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Kusha-shū
The was one of the six schools of Buddhism introduced to Japan during the Asuka and Nara periods. Along with the and the Risshū, it is a school of Nikaya Buddhism, which is sometimes derisively known to Mahayana Buddhism as "the Hinayana". A Sarvastivada school, Kusha-shū focused on abhidharma analysis based on the "Commentary on the " by the fourth-century Gandharan philosopher Vasubandhu. The school takes its name from that authoritative text. Names commonly associated with the Kusha-shū are Dōshō (道昭 638–700), Joe (644–714), Chitsū (智通 ?–?), Chitatsu (智達 ?–?), and Genbō (玄昉 ?–746). See also *Buddhism in Japan Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was cont ... References Bibliography * Defunct schools of Buddhism in Japan Buddhis ...
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Buddhism In Japan
Buddhism was first established in Japan in the 6th century CE. Most of the Japanese Buddhists belong to new schools of Buddhism which were established in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). During the Edo period (1603–1868), Buddhism was controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate, feudal Shogunate. The Meiji period (1868–1912) saw a strong response against Buddhism, with persecution and a forced separation between Buddhism and Shinto (''Shinbutsu bunri''). The largest sects of Japanese Buddhism are Pure Land Buddhism#Japanese Pure Land, Pure Land Buddhism with 22 million believers, followed by Nichiren Buddhism with 10 million believers, Shingon Buddhism with 5.4 million, Japanese Zen, Zen Buddhism with 5.3 million, Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and only about 700,000 for the Nanto Rokushū, six old schools established in the Nara period (710-794). History Early Buddhism (5th-13th century) Arrival and initial spread of Buddhism Originating in India, Buddhism arrived in ...
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Asuka Period
The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the Asuka, Yamato, Asuka region, about south of the modern city of Nara, Nara, Nara. The Asuka period is characterized by its significant Japanese art, artistic, social, and political transformations, having their origins in the late Kofun period. The introduction of Buddhism marked a change in Japanese society. The Asuka period is also distinguished by the change in the name of the country from to . Naming The term "Asuka period" was first used to describe a period in the history of Japanese fine-arts and architecture. It was proposed by fine-arts scholars and Okakura Kakuzō around 1900. Sekino dated the Asuka period as ending with the Taika Reform of 646. Okakura, however, saw it as ending with the transfer of the capital to the Heijō ...
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Nara Period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capital of Japanese civilization until Emperor Kanmu established a new capital, Nagaoka-kyō, in 784, before moving to Heian-kyō, modern Kyoto, a decade later in 794. Japanese society during this period was predominantly agricultural and centered on village life. Most of the villagers followed Shintō, a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits named ''kami.'' The capital at Nara was modeled after Chang'an, the capital city of the Tang dynasty. In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting the Chinese writing system, Chinese fashion, and a Chinese version of Buddhism. Literature Concentrated efforts by the imperial court to record its history produced the f ...
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Tattvasiddhi
The ''Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra'' ("The Treatise that Accomplishes Reality"; , also reconstructed as ''Satyasiddhi-Śāstra''), is an Indian Abhidharma Buddhist text by a figure known as Harivarman (250–350). It was translated into Chinese in 411 by Kumārajīva and this translation (Taishō number: T1646) is the only extant version, which became popular in China. This text was translated into English by N. Aiyaswami Sastri in 1978. Author and school affiliation What little information exists about Harivarman is from Chinese sources which put him sometime between 250 and 350 CE. According to Xuanzang's biography, Harivarman was born a Brahmin, ordained with the Sarvāstivāda, and became a student of the Sarvāstivāda teacher Kumāralāta (possibly the same as the original teacher of Sautrantika) who taught him the "great Abhidharma of Kātyāyana (迦旃延) with thousands of gāthās" probably the Jnanaprasthana. However Harivarman was unhappy with the Abhidharma teachings a ...
