Question: "What is Buddhism and what do Buddhists believe?"

[AlinB]

Taṇhā (Pāli; Sanskrit: tṛṣṇā, also trishna) is a Buddhist term that literally means "thirst," and is commonly translated as craving or desire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%E1%B9%87h%C4%81

Pai scrie-le nene la astia de la Wikipedia ca s-au inselat si doar tu esti cunoscator adevarat al budhismului.

Ca nu se mentioneaza si de "chanda" in articol nu cred ca are prea mare importanta.

Mai bine leaga-te de restul aspectelor ca sunt mult mai importante.

La fel de bine ti se poate reprosa ca tu fiind atasat sentimental de o idee, care este opusul ratiunii, nu poti analiza obiectiv un articol critic.

Ca in afara de o obiectie f. relativa de care te-ai agatat ca inecatul de pai, nu ai venit cu nici o critica argumentata punctual.

[stoogecristi]

Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism
(from Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, Harvest House, 1999)

Info at a Glance
Name: Buddhism (B); Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism or Nichiren Shoshu of America (NS).

Purpose: (B) To eradicate suffering and attain enlightenment; (NS) to receive material benefits and find happiness.

Founder: (B) Gautama Siddhartha (ca. 563-483 B.C.); (NS) Nichiren Daishonin (1222-1282 A.D.)

Source of authority: (B) The Pali canon and other Buddhist Scripture, personal experience; (NS) The Lotus Sutra and Nichiren Daishonin’s writings (Gosho), personal experience.

Claim: (B) Through the Buddha’s teachings, one can attain true enlightenment and find contentment; (NS) to represent the only true Buddhism.

Revealed teachings: (B) No (early Buddhism), Yes (later Buddhism); (NS) Yes

Theology: (B) Nontheistic or atheistic (early Buddhism), polytheistic (later Buddhism); (NS) polytheistic.

Occult dynamics: (B & NS) Altered states of consciousness, ritual, psychic powers, spiritism.

Key literature: (B) The Pali Canon, various other scriptures; (NS) The Lotus Sutra, the writings of Nichiren Daishonin, Daisku Ikeda and principal periodicals: The Seikyo Times, The World Tribune NSA Quarterly (defunct).

Attitude toward Christianity: Rejecting.

Note: In America today, there are an estimated 1,000 plus Buddhist centers and millions of practicing Buddhists. “Later,” or Mahayana Buddhism, is predominate in the West, and this includes Zen, Tibetan/Tantric and Nichiren schools of Buddhism.

DOCTRINAL SUMMARY

God: Ultimate reality is a condition of “existence” called nirvana; no supreme God exists. In NS, the equivalent is an impersonal life essence “incarnated” in the Lotus Sutra and Ghonzon.

Jesus: A wise sage (perhaps enlightened), whose teachings were distorted by Christian myths.

Salvation: Through occult meditation and ritual to attain enlightenment or true understand*ing of and control over “reality.”

Man: In his true essence and enlightenment, one with the Buddha.

Sin: Ignorance.

Satan: An impersonal force within Nature, personification of “evil.”

Bible: Generally, a scripture containing true and false teachings.

Death: Reincarnation into nirvana.

Heaven and Hell: Temporary states of mind or places.

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In an era pregnant with tolerance for everything, some Christians have embraced Bud*dhism while numerous attempts have been made to “unify” Buddhism and Christianity by ecumenically minded members of both faiths. Friendly Buddhist and Christian encounters are the vogue on some university campuses. Through no fault of its own, however, “Chris*tianity” is frequently the loser in such encounters. Thus, mainline Christians, who have no real comprehension of biblical Christianity but are fascinated by the alluring or mystical nature of Buddhist metaphysics, may leave their “faith” and become Buddhists. Or, they may maintain a rather odd mixture of both religions, one that is ultimately unfaithful to both. On the other hand, Buddhists who “accept” Christianity merely redefine it into their own Buddhism. Professor of Buddhism and Japanese Studies at Tokyo and Harvard Universi*ties respectively, Masaharu Anesaki illustrates this by his assimilation of Jesus with the Buddha:

