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

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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.

[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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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For the Buddha, the essential problem of humanity was not one of sin, but of suffering and misery. But how could suffering be alleviated? His “enlightenment” on the matter led him to formulate the four noble truths and the eightfold path that are the foundation of Buddhism.

According to Buddhist history, Siddhartha Gautama was raised in a wealthy family, sheltered and protected from life's unpleasantness and tragedies. One day, however, he saw the world as it really was. In observing a decrepit old man, a corpse, a diseased man and a beggar, he realized the fundamental condition of man was one of suffering. For the Buddha, the essential problem of humanity was not really one of sin or selfishness or rebellion against God, as Christianity teaches. It was suffering and misery. But how could suffering be alleviated? This occupied the Buddha's thoughts and he eventually received "enlightenment" on the matter. Buddha formulated the foundation of Buddhism: the four noble truths and the eightfold path.


From a Christian perspective, Siddhartha attempted to find a solution to the symptoms of man's problem instead of the basic or underlying problem itself . Thus, in Christianity, suffering and misery in life are caused largely by sin and rebellion against God. By rejecting God and the dynamics of man's relationship to God, Buddha's only option was to deal with symptoms (e.g., suffering) instead of causes (e.g., sin). This basic misdiagnosis conditions everything subsequent in Buddhism.

In brief, the four noble truths are:

all life involves suffering,
suffering is caused by desire (e.g., "selfish" craving defined, in part, as the desire to exist as an independent self),
desire can be overcome, and
the means to overcome desire is the eightfold path.
The eightfold path consists of the proper or correct exercise of eight conditions or actions which aim at eliminating desire and hence suffering. These include:

right vision (knowledge or views,)
right conception (aspirations,)
right speech,
right behavior (conduct),
right livelihood,
right effort,
right concentration or mindfulness, and
right one-pointed contemplation (or meditation).
However, we must remember to interpret these eight requirements from a Buddhist rather than a Western or Christian perspective. Since these are defined in light of a Buddhist worldview and its presuppositions, they take on distinctly Buddhist implications. As such, they are implicitly or explicitly non-Christian. In fact, given Buddhist premises, the Christian world view is easily considered a spiritual detriment or evil.[2] For example, right understanding is the correct understanding and acceptance of the four noble truths and the Buddhist perception of the world and self. Right concentration or mindfulness in the sense of awareness of one's own actions is achieved by meditation (often leading to occult states of trance and/or development of psychic powers). Right morality "does not consist in passive obedience to a code imposed by a God..." but is determined by tradition (ultimately determined by the Buddha, i.e., the first Buddhist traditions).[3] In fact, according to Buddha, belief in the Christian God and morality are delusive, harmful beliefs. He thus argued, "It is no wonder that people holding these conceptions lose hope and neglect efforts to act wisely and avoid evil."[4]

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The dilemma of man's suffering is exemplified by the Buddhist "law of dependent origination" which asserts that, in a vicious cycle, existence itself perpetuates suffering. Thus, existence itself (which is comprised of an ever impermanent flux of phenomena, both mental and physical) causes corresponding effects. These effects result in more impermanent phenomena. These in turn cause ignorance of the Permanent state (nirvana). Such ignorance of reality brings more harmful desires--which results in suffering--which brings karmic rebirth. All this causes the perpetuation of a bondage to individual existence from which there is no escape.

In The Teaching of Buddha we read the following statements by Buddha:

Because of ignorance and greed, people imagine discriminations where, in reality, there are no discriminations. Inherently, there is no discrimination of right and wrong in human behavior; but people, because of ignorance, imagine such distinctions and judge them as right or wrong....As a result, they become attached to an delusive existence....In reality, therefore, it is their own mind that causes the delusions of grief, lamentation, pain and agony. This whole world of delusion is nothing but a shadow caused by the mind.... It is from ignorance and greed that the world of delusion is born, and all the vast complexity of coordinating causes and conditions exists within the mind and nowhere else. Both life and death arise from the mind and exist within the mind....An unenlightened life rises from a mind that is bewildered by its own world of delusion. If we learn that there is no world of delusion outside the mind, the bewildered mind becomes clear; and because we ceaseto create impure surroundings, we attain Enlightenment.....Since everything in this world is brought about by causes and conditions, there can be no fundamental distinctions among things. The apparent distinctions exist because of peoples absurd and discriminating thoughts....In action there is no discrimination between right in wrong, but people make a distinction for their own convenience. Buddha keeps away from these discriminations and looks upon the world as upon a passing cloud. To Buddha every definitive thing is delusion;..[5]
So how does the Buddhist escape from the endless round of desire, karma and more desire? In order to understand the Buddhist solution, we must further understand how Buddhism views reality.

In Buddhism, existence is believed to be made up of extremely temporary, ever changing phenomena or aggregates. These are termed dharmas or skandhas. Dharmas constitute experiential moments, i.e., the building blocks of existence. (In another definition, Dharma means Buddhist Law, i.e., Buddha's teachings).[6] Skandhas refer to the five aggregates making up the person--1) the body, 2) feelings, 3) perceptions, 4) volition; impulses and emotions, 5) consciousness.[7] It is maintained that existence, by its very nature, is so fleeting that none of its components can, in any sense, be held to be permanent. Such phenomena (broken down to their constituent parts) exist for so short a time (e.g., nano-seconds) that they cannot be said to constitute anything even resembling permanence. However, reality must be something permanent if it is to be real. That which is impermanent cannot be real. Hence, one must transcend all impermanence and arrive at nirvana, the only permanent and real state of existence.[8]

