and Daizong were especially good. In life the emperor favored Amoghavajra with titles and gifts, and when the master died in 774, he honored his memory with a stupa, or funeral monument. Master Huiguo, a disciple of Amoghavajra, imparted some esoteric Buddhist teachings to Kūkai, one of the many Japanese monks who came to Tang China to study Buddhism, including the Mandala of the Two Realms, the Womb Realm and the Diamond Realm. Master Kukai went back to Japan to establish the Japanese Esoteric school of Buddhism, later known as Shingon Buddhism. The Esoteric Buddhist lineages transmitted to Japan under the auspices of the monks Kūkai and Saicho, later formulated the teachings transmitted to them to create the Shingon sect and the Tendai sect.

Unlike in Japan, Esoteric Buddhism in China was not seen as a separate and distinct "school" of Buddhism but rather understood as a set of associated practices and teachings that could be integrated together with the other Chinese Buddhist traditions such as Chan.[42] Hence, the other schools of Chinese Buddhism such as Chan and Tiantai began to adopt esoteric practices such as deity visualization and dharani chanting.

The Buddhas of the Ten Directions referred to in the Lotus Sutra and as delineated in the Dasa Bhumika Vibhasa Sastra, attributed to Nagarjuna:

Year Major Events in Chinese Buddhism

1st century CE • Historical record has it that two Buddhist monks, Kasyapa and Dharmaraksha, from India in 68 AD, arrived at the court of Emperor Ming (58-75) of the Han Dynasty (25-220 AD). They enjoyed imperial favour and stayed on to translate various Buddhist Texts, one of which, The 'Sutra of Forty-two Sections' continues to be popular even today. 2nd century CE • First translations of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese by An Shih-Kao in 148.

• A Mahayana monk, Lokaksema translates Small Perfections of Wisdom Sutra and A Land of Bliss Sutra (168). • First Buddhist monastery constructed. • This early work of translating texts continues into 3rd century.

• Dhamaraksa (born 230) translates a large number of sutras, including the Lotus Sutra and Large Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, and founded monasteries, ordained Sangha, and expounded the Dharma 4th century CE • Fo-T'u-Teng founds Buddhist order of nuns (317). • Translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese by Kumarajiva (344-413) and Hui-yüan (344-416). 5th century CE • Chinese pilgrim scholar Fa-hsien visits India (399-414).

• Amitabha (Amida) the Pure Land School (Ching t'u) emerges in China (402). • First Patriarch of Pure Land was T'an-Luan (476-542) • Persecution of Buddhism under Emperor Wu or Shih-tusu (424-451). • Restoration under the new Emperor, Wen-ch'eng-ti (454).

• T'ien Tai school founded by Hui-Wen (470-?) in South China. 6th century CE • Bodhidharma, first Patriarch of the Ch'an School arrives in China from India in 520 (variant 526). • The T'ang dynasty (618-907) was the Golden Age of Chinese Buddhism.

• The T'ien-tai School was established by Chih-i (538-597) • Hua-yen School establish by Fa-shun (557-640) • Dhyana School (Ch'an; Jap.Zen) Schools of Chinese Buddhism. 7th century CE • The Southern School of Ch'an or new Ch'an begins in earnest with Hui-neng (638-713) the Sixth Patriarch.

• The Persecution in 845, during the reign of Emperor Wu-tsung (841-7) an order came to the effect that all Buddhist establishments should be destroyed, initiating a decline in Chinese Buddhism. • The invention of block printing by Chinese Buddhists. The oldest extant book printed is the Tun-hung book of 868 it contained excerpts from the Diamond Sutra . 10th century CE • In 972, the first emperor of the Sung Dynasty ordered the complete printing of the Chinese Tripitaka. This was achieved in 983, known as the Shu-pen (Szechuan edition). • Two classic collections appeared, the 'Blue Cliff Record', (Pi-yen-lu; Jap. Hekiganroku) compiled by Hsueh Tou Ch'ung Hsien (980-1152) and the 'Gateless Gate' (Wu-men-kuan; Jap. Mumonkan) compiled by Wu-men Hui kai (1184-1260).

12th to 15th century CE • China during the Yuan Dynasty was under Mongolian rule and the influences of Tibetan Lamaism. It was during the Mogol Dynasty that the Buddhist-Taoist controversy was brought before Mangu Khan in 1255. The acrimonious debate, which had started over a 1000 years before was finally concluded in the Buddhist's favour by an edict of Kublai Khan in 1281. • Movement toward unity among the schools developed under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643)

• Master Chu-hung, (born 1535) united in his person the two leading trends in Ming Buddhism: harmonization of the different schools (specifically Cha'n and Pureland) and the inauguration of a lay Buddhist movement.

The Modern Era • The revolution of 1911 that toppled the Manchu Dynasty and established the Republic of China brought problems for the Buddhist Sangha. To combat these trends arose a remarkable monk, T'ai-hsu (1898-1947) who was able to rally his fellow religionists and to initiate a program of reform. On the national scale he organised a Chinese Buddhist Society in 1929.

• A revival of the Idealistic School was initiated by the publication in 1901of the Ch'eng-wei-shih-lun (Notes on the Completion of the Idealistic Doctrine) of K'uei-chi, long lost in China but brought back from Japan. The leader of this revival was the layman Ou-yang Chien, and the Institute of Inner Learning, which he organised in Naking (Nanjing) in 1922. • Hsu Yun, Ch'an Master (1840-1959) 'Universally regarded as the most outstanding Buddhist of the Chinese Sangha in the modern era' (Richard Hunn). Dharma successor of all five Ch'an schools; main reformer in Chinese Buddhism revival (1900-50).

• Wong Mou-Lam translated the The Platform Sutra into English and founded the journal Chinese Buddhism (1930). • (1898-1978) Upasaka Lu K'uan Yu (Charles Luk) Translator and Writer on Ch'an. Born in Canton. Lived in exile in Hong Kong. • The official formation of the Chinese Buddhist Association by the government of the People's Republic of China on May 30th, 1953. • The Cultural Revolution (1965-75) Buddhist temples and monasteries were sacked and the already weakened Sangha was further depleted. The excesses of this time have since been regretted, however, and a more liberal policy introduced.

• Ven. Cheng Yen founds Tzu Chi Compassion Relief Association (1966) and Tzu Chi Compassion Foundation (1980).

Direction Nagarjuna’s Comments Verse of the Dasabhumika Vibhasa Sastra East The Buddha’s virtue is pure in that it creates only peace & contentment, unlike the virtues of gods and dragons that can distress living beings In the east there is a realm called Without Distress

Where there is a Buddha named Virtue of Goodness. His physical signs are like a mountain of gold, His name is heard boundlessly. When people hear his name

They will attain the stage of no retreat. I now fold my hands and worship Him And pray He will abolish all grief and distress. Southeast The Buddha’s spiritual virtue makes gods and people be without sadness. In the southeast there is a realm called Moon Light Where there is a Buddha named Without Lament.

His bright light is like the sun and the moon, Upon meeting Him emotional distress is extinguished. Ever teaching the Dharma for living beings, All the inner and outer sufferings are abolished.

Praising the names of the Buddhas of the 10 Directions, I bow my head in worship

South The Buddha is like sandal incense and a cool pool. Hearing the Buddha from afar is like detecting a current of incense, and in extinguishing the heated distress of the three poisons He is like the refresh-ment of a clear and cool pool. In the south there is a realm called Rejoicing Where there is a Buddha called Sandal Virtue. His face is like the full moon,

The brilliance of its light being without measure. He is able to extinguish the heated distress Of the three poisons in living beings. Hearing His name one reaches the stage of no retreat Therefore I bow my head in worship.

Southwest Because of the Buddha’s spiritual qualities, powers, awakenings, etc., treasures are always being offered to living beings. In the southwest there is a realm called Host of Signs, Where there is a Buddha named Offering Treasure. Always with countless treasures of the Dharma, He offers them broadly to all living beings. The heads & faces of the gods worship

Their bejeweled hats bowed down to His feet. Now with my five limbs on the ground I take refuge in the honored one that offers treasur West The brilliance of the Buddha’s body and wisdom is without limit. In the west there is a world called Skillfulness, Where there is a Buddha called Limitless Brilliance.

The light of His body and the brilliance of His wisdom Shine without bounds or limits. Those that hear His name Will attain the stage of no retreat. I now bow my head in worship

And pray He will extinguish the bounds of Life & Death Northwest The Buddha’s physical body is like a wonderful blossom, with its virtues being without limit. In the northwest there is a world called Host of Sounds, Where there is a Buddha names Blossom of Virtue. The world has a multitude of bejeweled trees Broadly issuing forth the wonderful sound of the Dharma. With the seven blossoms of awakening,

He is ever adorning living beings. The sign of His white tuft of hair is like the moon, I now bow my head in worship. North The Buddha’s blessings of virtues are lofty and revealed like banners and signs. In the north there is a realm called Unshakeable Where there is a Buddha called Signs of Virtue. His body possesses the major and minor signs, By which he adorns Himself.