In short, we Buddhists are ready to accept Christianity; nay, more, our faith in Buddha is faith in Christ. We see Christ because we see Buddha.... We can hope not in vain for the second advent of Christ [that is] the appearance of the [prophesied] future Buddha Metteya. [1] (italics in original)
Nevertheless, rather than seeking a “unity” among these religions, the truth is much closer to the gut feeling of Zen Buddhist D.T. Suzuki, who states, as he undoubtedly re*flects upon the Buddhist concept of suffering: “Whenever I see a crucified figure of Christ, I cannot help thinking of the gap that lies deep between Christianity and Buddhism.” [2]

The truth is that purported similarities between Buddhism and Christianity are only apparent or surface. For example, many have claimed a similarity between Jesus Christ’s saving role in Christianity and the Bodhisattva’s savior role as given in later Buddhism. But these roles are entirely contradictory. In Christianity, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). This means He saves us from the penalty of our sins by taking God’s judgment of sin in His own Person. Jesus paid the penalty of sin (death) for sinners by dying in their place. Thus, He offers a free gift of salvation to anyone simply for believing and accepting what He has done on their behalf (Jn. 3:16). The central ideas involved in Christ’s saving role—God’s holiness, propitiatory atonement, forgiveness of sin, salvation as a free gift of God’s grace through faith in Christ, etc., are all foreign to Buddhism.

The Bodhisattva’s role of savior is thus entirely different than that of Christ’s. The Bodhisattva has no concern with sin in an ultimate sense, only with the end of suffering. He has no concept of God’s wrath against sin or the need for a propitiatory atonement. He has no belief in an infinite personal God who created men and women in His image. He has no belief in a loving God who freely forgives sinners. His only sacrifice is his postponement of entering nirvana so that he can help others find Buddhist enlightenment. Having achieved self-perfection, the Bodhisattva could freely enter nirvana at death. Instead, he chooses to reincarnate again to help others attain their own self-perfection and nirvana more quickly.

Thus, those who argue there is an essential similarity between Buddhist and Christian concepts of savior are wrong. In fact, at their core, Buddhism and Christianity are irreconcil*able, as far removed as the East and West. Indeed, virtually every major Christian doctrine is denied in Buddhism and vice versa. We would therefore suggest that a merging of the two traditions results in a disservice to both.

For their part, Buddhists have long recognized the differences between the two faiths. The knowledgeable Buddhist is aware that the doctrines and teachings of bibli*cal Christianity are an enemy rather than a friend, for Christian faith openly teaches those things which Buddhists reject as mere ignorance and/or as spiritual hindrances; further Christianity openly opposes those things which Buddhism endorses an essential for genuine enlightenment.

For example, Christianity is interwoven with the monotheistic grandeur of an infinite, personal God (Jn. 17:3; Isa. 43:10-11, 44:6); Buddhism is agnostic and practically speak*ing, atheistic (or in later form, polytheistic).

In Christianity, its central teaching involves the absolute necessity for belief in Jesus Christ as personal Savior from sin (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12; I Tim. 2:5-6); Buddhism has no Savior from sin and even in the Mahayana tradition, as we have seen, the savior concepts are quite dissimilar.

Christianity stresses salvation by grace through faith alone (Jn. 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9); Bud*dhism stresses enlightenment by works through meditative practices that seek the allevia*tion of “ignorance” and desire.

Christianity promises forgiveness of all sin now (Col. 2:13; Eph. 1:7) and the eventual elimination of sin and suffering for all eternity (Rev. 21:3-4). On the other hand, Buddhism, since it holds there is no God to offend, promises not the forgiveness and eradication of sin, but rather the elimination of suffering (eventually) and the ultimate eradication of the individual.

