1. Buddhism is an Indian religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teaching attributed to the Buddha.
2. Originated in Ancient India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE.
3. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana.
4. It is the world’s fourth largest religion with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population.
5. Practices of Buddhism include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sanga, study of scriptures, observance of moral precepts, renunciation of craving and attachment, the practice of meditation, the cultivation of wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion.
6. Theravada has the ultimate goal of attaining the sublime state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. Primarily in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.
7. Mahayana practices the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening.
8. Vajrayana, a sub- Mahayana teaching and is practiced primarily in Tibet, the Himalayas, Mongolia and Kalmykia.
9. Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini and grew up in Kapilavasthu, a town in the plains region of modern Nepal-India border.
10. Gautama found the teachings of the scholars to be insufficient to attain his goal so he turned to the practice of asceticism.
11. This too fell short so he turned to the practice of meditation.
12. Buddha’s teaching were propagated by his followers, and evolved into over 18 Buddhist sub-schools of thought, each with it own texts containing different interpretations and authentic teaching of the Buddha.
13. These evolved into the many traditions of Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.
14. Four Noble Truths – crave and cling to impermanent states and things; incapable of satisfying; painful; and rebirth and dying again.
15. Liberation from this endless cycle to the state of Nirvana is by following the Noble Eightfold Path.
16. Buddhist texts assert that rebirth can occur in six realms of existence, namely three good realms (heavenly, demi-god, human) and three evil realms (animal, hungry ghosts, hellish).
17. Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of sentient life, each running from conception to death.
18. This rebirth does not involve any soul because it rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul, as it is called in Hinduism and Christianity.
19. Karma is a core belief in Buddhism, it implies neither fatalism nor that everything that happens to a person is caused by Karma.
20. The theory of Karma is that intent matters and is essential to bring about a consequence or result.
21. Refuge in the Three Jewels –
The Buddha, the Gotama, the Blessed One, the Awakened with true knowledge
The Dharma, the precepts, the practice, the Four Truths, the Eightfold Path
The Sanga, order of monks, the community of Buddha’s disciples
22. Reciting the three refuges is considered in Buddhism not as a place to hide, rather a thought that purifies, uplifts and strengthens.
23. Theravada – Noble Eightfold Path
24. Buddhist texts was an oral tradition in the ancient times. The early doctrines and concepts, the interpretations were transmitted from one generation to the next by the word of mouth in monasteries, and not through written texts.
25. The first written texts were about 400 years after Buddha died.
26. Multiple interpretations of the texts were available.
27. Unlike what the Bible is to Christianity and the Quran is to Islam, there is no consensus among the different Buddhist traditions as to what constitutes the scripture or a common canon.
28. The Theravada tradition traces its roots to the words of the Buddha preserved in the Pali Canon, and considers itself to be the more orthodox form of Buddhism.
29. Theravada is primarily practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia as well as small portions of China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bangladesh and is growing in the west.
30. Mahayana (Eastern Buddhism) is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, parts of Russia and most of Vietnam.
31. Tibet Buddhism and that practiced in the Himalayan regions is known as Northern Buddhism. Also more commonly called the Vajrayana Buddhism.
32. The following shows the practice of Buddhism by country, population and percent of total population:
Cambodia 13,701,660 (96.90%)
Thailand 64,419,840 (93.20%)
Burma 38,415,960 (80.10%)
Bhutan 563,000 (74.70%)
Sri Lanka 14,455,980 (69.30%)
Laos 4,092,000 (66.00%)
Mongolia 1,520,760 (55.10%)
Japan 45,807,480 (36.20%), or 84,653,000 (67.00%)
Singapore 1,725,510 (33.90%)
Taiwan 4,945,600 (21.10%), or 8,000,000 (35.00%)
* Estimated as of the 2010 Census according to the Pew Research Center
33. North America has about 3.9 million Buddhists while South America, Africa and the Middle East have about 1.0 million Buddhists.
34. China has about 249,340,000 Buddhists or about 50% of the world population of Buddhists.
