The origins of Buddhism lie in ancient India. The religious landscape of the time was shaped by the ideology of the Aryas, a nomadic group who travelled into India around the beginning of the second millennium BCE. The teachings of the social group known as brahmanas are found within texts such as the Ṛg Veda and Upaniṣads. These contain teachings, philosophies and ritual guides. The Brahmanic tradition also introduced the caste system. There were also ascetic movements found within India which had ideologies that did not necessarily agree with brahmanic thought.

2. • The origins of Buddhism lie in ancient India.
• The religious landscape of the time was shaped by the
ideology of the Aryas, a nomadic group who travelled into
India around the beginning of the second millennium BCE.
• The teachings of the social group known as brahmanas are
found within texts such as the Ṛg Veda and Upaniṣads. These
contain teachings, philosophies and ritual guides.
• The Brahmanic tradition also introduced the caste system.
• There were also ascetic movements found within India which
had ideologies that did not necessarily agree with brahmanic
thought.

3. • The dates that the Buddha lived are not agreed upon, but
generally placed around 400-500 BCE.
• The Buddha appears in Buddhist literature under a
number of names. His name is given as Gautama (Pali:
Gotama). He is only referred to as the Buddha after his
enlightenment.
• He is also referred to as Śākyamuni Buddha, literally
meaning sage (muni) of the Śākya clan. It is believed that
he was born in what is now South Nepal.
• The Buddha has the 32 marks of a great man (Sanskrit:
mahāpuruṣa-lakṣaṇa/ Pali: mahāpuriṣa-lakkhaṇa)

4. • The life story of the Buddha is taken from a variety of sources such as
the Mahāvastu, Nidānakathā and Buddhacarita.
• Many aeons ago an ascetic called Sumedha encountered the Buddha
Dīpaṃkara and vowed to become a buddha himself, cultivating the
necessary qualities and becoming a bodhisattva.
• The Jātakas show the various kind deeds of the Bodhisattva before he
became the Buddha.
• When the previous buddha’s teaching had been lost the Bodhisattva
descended from Tuṣita into his mother’s womb. That night his mother
dreamt of a white elephant carrying a white lotus entering her womb.
• After 10 lunar months the Bodhisattva was born. He was delivered whilst
his mother was standing. As soon as he was born he took 7 steps and
declared, ‘I am chief in the world, I am the best in the world, I am first in
the world. This is my last birth. There will be no further rebirth.’
• Seven days after the birth his mother died and was reborn in Tuṣita.

5. • He was part of the Śākya clan in the kṣatryia family whose name was
Gautama. He was known as Siddhārtha.
• As he grew up he forgot his previous births, but predictions of his
greatness were made to his father. This was made apparent by the 32
marks that were found upon his body. It was predicted that he could
have one of two destinies: he could become a great ‘wheel turning’ king
(cakravartin/cakkavattin) or a buddha.
• His father wanted him to become a powerful king and so arranged that
his son should be provided with every pleasure and comfort and
sheltered from all things ugly and unpleasant so that he would not
renounce and become an ascetic.
• The Bodhisattva married Yaśodharā and had a child called Rāhula.
• The Bodhisattva rides with his charioteer and sees an old man, a sick
man, a corpse and an ascetic. Upon seeing this he decides to leave his
home and become an ascetic.

6. • The Bodhisattva spent the next 6 years practicing a number of ascetic
techniques such as meditation, gradually ending up practicing severe
austerities with five other ascetics where he became emaciated.
• Finding that these methods did not work he accepted an offering of food
and settled himself under a Bodhi tree, determining that he would not
move until he had attained complete awakening. Many gods gathered to
watch knowing that something important was happening.
• Māra appeared with his army and tried to distract the Bodhisattva from
his meditation with desire, fear, doubt, hunger and thirst, and tiredness.
He sent his beautiful daughters and great storms but the Bodhisattva
remained unmoved.
• When Māra asked the Bodhisattva what right he had to sit under the
tree the Bodhisattva responded and said that it was because of his
many aeons practicing the perfections. Māra then claimed that he had
also achieved this and his armies with vouch for him. The Bodhisattva
touches the ground and calls on the earth as his witness. On this action
the ground trembled and Māra was knocked from his elephant and his
armies ran away, signifying his defeat. The Buddha had attained
enlightenment.

7. • After his enlightenment the Buddha is believed to given his first
discourse on the topic of the Four Noble Truths, known in Pali as the
Dharmacakkappavattana Sutta.
• Suffering (duḥkha/dukkha): all that is unenlightened is marked by
this. Perhaps a more useful translation is ‘dis-ease’.
• Origin (samudaya): the origin of dukkha lies in craving (tṛṣṇā/
taṇhā). The unenlightened crave sensuals pleasures, things that they
do not have and the removal of things that they do not want. The root
of this lies in ignorance.
• Cessation (nirodha): the cessation of dukkha, will come through the
cessation of ignorant thought and action. In other words, the only
cure for dukkha is nirvāṇa/ nibbāna.
• Way (mārga/ magga): the path to enlightenment is outlined in in the
eightfold path.