In breaking the hateful host of devils Good influences all the people and gods. Hearing His name one reaches the stage of no retreat, Therefore I bow my head in worship.

Northeast The Buddha is ever teaching the practices of the disciples, the self-awakened and the Bodhisattvas. With people speaking of lower, medium & higher levels of diligence, there is that called ‘Practicing the Three Vehicles’. In the northeast there is a realm called Peacefulness, Where all the treasures are attained together. The Buddha is called Practicing the 3 Vehicles, His body is adorned with limitless signs. The light of wisdom and insight is without measure, And is able to destroy the darkness of ignorance.

Living beings are without grief or distress, And so I bow my head in worship. Below Brilliant refers the brilliance of the Buddha’s body, the Buddha’s wisdom, and the light of the bejeweled tree. Down below there is the world that is Broad and Great, Where there is a Buddha named Brilliant Virtue. The signs of His body are wonderful and superlative, A golden mountain of Jambu River sand. With the sun of wisdom and insight He always Opens the blossoms of good spiritual roots.

The precious ground is very broad and great, And I bow my head in worship. Above The blessings of Buddha’s disciples spread a host of virtues broadly. Up above there is the realm of Many Moons, Where there is a Buddha named Ocean of Virtues. The great virtues of the Disciples And the Bodhisattvas are without measure.

The Lion among those that are noble Is named Spreading Many Virtues. The devils all have fear of Him, And so I bow my head in worship.

The Ten Stages Sutra (Sanskrit: Daśabhūmika Sūtra;

The Ten Stages Sutra (Sanskrit: Daśabhūmika Sūtra; known as the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, is an early, influential Mahayana Buddhist scripture. The sutra also appears as the 26th chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.Modern Buddhist studies scholars generally hold that these Mahayana sūtras first began to appear between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. They continued being composed, compiled and edited until the decline of Buddhism in India.

In the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, the Buddha describes ten stages of development that a bodhisattva must progress through in order to accomplish full Enlightenment and Buddhahood, as well as the subject of Buddha-nature and the awakening of the aspiration for Enlightenment. There is a commentary which survives in Chinese called the Daśabhūmikavibhāṣā, it is attributed to Nagarjuna.

Another commentary on the Daśabhūmika Sūtra, the Dasabhūmikabhāsya, was written by Vasubandhu in Sanskrit and translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci and others during the 6th century CE. A Daśabhūmikā school said to have existed in China at one time, which centered on this sutra, but was later absorbed by the Huayan school, as the Huayan school's principal sutra, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, already contains the Daśabhūmika Sūtra. The Daśabhūmika Sūtra can also be found in modified form in the thirty-ninth chapter as part of the journey of the bodhisattva Sudhana. The Huayan school declined in China after the death of its fifth and best known patriarch, Zongmi (780–841), but they provided major foundational teachings for the Mahayana schools which exist today, such as Zen.

Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, medicine and material culture. Chinese Buddhism is the largest institutionalized religion in Mainland China. Currently, there are an estimated 185 to 250 million Chinese Buddhists in the People's Republic of ChinaIt is also a major religion in Taiwan and among the Chinese Diaspora.

Buddhism was first introduced to China during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). The translation of a large body of Indian Buddhist scriptures into Chinese and the inclusion of these translations (along with Taoist and Confucian works) into a Chinese Buddhist canon had far-reaching implications for the dissemination of Buddhism throughout the East Asian cultural sphere, including Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Chinese Buddhism also developed various unique traditions of Buddhist thought and practice, including Tiantai, Huayan, Chan Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism. From its inception, Chinese Buddhism has been influenced by native Chinese religions and philosophy, especially Confucianism and Taoism, but also Chinese folk religion.

Silk Road transmission of Buddhism- Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE

Buddhist expansion in Asia: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty) through the Silk Road during the Kushan Era. The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".

Various legends tell of the presence of Buddhism in Chinese soil in very ancient times. While the scholarly consensus is that Buddhism first came to China in the first century CE during the Han dynasty, through missionaries from India, it is not known precisely when Buddhism entered China.

Generations of scholars have debated whether Buddhist missionaries first reached Han China via the maritime or overland routes of the Silk Road. The maritime route hypothesis, favored by Liang Qichao and Paul Pelliot, proposed that Buddhism was originally practiced in southern China, the Yangtze River and Huai River region. On the other hand, it must have entered from the northwest via the Gansu corridor to the Yellow River basin and the North China Plain in the course of the first century CE. The scene becomes clearer from the middle of the second century onward, when the first known

missionaries started their translation activities in the capital, Luoyang. The Book of the Later Han records that in 65 CE, prince Liu Ying of Chu (present day Jiangsu) "delighted in the practices of Huang-Lao Daoism" and had both Buddhist monks and laypeople at his court who presided over Buddhist ceremonies.  The overland route hypothesis, favored by Tang Yongtong, proposed that Buddhism disseminated through Central Asia – in particular, the Kushan Empire, which was often known in ancient Chinese sources as Da Yuezhi ("Great Yuezhi"), after the founding tribe. According to this

hypothesis, Buddhism was first practiced in China in the Western Regions and the Han capital Luoyang (present day Henan), where Emperor Ming of Han established the White Horse Temple in 68 CE. In 2004, Rong Xinjiang, a history professor at Peking University, reexamined the overland and maritime hypotheses through a multi-disciplinary review of recent discoveries and research, including the Gandhāran Buddhist Texts, and concluded:

The view that Buddhism was transmitted to China by the sea route comparatively lacks convincing and supporting materials, and some arguments are not sufficiently rigorous. Based on the existing historical texts and the archaeological iconographic materials discovered since the 1980s, particularly the first-century Buddhist manuscripts recently found in Afghanistan, the commentator believes that the most plausible theory is that Buddhism reached China from the Greater Yuezhi of northwest India and took the land route to reach Han China. After entering into China, Buddhism blended with early Daoism and Chinese traditional esoteric arts and its iconography received blind worship.

The French sinologist Henri Maspero says it is a "very curious fact" that, throughout the entire Han dynasty, Daoism and Buddhism were "constantly confused and appeared as single religion" A century after prince Liu Ying's court supported both Daoists and Buddhists, in 166 Emperor Huan of Han made offerings to the Buddha and sacrifices to the Huang-Lao gods Yellow Emperor and Laozi. The first Chinese apologist for Buddhism, a late second-century layman named Mouzi, said it was through Daoism that he was led to Buddhism—which he calls dàdào.

I too, when I had not yet understood the Great Way (Buddhism), had studied Taoist practises. Hundreds and thousands of recipes are there for longevity through abstention from cereals. I practised them, but without success; I saw them put to use, but without result. That is why I abandoned them.

Early Chinese Buddhism was conflated and mixed with Daoism, and it was within Daoist circles that it found its first adepts. Traces are evident in Han period Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, which hardly differentiated between Buddhist nirvana and Daoist immortality. Wuwei, the Daoist concept of non-interference, was the normal term for translating Sanskrit nirvana, which is transcribed as nièpán in modern Chinese usage.

Traditional accounts

White Horse Temple, traditionally held to be at the origin of Chinese Buddhism

A number of popular accounts in historical Chinese literature have led to the popularity of certain legends regarding the introduction of Buddhism into China. According to the most popular one, Emperor Ming of Han (28–75 CE) precipitated the introduction of Buddhist teachings into China. The (early third to early fifth century) Mouzi Lihuolun first records this legend:

In olden days Emperor Ming saw in a dream a god whose body had the brilliance of the sun and who flew before his palace; and he rejoiced exceedingly at this. The next day he asked his officials: "What god is this?" the scholar Fu Yi said: "Your subject has heard it said that in India there is somebody who has attained the Dao and who is called Buddha; he flies in the air, his body had the brilliance of the sun; this must be that god."

The emperor then sent an envoy to Tianzhu (Southern India) to inquire about the teachings of the Buddha.[10] Buddhist scriptures were said to have been returned to China on the backs of white horses, after which White Horse Temple was named. Two Indian monks also returned with them, named Dharmaratna and Kaśyapa Mātaṅga. An eighth-century Chinese fresco at Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in Gansu portrays Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) worshiping statues of a golden man; "golden men brought in 121 BCE by a great Han general in his campaigns against the nomads". However, neither the Shiji nor Book of Han histories of Emperor Wu mentions a golden Buddhist statue (compare Emperor Ming). The first translations

The first documented translation of Buddhist scriptures from various Indian languages into Chinese occurs in 148 CE with the arrival of the Parthian prince-turned-monk An Shigao. He worked to establish Buddhist temples in Luoyang and organized the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, testifying to the beginning of a wave of Central Asian Buddhist proselytism that was to last several centuries. An Shigao translated Buddhist texts on basic doctrines, meditation, and abhidharma. An Xuan , a Parthian layman who worked alongside An Shigao, also translated an early Mahāyāna Buddhist text on the bodhisattva path.

