Buddhism: The Basics

205 Pages·2010·3.576 MB·English

by  Cathy Cantwell

BUDDHISM
THE BASICS

Buddhism: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduc-
tiontoafascinatingreligion.Examiningthehistoricaldevelopment of
Buddhism and its presence today, this guide covers:
(cid:2) principal traditions
(cid:2) practices and beliefs
(cid:2) ethical guidelines and philosophy
(cid:2) religious texts
(cid:2) community
With helpful features including a detailed map of the Buddhist
world, glossary of terms, and tips for further study, this is an ideal
text for students and interested readers wanting to familiarise
themselves with the Buddhist faith.
Cathy Cantwell is an academic researcher at the Oriental Institute,
UniversityofOxford. Shespecialisesin TibetanBuddhism,andhas
worked on eleventh-century manuscripts, an eighteenth-century
scriptural collection, and contemporary Buddhist ritual manuals and
practice. ShehastaughtwidelyinUKHigherEducationandisjoint
author of Early Tibetan Documents on Phur pa from Dunhuang.
The Basics
ANTHROPOLOGY LITERARYTHEORY(SECONDEDITION)
PETERMETCALF HANSBERTENS
ARCHAEOLOGY(SECONDEDITION) MANAGEMENT
CLIVEGAMBLE MORGENWITZEL
ARTHISTORY MARKETING(SECONDEDITION)
GRANTPOOKEANDDIANANEWALL KARLMOOREANDNIKETHPAREEK
BLUES OPERA
DICKWEISSMAN DENISEGALLO

BUDDHISM PHILOSOPHY(FOURTHEDITION)
CATHYCANTWELL NIGELWARBURTON
CRIMINOLOGY POETRY
SANDRAWALKLATE JEFFREYWAINWRIGHT
ECONOMICS POLITICS(FOURTHEDITION)
TONYCLEAVER STEPHENTANSEYANDNIGELJACKSON
EUROPEANUNION(SECONDEDITION) THEQUR'AN
ALEXWARLEIGH-LACK MASSIMOCAMPANINI
FILMSTUDIES RELIGION(SECONDEDITION)
AMYVILLAREJO MALORYNYE
FINANCE ROMANCATHOLICISM
ERIKBANKS MICHAELWALSH
FOLKMUSIC SEMIOTICS(SECONDEDITION)
RONALDCOHEN DANIELCHANDLER
INTERNATIONALRELATIONS SHAKESPEARE(SECONDEDITION)
PETERSUTCHANDJUANITAELIAS SEANMCEVOY
INTERNET SOCIOLOGY
JASONWHITTAKER MARTINALBROW
ISLAM TELEVISIONSTUDIES
COLINTURNER TOBYMILLER
JAZZ THEATRESTUDIES
CHRISTOPHERMEEDER ROBERTLEACH
JUDAISM WORLDMUSIC
JACOBNEUSNER RICHARDNIDEL
LANGUAGE(SECONDEDITION)
R.L.TRASK
BUDDHISM
THE BASICS
cathy cantwell
Firstpublished2010
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylorandFrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
©2010CathyCantwell
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedin
anyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafter

invented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformationstorageor
retrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Cantwell,Cathy.
Buddhism:thebasics/CathyCantwell.
p.cm.–(Thebasics)
1.Buddhism.I.Title.
BQ4012.C362009
294.3–dc22
2009002030
ISBN 0-203-87425-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10:0-415-40879-2(hbk)
ISBN10:0-415-40880-6(pbk)
ISBN10:0-203-87425-0(ebk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-40879-0(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-40880-6(pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-87425-7(ebk)
CONTENTS

Map of Buddhism in Asia vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 The Buddha and the roots of the Buddhist tradition 19
2 The Dharma 56
3 The textual heritage and oral transmission 93
4 The Sangha 107
5 The major Buddhist traditions 141
Glossary of technical terms 179
Bibliography 187
Index 191
Map of Buddhism in Asia Showing the main directions of the
historical spread of Buddhism, and the approximate locations of the major
Buddhistregionsinthemodernworld

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Professor Peter Harvey for his detailed and
very helpful comments on a draft of this book. I am also grateful to
others who commented on selected sections: Frederick Chen,
Lance Cousins, Angie Cantwell, and Robert Mayer, and also to the
publisher’s anonymous reviewers, who provided useful feedback at
an early stage. Errors and shortcomings remain my own.
INTRODUCTION
HOW PERENNIAL ARE THE BASICS OF BUDDHISM?

A Buddhist friend of mine commented, on hearing that I was
writing on the Basics of Buddhism, that the task must be utterly
different from writing on many other academic subject areas. For
Buddhism, the ‘Basics’ are constant, he reasoned, quite different
from a subject such as Sociology, which changes all the time. He
hadagoodpoint:asinmostreligions,intheirattitudestotheirspiri-
tual heritage, Buddhists hold that the Buddha Dharma, the essential
truths revealed by the Buddha, are timeless and unchanging. These
teachingswillcertainlybeexploredinthisbook,butitisquitelikely
thattheBasicsaspresentedherewilllookatleastalittledifferentfrom
howtheBasicsmighthavelookedthirtyyearsago–orindeed,how
they might look in thirty years’ time. Why should this be so?
OnereasonisthestateofBuddhistStudiesasanacademicdiscipline
as opposed to Buddhism as a religious path. The teachings may
change little, but our knowledge and understandings of them
change and develop. In the early twentieth century, beyond its
Asian heartlands, knowledge of Buddhism was sparse. The work of
translating the major collections of texts into European languages
wasinitsinfancy, andnineteenth-century archaeologicaldiscoveries
in India had just begun to uncover evidence that allowed glimpses
of the early history of Buddhism. It was not until the second part of
the twentieth century that Buddhist Studies began to flourish in
various university departments throughout Western countries, not
only in the relative obscurity of specialist schools for classical
‘Oriental’ languages, but in Religious Studies, Anthropology,