Wherever we look philosophically, we see the contrasts between these faiths. Christian*ity stresses salvation from sin, not from life itself (1 Jn. 2:2). Christianity exalts personal existence as innately good, since man was created in God’s image, and promises eternal life and fellowship with a personal God (Gen. 1:26, 31; Rev. 21:3-4). Christianity has a distinctly defined teaching in the afterlife (heaven or hell, e.g., Mt. 25:46; Rev. 20:10-15). It promises eternal immortality for man as man—but perfected in every way (Rev. 21:3-4).

[stoogecristi]

On the other hand, Buddhism teaches reincarnation, and has only a mercurial nirvana wherein man no longer remains man or, where, in Mahayana, there exists temporary heav*ens or hells and the final “deification” of “man” through a merging with the ultimate panthe*istic-cosmic Buddha nature. But Christianity denies that reincarnation is a valid belief, based on the fact of Christ’s propitiatory atonement for sin. In other words, if Christ died to forgive all sin, there is no reason for a person to pay the penalty for their own sin (“karma”) over many lifetimes (Col. 2:13; Heb. 9:27; 10:10, 14; Eph. 1:7).

Consider further contrasts. Biblical Christianity rejects pagan mysticism and all occult*ism (e.g., Deut. 18:9-12); Buddhism accepts or actively endorses them.

In Christianity life itself is good and given honor and meaning; in Buddhism one finds it difficult to deny that life is ultimately not worth living—for life and suffering are inseparable. Thus, in Christianity, Jesus Christ came that men “might have life and have it more abun*dantly” (Jn. 10:10); in Buddhism, Buddha came that men might simply rid themselves of personal existence.

In Christianity, God will either glorify or punish the spirit of man (Jn. 5:28-29); in Bud*dhism no spirit exists to be glorified or punished. In Christianity, absolute morality is a central theme (Eph. 1:4), in Buddhism it is secondary or peripheral.

Buddhism is essentially humanistic, stressing man’s self-achievement. Christianity is essentially theistic, stressing God’s self-revelation and gracious initiative on behalf of man’s helpless moral and spiritual condition. Thus, in Buddhism man alone is the author of salva*tion; Christianity sees this as an absolute impossibility because innately, man has no power to save himself (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).

We could go on, but suffice it to say the form of romantic humanism that inspires liberal religionists to see basic similarities in the two faiths is no more than wishful thinking. It is not utterly surprising, however, that Western religious humanists would promote Buddhism, for in both systems man is the measure of all things (a god of sorts), even if in the latter the end result is a form of personal self-annihilation. But to the extent both are humanistic, they compass the antithesis of Christianity, whose goal is to glorify God and not man (Jer. 17:5; Jude 24-25).

As far as knowing and glorifying God is concerned, this is unimportant and irrelevant to Buddhists. But biblically, to the extent God is ignored or opposed, to that extent man must correspondingly suffer. Here we see the ultimate irony of Buddhism: in ignoring God, Bud*dhists feel they can escape suffering; in fact this will only perpetuate it forever. This is the real tragedy of Buddhism, especially of so-called Christian Buddhism. The very means to escape suffering (true faith in the biblical Christ) is rejected in favor of a self-salvation which can only result in eternal suffering (Mt. 25:46; Rev. 20:10-15).


NOTES
 Masaharu Anesaki, “How Christianity Appeals to a Japanese Buddhist,” in David W. McKain (ed.), Christianity: Some Non-Christian Appraisals, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), pp. 102-103.
 D.T. Suzuki, “Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist,” in McKain (ed.), p. 111.

[stoogecristi]

The first in a series of articles explaining the teachings and practices of Buddhism.
Info at a Glance
Name: Buddhism.

Purpose: To eradicate suffering and attain enlightenment.

Founder: Gautama Siddhartha (ca. 563-483 B.C.).

Source of Authority: The Pali canon and other Buddhist Scripture, personal experience.

Claim: Through the Buddhas teachings, man can attain true enlightenment and find contentment.

Revealed Teachings: No early Buddhism, Yes (later Buddhism.

Theology: Nontheistic or atheistic (early Buddhism) polytheistic (later Buddhism)

Occult Dynamics: Altered states of consciousness, ritual, psychic powers, spiritism.