Mahāyāna Buddhism was first widely propagated in China by the Kushan monk Lokakṣema, active c. 164–186 CE, who came from the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Gandhāra. Lokakṣema translated important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, as well as rare, early Mahāyāna sūtras on topics such as samādhi, and meditation on the buddha Akṣobhya. These translations from Lokakṣema continue to give insight into the early period of Mahāyāna Buddhism. This corpus of texts often includes emphasizes ascetic practices and forest dwelling, and absorption in states of meditative concentration:[11]

Paul Harrison has worked on some of the texts that are arguably the earliest versions we have of the Mahāyāna sūtras, those translated into Chinese in the last half of the second century CE by the Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema. Harrison points to the enthusiasm in the Lokakṣema sūtra corpus for the extra ascetic practices, for dwelling in the forest, and above all for states of meditative absorption (samādhi). Meditation and meditative states seem to have occupied a central place in early Mahāyāna, certainly because of their spiritual efficacy but also because they may have given access to fresh revelations and inspiration.

Early Buddhist schools

During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian early Buddhist schools recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahīśāsakas, Kāśyapīyas, Sarvāstivādins, and the Mahāsāṃghikas.

The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so.  Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs. According to A.K. Warder, in some ways in those East Asian countries, the Dharmaguptaka sect can be considered to have survived to the present. Warder further writes that the Dharmaguptakas can be credited with effectively establishing Chinese Buddhism during the early period .

It was the Dharmaguptakas who were the first Buddhists to establish themselves in Central Asia. They appear to have carried out a vast circling movement along the trade routes from Aparānta north-west into Iran and at the same time into Oḍḍiyāna (the Suvastu valley, north of Gandhāra, which became one of their main centres). After establishing themselves as far west as Parthia they followed the "silk route", the east-west axis of Asia, eastwards across Central Asia and on into China, where they effectively established Buddhism in the second and third centuries A.D. The Mahīśāsakas and Kāśyapīyas appear to have followed them across Asia into China. ... For the earlier period of Chinese Buddhism it was the Dharmaguptakas who constituted the main and most influential school, and even later their Vinaya remained the basis of the discipline there.

Six Dynasties (220–589)

Initially, Buddhism in China faced a number of difficulties in becoming established. The concept of monasticism and the aversion to social affairs seemed to contradict the long-established norms and standards established in Chinese society. Some even declared that Buddhism was harmful to the authority of the state, that Buddhist monasteries contributed nothing to the economic prosperity of China, that Buddhism was barbaric and undeserving of Chinese cultural traditions.[17] However, Buddhism was often associated with Taoism in its ascetic meditative tradition, and for this reason a concept-matching system was used by some early Indian translators, to adapt native Buddhist ideas onto Daoist ideas and terminology.

Buddhism appealed to Chinese intellectuals and elites and the development of gentry Buddhism was sought as an alternative to Confucianism and Daoism, since Buddhism's emphasis on morality and ritual appealed to Confucianists and the desire to cultivate inner wisdom appealed to Daoists. Gentry Buddhism was a medium of introduction for the beginning of Buddhism in China, it gained imperial and courtly support. By the early fifth century Buddhism was established in south China. During this time, Indian monks continued to travel along the Silk Road to teach Buddhism, and translation work was primarily done by foreign monks rather than Chinese.

The arrival of Kumārajīva (334–413 CE)

When the famous monk Kumārajīva was captured during the Chinese conquest of the Buddhist kingdom of Kucha, he was imprisoned for many years. When he was released in AD 401, he immediately took a high place in Chinese Buddhism and was appraised as a great master from the West. He was especially valued by Emperor Yao Xing of the state of Later Qin, who gave him an honorific title and treated him like a god. Kumārajīva revolutionized Chinese Buddhism with his high-quality translations (from AD 402–413), which are still praised for their flowing smoothness, clarity of meaning, subtlety, and literary skill. Due to the efforts of Kumārajīva, Buddhism in China became not only recognized for its practice methods, but also as high philosophy and religion. The arrival of Kumārajīva also set a standard for Chinese translations of Buddhist texts, effectively doing away with previous concept-matching systems.

The translations of Kumārajīva have often remained more popular than those of other translators. Among the most well-known are his translations of the Diamond Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, and the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.

A completed Sūtra Piṭaka

Around the time of Kumārajīva, the four major Sanskrit āgamas were also translated into Chinese. Each of the āgamas was translated independently by a different Indian monk. These āgamas comprise the only other complete surviving Sūtra Piṭaka, which is generally comparable to the Pali Sutta Pitaka of Theravada Buddhism. The teachings of the Sūtra Piṭaka are usually considered to be one of the earliest teachings on Buddhism and a core text of the Early Buddhist Schools in China. It is noteworthy that before the modern period, these āgama were seldom if ever used by Buddhist communities, due to their Hīnayāna attribution, as Chinese Buddhism was already avowedly Mahāyāna in persuasion.

Early Chinese Buddhist traditions

Due to the wide proliferation of Buddhist texts available in Chinese and the large number of foreign monks who came to teach Buddhism in China, much like new branches growing from a main tree trunk, various specific focus traditions emerged. Among the most influential of these was the practice of Pure Land Buddhism established by Hui Yuan, which focused on Amitābha Buddha and his western pure land of Sukhāvatī. Other early traditions were the Tiantai, Huayan and the Vinaya school.[21] Such schools were based upon the primacy of the Lotus Sūtra, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, respectively, along with supplementary sūtras and commentaries. The Tiantai founder Zhiyi wrote several works that became important and widely read meditation manuals in China such as the "Concise samatha-vipasyana", and the "Great samatha-vipasyana".

Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589) and Sui Dynasty (589–618 CE)

Chan: pointing directly to the mind

In the fifth century, the Chan (Zen) teachings began in China, traditionally attributed to the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, a legendary figure  The school heavily utilized the principles found in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, a sūtra utilizing the teachings of Yogācāra and those of Tathāgatagarbha, and which teaches the One Vehicle (Skt. Ekayāna) to buddhahood. In the early years, the teachings of Chan were therefore referred to as the "One Vehicle School".[35] The earliest masters of the Chan school were called "Laṅkāvatāra Masters", for their mastery of practice according to the principles of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra.

The principal teachings of Chan were later often known for the use of so-called encounter stories and koans, and the teaching methods used in them. Nan Huai-Chin identifies the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) as the principle texts of the Chan school, and summarizes the principles succinctly: The Zen teaching was a separate transmission outside the scriptural teachings that did not posit any written texts as sacred. Zen pointed directly to the human mind to enable people to see their real nature and become buddhas.

Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE)- Xuanzang's journey to the west

During the early Tang dynasty, between 629 and 645, the monk Xuanzang journeyed to India and visited over one hundred kingdoms, and wrote extensive and detailed reports of his findings, which have subsequently become important for the study of India during this period. During his travels he visited holy sites, learned the lore of his faith, and studied with many famous Buddhist masters, especially at the famous center of Buddhist learning at Nālanda University. When he returned, he brought with him some 657 Sanskrit texts. Xuanzang also returned with relics, statues, and Buddhist paraphernalia loaded onto twenty-two horses.[37] With the emperor's support, he set up a large translation bureau in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), drawing students and collaborators from all over East Asia. He is credited with the translation of some 1,330 fascicles of scriptures into Chinese. His strongest personal interest in Buddhism was in the field of Yogācāra, or "Consciousness-only".

The force of his own study, translation and commentary of the texts of these traditions initiated the development of the Faxiang school in East Asia. Although the school itself did not thrive for a long time, its theories regarding perception, consciousness, karma, rebirth, etc. found their way into the doctrines of other more successful schools. Xuanzang's closest and most eminent student was Kuiji who became recognized as the first patriarch of the Faxiang school. Xuanzang's logic, as described by Kuiji, was often misunderstood by scholars of Chinese Buddhism because they lack the necessary background in Indian logic. Another important disciple was the Korean monk Woncheuk.

Xuanzang's translations were especially important for the transmission of Indian texts related to the Yogācāra school. He translated central Yogācāra texts such as the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, as well as important texts such as the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra and the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja Sūtra (Medicine Buddha Sūtra). He is credited with writing or compiling the Cheng Weishi Lun (Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi Śāstra) as composed from multiple commentaries on Vasubandhu's Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā. His translation of the Heart Sūtra became and remains the standard in all East Asian Buddhist sects. The proliferation of these texts expanded the Chinese Buddhist canon significantly with high-quality translations of some of the most important Indian Buddhist texts.