8. • Saṃsāra is not a place, instead it is the type of existence
experienced by all unenlightened beings.
• Unenlightened beings are caught in perpetual cycle of life, death and
rebirth.
• Saṃsāric existence is conditioned by three marks: impermanence
(anitya/ anicca), not-Self (anātman/ anattā), and dis-ease
(duḥkha/dukkha).
• As there is no permanence there is no stability. Saṃsāric existence
is in a constant state of flux and change.
• The teaching of anātman outlines that there is nothing that has a
permanent Self, there is no underlying consciousness or sense of
person that is carried from life to life.
• There is no being that can be classed as immortal, even the gods
(devas) that are found in Buddhist thought will one day die.

9. • Karma or kamma can be translated as ‘action’.
• In the brahmanical society it was initially understood in terms of ritual
behaviour. If one performed a certain ritual action it would have a
specific result.
• Ideas concerning karma evolved and all actions were understood to
cause an effect. Actions performed by an individual would cause
some sort of effect on the individual in this life, or even in a later life.
• In Buddhist thought karma has a causative nature. The actions that
are intentionally performed by the individual will have a particular
karmic result. Well-intentioned good deeds will result in a pleasant
and favourable karmic result whilst malicious and hurtful misdeeds
will result in a poor and unfavourable karmic result.
• Karma does not always have immediate results, but can take many
lifetimes to have an effect.

10. • Buddhism offers a system of causation known as Dependent
Origination (pratītyasamutpadā/ paṭiccasmuppāda).
• This system of thought maintains that everything has been caused
into existence. Nothing has been created ex nihilo.
• This is useful in understanding how there can be rebirth without a
belief in a soul. When a person is alive they accumulate karma, this
does not simply disappear at death. Instead, due to the remaining
karmic seeds a new being is caused into existence so that remaining
karmic results may take place.
• In relation to rebirth, the Buddha taught a twelvefold formula for
Dependent Origination in the Mahānidāna Sutta.

11. • “conditioned by ignorance are formations, conditioned
by formations is consciousness, conditioned by
consciousness is mind-and-body, conditioned by mind-
and-body are the six senses, conditioned by the six-
senses is sense contact, conditioned by sense contact
is feeling, conditioned by feeling is craving , conditioned
by craving is attachment, conditioned by attachment is
becoming, conditioned by becoming is birth,
conditioned by birth is old age and death”
Saṃyutta Nikāya

12. • Nirvāṇa/nibbana, as with saṃsāra, is not a place. Instead it is a form
of existence which is free from the conditions of saṃsāra.
• Nirvāṇa is attained through seeing the world as it really is
(yathābhūtadarśana). One must have a complete understanding of
the nature of Dependent Origination, saṃsāra, and karma.
• Nirvāṇa is often described using negatives. This is to show that it is
not conditioned, there is no death, no rebirth, no karma.
• The Buddha had attained enlightenment during his lifetime, he did
not die nor did he vanish. Despite being enlightened he still had to
receive the results of previous karmic actions. It should be
remembered that one enlightened the Buddha was not producing
any karma.
• Upon death a person who has nirvāṇic existence is understood to
enter a state known as parinirvāṇa/ parinibbana.

13. • In the religious landscape that Buddhism arose in there was an
emphasis based on the importance of a lineage of teachers and
disciples. The Buddha had his own disciples who went on to teach
the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) to their pupils. This lead to
the creation of a monastic community which is known as the Saṅgha.
• The Buddha ordained monks (bhikkhus) and nuns (bhikkhunis)
during his lifetime and there were was the creation of the Vinaya, a
text outlining the rules of the monastic community.
• The Saṅgha appears to be a single entity until several years after the
Buddha’s death when there was a disagreement between Saṅgha
(the reason for this is still the subject of debate for scholars) and the
Saṅgha split into two. The two sects were known as the sthaviras/
theras (elders) and the mahāsāṃghikas (those of the great
community).

14. • The split in the Saṅgha saw the creation of different schools of
thought within Buddhism. After the initial spilt, more divisions in the
Saṅgha occurred.
• The different approaches towards the Buddha’s teaching can be split
into two different parties: Mainstream Buddhism and Mahāyāna
Buddhism.
• Mainstream Buddhist schools include: Sarvāstivāda, Sautrāntika,
Theravāda, Pudgalavāda, and Mahāsāṃghika.
• In modern Buddhism the only surviving mainstream school is
Theravāda Buddhism.
• Mahāyāna schools include: Zen/Chan, Pure Land, Shingon,
Tendai, Nichiren, and Tibetan Buddhism.