Key Literature: The Pali Canon, various other scriptures

Attitude Toward Christianity: Rejecting

Quote: "Rely upon yourself: do not depend upon anyone else. Make my teachings your light. Rely upon them: do not depend upon any other teaching."[1] -- The Buddha

"This whole world of delusion is nothing but a shadow caused by the mind."; "...there is no world…outside the mind."; "To Buddha every definitive thing is illusion." "….things have no reality in themselves but are like heat haze."[2]

Note: In America today, there are an estimated 1,000 plus Buddhist centers and millions of practicing Buddhists. "Later" or Mahayana Buddhism dominates in the West, and this includes Zen, Tibetan or Tantric, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism. In this chapter we will first examine Buddhism in general from a Christian perspective and then proceed to discuss the most influential Buddhist sect in the U.S., Nichiren Shoshu of America (NSA or NS). A discussion of Zen Buddhism can also be found in part I and a brief treatment of Tibetan Buddhism can be found in part II. Our present chapter also has appended the testimony of a former Tibetan Buddhist and why she became a Christian.

Because we cover three different Buddhist sects, we felt a general treatment of Buddhism was warranted, although as a world faith, Buddhism is not properly included in a text on cults and new religions. This was especially necessary to indicate how far removed from "true" Buddhism NSA is. Thus, the NSA emphasis on materialism, promotion of and seeking ones desires by worship of the Gohonzon, etc., would have been strongly repudiated by the Buddha.

Notes
 "Last Teachings" Bukkyo Dendo Kyoka (Buddhist Promoting Foundation), The Teaching of the Buddha (Tokyo, Japan, Rev., 1988 p.18.
 Ibid, pp. 86, 100, 104, 108.

[florin.oltean75]

În prealabil postat de AlinB

Taṇhā (Pāli; Sanskrit: tṛṣṇā, also trishna) is a Buddhist term that literally means "thirst," and is commonly translated as craving or desire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%E1%B9%87h%C4%81

Pai scrie-le nene la astia de la Wikipedia ca s-au inselat si doar tu esti cunoscator adevarat al budhismului.

Ma bucur ca ai facut efortul sa verifici.

Apreciez ca este un progres sensibil din partea ta.

Oare ce cuvant alegem pentru a traduce tanha - intre "craving" (poftire ) si "desire" (a dori) cand vrem sa combatem budismul?

In engleza "desire" este mult mai apropiat ca sens de "craving" (pofta).

In romaneste legatura semantica dintre "dorinta" si "pofta" nu este asa de stransa.

In romaneste " dorinta" este evident legata fonetic de "dor" - sugerand mai mult o extensie afectiva nu o patima.

Deci este mai mult o problema de evocare a sensurilor in limba romana decat o problema in engleza.

Asa ca cei de la wikipedia nu gresesc cand spun "craving".

Dar textele care traduc intentionat cu "dorinta" - si isi construiesc pledoaria din aceasta perspectiva - pacatuiesc, cu voie sau fara de voie.

Alin, daca tu ai priceput, eu unul sunt multumit.

Domnul fie cu tine!

[AlinB]

Ce am priceput este ca te-ai agatat ce un lucru relativ minor si ai evitat sa contra-argumentezi la celelate aspecte mult mai importante.

[stoogecristi]

Basic explanations of the Buddhist faith.
Doctrinal Chart
God: Ultimate reality is a condition of "existence" called nirvana; no supreme God exists.

Jesus: A wise sage (perhaps enlightened), whose teachings were distorted by Christian myths.

Salvation: Through occult meditation/ritual to attain enlightenment or true understanding of and control over "reality".

Man: In his true essence and/or enlightenment, one with the Buddha.

Sin: Ignorance.

Satan: An impersonal force within Nature, the personification of "evil".

Bible: Generally, a scripture containing true and false teachings.

Death: Reincarnation into nirvana.

Heaven/Hell: Temporary states of mind and/or places.

