He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha.

In early Indian Buddhism, for example, the term bodhisattva was primarily used to refer specifically to the Buddha Shakyamuni in his former lives.

According to many traditions within Mahāyāna Buddhism, on the way to becoming a Buddha, a bodhisattva proceeds through ten, or sometimes fourteen, grounds or bhūmis.

According to this theory, the cycle of philosophical upheavals that in part drove the diversification of Buddhism into its many schools and sects only began once Buddhists began attempting to make explicit the implicit philosophy of the Buddha and the early suttas.

Buddhism is a religion, a practical philosophy, and arguably a psychology, focusing on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, who lived on the Indian subcontinent most likely from the mid-6th to the early 5th century BCE.

Dharma also refers to the teachings and doctrines of the founders of Buddhism and Jainism, the Buddha and Mahavira.

Dharma refers not only to the sayings of the Buddha, but also to the later traditions of interpretation and addition that the various schools of Buddhism have developed to help explain and to expand upon the Buddha's teachings.

The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha, meaning the mind's perfection of enlightenment, the Dharma, meaning the teachings and the methods of the Buddha, and the Sangha, meaning those awakened beings who provide guidance and support to followers of the Buddha.

# Kōmyō ( 光明 ) is a phrase used in Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhism to refer to the Infinite Light of Amitabha Buddha.

While faith in Buddhism does not imply " blind faith ", Buddhist faith nevertheless requires a degree of faith and belief, primarily in the spiritual attainment of Gautama Buddha.

Faith in Buddhism centers on the understanding that the Buddha is an Awakened being, on his superior role as teacher, in the truth of his Dharma ( spiritual teachings ), and in his Sangha ( community of spiritually developed followers ).

Faith in Buddhism can be summarised as faith in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Based on the Lotus Sutra's teaching of what it describes as the " unsurpassed Dharma ", Nichiren Buddhism acknowledges the Four Noble Truths as the first sermon, but not as the final teaching of the Buddha.

These scholars understand the term to refer to schools of Buddhism that did not accept the teachings of the Mahayana Sutras as authentic teachings of the Buddha.

While Buddhism does give a similar and to some extent a matching account for Gautama Buddha, Hinduism maintains a totally different theory where " divine grace " is needed for emancipation.

* Kuan Ming: Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism, Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc, 1985

* Miao Yun: Teachings in Chinese Buddhism: Selected Translation of Miao Yun, Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc, 1995

Often the number three referring to the Triple Gem of Buddhism, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

As a follower of Buddhism, Ashoka visited Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, and erected stupas in Kathmandu.

Mahayana teaches that the current age is that of decline of Shakyamauni's Buddhism and that a Future Buddha will appear to start Buddhism anew.

Nichiren Buddhism is based on the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that all people have an innate Buddha nature and are therefore inherently capable of attaining enlightenment in their current form and present lifetime.

Nichiren Buddhism is based on the Lotus Sutra: “ According to Nichiren, the Lotus Sutra is the highest teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are called Hindu Dharma, Buddha-Dharma, Jain-Dharma and Sikh dharma, respectively.

The Dharma is one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism in which practitioners of Buddhism seek refuge, or that upon which one relies for his or her lasting happiness.

A book edited by Allan Hunt Badiner called Dharma Gaia explores the ground where Buddhism and ecology meet through writings by the Dalai Lama, Gary Snyder, Thich Nhat Hanh, Allen Ginsberg, Joanna Macy, Robert Aitken, and 25 other Buddhists and ecologists.

* Allan Hunt Badiner ( 1990 ), Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology

Setting out to declare his own teachings of Buddhism, Nichiren started at the age of 32 by denouncing all Mahayana schools of his time and by declaring the correct teaching as the Universal Dharma ( Nam-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō ) and chanting as the only path for personal and social salvation.

It could be concluded from an emanationism point of view, that all actions and creations by a deity are simply flows of divine energy ( the flowing Tao in conjunction with qi is often seen as a river ; Dharma ( Buddhism ) the law of nature discovered by Buddha has no beginning or end.

