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Sentient Beings (Buddhism)
In Buddhism, sentient beings or living beings are beings with consciousness, sentience, or in some contexts life itself.Getz, Daniel A. (2004). "Sentient beings"; cited in Buswell, Robert E. (2004). ''Encyclopedia of Buddhism''. Volume 2. New York, US: Macmillan Reference USA. (Volume 2): pp.760 Overview Getz (2004: p. 760) provides a generalist Western Buddhist encyclopedic definition: ''Sentient beings'' is a term used to designate the totality of living, conscious beings that constitute the object and audience of Buddhist teaching. Translating various Sanskrit terms (''jantu, bahu jana, jagat, sattva''), ''sentient beings'' conventionally refers to the mass of living things subject to illusion, suffering, and rebirth ( saṃsāra). Less frequently, ''sentient beings'' as a class broadly encompasses all beings possessing consciousness, including Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Sentient beings are composed of the five aggregates (skandhas): matter, sensation, perception, mental form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Likir Gompa Monk With Injured Sparrow
Likir is a village and headquarter of eponymous Leh district#subdivision, Subdivision in the Leh district of Ladakh, India.Leh tehsils It is located in the Likir tehsil, in the Ladakh region. Khalatse is a nearby trekking place. It is famous for the nearby Klu-kkhyil (meaning "water spirits") gompa (Buddhist monastery). The Likir Monastery was first built in the 11th century and was rebuilt in the 18th century, and currently has a gold-covered Buddharupa, Buddha statue. It is occupied by monks of the Gelukpa order. It is located 52 km from Leh. Demographics According to the 2011 census of India, Likir has 218 households. The effective literacy rate (i.e. the literacy rate of population excluding children aged 6 and below) is 72.93%. References< ...
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Mahayana
Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Theravāda and Vajrayāna.Harvey (2013), p. 189. Mahāyāna accepts the main scriptures and teachings of Early Buddhist schools, early Buddhism but also recognizes various doctrines and texts that are not accepted by Theravada Buddhism as original. These include the Mahāyāna sūtras and their emphasis on the ''bodhisattva'' path and Prajnaparamita, ''Prajñāpāramitā''. Vajrayāna or Mantra traditions are a subset of Mahāyāna which makes use of numerous Tantra, tantric methods Vajrayānists consider to help achieve Buddhahood. Mahāyāna also refers to the path of the bodhisattva striving to become a fully awakened Buddha for the benefit of all sentience, sentient beings, and is thus also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Philosophical Concepts
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth-largest religion, with about 500 million followers, known as Buddhists, who comprise four percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of development which leads to awakening and full liberation from '' dukkha'' (). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes such as asceticism or sensual indulgence. Teaching that ''dukkha'' arises alongside attachment or clinging, the Buddha advised meditation practices and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Beings In Buddhism
Humans in Buddhism (, , Pali ) are the subjects of an extensive commentarial literature that examines the nature and qualities of a human life from the point of view of humans' ability to achieve enlightenment. In Buddhism, humans are just one type of sentient being, that is a being with a mindstream. In Sanskrit Manushya means an Animal with a mind. In Sanskrit the word Manusmriti associated with Manushya was used to describe knowledge through memory. The word Muun or Maan means mind. Mind is collection of past experience with an ability of memory or smriti. Mind is considered as an animal with a disease that departs a soul from its universal enlightened infinitesimal behavior to the finite miserable fearful behavior that fluctuates between the state of heaven and hell before it is extinguished back to its infinitesimal behavior. In Enlightenment as an arhat can be attained from the realms of the Śuddhāvāsa deities. A bodhisattva can appear in many different types of liv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Vegetarianism
Buddhist vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism by significant portions of Mahayana Buddhist monastics and laypersons as well as some Buddhists of other sects. In Buddhism, the views on vegetarianism vary between different schools of thought. The Mahayana schools generally recommend a vegetarian diet, claiming that Gautama Buddha set forth in some of the sutras that his followers must not eat the flesh of any sentient being. Early Buddhism The earliest surviving written accounts of Buddhism are the Edicts written by King Ashoka, a well-known Buddhist king who propagated Buddhism throughout Asia, and is honored by both Theravada and Mahayana schools of Buddhism. The authority of the Edicts of Ashoka as a historical record is suggested by the mention of numerous topics omitted as well as corroboration of numerous accounts found in the Theravada and Mahayana Tripitakas written down centuries later. Asoka Rock Edict 1, dated to c. 257 BCE, mentions the prohibit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animals In Buddhism
The position and treatment of animals in Buddhism is important for the light it sheds on Buddhists' perception of their own relation to the natural world, on Buddhist humanitarian concerns in general, and on the relationship between Buddhist theory and Buddhist practice. Etymology In the Pali language, the translation is ''Tira-acchanā''. ''Tira'' means ''against'' and ''Acchanā'' means ''a being that can move''. Hence, the full meaning is a being that moves horizontally unlike the humans, Deva and Brahmā. In Buddhist doctrine Animals have always been regarded in Buddhist thought as sentient beings. The doctrine of rebirth held that any human could be reborn as animal, and any animal could be reborn as a human. An animal might be a reborn dead relative, and anybody who looked far enough back through their series of lives might come to believe every animal to be a distant relative. The Buddha expounded that sentient beings currently living in the animal realm have been our mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahimsa In Buddhism
