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115-651: The Berenike Buddha is a statue of the Buddha parts of which were discovered in January 2018 and January 2022 in an archaeological excavation in the ancient harbour of Berenike , Egypt , by an American-Polish archaeological mission. The statue was discovered in the forecourt of an early Roman period temple dedicated to the Goddess Isis . The statue is the first statue of the Buddha to ever be found west of Afghanistan . It attests to

230-557: A white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilavastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. Her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree . The earliest Buddhist sources state that the Buddha was born to an aristocratic Kshatriya (Pali: khattiya ) family called Gotama (Sanskrit: Gautama), who were part of

345-578: A Buddha that appealed to them, by eliding one that did not". The dates of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Within the Eastern Buddhist tradition of China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, the traditional date for Buddha's death was 949 BCE, but according to the Ka-tan system of the Kalachakra tradition, Buddha's death was about 833 BCE. Buddhist texts present two chronologies which have been used to date

460-488: A claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" ( abhijñā ). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty-five-year career as a teacher. Traditional biographies of Gautama often include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of

575-626: A clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures , and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as

690-602: A dead body; and mindfulness of breathing ( anapanasati ). These practices are described in the Satipatthana Sutta of the Pali canon and the equivalent texts of the Chinese agamas , in which they are interwoven with the factors of the four dhyanas or the seven factors of awakening ( bojjhanga ). This set of practices was also transmitted via the Dhyana sutras , which are based on

805-507: A dramatic narrative about the life of the young Gotama as a prince and his existential troubles. They depict his father Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka). This is unlikely, as many scholars think that Śuddhodana was merely a Shakya aristocrat ( khattiya ), and that the Shakya republic was not a hereditary monarchy. The more egalitarian gaṇasaṅgha form of government, as

920-428: A flower)", "one who has awakened from the deep sleep of ignorance and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge". It is not a personal name, but a title for those who have attained bodhi (awakening, enlightenment). Buddhi , the power to "form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand", is the faculty which discerns truth ( satya ) from falsehood. The name of his clan

1035-593: A historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes further, stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true. Legendary biographies like the Pali Buddhavaṃsa and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā depict the Buddha's (referred to as " bodhisattva " before his awakening) career as spanning hundreds of lifetimes before his last birth as Gautama. Many of these previous lives are narrated in

1150-459: A meditative state he entered by chance as a child: I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then—quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities—I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. Could that be

1265-471: A model for its neural-substrate. While dhyana typically refers to the four jhanas/dhyanas , the term also refers to a set of practices which seem to go back to a very early stage of the Buddhist tradition. These practices are the contemplation on the body-parts and their repulsiveness ( patikulamanasikara ); contemplation on the elements of which the body is composed; contemplation on the stages of decay of

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1380-471: A more comprehensive and integrated understanding and approach, based on the oldest descriptions of dhyāna in the suttas . In Buddhist traditions of Chán and Zen (the names of which are, respectively, the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of dhyāna ), as in Theravada and Tiantai, anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), which is transmitted in the Buddhist tradition as a means to develop dhyana,

1495-413: A physical body has completely disappeared. Sujivo explains that this fear is needless and that the practitioner should instead continue concentration, in order to reach "full concentration" ( jhāna ). A meditator should first master the lower jhānas , before they can go into the higher jhānas . According to Nathan Katz, the early suttas state that "the most exquisite of recluses" is able to attain any of

1610-523: A political alternative to Indian monarchies, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas , where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism . The day of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak and the day he got conceived as Poson . Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India as he

1725-413: A teaching from the Buddha. According to Tse-fu Kuan, at the state of access concentration , some meditators may experience vivid mental imagery, which is similar to a vivid dream. They are as vivid as if seen by the eye, but in this case the meditator is fully aware and conscious that they are seeing mental images. Tse-fu Kuan grounds this view in the early texts, with further explication to be found in

1840-690: Is a central practice. In the Chan/Zen-tradition this practice is ultimately based on Sarvastivāda meditation techniques transmitted since the beginning of the Common Era . Dhyāna , Pali jhana , from Proto-Indo-European root *√dheie- , "to see, to look", "to show". Developed into Sanskrit root √dhī and n. dhī , which in the earliest layer of text of the Vedas refers to "imaginative vision" and associated with goddess Saraswati with powers of knowledge, wisdom and poetic eloquence. This term developed into

1955-413: Is a diminished awareness of the surroundings. In the contemporary Theravāda-based Vipassana movement , this absorbed state of mind is regarded as unnecessary and even non-beneficial for the first stage of awakening , which has to be reached by mindfulness of the body and vipassanā (insight into impermanence). Since the 1980s, scholars and practitioners have started to question these positions, arguing for

2070-461: Is a form of non-sensual happiness. The eightfold path can be seen as a path of preparation which leads to the practice of samadhi. According to some texts, after progressing through the eight jhānas and the stage of nirodha-samāpatti , a person is liberated. According to some traditions someone attaining the state of nirodha-samāpatti is an anagami or an arahant . In the Anupadda sutra,