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Risshū (Buddhism)
, also ''Ritsu'', is one of the Nanto Rikushū, six schools of Nara Buddhism in Japan, noted for its use of the Vinaya textual framework of the Dharmaguptaka, one of the early schools of Buddhism; Risshū is the Japanese term for Vinaya. The Ritsu school was founded in Japan by the blind Chinese priest Jianzhen, better known by his Japanese name ''Ganjin''. Ganjin traveled to Japan at the request of Japanese priests, and established the Tōshōdai-ji in Nara, Nara, Nara. During the Kamakura period, the Ritsu sect was divided into schools at Tōshōdai-ji, Kaidan-in, Saidai-ji, and Sennyū-ji. However, during the Meiji period, the Ritsu sect was incorporated within the Shingon sect by decree of the Japanese government. Today only Tōshōdai-ji, which resisted the government measures, retains its identity as a Ritsu temple. History Jianzhen reached Japan in 753/4. He introduced the Four Part Vinaya Code (in Japanese, the '), a series of monastic precepts based on Chinese Buddh ...
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Nikaya Buddhism
The term Nikāya Buddhism was coined by Masatoshi Nagatomi as a non-derogatory substitute for Hinayana, meaning the early Buddhist schools. Examples of these groups are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools. Some scholars exclude pre-sectarian Buddhism when using the term. The term Theravāda refers to Buddhist practices based on these early teachings, as preserved in the Pāli Canon. Etymology ''Nikāya'' is a Pali word meaning "group" or "assemblage", referring to the collection of early Buddhist schools or non-Mahayana schools. In Indian Buddhism Overview Early Buddhism in India is generally divided into various monastic fraternities, or nikāyas. Conventionally numbering eighteen, the actual count varied over time. The doctrinal orientation of each school differed somewhat, as did the number of piṭakas in their canon. An example of this is the Dharmaguptaka, which included a Bodhisattva Piṭaka and a Dhāraṇī Piṭaka. In the Mahāsāṃghik ...
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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 ...
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Hinayana
Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term that was at one time applied collectively to the '' Śrāvakayāna'' and '' Pratyekabuddhayāna'' paths of Buddhism. This term appeared around the first or second century. The Hīnayāna is considered as the preliminary or small (''hina'') vehicle (''yana'') of the Buddha's teachings. It is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, the second vehicle of the Buddha's teachings, or the great (''maha'') vehicle (''yana''). The third vehicle of the Buddha's teachings is the Vajrayana, the indestructible (''vajra'') vehicle (''yana''). Western scholars used the term ''Hīnayāna'' to describe the early teachings of Buddhism, as the ''Mahāyāna'' teachings were generally given later. Modern Buddhist scholarship has deprecated the term as pejorative, and instead uses the term ''Nikaya Buddhism'' to refer to early Buddhist schools. ''Hinayana'' has also been inappropriately used as a synonym for Theravada, which is the main tradition of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and S ...
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Sarvastivada
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven canonical Abhidharma texts.Westerhoff, 2018, p. 61. The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India, especially Kashmir and Central Asia, until the 7th century CE. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of the school composed the large and encyclopedic '' Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra'' around the time of the reign of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE). Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the ''Mahāvibhāṣa'' were called '' Vaibhāṣikas.'' There have been debates about the exact chronological emergence of Sarvastivadins from Sthavira nikāya. According to the Theravādin '' Dī ...
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Abhidharma
The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers to the scholastic method itself, as well as the field of knowledge that this method is said to study. Bhikkhu Bodhi calls it "an abstract and highly technical systemization of the uddhistdoctrine," which is "simultaneously a philosophy, a psychology and an ethics, all integrated into the framework of a program for liberation." According to Peter Harvey, the Abhidharma method seeks "to avoid the inexactitudes of colloquial conventional language, as is sometimes found in the Suttas, and state everything in psycho-philosophically exact language." In this sense, it is an attempt to best express the Buddhist view of " ultimate reality" (''paramārtha-satya''). There are different types of Abhidharma literature. The early canonical Abhidharma ...
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Gandhara
Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending as far east as the Pothohar Plateau in Punjab, though the cultural influence of Greater Gandhara extended westwards into the Kabul, Kabul valley in Afghanistan, and northwards up to the Karakoram range. The region was a central location for the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia with many Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist pilgrims visiting the region. Between the third century BCE and third century CE, Gandhari language, Gāndhārī, a Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language written in the Kharosthi script and linked with the modern Dardic languages, Dardic language family, acted as the lingua franca of the region and through Buddhism, the language spread as far as China based on Gandhār ...
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