Caves, art, and technology

The popularization of Buddhism in this period is evident in the many scripture-filled caves and structures surviving from this period. The Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in Gansu province, the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang in Henan and the Yungang Grottoes near Datong in Shanxi are the most renowned examples from the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Leshan Giant Buddha, carved out of a hillside in the eighth century during the Tang dynasty and looking down on the confluence of three rivers, is still the largest stone Buddha statue in the world. Making duplications of Buddhist texts was considered to bring meritorious karma. Printing from individually carved wooden blocks and from clay or metal movable type proved much more efficient than hand copying and eventually eclipsed it. The Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) of 868 CE, a Buddhist scripture discovered in 1907 inside the Mogao Caves, is the first dated example of block printing

Arrival of Esoteric Buddhism

The Kaiyuan's Three Great Enlightened Masters, Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra, established Esoteric Buddhism in China from AD 716 to 720 during the reign of emperor Xuanzong. They came to Daxing Shansi  Great Propagating Goodness Temple), which was the predecessor of Temple of the Great Enlightener Mahavairocana. Daxing Shansi was established in the ancient capital Chang'an, today's Xi'an, and became one of the four great centers of scripture translation supported by the imperial court. They had translated many Buddhist scriptures, sutra and tantra, from Sanskrit to Chinese. They had also assimilated the prevailing teachings of China: Taoism and Confucianism, with Buddhism, and had further evolved the practice of the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist tradition.

They brought to the Chinese a mysterious, dynamic, and magical teaching, which included mantra formula and detailed rituals to protect a person or an empire, to affect a person's fate after death, and, particularly popular, to bring rain in times of drought. It is not surprising, then, that all three masters were well received by the emperor Tang Xuanzong, and their teachings were quickly taken up at the Tang court and among the elite. Mantrayana altars were installed in temples in the capital, and by the time of emperor Tang Daizong (r. 762–779) its influence among the upper classes

outstripped that of Daoism. However, relations between Amoghavajra and Daizong were especially good. In life the emperor favored Amoghavajra with titles and gifts, and when the master died in 774, he honored his memory with a stupa, or funeral monument. Master Huiguo, a disciple of Amoghavajra, imparted some esoteric Buddhist teachings to Kūkai, one of the many Japanese monks who came to Tang China to study Buddhism, including the Mandala of the Two Realms, the Womb Realm and the Diamond Realm. Master Kukai went back to Japan to establish the Japanese Esoteric school of Buddhism, later

known as Shingon Buddhism. The Esoteric Buddhist lineages transmitted to Japan under the auspices of the monks Kūkai and Saicho, later formulated the teachings transmitted to them to create the Shingon sect and the Tendai sect.

Unlike in Japan, Esoteric Buddhism in China was not seen as a separate and distinct "school" of Buddhism but rather understood as a set of associated practices and teachings that could be integrated together with the other Chinese Buddhist traditions such as Chan.[42] Hence, the other schools of Chinese Buddhism such as Chan and Tiantai began to adopt esoteric practices such as deity visualization and dharani chanting.

Tang state repression of 845

Opposition to Buddhism accumulated over time during the Tang dynasty, culminating in the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution under Emperor Tang Wuzong. There were several components that led to opposition of Buddhism. One factor is the foreign origins of Buddhism, unlike Taoism and Confucianism. Han Yu wrote, "Buddha was a man of the barbarians who did not speak the language of China and wore clothes of a different fashion. His sayings did not concern the ways of our ancient kings, nor did his manner of dress conform to their laws. He understood neither the duties that bind sovereign and subject, nor the affections of father and son."

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960/979

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was an era of political upheaval in China, between the fall of the Tang dynasty and the founding of the Song dynasty. During this period, five dynasties quickly succeeded one another in the north, and more than 12 independent states were established, mainly in the south. However, only ten are traditionally listed, hence the era's name, "Ten Kingdoms". Some historians, such as Bo Yang, count eleven, including Yan and Qi, but not Northern Han, viewing it as simply a continuation of Later Han. This era also led to the founding of the Liao dynasty.

After the fall of the Tang dynasty, China was without effective central control during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period Song Dynasty (960–1279)

Seated Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin), wood and pigment, eleventh century, Chinese Northern Song dynasty, St. Louis Art Museum During the Song dynasty, Chan was used by the government to strengthen its control over the country, and Chan grew to become the largest sect in Chinese Buddhism. An ideal picture of the Chan of the Tang period was produced, which served the legacy of this newly acquired status. During the early Song dynasty, Chan and Pure Land practices became especially popular. Buddhist ideology began to merge with Confucianism and Daoism, due in part to the use of existing Chinese philosophical terms in the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Various Confucian scholars of the Song dynasty, including Zhu Xi (wg: Chu Hsi), sought to redefine Confucianism as Neo-Confucianism.

During the Song dynasty, in 1021 CE, it is recorded that there were 458,855 Buddhist monks and nuns actively living in monasteries. The total number of monks was 397,615, while the total number of nuns was recorded as 61,240.

Yuan dynasty (1271–1368

During the Yuan dynasty, the emperors made Esoteric Buddhism an official religion of their empire, and Tibetan lamas were given patronage at the court.[56] A common perception was that this patronage of lamas caused corrupt forms of tantra to become widespread.[56] When the Yuan dynasty was overthrown and the Ming dynasty was established, the Tibetan lamas were expelled from the court, and this form of Buddhism was denounced as not being an orthodox path.

Ming dynasty (1368–1644

During the Ming dynasty, there was a significant revival of Tiantai, Huayan and Yogacara traditions, as well as ordination ceremonies.  While there were sometimes disagreements between certain lineage holders of the various schools. .

TEACHINGS

Basic concepts

Common practices include

⦁ paying homage to ⦁ Triple Gems ⦁ veneration of Buddhas and ⦁ Bodhisattvas ⦁ through offerings of incense, flowers, food, etc. ⦁ offerings to ⦁ Devas who reside in the heavenly realm ⦁ paying respect to one's own ancestors during ⦁ Qingming and ⦁ Zhong Yuan Festival

⦁ conducting or participate religious services to pray for one's own ancestors and the souls of deceased to attain peace and liberation (超渡) ⦁ creating positive affinities with other people, through gifts of Dharma books and acts of charity or social service. vegetarianism: monastics are required to be vegetarian, devout laity are also often vegetarian on certain sacred days or festivals.

⦁ compassion towards all living beings through activities such as "life release"

Common beliefs include

⦁ existence of gods, ghosts and hell realm ⦁ reincarnation, or more technically, rebirth, according to one's ⦁ karma ⦁ karmic retribution (報應), ethically cause and effect

Incense burning

Burning incense, translated to "shaoxiang" in Chinese, is a traditional and ubiquitous religious practice for almost all prayers, and other forms of worship. During the Zhou dynasty, Chinese believed that smoke resulting from burning of sandalwood would act as a bridge between the human world and the spirits.

Laypeople in Chinese Buddhism

In Chinese Buddhism, lay Buddhist practitioners have traditionally played an important role, and lay practice of Buddhism has had similar tendencies to those of monastic Buddhism in China. Many historical biographies of lay Buddhists are available, which give a clear picture of their practices and role in Chinese Buddhism. In addition to these numerous biographies, there are accounts from Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci which provide extensive and revealing accounts to the degree Buddhism penetrated elite and popular culture in China.[115]

Traditional practices such as meditation, mantra recitation, mindfulness of Amitābha Buddha, asceticism, and vegetarianism were all integrated into the belief systems of ordinary people. It is known from accounts in the Ming Dynasty that lay practitioners often engaged in practices from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions, as well as the study of the Buddhist sūtras. The Heart Sūtra and the Diamond Sūtra were the most popular, followed by the Lotus Sūtra and the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

Chapter 2

The Concept of Buddhahood

In Buddhism,  "awakened one",is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point out the dharma; "right way of living"). The title is most commonly used for Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, who is often simply known as "the Buddha".  Buddhahood buddhatva; Pali: buddhatta or buddhabhāva; is the condition and rank of a buddha "awakened one".This highest spiritual state of being is also termed sammā-sambodhi (skt. samyaksaṃbodhi) (Full complete Awakening).

The title is also used for other beings who have achieved bodhi (awakening) and vimutti (release from craving), such as the other human Buddhas who achieved enlightenment before Gautama, the five celestial Buddhas worshiped primarily in Mahayana, and the bodhisattva named Maitreya, who will achieve enlightenment in the future and succeed Gautama Buddha as the supreme Buddha of the world.

The goal of Mahayana's bodhisattva path is complete Buddhahood, so that one may benefit all sentient beings by teaching them the path of cessation of dukkha. Mahayana theory contrasts this with the goal of the Theravada path, where the most common goal is individual arhatship by following dhamma; the teachings of the supreme Buddha. Buddhahood is the state of an awakened being, who, having found the path of cessation of dukkha ("suffering", as created by attachment to desires and distorted perception and thinking) is in the state of "No-more-Learning".

There is a broad spectrum of opinion on the universality and method of attainment of Buddhahood, depending on Gautama Buddha's teachings that a school of Buddhism emphasizes. The level to which this manifestation requires ascetic practices varies from none at all to an absolute requirement, dependent on doctrine. Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the bodhisattva ideal of achieving Buddhahood rather than enlightening as an arhat.

In Theravada Buddhism, Buddha refers to one who has become awake through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to point out the dharma. A samyaksambuddha re-discovered the truths and the path to awakening and teaches these to others after his awakening. A pratyekabuddha also reaches Nirvana through his own efforts, but is unable to teach the dharma to others. An arhat needs to follow the teaching of a Buddha to attain Nirvana, but can also preach the dharma after attaining Nirvana. In one instance the term buddha is also used in Theravada to refer to all who attain Nirvana, using the term Sāvakabuddha to designate an arhat, someone who depends on the teachings of a Buddha to attain Nirvana.[9] In this broader sense it is equivalent to the arhat.