Mo-ho-yen had been disseminating Dharma in the Tun-huang locale, but, according to Tibetan sources, lost an important philosophical debate on the nature of emptiness with the Indian master Kamalaśīla, and the king declared Kamalaśīla's philosophy should form the basis for Tibetan Buddhism.

In Buddhism, a Dharma name is given during the traditional refuge ceremony.

* Dharma transmission, the formal confirmation of a student's awakening in Zen Buddhism

The first Buddhist missionaries were called " Dharma Bhanaks " and some see a missionary charge in the symbolism behind the Buddhist wheel, which is said to travel all over the earth bringing Buddhism with it.

Vajrayana Buddhism was established in Tibet in the 8th century when Śāntarakṣita was brought to Tibet from India at the instigation of the Dharma King Trisong Detsen, some time before 767.

The origins of the Tangut Chan can be also traced deeper, than it was previously believed: information on Bao-tang Wu-zhu （ 保唐无住720 ～ 794 ） travels in North-Western China from the Notes on Transmitting the Dharma Treasure through Generations implies that at the period of 760's some sort of Buddhism was spread in the region of Helanshan, where the Tangut were already residing.

As documented in the conclusion of the The Dharma Bums, Snyder moved to Japan in 1955, in large measure in order to intensively practice and study Zen Buddhism.

Buddhism is one of the primary subjects of The Dharma Bums, and the book undoubtedly helped to popularize Buddhism in the West and remains one of Kerouac's most widely read books.

The alliance with the Burmese appears according to the chronicles to have continued after the expulsion of the Cholas and it was to Burma that Vijayabahu I turned for assistance in re-organizing the Sangha in Sri Lanka, thus underlining the connection between political ties and a common commitment to Buddhism.

: This article concerns the concept of Sangha in Buddhism.

Sangha ( Pali: सन ् घ ; Sanskrit: स ं घ ; Wylie: ' dus sde ) is a word in Pali and Sanskrit meaning " association ", " assembly ," " company " or " community " and most commonly refers in Buddhism to the monastic community of ordained Buddhist monks or nuns.

The Sangha is the third of the Three Jewels in Buddhism.

Consequently, as Theravada Buddhism spread to Thailand, the Theravada Sangha consisted only of monks.

The text outlines what Olcott saw to be the basic doctrines of Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha, the message of the Dharma, the role of the Sangha.

The King also appointed the first Supreme Patriarch of Thai Buddhism, whose responsibilities included the duty of ensuring that Rama I's laws are maintained which was to ensure law and order within the Buddhist Sangha.

* Tendai Buddhism in Europe-Tendai Sangha based in Denmark

The Triple Gem is in the center of one of the major practices of mental " reflection " in Buddhism ; the reflection on the true qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

:* A trident, or trisula, with three branches, representing the threefold jewels of Buddhism: Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

The triratna can be further reinforced by being surmounted with three dharma wheels ( one for each of the three jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha ).

In Mahayana Buddhism, the term ' Sangha ' strictly speaking refers to those who have achieved certain levels of understanding.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the term " sangha " is, in principle, often understood to refer particularly to the Arya Sangha ( Tib.

In the early decades of Buddhism the wandering monks of the Sangha, dedicated to asceticism and the monastic life, had no fixed abode.

In Buddhism " the conventional Sangha of monks has been entrusted by the Buddha with the task of leading all people in creating the ideal world community of noble disciples or truly civilized people.

Sri Lanka has the longest continuous history of Buddhism of any Buddhist nation, with the Sangha having existed in a largely unbroken lineage since its introduction in the 4th century.

In his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution in India, Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar opined that Manu Smriti was written by a sage named Brigu during the times of Pushyamitra of Sangha in connection with social pressures caused by the rise of Buddhism.

* Sangha, in Buddhism and Jainism

The daily also campaigns in columns and features for an austere, reformed version of Buddhism free of Thailand's traditional animist elements, which it views as superstitions, and against corruption in the official Buddhist establishment or Sangha.

Although the Tao Te Ching originally used sanbao to mean " compassion ", " frugality ", and " humility ", the term was later used to translate the Three Jewels ( Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha ) in Chinese Buddhism, and to mean the Three Treasures ( jing, qi, and shen ) in Traditional Chinese Medicine.