2185-459: Is a later development. According to Crangle, the development of meditative practices in ancient India was a complex interplay between Vedic and non-Vedic traditions. According to Bronkhorst, the four rūpa-jhānas may be an original contribution of the Buddha to the religious practices of ancient India, forming an alternative to the ascetic practices of the Jains and similar śramaṇa traditions, while

2300-443: Is believed to have been born on a full moon day. According to later biographical legends, during the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode, analyzed the child for the "32 marks of a great man" and then announced that he would either become a great king ( chakravartin ) or a great religious leader. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read

2415-462: Is characterized by the temporary suppression of consciousness and its concomitant mental factors, so the contemplative reaches a state unconscious ( acittaka ) for a week at most. In the nirodha remain unically some elementary physiological process designated, in the Mahāvedalla-sutta , by the terms āyu and usmā . Neuroscientists have recently studied this phenomenon empirically and proposed

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2530-506: Is commonly seen together in canonical texts and depicts some of his perfected qualities: The Pali Canon also contains numerous other titles and epithets for the Buddha, including: All-seeing, All-transcending sage, Bull among men, The Caravan leader, Dispeller of darkness, The Eye, Foremost of charioteers, Foremost of those who can cross, King of the Dharma ( Dharmaraja ), Kinsman of the Sun, Helper of

2645-632: Is entirely fictitious, and meant to flesh out the mentioning of those names in the post-enlightenment narrative in Majjhima Nikaya 36. Vishvapani notes that the Brahmanical texts cited by Wynne assumed their final form long after the Buddha's lifetime, with the Mokshadharma postdating him. Vishvapani further notes that Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma may well have been sramanic teachers, as the Buddhist tradition asserts, not Brahmins. A stock phrase in

2760-657: Is more prominent in Southeast and East Asia. According to Donald Lopez Jr., "... he tended to be known as either Buddha or Sakyamuni in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet, and as either Gotama Buddha or Samana Gotama ('the ascetic Gotama') in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia." Buddha , "Awakened One" or "Enlightened One", is the masculine form of budh (बुध् ), "to wake, be awake, observe, heed, attend, learn, become aware of, to know, be conscious again", "to awaken" " 'to open up' (as does

2875-573: Is now Bihar (the location of Pataliputra )". The Ganges basin was densely forested, and the population grew when new areas were deforestated and cultivated. The society of the middle Ganges basin lay on "the outer fringe of Aryan cultural influence", and differed significantly from the Aryan society of the western Ganges basin. According to Stein and Burton, "[t]he gods of the brahmanical sacrificial cult were not rejected so much as ignored by Buddhists and their contemporaries." Jainism and Buddhism opposed

2990-532: Is now India . The Buddha then wandered through the lower Indo-Gangetic Plain , teaching and building a monastic order . Buddhist tradition holds he died in Kushinagar and reached parinirvana ("final release from conditioned existence"). According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism, leading to freedom from ignorance , craving , rebirth, and suffering . His core teachings are summarized in

3105-461: Is probably a later addition. Vetter notes that such insight is not possible in a state of dhyāna , when interpreted as concentration, since discursive thinking is eliminated in such a state. He also notes that the emphasis on "liberating insight" developed only after the four noble truths were introduced as an expression of what this "liberating insight" constituted. In time, other expressions took over this function, such as pratītyasamutpāda and

3220-460: Is retained in Zen and Dzogchen. The stock description of the jhānas , with traditional and alternative interpretations, is as follows: Grouped into the jhāna -scheme are four meditative states referred to in the early texts as arūpa-āyatana s. These are also referred to in commentarial literature as arūpa-jhāna s ("formless" or "immaterial" jhānas ), corresponding to the arūpa-loka (translated as

3335-506: Is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa , Uttar Pradesh, in present-day India, or Tilaurakot , in present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 24 kilometres (15 mi) apart. In the mid-3rd century BCE the Emperor Ashoka determined that Lumbini was Gautama's birthplace and thus installed a pillar there with the inscription: "...this is where

3450-467: The Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra , and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa . Scholars are hesitant to make claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most of them accept that the Buddha lived, taught, and founded a monastic order during

3565-612: The Agama s describe four stages of rūpa jhāna . Rūpa refers to the material realm, in a neutral stance, as different from the kāma -realm (lust, desire) and the arūpa -realm (non-material realm). While interpreted in the Theravada-tradition as describing a deepening concentration and one-pointedness, originally the jhānas seem to describe a development from investigating body and mind and abandoning unwholesome states , to perfected equanimity and watchfulness, an understanding which

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3680-840: The Ariyapariyesana Sutta ( MN 26), the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta ( DN 16), the Mahāsaccaka-sutta (MN 36), the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123), which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātaka tales retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva , and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as