The Tathagatagarba and Buddha-nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism consider Buddhahood to be a universal and innate property of absolute wisdom. This wisdom is revealed in a person's current lifetime through Buddhist practice, without any specific relinquishment of pleasures or "earthly desires".

Buddhists do not consider Gautama Buddha to have been the only Buddha. The Pāli Canon refers to many previous ones (see list of the named Buddhas), while the Mahayana tradition additionally has many Buddhas of celestial origin (see Amitābha or Vairocana as examples. For lists of many thousands of Buddha names see Taishō Tripiṭaka numbers 439–448).

Nature of the Buddha or : Buddhology

The various Buddhist schools hold some varying interpretations on the nature of Buddha.

Attainments

All Buddhist traditions hold that a Buddha is fully awakened and has completely purified his mind of the three poisons of craving, aversion and ignorance. A Buddha is no longer bound by saṃsāra, and has ended the suffering which unawakened people experience in life.

Most schools of Buddhism have also held that the Buddha was omniscient. However, the early texts contain explicit repudiations of making this claim of the Buddha.

Ten characteristics of a Buddha

Some Buddhists meditate on (or contemplate) the Buddha as having ten characteristics.These characteristics are frequently mentioned in the Pāli Canon as well as Mahayana teachings, and are chanted daily in many Buddhist monasteries:

⦁ Thus gone, thus come (Skt: ⦁ tathāgata) ⦁ Worthy one (Skt: ⦁ arhat) ⦁ Perfectly self-enlightened (Skt: samyak-saṃbuddha) ⦁ Perfected in knowledge and conduct (Skt: vidyā-caraṇa-saṃpanna ) ⦁ Well gone (Skt: sugata)

⦁ Knower of the world (Skt: lokavida) ⦁ Unsurpassed leader of persons to be tamed (Skt: anuttara-puruṣa-damya-sārathi) ⦁ Teacher of the gods and humans (Skt: śāsta deva-manuṣyāṇaṃ) ⦁ The Enlightened One (Skt: buddha) ⦁ The Blessed One or fortunate one (Skt: bhagavat)

The tenth epithet is sometimes listed as "The World Honored Enlightened One" (Skt. Buddha-Lokanatha) or "The Blessed Enlightened One" (Skt. Buddha-Bhagavan).

Indispensable Duties of a Buddha

According to Buddhist texts, upon reaching Buddhahood each Buddha must perform various acts during his life to complete his duty as a Buddha.

Sanskrit Buddhist texts list ten indispensable acts Buddhas must perform.

⦁ A Buddha must predict that another person will attain Buddhahood in the future. ⦁ A Buddha must inspire somebody else to strive for Buddhahood. ⦁ A Buddha must convert all whom he must convert

⦁ A Buddha must live at least three-quarters of his potential lifespan. ⦁ A Buddha must have clearly defined what are good deeds and what are evil deeds. ⦁ A Buddha must appoint two of his disciples as his chief disciples. ⦁ A Buddha must descend from ⦁ Tavatimsa Heaven after teaching his mother. ⦁ A Buddha must hold an assembly at Lake ⦁ Anavatapta. ⦁ A Buddha must bring his parents to the Dhamma.

⦁ A Buddha must have performed the great ⦁ Miracle at Savatthi.

Tibetan Buddhist texts list "Twelve Great Acts" of a Buddha.

⦁ A Buddha must be born in ⦁ Tusita heaven immediately before his birth as a Buddha. ⦁ A Buddha must descend from Tusita. ⦁ A Buddha must enter his mothers womb. ⦁ A Buddha must be born.

⦁ A Buddha must be skilled at various arts in his youth. ⦁ A Buddha must live life in the palace. ⦁ A Buddha must make a ⦁ great departure from his palace. ⦁ A Buddha must practice asceticism. ⦁ A Buddha must defeat ⦁ Mara. ⦁ A Buddha must enlighten.

⦁ A Buddha must give his ⦁ first sermon. ⦁ A Buddha must die and pass into Nirvana.

Pali texts do not have such a list but the Pali commentarial tradition lists 30 obligatory acts.

Buddha as a supreme human

In the Pāli Canon, Gautama Buddha is known as being a "teacher of the gods and humans", superior to both the gods and humans in the sense of having nirvana or the greatest bliss, whereas the devas, or

Buddha as a human

When asked whether he was a deva or a human, he replied that he had eliminated the deep-rooted unconscious traits that would make him either one, and should instead be called a Buddha; one who had grown up in the world but had now gone beyond it, as a lotus grows from the water but blossoms above it, unsoiled. Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human

It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.

A fundamental part of Buddhism's appeal to billions of people over the past two and a half millennia is the fact that the central figure, commonly referred to by the title "Buddha", was not a god, or a special kind of spiritual being, or even a prophet or an emissary of one. On the contrary, he was a human being like the rest of us who quite simply woke up to full aliveness. Basing his teachings on the Lotus Sutra, the Chinese monk Chi-hi (the founder of the Tendai Sect) developed an explanation of life "three thousand realms in a single moment", which posits a Buddha nature that can be awakened in any life, and that it is possible for a person to become "enlightened to the Law".In this view, the state of Buddhahood and the states of ordinary people are exist with and within each other

Nichiren, the founder of Nichiren Buddhism states that the real meaning of the Lord Shakyamuni Buddha’s appearance in this world lay in his behavior as a human being. He also stated that "Shakyamuni Buddha . . . the Lotus Sutra ... and we ordinary human beings are in no way different or separate from each other”.

Mahāsāṃghika supramundane Buddha

In the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika branch regarded the buddhas as being characterized primarily by their supramundane nature. The Mahāsāṃghikas advocated the transcendental and supramundane nature of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the fallibility of arhats. Of the 48 special theses attributed by the Samayabhedoparacanacakra to the

Sumedha, the youth who would after many reincarnations become Gautama Buddha, receiving his niyatha vivarana (prediction of future Buddhahood) from Dīpankara Buddha "The Seven Buddhas", at Sanchi (1st century BCE/CE). Six Buddhas of the past are represented, together with the current Buddha, Gautama Buddha, with his Bodhi Tree (at the extreme right). In the central section are three stupas alternating with four trees with thrones in front of them, adored by figures both human and divine. These represent six Buddhas of the past (namely: Vipassī Buddha, Sikhī Buddha, Vessabhū Buddha, Kakusandha Buddha, Koṇāgamana Buddha and Kassapa Buddha). Three are symbolized by their stupas, and four by the trees under which each respectively attained enlightenment. The tree on the extreme right is the pipal tree of Gautama Buddha and the one next to it is the banyan tree of Kassapa Buddha. The identification of the others is less certain

5 of the 7 Buddhas/Sumedha, the youth who would after many reincarnations become Gautama "The Seven Buddhas", at Sanchi (1st century BCE/CE). Six Buddhas of the past are represented, together with the current Buddha, Gautama Buddha, with his Bodhi Tree (at the extreme right). In the central section are three stupas alternating with four trees with thrones in front of them, adored by figures both human and divine. These represent six Buddhas of the past (namely: Vipassī Buddha, Sikhī Buddha, Vessabhū Buddha, Kakusandha Buddha, Koṇāgamana Buddha and Kassapa Buddha). Three are symbolized by their stupas, and four by the trees under which each respectively attained enlightenment. The tree on the extreme right is the pipal tree of Gautama Buddha and the one next to it is the banyan tree of Kassapa Buddha. The identification of the others is less certain Buddha, receiving his niyatha vivarana (prediction of future Buddhahood) from Dīpankara Buddha

The Seven Buddhas of Antiquity

In the earliest strata of Pali Buddhist texts, especially in the first four Nikayas, only the following seven Buddhas, The Seven Buddhas of Antiquity (Saptatathāgata), are explicitly mentioned and named. Four of these are from the current kalpa (world age) and three are from past ones (within last hundred kalpa)

Vipassī (lived ninety-one kalpas ago) Sikhī (lived thirty-one kalpas ago) Vessabhū (lived thirty-one kalpas ago in the same kalpa as Sikhī) Kakusandha (the first Buddha of the current bhadrakalpa) Koṇāgamana (the second Buddha of the current bhadrakalpa) Kassapa (the third Buddha of the current bhadrakalpa) Gautama (the fourth and present Buddha of the current bhadrakalpa)

One sutta called Chakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta from an early Buddhist text called the Digha Nikaya also mentions that following the Seven Buddhas of Antiquity, a Buddha named Maitreya is predicted to arise in the world

When King Devānāmpriya Priyadasin had been anointed twenty years, he came himself and worshipped (this spot) because the Buddha Shakyamuni was born here. (He) both caused to be made a stone bearing a horse (?) and caused a stone pillar to be set up, (in order to show) that the Blessed One was born here. (He) made the village of Lummini free of taxes, and paying (only) an eighth share (of the produce).

