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.

Some of the earliest recorded speculations linked mind ( sometimes described as identical with soul or spirit ) to theories concerning both life after death, and cosmological and natural order, for example in the doctrines of Zoroaster, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek, Indian and, later, Islamic and medieval European philosophers.

In 747, a Buddhist saint, Padmasambhava ( known in Bhutan as Guru Rimpoche and sometimes referred to as the Second Buddha ), came to Bhutan from India at the invitation of one of the numerous local kings.

Apart from Longchenpa's names given below, he is sometimes referred to by the honorary title " Second Buddha " ( Tib.

In Tibetan Buddhist tradition the Chintamani is sometimes depicted as a luminous pearl and is in the possession of several of different forms of the Buddha.

Other moral examples like Francis of Assisi, Paul the Apostle, Buddha and Gandhi are also sometimes considered by the spiritists.

A full-sized Zen Buddhist temple will typically have at least one zen-dō as well as a (" main hall ", but sometimes translated as " Buddha hall "), which is used for ceremonial purposes, plus a variety of other buildings with different functions.

In the Chinese tradition, Ksitigarbha is sometimes depicted wearing a crown like the one worn by Vairocana Buddha.

Secret history is sometimes used in a long-running science fiction or fantasy universe to preserve continuity with the present by reconciling paranormal, anachronistic, or otherwise notable but unrecorded events with what actually happened in known history ; for instance, in the Star Trek universe, Greg Cox's novels The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh cast the devastating Eugenics Wars of the 1990s ( still well into the future when first mentioned in an episode from 1967 ) as shadow wars most people never knew about, in which such real-life events from that era as the Smiling Buddha nuclear test, the Yugoslav Wars, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots were all part of one wider conflict.

phreng ba, " Trengwa ") are usually 108 beads ; sometimes 111 including the Guru Bead ( s ), reflecting the words of the Buddha called in Tibetan the Kangyur ( Wylie: Bka '-' gyur ) in 108 volumes.

The Chinese word for tulku is huófó ( 活佛 ), which literally means " living Buddha " and is sometimes used to mean tulku although this is rare outside of Chinese sources.

Blessed water may be mixed with wax drippings from a candle lit before the Buddha image and other unguents and herbs to create a ' paste ' that is then applied to the foreheads of the bride and groom to create a small ' dot ', similar to the marking sometimes made with red ochre on Hindu devotees.

He carves a statue of the Buddha out of ice, wraps his master's " Sarira "( small crystals sometimes found among cremated remains of monks, and regarded as sacred relics ), in red cloth, and sets them in the statue under a waterfall.

Images of Buddha sometimes shown him reclining, recalling the Buddha Shakyamuni's departure into final nirvana.

Buddhist monasteries sometimes also have pagodas, which may house the relics of the Gautama Buddha ; older pagodas tend to be four-sided, while later pagodas usually have eight sides.

In the Pali Tripitaka, Buddha is sometimes compared to the worldly Emperor ( Chakravarti ), the Universal King, or the secular " King of Kings ".

The largest bowl, sometimes called the Buddha Bowl or zuhatsu, symbolizes Buddha's head and his wisdom.

Marici has also sometimes included as one of the Twelve Heavenly Generals associated with Bhaiṣajyaguru, the Buddha of Medicine.

Other examples include an ancient Sanskrit religious symbol known as the manji, ( representing " life, sun, power, strength, and good luck ", and sometimes referred to as the “ footsteps of the Buddha ”), which had gotten airbrushed out of series like Shaman King and Yu Yu Hakusho because it is easily mistaken for the nazi swastika by western viewers.

According to the scriptures, during his lifetime the Buddha remained silent when asked several metaphysical questions.

The Alavaka Sutta ( SN 10. 12 ) of the Pali Canon details a story where the Buddha was harassed by a Rakshasa, who asked him to leave and then come back over and over.

When asked whether he was a deva or a human, he replied that he had eliminated the deep-rooted unconscious traits that would make him either one, and should instead be called a Buddha ; one who had grown up in the world but had now gone beyond it, as a lotus grows from the water but blossoms above it, unsoiled.

Nikaya At one time in Savatthi, the venerable Radha seated himself and asked of the Blessed Lord Buddha: “ Anatta, anatta I hear said, Venerable.

In Samyutta Nikaya ( SN ) 4. 400, both when asked if there was a soul, and when asked if there was no soul ( natthatta ), Gautama Buddha refused to answer Within the Mahayana tradition, the position that there is no soul is conventionally considered to be equivalent to Nihilism ( ucchedavada ).

When asked about this, instead of following this pattern of thinking, the Buddha attacks it at its very root: the notion of a principle in the abstract, superimposed on experience.

When Ananda later asked about his silence, the Buddha said that to affirm or deny the existence of an eternal self would have sided with sectarian theories and have disturbed Vacchagotta even more.

When asked about this, instead of following this pattern of thinking, the Buddha attacks it at its very root: the notion of a principle in the abstract, superimposed on experience.

There the Buddha is asked how the disciples should verify, after his death, which of the teachings circulating are his.

It asked if the Buddhist had made the request to the Buddha.

Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother from this realm.

A similar response citing immeasurability occurs in another sutta, when the Buddha is asked to pick between two alternatives regarding the arahant after death: annihilation or eternal freedom from illness.

In 752, Emperor Shōmu asked him to perform the eye-opening ceremony for the giant bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana built in Tōdai-ji.

Most monks would have asked to die facing West, to be welcomed by the Buddha, but Saigyō finds the Buddha in the flowers.

The Buddha then asked the Brahmin if his family was descended from a “ Shakya slave girl ”.

The Buddha called Venerable Sariputta and asked him to ordain little Rāhula who became the first Sāmanera ( novice monk ).

" The King, discovering that now his grandson and a number of young men in the royal family had requested ordination, asked the Buddha only to ordain a minor with the consent of his parents or guardian.

At the end of the talk, one of the five participants recounted his understanding of what had been said and asked to be received as a disciple, a request the Buddha granted, thus establishing the first order of monks.

The king asked the suspect monks what the Buddha taught, and they claimed he taught views such as eternalism, etc., which are condemned in the canonical Brahmajala Sutta.

He asked the virtuous monks, and they replied that the Buddha was a " Teacher of Analysis " ( Vibhajjavādin ), an answer that was confirmed by Moggaliputta Tissa.

Shortly thereafter Devadatta asked the Buddha to retire and let him take over the running of the Sangha.

When the millionaire saw the Buddha and asked him if he had seen Yasa, the Buddha asked him to sit down, and then delivered a dharma talk.