3795-676: The Bodhi tree , with the inscription Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho ("The illumination of the Blessed Sakamuni"). The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts , found in Gandhara (corresponding to modern northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) and written in Gāndhārī , they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. Early canonical sources include

3910-718: The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path , a training of the mind that includes ethical training and kindness toward others , and meditative practices such as sense restraint , mindfulness , dhyana (meditation proper). Another key element of his teachings are the concepts of the five skandhas and dependent origination , describing how all dharmas (both mental states and concrete 'things') come into being, and cease to be, depending on other dharmas , lacking an existence on their own svabhava ). A couple of centuries after his death, he came to be known by

4025-721: The Jatakas , which consists of 547 stories. The format of a Jataka typically begins by telling a story in the present which is then explained by a story of someone's previous life. Besides imbuing the pre-Buddhist past with a deep karmic history, the Jatakas also serve to explain the bodhisattva's (the Buddha-to-be) path to Buddhahood. In biographies like the Buddhavaṃsa , this path is described as long and arduous, taking "four incalculable ages" ( asamkheyyas ). In these legendary biographies,

4140-613: The Mahajanapada , and during the reign of Bimbisara (his friend, protector, and ruler of the Magadha empire); and died during the early years of the reign of Ajatashatru (who was the successor of Bimbisara), thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira , the Jain tirthankara . There is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies, as "Buddhist scholars [...] have mostly given up trying to understand

4255-580: The Pāli Canon . The exact meaning of the term is unknown, but it is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" ( tathā-gata ), "one who has thus come" ( tathā-āgata ), or sometimes "one who has thus not gone" ( tathā-agata ). This is interpreted as signifying that the Tathāgata is beyond all coming and going—beyond all transitory phenomena . A tathāgata is "immeasurable", "inscrutable", "hard to fathom", and "not apprehended". A list of other epithets

4370-512: The Pāli canon commentarial tradition, access/neighbourhood concentration ( upacāra-samādhi ) is a stage of meditation that the meditator reaches before entering into jhāna . The overcoming of the five hindrances mark the entry into access concentration. Access concentration is not mentioned in the discourses of the Buddha, but there are several suttas where a person gains insight into the Dhamma on hearing

4485-515: The Shakyas , a tribe of rice-farmers living near the modern border of India and Nepal. His father Śuddhodana was "an elected chief of the Shakya clan ", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. The early Buddhist texts contain very little information about the birth and youth of Gotama Buddha. Later biographies developed

4600-564: The arūpa-āyatanas were incorporated from non-Buddhist ascetic traditions. "That meditation-expert (muni) becomes eternally free who, seeking the Supreme Goal, is able to withdraw from external phenomena by fixing his gaze within the mid-spot of the eyebrows and by neutralizing the even currents of prana and apana [that flow] within the nostrils and lungs; and to control his sensory mind and intellect; and to banish desire, fear, and anger.” —The Bhagavad Gita V:27-28 Kalupahana argues that

4715-417: The jhānas and abide in them without difficulty. In the doctrine of the contemporary Vipassana movement, the jhāna state cannot by itself lead to enlightenment as it only suppresses the defilements. Meditators must use the jhāna state as an instrument for developing wisdom by cultivating insight, and use it to penetrate the true nature of phenomena through direct cognition, which will lead to cutting off

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4830-685: The jhānas are often understood as deepening states of concentration, due to its description as such in the Abhidhamma, and the Visuddhimagga , since the 1980s some academics and contemporary Theravādins have begun to question both this understanding of the jhānas as being states of deep absorption, and the idea that they are not necessary for the attainment of liberation. While significant research on this topic has been done by Bareau, Schmithausen, Stuart-Fox, Bucknell, Vetter, Bronkhorst, and Wynne, Theravāda practitioners have also scrutinized and criticised

4945-486: The samatha - vipassana distinction. Reassessments of the description of jhāna in the suttas consider jhāna and vipassana to be an integrated practice, leading to a "tranquil and equanimous awareness of whatever arises in the field of experience." While the commentarial tradition regards vitarka and vicara as initial and sustained concentration on a meditation object, Roderick S. Bucknell notes that vitarka and vicara may refer to "probably nothing other than

5060-524: The "formless realm" or the "formless dimensions"), to be distinguished from the first four jhānas ( rūpa jhāna s). In the Buddhist canonical texts, the word " jhāna " is never explicitly used to denote them; they are instead referred to as āyatana . However, they are sometimes mentioned in sequence after the first four jhāna s (other texts, e.g. MN 121, treat them as a distinct set of attainments) and thus came to be treated by later exegetes as jhāna s. The four arūpa-āyatana s/ arūpa-jhāna s are: Beyond

5175-650: The Arab (244 to 249 CE), as well as Satavahana coins dated to the 2nd century CE. They also discovered inscriptions in Greek, including one below the Sanskrit inscriptions, something Rodney Ast, the researcher from Heidelberg University who discovered the Buddha figure, says is “unique in Egypt.” “It’s probable that the statues were carved in Berenice and, without a doubt, the inscription too. So

