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Essay on Buddhist Religious Traditions
Buddhism, a chief world religion, founded in northeastern India and on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who is recognized as the Buddha, or Enlightened One. Starting off as a simple movement within the dominant Brahman tradition of the day, Buddhism quickly developed in a distinctive direction. The Buddha not only rejected significant aspects of Hindu philosophy, but also challenged the authority of the priesthood, denied the validity of the Vedic scriptures, and rejected the sacrificial cult based on them. Moreover, he opened his movement to members of all castes, denying that a person’s spiritual worth is a matter of birth.
Buddhism, as a refuge of intellectual freedom, has nurtured and enriched the civilizations of Asia. Over the centuries its teachers have articulated myriad traditions of practice and doctrinal analysis based on the Buddha's dharma (teachings). Both scholar and Buddhist believer are challenged by the sheer diversity of these doctrinal lineages as well as by the paradoxical attempt to extract systematic thought from a tradition that holds the ultimate to be beyond conception.( LEWIS, Todd T. 1984) Yet, though early texts recount the Buddha's dismay over those who intellectualize his spiritual path, it is nevertheless true that organized reasoning has its place in Buddhist history:
right views are included in the Eightfold Path, doctrinal formulae abound, and royal court patronage debates required the mastery of doctrinal elucidation and argumentation. Compared to their Christian counterparts, Buddhist thinkers were rarely suppressed and the "inspired texts" became a vast literature. Buddhism today is divided into two major branches known to their respective followers as Theravada, the Way of the Elders, and Mahayana, the Great Vehicle. Followers of Mahayana refer to Theravada using the derogatory term Hinayana, the Lesser Vehicle. Buddhism has been significant not only in India but also in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and Laos......