— The Rummindei Edict, one of the Minor Pillar Edicts of Ashoka.[49]

The 29 Buddhas of Theravāda

The Pali literature of the Theravāda tradition includes tales of 29 Buddhas. In countries where Theravāda Buddhism is practiced by the majority of people, such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, it is customary for Buddhists to hold elaborate festivals, especially during the fair weather season, paying homage to the 29 Buddhas described in the Buddhavamsa. The Buddhavamsa is a text which describes the life of Gautama Buddha and the 27 Buddhas who preceded him, along with the future Metteyya Buddha. The Buddhavamsa is part of

the Khuddaka Nikāya, which in turn is part of the Sutta Piṭaka. The Sutta Piṭaka is one of three main sections of the Pāli Canon. The first three of these Buddhas—Taṇhaṅkara, Medhaṅkara, and Saraṇaṅkara—lived before the time of Dīpankara Buddha. The fourth Buddha, Dīpankara, is especially important, as he was the Buddha who gave niyatha vivarana (prediction of future Buddhahood) to the Brahmin youth who would in the distant future become the bodhisattva Gautama Buddha. After Dīpankara, 25 more noble people (ariya-puggala) would attain enlightenment before Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Many Buddhists also pay homage to the future (and 29th) Buddha, Metteyya. According to Buddhist scripture, Metteya will be a successor of Gautama who will appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. The prophecy of the arrival of Metteyya is found in the canonical literature of all Buddhist sects (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana), and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an event that will take place when the Dharma will have been forgotten on Jambudvipa (the terrestrial realm, where ordinary human beings live).

Chapter 3

Ten Worlds, Ten Directions

The ten directions are the eight points of the compass (north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest) and the directions of up and down (zenith and nadir), in which different manifestations of Buddha exist. Mahayana Buddhist believe that the right path of a follower will lead to the redemption of all human beings. The Hinayana believe that each person is responsible for his own fate. Along with these doctrines there are other Buddhist beliefs like 'Zen Buddhism' from Japan and the 'Hindu Tantric Buddhism' from Tibet.

Main characteristics of Mahayana Buddhism: Even though the central concept: the mutual "interpenetration" of all things, based on their true nature, the principle of emptinessna, or meditation; Zen in Japanese). Focus on meditation, "sudden enlightenment," and the recorded sayings of Tang dynasty (7th-10th c.) Chan 禪 (from chan-na 禪那, the Chinese transliteration of dhy.

What are the ten factors in Buddhism?

This reality consists of appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, internal cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end. The 29 Buddhas of Theravāda

The Pali literature of the Theravāda tradition includes tales of 29 Buddhas. In countries where Theravāda Buddhism is practiced by the majority of people, such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, it is customary for Buddhists to hold elaborate festivals, especially during the fair weather season, paying homage to the 29 Buddhas described in the Buddhavamsa. The Buddhavamsa is a text which describes the life of Gautama Buddha and the 27 Buddhas who preceded him, along with the future Metteyya Buddha.[50] The Buddhavamsa is part of the Khuddaka Nikāya, which in turn is part of the Sutta Piṭaka. The Sutta Piṭaka is one of three main sections of the Pāli Canon.

The first three of these Buddhas—Taṇhaṅkara, Medhaṅkara, and Saraṇaṅkara—lived before the time of Dīpankara Buddha. The fourth Buddha, Dīpankara, is especially important, as he was the Buddha who gave niyatha vivarana (prediction of future Buddhahood) to the Brahmin youth who would in the distant future become the bodhisattva Gautama Buddha.[51] After Dīpankara, 25 more noble people (ariya-puggala) would attain enlightenment before Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Many Buddhists also pay homage to the future (and 29th) Buddha, Metteyya. According to Buddhist scripture, Metteya will be a successor of Gautama who will appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure Dharma. The prophecy of the arrival of Metteyya is found in the canonical literature of all Buddhist sects (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana), and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an event that will take place when the Dharma will have been forgotten on Jambudvipa (the terrestrial realm, where ordinary human beings live).

Pāli name Sanskrit name Birthplace Parents Bodhirukka (tree of enlightenment) Incarnation of Gautama 1 Taṇhaṅkara Tṛṣṇaṃkara King Sunandha and Queen Sunandhaa Rukkaththana 2 Medhaṅkara Medhaṃkara Yaghara Sudheva and Yasodhara Kaela 3 Saraṇaṅkara Śaraṇaṃkara Vipula Sumangala and Yasawathi Pulila 4 Dīpaṃkara Dīpaṃkara Sudheva and Sumedhaya Pipphala Sumedha (also Sumati or Megha Mānava)

5 Koṇḍañña Kauṇḍinya Sunanda and Sujata Salakalyana Vijitawi (a Chakravarti in Chandawatinagara of Majjhimadesa)

6 Maṅgala Maṃgala Uttaranagara (Majhimmadesa) Uttara (father) and Uttara (mother) A naga Suruchi (in Siribrahmano) 7 Sumana Sumanas Sudassana and Sirima A naga King Atulo, a Naga 8 Revata Raivata Sudhannawatinagara Vipala and Vipula A naga

9 Sobhita Śobhita Sudhammanagara Sudhammanagara (father) and Sudhammanagara (mother) A naga Sujata (in Rammavati) 10 Anomadassi Anavamadarśin Chandawatinagara Yasava and Yasodara Ajjuna A Yaksha king 11 Paduma Padma Champayanagara Asama (father) and Asama (mother) Salala A lion

12 Nārada Nārada Dhammawatinagara King Sudheva and Anopama Sonaka A tapaso in Himalayas 13 Padumuttara Padmottara Anurula and Sujata Salala Jatilo, an ascetic 14 Sumedha Sumed Sumedha (father) and Sumedha (mother) Nipa Native of Uttaro 15 Sujāta Sujāta Uggata and Pabbavati Welu A chakravarti

16 Piyadassi Priyadarśin Sudata and Subaddha Kakudha Kassapa (at Siriwattanagara) 17 Atthadassi Arthadarśin Sonanagara Sagara and Sudassana Champa Susino, 18 Dhammadassī Dharmadarśi Suranamaha and Sunanada Bimbajala Indra 19 Siddhattha Siddhārtha Udeni and Suphasa Kanihani Mangal 20 Tissa Tiṣya Janasando and Paduma Assana King Sujata of Yasawatinagara 21 Phussa Puṣ Jayasena and Siremaya Amalaka Vijitavi

22 Vipassī Vipaśyi Vipassi (father) and Vipassi (mother) Pāṭalī (Stereospermum chelonoides) King Atula 23 Sikhī Śikhi Arunavatti and Paphavatti Puṇḍarīka (Mangifera indica) Arindamo (at Paribhuttanagara) 24 Vessabhū Viśvabh Suppalittha and Yashavati Sāla (Shorea robusta) Sadassana (in Sarabhavatinagara)

25 Kakusandha Krakucchanda Aggidatta, the purohita Brahman of King Khema, and Visakha Sirīsa (Albizia lebbeck) King Khema 26 Koṇāgamana Kanakamuni[64] Yaññadatta, a Brahman, and Uttara Udumbara (Ficus racemosa) King Pabbata of a mountainous area in Mithila 27 Kassapa Kāśyapa Brahmadatta, a Brahman, and Dhanavati Nigrodha (Ficus benghalensis) Jotipala (at Vappulla) 28 Gautama Buddha Gautama (current) King Suddhodana and Māyā Assattha (Ficus religiosa) Gautama, the Buddha 29 Metteyya Maitreya[ Subrahma and Brahmavati Nāga (Mesua ferrea)

Mahayana Buddhas

The Great Buddha of Kamakura, a Japanese statue of Amida (Amitābha), 13th-century.

Mahayana Buddhists venerate numerous Buddhas that are not found in early Buddhism or in Theravada Buddhism. They are generally seen as living in other realms, known as buddha-fields (Sanskrit: buddhakṣetra) or pure lands  in East Asian Buddhism. They are sometimes called "celestial Buddhas", since they are not from this earth.

Some of the key Mahayana Buddhas are:

Akshobhya ("the Imperturbable") Amitābha (Amida Buddha, "Infinite Light"), the principal Buddha of ⦁ Pure Land Buddhism Amoghasiddhi (“Infallible Success”)

Bhaiṣajyaguru ("Medicine guru") also known as "Medicine Buddha", the healing Buddha Ratnasambhava ("Jewel Born")

Vairocana ("the Illuminator"), a key figure in the ⦁ Avatamsaka Sutra Prabhūtaratna ("Many Treasures," A Buddha who appears in the ⦁ Lotus Sutra)

Samantabhadra, a Buddha who is mentioned in the ⦁ Akṣayamatinirdeśa Sūtra, which states that the bodhisattva ⦁ Akṣayamati is said to be from the Buddha field of Samantabhadra.⦁ [68] Lokeśvararāja, a past Buddha who is mentioned in the ⦁ Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life

The  35 Confession Buddhas

The so-called buddhas in the ten directions” according to the scholar Juyan Zhang,of the University of Texas at San Antonio, are nothing more than transformation buddhas of the Śākyamuni Buddha, or duplicates of the Buddha in infinite worlds; and the concept has its origins in the similes comparing the Buddha to the sun and the moon as well as the Twin Miracle Legend, both of which are found in the early Buddhist texts EBTs). The concept then led to the creation of celestial buddhas e g., Buddha Akṣobhya)as a convenient means to teach the Dharma and to fill the void left by the Śākyamuni Buddha, which further spawned the belief that there are real buddhas in the ten directions (e.g., Amitābha). He has used 2 textse

⦁ Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra ⦁ Mahāvaipulya Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra also called Avatamsaka sutra and to illustrate this point.