5290-598: The Buddha ( lit.   ' the awakened one ' ), was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia , during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism . According to Buddhist legends, he was born in Lumbini , in what is now Nepal , to royal parents of the Shakya clan, but renounced his home life to live as a wandering ascetic. After leading a life of mendicancy , asceticism , and meditation, he attained nirvana at Bodh Gaya in what

5405-446: The Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta , "directed at the appeasement of mind rather than the development of insight." Moving beyond these initial practices, reflection gave him the essential insight into conditioning, and learned him how to appease his "dispositional tendencies", without either being dominated by them, nor completely annihilating them. Wynne argues that

5520-475: The Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara ) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu , over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with

5635-491: The Buddha narrates that Sariputta became an arahant upon reaching it. In the commentarial tradition, the development of jhāna is described as the development of five mental factors (Sanskrit: caitasika ; Pali: cetasika ) that counteract the five hindrances : Buddhagosa's Visuddhimagga considers jhāna to be an exercise in concentration-meditation. His views, together with the Satipatthana Sutta , inspired

5750-543: The Buddha's birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni ‍ ( Brahmi script : 𑀩𑀼𑀥 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻 Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī , "Buddha, Sage of the Shakyas"). Śākyamuni, Sakyamuni, or Shakyamuni ( Sanskrit : शाक्यमुनि , [ɕaːkjɐmʊnɪ] ) means "Sage of the Shakyas ". Tathāgata ( Pali ; Pali: [tɐˈtʰaːɡɐtɐ] ) is a term the Buddha commonly used when referring to himself or other Buddhas in

5865-411: The Buddha's lifespan even later as 448–368 BCE. Most historians in the early 20th century use the earlier dates of 563–483 BCE, differing from the long chronology based on Greek evidence by just three years. More recently, there are attempts to put his death midway between the long chronology's 480s BCE and the short chronology's 360s BCE, so circa 410 BCE. At a symposium on this question held in 1988,

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5980-632: The Buddha's lifetime is accepted (but he also points out that such a text was originally intended more as hagiography than as an exact historical record of events). John S. Strong sees certain biographical fragments in the canonical texts preserved in Pāli, as well as Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit as the earliest material. These include texts such as the "Discourse on the Noble Quest" ( Ariyapariyesanā-sutta ) and its parallels in other languages. No written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or from

6095-601: The Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu . In the Sandaka Sutta , the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made

6210-494: The Buddha's teachings were "also a response to the historical changes of the time, among which were the emergence of the state and the growth of urban centres". While the Buddhist mendicants renounced society, they lived close to the villages and cities, depending for alms-givings on lay supporters. According to Dyson, the Ganges basin was settled from the north-west and the south-east, as well as from within, "[coming] together in what

6325-519: The Buddha, collections of stories about his past lives known as Jataka tales , and additional discourses, i.e., the Mahayana sutras . Buddhism spread beyond the Indian subcontinent, evolving into a variety of traditions and practices, represented by Theravada and Mahayana. While Buddhism declined in India, and mostly disappeared after the 8th century CE due to a lack of popular and economic support, Buddhism

6440-621: The Buddha, sage of the Śākyas ( Śākyamuni ), was born." According to later biographies such as the Mahavastu and the Lalitavistara , his mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a princess from Devdaha , the ancient capital of the Koliya Kingdom (what is now the Rupandehi District of Nepal ). Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that

6555-682: The Pali Jataka Commentary ( Jātakaṭṭhakathā ) and the Sanskrit Jātakamālā is how the Buddha-to-be had to practice several "perfections" ( pāramitā ) to reach Buddhahood. The Jatakas also sometimes depict negative actions done in previous lives by the bodhisattva, which explain difficulties he experienced in his final life as Gautama. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini , now in modern-day Nepal, and raised in Kapilavastu . The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu

6670-543: The Pāli suttas have retained very archaic place-names, syntax, and historical data from close to the Buddha's lifetime, including the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta which contains a detailed account of the Buddha's final days. Hinüber proposes a composition date of no later than 350–320 BCE for this text, which would allow for a "true historical memory" of the events approximately 60 years prior if the Short Chronology for

6785-420: The Sarvastivada-tradition, forming the basis of the Chan/Zen-tradition. The Buddhist tradition has incorporated two traditions regarding the use of jhāna . There is a tradition that stresses attaining insight ( vipassanā ) as the means to awakening ( bodhi , prajñā , kenshō ) and liberation ( vimutti , nibbāna ). But the Buddhist tradition has also incorporated the yogic tradition, as reflected in

6900-461: The Shakyas"). Another one of his edicts ( Minor Rock Edict No. 3 ) mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts (in Buddhism, "dhamma" is another word for "dharma"), establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era . These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon . "Sakamuni" is also mentioned in a relief of Bharhut , dated to c.  100 BCE , in relation with his illumination and