[stoogecristi]

Buddhism is growing ever stronger roots in America and the West. American entertainers are especially becoming fascinated—including such people as Steven Seagal, Richard Gere, Martin Scorsese, Tina Turner, Oliver Stone and Courtney Love. What are the teachings and practices of this religious movement?
Buddhism - An Overview and Introduction
A recent cover story of Time magazine was titled "America's Fascination with Buddhism." It noted that Buddhism was now growing "ever stronger roots" in America and the West, pointing out that American entertainment had also "become fascinated with Buddhism." Indeed celebrity Buddhists, or those interested include Steven Seagal who was declared the reincarnation of a 15th Century lama by the head of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism; Richard Gere, the most famous disciple of the Dalai Lama; director Martin Scorsese of The Last Temptation of Christ fame; rocker Tina Turner, who follows Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism; Adam Yauch, the punk rock singer of the Beastie Boys; movie producer Oliver Stone; Phil Jackson, the Chicago Bulls coach who refers to himself as a "Zen-Christian" and is author of Sacred Hoops, and grunger Courtney Love.

Other indications of Buddhism's increasing popularity include the Internet bookstore search engine, amazon.com, which lists over 1,200 titles on Buddhism. Living Buddha, Living Christ alone has sold over 150,000 hardcover copies. A supposedly non-religious Buddhist meditation is now taught to hundreds and probably thousands of business executives in such companies as at Monsanto, where the potentially dangerous Vipassana meditation is said to be offered. Finally since 1988--the number of English language Buddhist teaching centers in America has increased from 429 to over 1200--almost threefold.

(The same issue of Time further observed that Jewish, Protestant and Catholic Buddhists believe that "Buddhist practice can be maintained without leaving one's faith of birth," however insofar as Buddhist practice tends to support and/or inculcate a Buddhist worldview,[1] we will see that such a view is incorrect.)

Introduction: Buddhism in America
The reason we have included the topic of Buddhism in an encyclopedia on cults and new religions is because there are so many new Buddhist religions in America. Although estimates of practicing Buddhists in America range from 1-6 million, it is safe to say that millions of Americans are either practicing Buddhists, syncretists who combine Buddhism with Christianity, or have been seriously impacted by Buddhism in their worldview (See e.g., est/The Forum). Hawaii and California have significant Buddhist influence and large Buddhist populations. (The Asian population and tourism are so large in Hawaii that a Buddhist "Bible" can be found next to every Gideon Bible in hotel rooms-- The Teaching of Buddha, donated by the Buddhist Promoting Foundation of Tokyo.) The American Buddhist Directory published by The American Buddhist Movement in New York and other sources list over 1,000 Buddhist groups and organizations currently active in the United States. (Each major school is represented--Theravadin, Mahayana and Tibetan/Tantric.) Men like D.T. Suzuki, the late Chogyam Trungpa, Daisku Ikeda and the Dalai Lama are having considerable impact through their writings and translations and/or as founders/leaders of American Buddhist religions.

The 1960s - 1990s also saw an increase in academic studies of Buddhism and in the offering of numerous courses in Buddhism at American colleges and universities. A number of Buddhist schools were founded (e.g., the fully accredited Naropa Institute in Denver, Colorado, the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California, and the College of Oriental Studies in Los Angeles.) Publications promoting Buddhism are on the rise. One of the most influential of Buddhist publications is the quarterly Tricycle. Buddhist psychotherapy is prominent within the pages of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, the most scholarly periodical of the so-called "fourth force" psychology (behind psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology). There are now publishers who have devoted themselves to expanding Buddhist literature and influence in the United States (e.g., Shambala of Boston). Buddhism also has many indirect influences, as in Werner Erhard's est and The Forum[2] In the official biography of Erhard by philosopher William Warren Bartley, III, Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of Est, Erhard is quoted as saying, "...of all the disciplines I studied, practiced and learned, Zen was the essential one.... It is entirely appropriate for person's interested in est to also be interested in Zen."[3] (For a thorough analysis of est/the Forum, see chapter.)

Perhaps all this explains why there are now so many Buddhists in the U.S. How did America come to smile on Buddha?