Though both Sutras were not composed at the place where the Buddha spent most of his latter days namely at Shravasti  his thoughts are credited to have developed there amidst the surrounding areas that belonges to his clan the sakyas.

Shravasti (श्रावस्ती, or सावत्थी) was the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala and the place where the Buddha lived most after his enlightenment. It is near the Rapti river in the northeastern part of Uttar Pradesh India, close to the Nepalese border. Kingdom of Kosala  with a rich culture, corresponding the area with the region of Awadh in present-day Uttar Pradesh to Western Odisha. It emerged as a small state during the late Vedic period, with connections to the neighbouring realm of Videha.  Kosala region gave rise to the Sramana movements, including Jainism and Buddhism. During

the 5th century BCE, Kosala incorporated the territory of the Shakya clan, to which the Buddha belonged. According to the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya and the Jaina text, the Bhagavati Sutra, Kosala was one of the Solasa (sixteen) Mahajanapadas (powerful realms) in 6th to 5th centuries BCE, and its cultural and political strength earned it the status of a great power.

Sravasti is one of the most revered sites in Buddhism. It is believed to be where the Buddha taught many of his Suttas (sermons), converted many of his famous disciples, and performed his "Sravasti miracles" – "great miracle" and "twin miracle" – a subject of numerous historic reliefs, statues and literature in Buddhism. Sravasti is also important to Hinduism and Jainism. The earliest manuscripts of both mention it and weave some of their legends in Sravasti. Archaeological excavations of the Sravasti site have unearthed numerous artworks and monuments related to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.

The word Shravasti is rooted in Sanskrit and the Hindu tradition. As per Bhagavata Purana this city was built by a king called Shravasta who descended from Vaivasvata Manu.In Pali and Buddhist literature, it is called Savatthi. Early Buddhist literature paint Savatthi as a mega-urban center in the time of the Buddha. According to Buddhist sources, Shravasti is the location where the Buddha gave most of his talks, later remembered by his followers and centuries later written down as Suttas. According to Woodward, 871 suttas in the

four Nikayas of Buddhist canons, are based in Shravasti. These texts add that the Buddha spent twenty-five varshas in Shravasti. Scholars such as Rhys Davids state that this could mean two things. Either the Buddha primarily lived in Shravasti after his enlightenment, or that the oral tradition in early Buddhism was "systematized in Shravasti". Malalasekera, a historian of Buddhism, considers the former more likely. Either way, Shravasti is the key site where almost all the remembered teachings of the Buddha were either heard or compiled, and centuries later were recorded as the Pali canon elsewhere.

Shravasti is also mentioned as the capital and home of king Prasenajit – where the royal patron of the Buddha lived. It was also the home of Anathapindada – the richest early donor for the Buddha. Anathapindada is famous in the Buddhist literature as the one who offered his Jetavana grove and residences. In the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha is remembered for having performed miracles, of which two are particularly popular in reliefs found in its stupas, artwork and literature. The Buddha is believed to have performed the Mahapratiharya or the "great miracle", and the Yamakapratiharya or the "twin miracle" in Shravasti. These are called the "Sravasti miracles".

Procession of Prasenajit of Kosala leaving Sravasti to meet the Buddha. Sanchi.

Chinese pilgrims

The Chinese Pilgrim Fa-Hein travelled to India about 399 CE, and stayed for about 10 years in his quest to learn Sanskrit and obtain original Buddhist texts. He mentions Sravasti, and describes how he reached Kapilavastu from Sravasti. The hints and scenes mentioned by Faxian were one of the basis of an early colonial-era incorrect conjecture on the current location of historic Kapilavastu – the birthplace of Buddha.

Xuanzang describes the country of Shravasti in Fascicle 6 of his travelogue Dà Táng Xīyù Jì. In this fascicle, he presents four countries including Shravasti, and describes the villages and towns in the region as deserted and dilapidated. He says the Shravasti country is over six thousand li in circuit with a capital city that is desolate, though some residents still live here. He mentions it has over hundred monasteries, many dilapidated. In these monasteries, Buddhist monks study Hinayana Buddhism (now called Theravada, Xuanzang belonged to the Mahayana Buddhism tradition).

He saw the decaying remains of Prasenajit's palace, then to its east the Great Dhamma Hall stupa, another stupa and a temple for the maternal aunt of the Buddha. Next to these, states Xuanzang, is the great stupa of Angulimala. About five li (~2 kilometers in the 7th century) south of the city, he saw the Jetavana garden with two 70 feet high pillars standing in front of a dilapidated monastery. One great pillar has a wheel carved at its top, the other a bull. Xuanzang visits and chronicles all the monuments associated with the Sravasti legends with the

Buddha. He also visited a Buddhist temple 60 feet high with a seated Buddha image in Shravasti, and a deva temple about the same size as the Buddha temple, both in good condition. Over sixty li to the northwest of Sravasti capital, he saw a series of stupas built by Ashoka for Kasyapa Buddha.

⦁ Mulagandhakuti, the remains of Buddha's hut in Jetavana Monastery.

⦁ Anandabodhi tree in ⦁ Jetavana monastery./Place (Stupa) of the ⦁ Twin Miracle.

Core themes

⦁ The Bodhisattva and Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra also known as Prajñāpāramitā

A key theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the figure of the Bodhisattva (literally: awakening-being) which is defined in the 8,000-line Prajñāpāramitā sutra as: "One who trains in all dharmas [[[phenomena]]] without obstruction [[[asakti]], asaktatā], and also knows all dharmas as they really are.

A Bodhisattva is then a being that experiences everything "without attachment" (asakti) and sees reality or suchness (Tathātā) as it is. The Bodhisattva is the main ideal in Mahayana (Great Vehicle), which sees the goal of the Buddhist path as becoming a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings, not just yourself:

They make up their minds that 'one single self we shall tame ... one single self we shall lead to final Nirvana.' A Bodhisattva should certainly not in such a way train himself.

On the contrary, he should train himself thus: "My own self I will place in Suchness [the true way of things], and, so that all the world might be helped, I will place all beings into Suchness, and I will lead to Nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings.”

A central quality of the Bodhisattva is their practice of Prajñāpāramitā, a most deep (gambhīra) state of knowledge which is an understanding of reality arising from analysis as well as meditative insight. It is non-conceptual and non-dual (advaya) as well as transcendental. Literally, the term could be translated as "knowledge gone to the other (shore)", or transcendental knowledge. The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra saysThis is known as the Prajñāpāramitā of the bodhisattvas; not grasping at form, not grasping at sensation, perception, volitions and cognition.

THE LARGE SUTRA ON PERFECT WISDOM with the divisions of the Abhisamayālañkāra Translated by EDWARD CONZE stretched itself to 600 + pages and here are some psychological qualities of a Bodhisattva's practice of Prajñāpāramitā:

⦁ Non-apprehension (anupalabdhi) ⦁ No settling down or "non-attachment" (anabhinivesa) ⦁ No attainment (aprapti). No person can "have," or "possess," or "acquire," or "gain" any dharma. ⦁ Non-reliance on any dharma, being unsupported, not leaning on any dharma.

"Finally, one may say that the attitude of the perfected sage is one of non-assertion

Translating Foshuo dousha jing 佛說兜沙經(T. 280 10 446a07): 四面中有呼佛。 名曰勝達...中有呼釋迦文尼...為四 面如是輩。 各各呼釋迦文佛名。 合 萬字。 如是十方極過去不可復 計諸佛 。 都人民種種各異語。 共呼釋迦文 --- Daśa Sūtra , Juyan Zhang states that The sutra states that the Śākyamuni Buddha projects infinite duplicates of himself into all directions: The Śākyamuni Buddha ... duplicates himself in one billion small countries. There is a buddha in every small country, and in all there are one billion buddhas.”8) The sutra states that the buddhas are called by different names, but they are just

different names of the Śākyamuni Buddha: In the four directions, some called the Buddha as Siddhārtha ... some call him the Śākyamuni ... such people in the four directions called different names of the Śākyamuni Buddha. In total there are ten thousand names. Similarly, in the infinite buddha fields in the infinitely far ten directions, all people in different languages called the Śākyamuni buddha.”