7015-409: The Theravada-tradition, the arahant is aware that the jhānas are ultimately unsatisfactory, realizing that the meditative attainments are also anicca , impermanent. In the Mahasaccaka Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 36), which narrates the story of the Buddha's awakening, dhyāna is followed by insight into the Four Noble Truths. The mention of the Four Noble Truths as constituting "liberating insight"

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7130-401: The Theravāda commentaries. According to Venerable Sujivo, as the concentration becomes stronger, the feelings of breathing and of having a physical body will completely disappear, leaving only pure awareness. At this stage inexperienced meditators may become afraid, thinking that they are going to die if they continue the concentration, because the feeling of breathing and the feeling of having

7245-447: The World ( Lokanatha ), Lion ( Siha ), Lord of the Dhamma, Of excellent wisdom ( Varapañña ), Radiant One, Torchbearer of mankind, Unsurpassed doctor and surgeon, Victor in battle, and Wielder of power. Another epithet, used at inscriptions throughout South and Southeast Asia, is Maha sramana , "great sramana " (ascetic, renunciate). On the basis of philological evidence, Indologist and Pāli expert Oskar von Hinüber says that some of

7360-431: The adaptation of the old yogic techniques to the practice of mindfulness and attainment of insight." Thus "radically transform[ed]" application of yogic practices was conceptualized in the scheme of the four jhānas . Yet—according to Bronkhorst—the Buddha's teachings developed primarily in response to Jain teachings, not Brahmanical teachings, and the account of the Buddha practicing under Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma

7475-482: The attainment of insight, which is a cognitive activity, cannot be possible in a state wherein all cognitive activity has ceased. According to Vetter, therefore, the practice of (rupa-)jhāna itself may have constituted the core practice of early Buddhism, with practices such as sila and mindfulness aiding its development. It is the "middle way" between self-mortification, ascribed by Bronkhorst to Jainism, and indulgence in sensual pleasure. Vetter emphasizes that dhyana

7590-426: The attainment of the formless meditative absorption was incorporated from Brahmanical practices, and have Brahmnanical cosmogenies as their doctrinal background. Wynne therefore concludes that these practices were borrowed from a Brahminic source, namely Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma. Yet the Buddha rejected their doctrines, as they were not liberating, and discovered his own path to awakening, which "consisted of

7705-429: The bodhisattva goes through many different births (animal and human), is inspired by his meeting of past Buddhas , and then makes a series of resolves or vows ( pranidhana ) to become a Buddha himself. Then he begins to receive predictions by past Buddhas. One of the most popular of these stories is his meeting with Dipankara Buddha , who gives the bodhisattva a prediction of future Buddhahood. Another theme found in

7820-441: The bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb. The sources which present a complete picture of the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies from a later date. These include the Buddhacarita , Lalitavistara Sūtra , Mahāvastu , and the Nidānakathā . Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by

7935-455: The canon states that one develops the four rupa-jhānas and then attains liberating insight. While the texts often refer to comprehending the Four Noble Truths as constituting this "liberating insight", Schmithausen notes that the Four Noble Truths as constituting "liberating insight" (here referring to paññā ) is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36. Schmithausen discerns three possible roads to liberation as described in

8050-448: The defilements and nibbana . According to the later Theravāda commentorial tradition as outlined by Buddhagoṣa in his Visuddhimagga , after coming out of the state of jhāna the meditator will be in the state of post- jhāna access concentration. In this state the investigation and analysis of the true nature of phenomena begins, which leads to insight into the characteristics of impermanence, suffering and not-self arises. While

8165-702: The development of serenity and insight." Commonly translated as meditation , and often equated with "concentration", though meditation may refer to a wider scale of exercises for bhāvanā , development. Dhyāna can also mean "attention, thought, reflection". Zoroastrianism in Persia , which has Indo-Aryan linguistic and cultural roots, developed the related practice of daena . The Pāḷi Canon describes four progressive states of jhāna called rūpa jhāna ("form jhāna "), and four additional meditative attainments called arūpa ("without form"). Meditation and contemplation form an integrated set of practices with several other practices, which are fully realized with

8280-417: The development, in the 19th and 20th century, of new meditation techniques which gained a great popularity among lay audiences in the second half of the 20th century. According to Henepola Gunaratana , the term "jhāna" is closely connected with "samadhi", which is generally rendered as "concentration". The word "samadhi" is almost interchangeable with the word "samatha", serenity. According to Gunaratana, in

8395-407: The dimension of neither perception nor non-perception lies a state called nirodha samāpatti , the "cessation of perception, feelings and consciousness". Only in commentarial and scholarly literature, this is sometimes called the "ninth jhāna ". Another name for this state is saññāvedayitanirodha ("cessation of perception and feeling"). According to Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga (XXIII, 18), it