Naturally, if our existence is impermanent and "unreal", the logical solution is to eradicate our personal existence and achieve permanence, that alone which is real. As noted this is the Buddhist goal: to attain the state of nirvana. The Buddha, who sometimes had little love for common sense, argued that existence is unreal and to therefore treat it as real is absurd. To treat it as real is a grave error preventing enlightenment. And so, he scolded the ignorant masses for their ignorance in believing the world is real: "It is a mistake to regard this world as either a temporal world or as a real one. But ignorant people of this world assume that this is a real world and proceed to act upon that absurd assumption. But as this world is only an illusion, their acts, being based on error, only lead them into harm and suffering. A wise man, recognizing the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it were real, so he escapes the suffering."[9] Again, the Buddhist view of phenomenal existence (things, man, the universe) is that it is in such a state of constant flux and impermanence that, ultimately, it has no reality in any meaningful, personal, eternal sense. It is not, for example, that the ego does not exist; it "exists" as the sum of its various constituents which are in constant flux, and as such it can be perceived and distinguished as a separate entity. Still, our existence has no reality in the sense of being something permanent, for the Buddhist concept of impermanence does not believe anything phenomenal can be permanent long enough to be real. Everything is the delusory creation of our minds. Thus, even the perception of the individual self is a delusion: "Separate individual existence is really an illusion, for the self has neither beginning nor ending, is eternally changing, and possesses only a phenomenal existence."[10] And, "Existence consists of dharmas, things or objects, but what can be said of these objects? They are all impermanent and changing, and nothing can be said of them at one moment which is not false the next. They are as unreal as the atman [self] itself."[11]

One Buddhist scripture complains that the "foolish common people do not understand that what is seen is merely (the product of) their own mind. Being convinced that there exists outside a variety of objects...they produce false imaginings."[12] Reminiscent of advita Vedanta, other scriptures liken conventional reality to a magical illusion, a mirage and a dream.[13] Buddhism tells us that since reality as we perceive it does not exist, one should arrive at this awareness and come to that state which alone is permanent, the state of nirvana. Ostensibly, this state lies somewhere "in-between" personal existence (which it isn't) and complete annihilation (which it also, allegedly, isn't). Recognition of this Buddhist truth is held to be an enlightened state of being, for one now understands what is real and what is not real.

Essentially, Buddhism is a religion with one principal goal: to eliminate individual suffering by attaining the permanent state. In attaining this goal it does not look to God for help, but, paradoxically, only to the impermanent: to man himself. From the delusory mind, the illusory world appears, but "from this same mind, the world of enlightenment appears."[14] (One wonders how a mind so deluded and disordered that it creates a world of illusion, could ever discover an enlightenment from that depth of delusion?) In spite of its denial of any permanent reality to man, Buddhism is essentially, if paradoxically, a humanistic faith that, in the end, destroys what it virtually worships: man as man. As Hendrik Kraemer, former professor of the History of Religions at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, asserts: "Buddhism teaches with a kind of prophetic rigour that what really matters is man and his deliverance, and nothing else....Behind the screen of sublime philosophies and mystical and ethical 'ways' to deliverance, or in the garb of fantastic textures of magic and occultism, man remains the measure of all things."[15]

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hence men and women only need look inward for deliverance. "Since Buddhism does not have a God, it cannot have somebody who is regarded as God's prophet or messiah."[16] Buddhism, then, is:

atheistic practically speaking,
agnostic, in that most Buddhists don't really care if a supreme God exists (irrespective of the polytheism of later Buddhism),and
anti-theistic in that belief in a supreme Creator God as in Christianity is something evil because it prohibits personal liberation.
We now turn to a discussion of Buddhist and Christian philosophy where these ideas and their implications are seen more fully.

Notes
 For a description of these in more detail see Richard A. Gard (ed.), Buddhism (NY: George Braziller, Inc., 1961), pp. 106-167.
 F.L. Woodward, trans., Some Sayings of the Buddha (NY: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 124-125.
 Alexandria David-Neel, Buddhism Its Doctrines and Its Methods (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1977), p. 25; Charles Prebish, "Doctrines of Early Buddhists," in Buddhism: A Modern Perspective (ed.), Charles S. Prebish (University Park & London: Pennsylvania University Press, 1975), p. 30.
 The Teaching of Buddha, p.88.
 Ibid., rev., 1988, pp. 84-104.
 See e.g., T.O. Ling, A Dictionary of Buddhism: A Guide to Thought and Tradition (NY: Charles Schribners' Sons, 1972), pp. 96-97.
 Ibid., pp. 156-158.
 Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary (Colombo, Ceylon: Frewin and Company, Ltd., 1972), pp. 105-107.
 The Teaching of Buddha, p. 112.
 J.N.D. Anderson (ed.), The World's Religions (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1968), p. 124. See the Dhyayitamushti-sutra quoted in The History of Buddhist Thought, Edward J. Thomas, (London: Reutledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, 1975), p. 223.
 Edward J. Thomas, The History of Buddhist Thought, p. 218. He cites, Sutta-Nipata 1119; Majjhima 121, 122 Samy. iv, 54; the two Prajnaparmita-hrdaya-sutras, etc.
 Edward Conze et al. (eds.), Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (NY: Philosophical Libary, Inc., 1954), p. 212 citing Lankavatara Sutra, 90-96.
 Ibid., pp. 215-216 citing Asanga Mahayanasamgraha II, 27, including Vasubandhu's comments.
 TB, p. 86.
 Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publ., 1977), pp. 174-175, 177.
 Walt Anderson, Open Secrets, A Western Guide to Tibetan Buddhism (NY: Viking Press, 1979), p. 23.

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In buddhism man has no savior but himself.

În prealabil postat de stoogecristi

In buddhism man has no savior but himself.

Asta nu suna asa rau, sa fiu sincer. Poate fi chiar inspirational :)