Buddhist monks and nuns of most traditions are expected to refrain from all sexual activity and take vows of celibacy ; lay people, however, are not expected to refrain from any specific form of sexual activity, and there is no concept of sinfulness attached to sex.

In most Buddhist traditions vegetarianism is not mandatory.

Interpenetration and essence-function are mutually informing in the East Asian Buddhist traditions, especially the Korean Buddhist tradition.

The status of Dharma is regarded variably by different Buddhist traditions.

For the most part, religious traditions in the world reserve marriage to heterosexual unions, but there are exceptions including certain Buddhist and Hindu traditions, Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Community Church and some Anglican dioceses and some Quaker, United Church of Canada and Reform Jewish congregations .< ref >" World Religions and Same Sex Marriage ", Marriage Law Project, Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, July 2002 revision

“ There is some evidence that Jain traditions may be even older than the Buddhist traditions, and that Vardhamana rather than being a “ founder ” per se was, rather, simply a primary spokesman for much older tradition.

The Five Precepts ( Pali: pañca-sīlāni ; ) constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics, undertaken by lay followers ( Upāsaka and Upāsikā ) of the Buddha Gautama in the Theravada as well as in Mahayana traditions.

Different Buddhist traditions adhere to other lists of precepts that have some overlap with the Five Precepts.

As in other Buddhist traditions, an attitude of reverence for the teacher, or guru, is also highly prized.

In addition to Pagans, Neopagans, and Goddess-centred faith traditions, they are also Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Quakers, etc.

Forest monasteries – most commonly found in the Theravada traditions of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka – are monasteries dedicated primarily to the study of Buddhist meditation, rather than scholarship or ceremonial duties.

The diversity of Buddhist traditions makes it difficult to generalize about Buddhist clergy.

Currently in North America, there are both celibate and non-celibate clergy in a variety of Buddhist traditions from around the world.

Although Tenrikyo is now completely separate from Shinto and Buddhist organisationally, it still shares many of the traditions of Japanese religious practice.

In Mahayana Buddhist traditions, the holiday is known by its Sanskrit name and derived variants of it.

Falun Gong emphasises morality and the cultivation of virtue in its central tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance (), and identifies as a qigong practice of the Buddhist school, though its teachings also incorporate elements drawn from Taoist traditions.

In his hagiographic spiritual biography Li Hongzhi is said to have been taught ways of " cultivation practice " by several masters of the Buddhist and Daoist traditions, including Quan Jue, the 10th Heir to the Great Law of the Buddha School, a Taoist master from age eight to twelve, and a master of the Great Way School with the Taoist alias of True Taoist from the Changbai Mountains.

Falun Gong differentiates itself from Buddhist monastic traditions in that it places great importance on participation in the secular world.

Varieties of cultivation practice are found throughout Chinese history, spanning Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian traditions.

After Buryatia was incorporated into Russia, it was exposed to two traditions – Buddhist and Christian.

It is farthest removed from the earlier Buddhist traditions, and incorporates concepts of messianism and astrology not present elsewhere in Buddhist literature.

* Fa-Hien, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-Hsien of his travels to India and Ceylon ( A. D. 399-414 ) in search of the Buddhist Books of discipline

Parts of Ancient India and Nepal where Buddhism originated were also for long periods Buddhist, and whether as a result of the Buddhist, Jain or Hindu promotion of the principle of ahimsa ( harmlessness ) many Indians remain vegetarian.

Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used-to refer to a people of south India ( presumably Tamil );-was a southern non-Aryan country ; -,, and-were used as variants to designate a country in the south (, Kādambarī, Daśakumāracarita -, fourth to seventh centuries CE ) ( 1989: 134 – 138 ).

During the classical era of Buddhist philosophy in India, philosophers such as Dharmakirti argue for a dualism between states of consciousness and Buddhist atoms ( the basic building blocks that make up reality ), according to " the standard interpretation " of Dharmakirti's Buddhist metaphysics.

Hindu and Buddhist cultures imported from India dominated early Malaysian history.

The Pāla's were a Buddhist and Vaishnav Hindu Bengali dynasty of India, which lasted for four centuries ( 750-1120 AD ).

Newer present-day world religions established themselves throughout Eurasia during the Middle Ages by: Christianization of the Western world ; Buddhist missions to East Asia ; the decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent ; and the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and parts of Europe and India.

The Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim Yijing wrote about relationship between the various " vehicles " and the early Buddhist schools in India.

Several Buddhist and Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

Karma ( ; ) in Indian religions is the concept of " action " or " deed ", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect ( i. e., the cycle called saṃsāra ) originating in ancient India and treated in the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh religions.

Buddhist remains have been also found in Minicoy Island, then part of the Maldive Kingdom, by the Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI ), in the latter half of the 20th century.

The classical Buddhist text Milinda Pañha praises Menander, saying there was " none equal to Milinda in all India ".

In ancient India, the antecedents of politics can be traced back to the Rig-Veda, Samhitas, Brahmanas, the Mahabharata and Buddhist Pali Canon.

Palembang was a center for scholarly learning, and it was there the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I Ching studied Sanskrit in 671 CE before departing for India.

The first Shaolin Monastery abbot was Batuo ( also called Fotuo or Buddhabhadra, not to be confused with Bodhidharma ) a dhyana master who came to China from India in 464 to spread Buddhist teachings.

For example, Taxila was an early centre of Vedic learning, possible from the 6th century BC or earlier ; the Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th century BC seems to have included theological themes in its subject matter ; the Chinese Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BC ; the School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century AD ; Nalanda in India was a site of Buddhist higher learning from at least the 5th or 6th century AD ; and the Moroccan University of Al-Karaouine was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century, as was Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India ( particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Dharamsala, Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim ).

True to its roots in the Pāla system of North India, however, Tibetan Buddhism carried on a tradition of eclectic accumulation and systematisation of diverse Buddhist elements, and pursued their synthesis.

In the reign of King Thothori Nyantsen ( 5th century CE ), a basket of Buddhist scriptures arrived in Tibet from India.

Buddhist monks play volleyball in the Himalaya n state of Sikkim, India.

The bhavacakra is painted on the outside walls of nearly every Tibetan Buddhist temple in Tibet and India.