8510-402: The eighth step of the Noble Eightfold Path , Vetter notes that samādhi consists of the four stages of dhyāna meditation, but ...to put it more accurately, the first dhyana seems to provide, after some time, a state of strong concentration, from which the other stages come forth; the second stage is called samadhija" [...] "born from samadhi." According to Richard Gombrich, the sequence of

8625-472: The emptiness of the self. This scheme is rejected by some scholars as a later development, since the āyatanas are akin to non-Buddhist practices, and rejected elsewhere in the canon. The emphasis on "liberating insight" alone seems to be a later development, in response to developments in Indian religious thought, which saw "liberating insight" as essential to liberation. This may also have been due to an over-literal interpretation by later scholastics of

8740-565: The extent of Indo-Roman relations in the early centuries of the Common Era . Based on stylistic details and the context of the excavation, it is thought that the statue was made in Alexandria around the second century CE. According to Steven Sidebotham, a history professor at the University of Delaware who is co-director of the Berenike Project, the statue dates to between 90 and 140 CE. It

8855-444: The first dhyāna to give an equal number of five hindrances and five antidotes. The commentarial tradition regards the qualities of the first dhyāna to be antidotes to the five hindrances, and ekaggata may have been added to the first dhyāna to give exactly five antidotes for the five hindrances. Stuart-Fox further notes that vitarka , being discursive thought, will do very little as an antidote for sloth and torpor, reflecting

8970-470: The flourish of Brahminism, as Greater Magadha . The Buddha's tribe of origin, the Shakyas, seems to have had non-Vedic religious practices which persist in Buddhism, such as the veneration of trees and sacred groves, and the worship of tree spirits (yakkhas) and serpent beings (nagas). They also seem to have built burial mounds called stupas. Tree veneration remains important in Buddhism today, particularly in

9085-489: The four rūpa jhāna s describes two different cognitive states: "I know this is controversial, but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhānas are thus quite unlike the second." Gombrich and Wynne note that, while the second jhāna denotes a state of absorption, in their interpretation of the third and fourth jhāna , one comes out of this absorption, being mindfully aware of objects while being indifferent to them. According to Gombrich, "the later tradition has falsified

9200-485: The future. All gave similar predictions. Kondañña , the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha . Dhyana in Buddhism In the later commentarial tradition, which has survived in present-day Theravāda , dhyāna is equated with "concentration", a state of one-pointed absorption in which there

9315-479: The historical person." The earliest versions of Buddhist biographical texts that we have already contain many supernatural, mythical, or legendary elements. In the 19th century, some scholars simply omitted these from their accounts of the life, so that "the image projected was of a Buddha who was a rational, socratic teacher—a great person perhaps, but a more or less ordinary human being". More recent scholars tend to see such demythologisers as remythologisers, "creating

9430-475: The inconsistencies which were introduced by the scholastics. Upekkhā , equanimity, which is perfected in the fourth dhyāna , is one of the four Brahmā-vihāra . While the commentarial tradition downplayed the importance of the Brahmā-vihāra , Gombrich holds that the Buddhist usage of the term Brahmā-vihāra originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude toward other beings which

9545-436: The lifetime of the Buddha. The "long chronology", from Sri Lankese chronicles, states the Buddha was born 298 years before Asoka 's coronation and died 218 years before the coronation, thus a lifespan of about 80 years. According to these chronicles, Asoka was crowned in 326 BCE, which gives Buddha's lifespan as 624–544 BCE, and are the accepted dates in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. Alternatively, most scholars who also accept

9660-438: The long chronology but date Asoka's coronation around 268 BCE (based on Greek evidence) put the Buddha's lifespan later at 566–486 BCE. However, the "short chronology", from Indian sources and their Chinese and Tibetan translations, place the Buddha's birth at 180 years before Asoka's coronation and death 100 years before the coronation, still about 80 years. Following the Greek sources of Asoka's coronation as 268 BCE, this dates

9775-473: The majority of those who presented gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not been accepted by all historians. The dating of Bimbisara and Ajatashatru also depends on the long or short chronology. In the long chrononology, Bimbisara reigned c.  558  – c.  492 BCE , and died 492 BCE, while Ajatashatru reigned c.  492  – c.  460 BCE . In

9890-489: The mind becomes set, almost naturally, for the equanimity of dhyāna , reinforcing the development of wholesome states, which in return further reinforces equanimity and mindfulness. In the sutras, jhāna is entered when one 'sits down cross-legged and establishes mindfulness'. According to Buddhist tradition, it may be supported by ānāpānasati , mindfulness of breathing, a core meditative practice which can be found in almost all schools of Buddhism. The Suttapiṭaka and

10005-552: The names of their house priests. While the term Buddha is used in the Agamas and the Pali Canon, the oldest surviving written records of the term Buddha is from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, when several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c.  269 –232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism. Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar inscription commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as

10120-409: The normal process of discursive thought, the familiar but usually unnoticed stream of mental imagery and verbalization." Bucknell further notes that "[t]hese conclusions conflict with the widespread conception of the first jhāna as a state of deep concentration." According to Stuart-Fox, the Abhidhamma separated vitarka from vicara , and ekaggata (one-pointedness) was added to the description of