After the landmark meeting in Chicago of the "World Parliament of Religions" in 1893, Buddhist teachers and missionaries began to arrive, namely, D.T. Suzuki, Nyogen Senzaki and others who in turn helped originate a growing Buddhist subculture in America. The new faith was soon popularized by American devotees such as Christmas Humphreys and Alan Watts and "beat writers" Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder. (Like many others, Alan Watts had maintained that Buddhism enabled him to "get out from under the monstrously oppressive God the Father.") The recent waves of Indochinese war refugees continued to bring Buddhist peoples to America. Between 1970 and 1980, the U.S. population increased by 11 percent; in that same period the Asian population increased by over 140 percent. In the year 2000 there are over 10 million Asians living in America, making them the third largest minority, behind blacks and Hispanics. These facts alone underscore the need for the Christian church to undertake an active encounter with Buddhism. Hundreds of thousands of mainline Christians have already converted to Buddhism or some form of hybridization.

Notes
 See John Ankerberg/John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, chapter on Meditation.
 Werner Erhard acknowledges his indebtedness to many religious systems, however, "I don't think that any one of them in particular was more important than any other with the possible exception of Zen being the most influential." Werner Erhard Interview, New Age Journal No. 7, p. 20.
 William Warren Bartley, III, Werner Erhard the Transformation of a Man: The Founding of Est (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1978) p. 121, italics in original.

[stoogecristi]

By: John Ankerberg, John Weldon; ˆ2000
Buddhism encompasses both the teachings ascribed to Gautama Siddhartha as well as the subsequent thoughts of Buddhists in later centuries.
Buddhism in the World
Buddhism encompasses both the teachings ascribed to Gautama Siddhartha (the Buddha) (563-483? B.C.) as well as the subsequent if questionable development of this thought by Buddhists in later centuries. (Such an assessment assumes we know the true teachings of the Buddha--a number of scholars argue the late nature of the Mss. and other factors make it virtually impossible to know what the Buddha taught.) Almost innumerable forms exist. Some 200 sects can be found in Japan alone, many of them opposing one another in doctrine or practice. Our analysis must be recognized as being general, for there is no doctrinally precise Bud*dhism in the same sense that there is a doctrinally precise Christianity.[1] Still, nearly all Buddhism accepts certain key teachings. These are a) the four noble truths, b) the eight-fold path, c) the impermanence and/or ultimate nonexistence of all dharmas (things, events), and d) the need for enlightenment (liberation through awareness) in one form or another. We will discuss these later.

Other common beliefs in Buddhism involve the following:

The Three Jewels--(also known as "the Three Refuges"), Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. These refer to 1) following the Buddha, the enlightened one; 2) accepting the Buddha's Dharma or teaching; and 3) living in harmony with the Sangha, the Buddhist community. In other words, one finds refuge in the Buddha, his teachings and the Buddhist community.
The Five Precepts--These involve rules of ethical practice (e.g., abstaining from harming all living things (ahimsa), false speech, sexual misconduct, etc.).
The Ten Precepts--These include the five precepts but add to them the aspiration to abstain from certain activities e.g., accepting gold or silver, taking untimely meals, dancing and singing, forms of personal adornment and taking high seats or seats of honor.
The hundreds of millions of Buddhists worldwide can be divided into two broad schools, the Theravada and Mahayana.[2] While the Mahayanist is by far the largest, the Theravada is generally held to be "original," i.e., "true," Buddhism. (According to the majority opinion then, Mahayanism developed centuries later.) The Theravada school is the only survivor of some 18 sects that arose in the first four centuries after Buddha's death. The sects were collectively termed Hinayana or "lesser vehicle" by the Mahayanists (meaning "greater vehicle"). According to some, the term Hinayana was used because in the Hinayanist perspective enlightenment (or "salvation") due to the rigors of the path, was possible for only a select few, whereas the later Mahayanists made enlightenment the possibility of all. According to others, the terms are used as follows: Hinayana Buddhists are those who seek to reach enlightenment merely for their own personal welfare, whereas Mahayana Buddhists seek to help others attain enlightenment as well even though this involves the obligation to reincarnate time and time again until all "sentient beings" have attained enlightenment.