(, IAST: , ) is the ancient Indian principle of nonviolence which applies to actions towards all living beings. It is a key virtue in Indian religions like Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. (also spelled Ahinsa) is one of the cardinal virtues of Jainism, where it is the first of the Pancha Mahavrata. It is also one of the central precepts of Hinduism and is the first of the five precepts of Buddhism. is inspired by the premise that all living beings have the spark of the divine spiritual energy; therefore, to hurt another being is to hurt oneself. is also related to the notion that all acts of violence have karmic consequences. While ancient scholars of Brahmanism had already investigated and refined the principles of , the concept reached an extraordinary development in the ethical philosophy of Jainism. Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and the last of Jainism, further strengthened the idea in . About , Valluvar emphasized and moral vegetarianism as virtues for an indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kūkai
, born posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the Vajrayana, esoteric Shingon Buddhism, Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) under the monk Huiguo. Upon returning to Japan, he founded Shingon—the Japanese branch of Vajrayana Buddhism. With the blessing of several Emperors of Japan, Emperors, Kūkai was able to preach Shingon teachings and found Shingon temples. Like other influential monks, Kūkai oversaw public works and constructions. Mount Kōya was chosen by him as a holy site, and he spent his later years there until his death in 835 C.E. Because of his importance in Japanese Buddhism, Kūkai is associated with many stories and legends. One such legend attribute the invention of the ''kana'' syllabary to Kūkai, with which the Japanese language is written to this day (in combination with ''kanji''), as well as the ''Iroha'' poem, which helped to standardise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiantai
Tiantai or T'ien-t'ai () is an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China. Drawing from earlier Mahāyāna sources such as Madhyamaka, founded by Nāgārjuna, who is traditionally regarded as the first patriarch of the school, Tiantai Buddhism emphasizes the "One Vehicle" () doctrine derived from the influential '' Lotus Sūtra'', as well as the philosophy of its fourth patriarch, Zhiyi (538–597 CE), the principal founder of the tradition. Brook Ziporyn, professor of ancient and medieval Chinese religion and philosophy, states that Tiantai Buddhism is "the earliest attempt at a thoroughgoing Sinitic reworking of the Indian Buddhist tradition." According to Paul Swanson, scholar of Buddhist studies, Tiantai Buddhism grew to become "one of the most influential Buddhist traditions in China and Japan." Tiantai is sometimes also called "The Dharma Flower School" (), after its focus on the '' Lotus Sūtra'', whose Chinese title tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhanran
Jingxi Zhanran (; J. Keikei Tannen; K. Hyŏnggye Tamyŏn, c. 711-782) was the sixth patriarch of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. Zhanran is considered to be the most important Tiantai figure after the founder Zhiyi."Zhanran", in Silk, Jonathan A. et al. ''Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism'': Volume II: Lives, pp. 814-817. He was also called Master Miaole (Sublime Bliss), Dharma Master Jizhu (Lord of Exegesis), and Jingqi (荊溪) after his birthplace. Zhanran helped to define, defend and popularize the Tiantai tradition during the Tang, developing its doctrinal system further by building on Zhiyi's writings. Zhanran wrote some important commentaries on Zhiyi's works as well as original treatises of his own. He is also the first figure to use the term "Tiantai School" (Tiantai zong). Life Zhanran was born in Jingqi (荊溪), in modern-day Yixing 宜興 county, Jiangsu province. His lay surname was Qi (戚). After receiving a Ruist (Confucian) education, Zhanran became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Asian Buddhism
East Asian Buddhism or East Asian Mahayana is a collective term for the schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism which developed across East Asia and which rely on the Chinese Buddhist canon. These include the various forms of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Buddhism.Jones, Charles B. (2021). ''Pure Land: History, Tradition, and Practice'', p. xii. Shambhala Publications, . East Asian Buddhists constitute the numerically largest body of Buddhist traditions in the world, numbering over half of the world's Buddhists. East Asian forms of Buddhism all derive from the sinicized Buddhist schools which developed during the Han dynasty and the Song dynasty, and therefore are influenced by Chinese culture and philosophy. The spread of Buddhism to East Asia was aided by the trade networks of the Silk Road and the missionary work of generations of Indian and Asian Buddhists. Some of the most influential East Asian traditions include Chan (Zen), Nichiren Buddhism, Pure Land, Huay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upaya
In Buddhism, upaya (Sanskrit: उपाय, , ''expedient means'', ''pedagogy'') is an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist paths to liberation where a conscious, voluntary action "is driven by an incomplete reasoning" about its direction. Upaya is often used with ''kaushalya'' (कौशल्य, "cleverness"), ''upaya-kaushalya'' meaning "skill in means". Upaya-kaushalya is a concept emphasizing that practitioners may use their own specific methods or techniques that fit the situation in order to gain enlightenment. The implication is that even if a technique, view, etc., is not ultimately "true" in the highest sense, it may still be an ''expedient'' practice to perform or view to hold; i.e., it may bring the practitioner closer to the true realization in a similar way. The exercise of skill to which it refers, the ability to adapt one's message to the audience, is of enormous importance in the Pali Canon. The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism notes that rendering the Chine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