10235-424: The one or two centuries thereafter. But from the middle of the 3rd century BCE, several Edicts of Ashoka (reigned c. 268 to 232 BCE) mention the Buddha and Buddhism. Particularly, Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar inscription commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace, calling him the Buddha Shakyamuni ( Brahmi script : 𑀩𑀼𑀥 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻 Bu-dha Sa-kya-mu-nī , "Buddha, Sage of

10350-429: The onset of dhyāna due to withdrawal and right effort c.q. the four right efforts , followed by concentration, whereas the third and fourth jhāna combine concentration with mindfulness. Polak, elaborating on Vetter, notes that the onset of the first dhyāna is described as a quite natural process, due to the preceding efforts to restrain the senses and the nurturing of wholesome states . Regarding samādhi as

10465-442: The onset of dhyāna . As described in the Noble Eightfold Path , right view leads to leaving the household life and becoming a wandering monk. Sīla (morality) comprises the rules for right conduct. Right effort , or the four right efforts , which already contains elements of dhyāna , aim to prevent the arising of unwholesome states, and to generate wholesome states. This includes indriya samvara (sense restraint), controlling

10580-424: The path to Awakening?' Then following on that memory came the realization: 'That is the path to Awakening.' Originally, the practice of dhyāna itself may have constituted the core liberating practice of early Buddhism, since in this state all "pleasure and pain" had waned. According to Vetter, Probably the word "immortality" (a-mata) was used by the Buddha for the first interpretation of this experience and not

10695-574: The place had artisans capable of making those objects and people interested in ordering them,” explains Ast, who also points out that the discovery raises new questions. “What does it mean to make an offering of a Buddha statue in a Roman temple to Isis in Egypt? It is a topic that will keep anthropologists, historians and others busy for a while,” he says. Various fragmentary parts of Buddha statues (torsos, heads) had already been discovered at Berenike in 2019, some made of local gypsum . Buddha Siddhartha Gautama , most commonly referred to as

10810-477: The poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna / Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled

10925-429: The practice of mindfulness. According to Frauwallner, mindfulness was a means to prevent the arising of craving, which resulted simply from contact between the senses and their objects, and this may have been the Buddha's original idea. According to Wynne, though, this stress on mindfulness may have led to the intellectualism which favored insight over the practice of dhyāna . Both Schmithausen and Bronkhorst note that

11040-490: The practice of venerating Bodhi trees. Likewise, yakkas and nagas have remained important figures in Buddhist religious practices and mythology. The Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential śramaṇa schools of thought like Ājīvika , Cārvāka , Jainism , and Ajñana . The Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought. In this context, a śramaṇa refers to one who labours, toils or exerts themselves (for some higher or religious purpose). It

11155-445: The response to sensual perceptions, not giving in to lust and aversion but simply noticing the objects of perception as they appear. Right effort and mindfulness ("to remember to observe" ), notably mindfulness of breathing, calm the mind-body complex, releasing unwholesome states and habitual patterns, and encouraging the development of wholesome states and non-automatic responses. By following these cumulative steps and practices,

11270-441: The sceptic. The Pāli canon frequently depicts Buddha engaging in debate with the adherents of rival schools of thought. There is philological evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Rāmaputta , were historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. Thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. In an era where holiness of person

11385-423: The short chronology Bimbisara reigned c.  400 BCE , while Ajatashatru died between c.  380 BCE and 330 BCE. According to historian K. T. S. Sarao , a proponent of the Short Chronology wherein the Buddha's lifespan was c.477–397 BCE, it can be estimated that Bimbisara was reigning c.457–405 BCE, and Ajatashatru was reigning c.405–373 BCE. According to the Buddhist tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha

11500-495: The social stratification of Brahmanism, and their egalitarism prevailed in the cities of the middle Ganges basin. This "allowed Jains and Buddhists to engage in trade more easily than Brahmans, who were forced to follow strict caste prohibitions." In the earliest Buddhist texts, the nikāyas and āgamas , the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience ( sabbaññu ) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent ( lokottara ) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo , ideas of

11615-417: The suttas, to which Vetter adds a fourth possibility, while the attainment of nirodha-samāpatti may constitute a fifth possibility: According to the Theravada tradition, the meditator uses the jhāna state to bring the mind to rest, and to strengthen and sharpen the mind, in order to investigate the true nature of phenomena (dhamma) and to gain insight into impermanence, suffering and not-self. According to

11730-597: The term cessation of suffering that belongs to the Four Noble Truths [...] the Buddha did not achieve the experience of salvation by discerning the Four Noble Truths and/or other data. But his experience must have been of such a nature that it could bear the interpretation "achieving immortality". The time of the Buddha saw the rise of the śramaṇa movement, ascetic practitioners with a body of shared teachings and practices. The strict delineation of this movement into Jainism, Buddhism and brahmanical/Upanishadic traditions