About the Author--- UDAY DOKRAS

The author has worked for 30 years in the human resources arena in India and abroad. He was Group Vice -President of MZI Group in New Delhi and has anchored Human Relations in Go Air and Hotel Holiday Inn;was General Manager-Health Human Resources at the Lata Mangeshkar Hospital amd Medical college. Is currently Consultant to Gorewada International Zoo,Nagpur and visiting Faculty at the Central Institute of Business Management and Research, Nagpur.

In Sweden he anchored HR in Stadbolaget RENIA, SSSB and advisor to a multi millionaire. He has studied in Nagpur, India where he obtained degrees of Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts(Managerial Economics) and Bachelor of Laws. He has done his Graduate Studies in labour laws from Canada at the Queen's University, Kingston; a MBA from USA, and Doctorate from Stockholm University, Sweden. Apart from that he has done a Management Training Program in Singapore.

A scholar of the Swedish Institute, he has been an Edvard Cassel Fund and Wineroth Fund Awardee.A scholar for the Swedish Institute for 5 years. In 1984 he was involved with the Comparative Labour Law Project of the University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A. He was also visiting lecturer there. In 1985 he was invited by the President of Seychelles to do a study of the efficacy of the labour laws of Seychelles.

Author of a book on a Swedish human resource law, his brief life sketch is part of the English study text book of 7 th Class Students in Sweden -“Studying English. SPOTLIGHT 7”- and 8th Class students in Iceland - “SPOTLIGHT 8- Lausnir.”

Some of the 80 BOOKS BY DR UDAY DOKRAS

Published by The Indo Swedish Author’s Collective Stockholm The Indo Swedish Author’s Collective Finland

Dr. Uday Dokras

Tamil People as Traders and Voyagers

The Cambodian Trilogy

I.HINDU CAMBODIA

II.HYDROLOGY of ANGKOR ANGKOR is known as a Hydraulic city- full or canals and river and waterways. It is this water system they say that brought the downfall of this intrinsic kingdom. But is that TRUE?

III.ENTER…… THE KINGDOM THAT VANISHED- Angkor

Building Materials of the Hindu Temple Indo Nordic Author's collective, 2021 In depth study of how Building Materials of the Hindu Temple was used in India,Indonesia and Cambodia and India

The Art & Architecture of THE GOLDEN TEMPLE COMPLEX, AMRITSAR

Mathematics in Temple Designs

Jain ART Book on Jain Art and Iconography

Jain Temples- Part I -Complete Compendium-Book I A to Z of the architecture, Design,Cosmology,Philosophy of Jain temples in

Jain Temples II DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAIN TEMPLES AND THE ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS(ORIGINAL) OF 3JAIN TEMPLES of Nagpur DWARKA- CELESTIAL MYSTERIES of the Lost CITY of KRISHNA

TIRUPATI TEMPLE Book part I

TIRUPATI TemplePart II

Vahanas- the vehicles of Hindu Gods Vahanas- the vehicles of Hindu Gods. Animals in Hinduism. demi Gods

SATYANARAYAN PUJA-The Complete Compendium Satyanarayan Puja or 9 Graha Puja( a puja of 9 planets) has been performed by most Hindus not only now but for 1,000’s of years.

MAHALAXMI Puja Hindu Goddess MAHALAXMI Puja

ARCHITECTURE OF PALESTINE

Palestine my Love Palestine my Love is about the culture arts and crafts of palestine so we recognize it as a entity that is fighting for recognition of not only its legitimacy but also its cultural heritage QUINTET (5) BOOKS ON MANDALA

Unravelling the MAZE of the MANDALA BOOK I First part of a two book treatise on MANDALAS. This introductory phase introduces mandalas

Maze of MANDALA BOOK II Advanced Mandala routine for those who want to know more about MANDALAS

Mandala BOOK III on Nakshatra

BOOK IV MANDALA & ARCHITECTURE The Use of Mandalas in Building Temples and Modern Buildings

Book V on Mandala of the Oriental Kingdoms

Islamic Architectureal Arts of of Imam Ali's 2 Shrines

Hindu Gods in Scandinavia Did the Hindu Gods originate or live in Scandinavia once? Find out

Book on Divinity and Architecture What is divinity? How has man tried to harness architecture to create magic in space

Virat Hridaya Padma-sthalam CHIDAMBARAM Temple -Celestial Mysteries This book is about a mysterious and revered tempe built by the Chola Kings of South India 2000 years ago

T2- Temple Tech. A Book How are Hindu temples built and the technology that follows this craft. From A to Z Complete Guide.

Rendezvous with Sri RAM Portfolio of Temple Art by Srishti Dokras, Architect Special section on Hindu Foods by Karan Dokras, Product Guru

Best Foot Forward The story of Footwear through the ages up to COVID times

Hindu Temple Panorama-Celestial Mysteries A to Z of Temples. A total Panoramic View of design and architecture of Hindu temples in 350 page...

DUOLOGY (2) on JAINISM Ativir ATIVIR means Very Brave and is the name given to Lord Mahavir the 24 th Saint(TIRTHANKAR) Contains rare translations of the Dialogue of the Mahavir with his disciples called GHANDHARVAVAD

Vardhaman-वर्धमान IThis book is about Jainism- written by a non- THE TRILOGY(3) on DEVRAJA The God kIngs of Khemer

Book I DEVRAJ- The God Kings of Indo China-Cambodia. This is the first Book of a Trilogy that traces the growth of Hinduism in South East Asia. BOOK I I DEVRAJA- The Great Civilizations of South East Asia -HINDU Era How Hinduism reached Cambodia and how the Hindu Kings called Devraj Built these magnificent structures

Devraja BOOK II I Devraja and Raj Dharma God King and Kingly Religion The HINDU Era of Great Civilizations of Khemer Book 2 of a Trilogy that traces the advent of Hinduism on South East Asian and Indo-Chinese

Vayu- Man's taming of the winds Man's conquest of nature spans a million years. How was wind tamed by him. Here is the full story... more 

VIMANA Ancient Conquests of Wind Ancient flying machines of Gods and Men(?) Were they true. Did they really exist. 7000 years ago?

LIGHT HOUSES In words and pictures

BOOK Architecture of the Lighthouse of Alexandria-BOOK Indo Swedish Author's Collective, 2020 The lighthouse was built on an island off the coast of Alexandria called Pharos. Its name, legend

Cosmology of lotus Indo Nordic Author's Collective, 2020 The Lotus is the king of the flower world but few know it as a part of creation. Find out the Cosmology.

Celestial Mysteries of the Borobudur Temple Borobudur remains a mystery even today. The largest Buddhist Stupa in the world has many unanswered... Win with this new DIET

Hindu tempel of India , Cambodia and Indonesia Hindu Temples dot India, Cambodia and Indonesia

DISRUPTION-Book

Book Architecture Creativity Creativity and Architecture are linked and go hand in hand. This Book is a culmination of 16 publications that have been put together as a book

Project HR Management Indo Swedish Author's Collective PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT/'Dr UDAY DOKRAS The project sphere has not been valued appropriately

Human Resource Engineering in Theme Parks. by Dr. Uday Dokras and Mansse Bhandari As theme parks evolve into facilitating for greater thrill seeking audience,the role of human res... more 

Health Human Resource Management Management of Health care workers in hospitals and the human resource practices to be followed in hospitals.

WIN DIET Lose fat-Diet and Exercise Book ONLY BODY SHAPING GUIDE YOU NEED

The Act on Co-determination at Work – an Efficacy study Thesis of the Author for the degree of Doctor of Law Stockholm University, SWEDEN 1990

Later Bookks by the Authors

Nagpur’s Prolific and Successful Writer

Dr. Uday Vasant Dokras, son of the later Principal of VNIT Dr. Vasant Dokras, has proved his mettle in writing; making history and India proud. He has written, 80 books since 1990 and 400 Technical and research papers/ articles. His books adorn many international Libraries such as Royal Swedish Library, European Union, Harvard University, StanfordUniversity amongst others-as well as the US Library of Congress, Washington DC. Recently, he has co-authored a Trilogy on Palestine with Australian Islamic Studies Research author Muhsin Dadarkar who hails from Konkan but settled in Sydney since past 40 years. Muhsin has sold Dr Dokras books to 6 arab countries and will be translated in Arabic. Dr Uday’s other books have been translated into Portugese( Brazil) and French. The French editions will be sold on Googlebooks(French).

His expertise on Hindu temples in Bharat and Cambodia is unmatched on which he has written 22 books and 180 papers. His work can be read on academia.edu. Dr Uday together with his daughter Srishti who lives in Seattle,USA heads and operate the Indo Nordic Author’s Collective- which gives budding author’s a chance to get published. He co-authors with professors from Norway, USA, Reunion (France) and Museum Curators from USA . His brief life sketch is part of the English study text books of 7 th Class Students in Sweden -“Studying English. SPOTLIGHT 7”- and 8 th Class students in Iceland - “SPOTLIGHT 8- Lausnir.”A first for an Indian. To celebrate 5 lakh readers of his books ( Half Million) , Shri Joginder Singh Uberoi our Chartered Accountant felicitated him at the Gondwana Club.

Source

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