Geographically, Theravada is "Southern Buddhism" (the national religion of Siam, Ceylon, Laos, Cambodia and Burma); Mahayana is "Northern Buddhism" (China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Nepal). In the U.S., two typical Mahayanist schools are Zen and Nichiren Buddhism.

Although Buddhism may be broadly classified into these two schools, the Theravada and Mahayanist, many Buddhist scholars refer to three schools, adding the controversial Tibetan or Tantric Buddhism as a separate school.

The first Buddhist scriptures were written down by Theravadin monks about 400 years after the Buddha lived. These scriptures were written on palm leaves and became known as the Tipitaka or Pali Canon. The former term means "three baskets" and refers to the three-fold division of the scriptures termed Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, and Abhidhamma Pitaka.

The first division, the Vinaya Pitaka, involves discipline for Buddhist monks concerning the 227 rules by which they are to live. The second division, the Sutta Pitaka constitutes the teachings of the Buddha on the four noble truths and the eight-fold path, as well as popular Buddhist literature that comprises the Dhammapada and the Jataka Tales (the Dhammapada constitutes an anthology of the Buddha's sayings while the Jataka Tales are stories of the previous lives of the Buddha). The Abhidhamma Pitaka involves philosophical teachings that underscore how Buddhists understand the meaning and purpose of life.

As Buddhism spread outward in different geographical directions, a number of different doctrines and scriptures developed. The Theravada school believes that scriptural authenticity is determined by the texts that were allegedly derived from the Buddha's teachings. However, the Mahayana school added additional scriptures it claimed were just as authoritative, even though these scriptures had little to do with the Buddha's teaching as handed down by the Theravadin school. These scriptures characteristically seemed to have originated by mystical revelations and "vary in form and introduce both mythological and philosophical features not found in the Theravada."[3] Some general differences between the Theravadin and Mahayana schools include:

Theravada Mahayana
Buddha is a human teacher Buddha is an enlightened, supermundane eternal being and/or "god"
Complete self-effort for enlightenment Self-effort is necessary, however additional help from Buddha, Bodhisattvas, (Buddhist "saviors") and Buddhist gods is accepted
Gods are rejected Gods are accepted
Prayer equals meditation Prayer may also be petitionary
Anti-supernatural The supernatural is accepted
Attains the state of Buddhahood (Nirvana apart from the world; one can only help oneself) Attains the state of Bodhisattva (Nirvana in the world; e.g., a bodhisattva postpones Nirvana to help others find it)
Atheism/agnosticism Atheism, agnosticism and/or polytheism
Nirvana replaces Samsara (existence) Nirvana is Samsara (existence)
Notes
 For example, biblical Christianity everywhere has the same beliefs concerning the nature of God (infinite-personal/triune), the Person and work of Jesus Christ (incarnate, atoning Savior), the means of salvation (by grace through faith alone), etc. </nowiki>Buddhism, on the other hand, has within itself quite different views as to the nature of ultimate reality, the nature of the Buddha, the means of salvation, etc. Considered historically, of course, there are endless sects and cults of Christianity from gnosticism, modalism and Arianism in the early centuries to their counterparts today: e.g., Christian Science, "Jesus Only," and Jehovah's Witnesses. But none are truly Christian. By contrast, almost all Buddhists sects, even those Buddha himself would probably or certainly not accept, are considered Buddhist by Buddhists today.
 Buddhist terms are frequently spelled differently because the Buddhist scriptures are divided into those of the Theravadins, which use the Pali language and those of the Mahayanists, which use the Sanskrit language. Thus, nirvana in Sanskrit is Nibbana in Pali. The Buddha is Siddhartha Gautama in Sanskrit but Siddhatta Gotama in Pali, etc.
 Clive Erricker, Buddhism (Chicago, IL: NTC Publishing, 1995), p. 65, cf., 61-65.