11845-405: The terminology used by the Buddha, and to the problems involved with the practice of dhyāna , and the need to develop an easier method. Contemporary scholars have discerned a broader application of jhāna in historical Buddhist practice. Alexander Wynne summarizes this view in stating that the ultimate aim of dhyāna was the attainment of insight, and the application of the meditative state to

11960-610: The title Buddha , which means 'Awakened One' or 'Enlightened One'. His teachings were compiled by the Buddhist community in the Vinaya , his codes for monastic practice, and the Sutta Piṭaka , a compilation of teachings based on his discourses. These were passed down in Middle Indo-Aryan dialects through an oral tradition . Later generations composed additional texts, such as systematic treatises known as Abhidharma , biographies of

12075-644: The use of jhāna as a concentrative practice, which—in some interpretations—is rejected in other sūtras as not resulting in the final result of liberation. One solution to this contradiction is the conjunctive use of vipassanā and samatha . The Mahasaccaka Sutta , Majjhima Nikaya 36, narrates the story of the Buddha's awakening. According to this story, he learned two kinds of meditation from two teachers, Uddaka Rāmaputta and Āḷāra Kālāma . These forms of meditation did not lead to liberation, and he then underwent harsh ascetic practices, with which he eventually also became disillusioned. The Buddha then recalled

12190-414: The variant √dhyā , "to contemplate, meditate, think", from which dhyāna is derived. According to Buddhaghosa (5th century CE Theravāda exegete), the term jhāna (Skt. dhyāna ) is derived from the verb jhayati , "to think or meditate", while the verb jhapeti , "to burn up", explicates its function, namely burning up opposing states, burning up or destroying "the mental defilements preventing [...]

12305-402: The widest sense the word samadhi is used for the practices which lead to the development of serenity. In this sense, samadhi and jhāna are close in meaning. Nevertheless, they are not exactly identical, since "certain differences in their suggested and contextual meanings prevent unqualified identification of the two terms." Samadhi signifies only one mental factor, namely one-pointedness, while

12420-498: The word "jhāna" encompasses the whole state of consciousness, "or at least the whole group of mental factors individuating that meditative state as a jhana." Furthermore, according to Gunaratana, samadhi involves "a wider range of reference than jhana", noting that "the Pali exegetical tradition recognizes three levels of samadhi: preliminary concentration ( parikammasamadhi ) [...] access concentration ( upacarasamadhi ) [...] and absorption concentration ( appanasamadhi )." According to

12535-469: The world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". As noted by Andrew Skilton, the Buddha was often described as being superhuman, including descriptions of him having the 32 major and 80 minor marks of a "great man", and the idea that the Buddha could live for as long as an aeon if he wished (see DN 16). The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing

12650-563: Was Gautama (Pali: Gotama). His given name, "Siddhārtha" (the Sanskrit form; the Pali rendering is "Siddhattha"; in Tibetan it is "Don grub"; in Chinese "Xidaduo"; in Japanese "Shiddatta/Shittatta"; in Korean "Siltalta") means "He Who Achieves His Goal". The clan name of Gautama means "descendant of Gotama", "Gotama" meaning "one who has the most light", and comes from the fact that Kshatriya clans adopted

12765-665: Was a Shakya , a sub-Himalayan ethnicity and clan of north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. The Shakya community was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. The community, though describable as a small republic, was probably an oligarchy , with his father as the elected chieftain or oligarch. The Shakyas were widely considered to be non- Vedic (and, hence impure) in Brahminic texts; their origins remain speculative and debated. Bronkhorst terms this culture, which grew alongside Aryavarta without being affected by

12880-466: Was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira , Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla , Ajita Kesakambalī , Pakudha Kaccāyana , and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta , as recorded in Samaññaphala Sutta , with whose viewpoints the Buddha must have been acquainted. Śāriputra and Moggallāna , two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta,

12995-487: Was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now. The later tradition, in this interpretation, took those descriptions too literally, linking them to cosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahmā-world. According to Gombrich, "the Buddha taught that kindness—what Christians tend to call love—was a way to salvation. Vetter, Gombrich and Wynne note that the first and second jhāna represent

13110-574: Was judged by their level of asceticism, Buddha was a reformist within the śramaṇa movement, rather than a reactionary against Vedic Brahminism. Coningham and Young note that both Jains and Buddhists used stupas, while tree shrines can be found in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The rise of Buddhism coincided with the Second Urbanisation , in which the Ganges Basin was settled and cities grew, in which egalitarianism prevailed. According to Thapar,

13225-560: Was made from a stone that was extracted south of Istanbul , and may also have been carved in Berenike itself. The statue has a halo around the head of the Buddha, decorated with the rays of the sun, and has a lotus flower by his side. It is 71cm tall. The excavations at Berenike also yielded other artifacts related to ancient India: an inscription in Sanskrit dated to the Roman Emperor, Philip

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