Dharmic · Tier A
Buddhism
c. 5th–4th century BCE (scholarly ranges vary) · Northern India / Nepal region · ~500 million (approx.; identity counting varies)
Multi-dimension academic structure, citations, contested claims, compare-ready.
The Buddha's path analyzing suffering and its cessation through ethical living, meditation, and wisdom. Less theistic in early forms; later Mahayana and Vajrayana develop vast Buddha/bodhisattva cosmologies.
Primary voice (excerpts)
Short public-domain or carefully labeled educational excerpts. Liturgical languages and critical editions remain authoritative.
“Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows… If with a pure mind… happiness follows…”
Dhammapada 1:1–2 (PD translation tradition)
Mind as forerunner — signature early Buddhist psychology.
“To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.”
Dhammapada 14:183 (PD tradition)
Compact ethical summary verse.
“Hatred is never appeased by hatred in this world. By non-hatred alone is hatred appeased. This is an eternal law.”
Dhammapada 5:1 (PD tradition)
Non-hatred as law-like ethic.
“As a mother would protect her only child with her life, even so let one cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings.”
Metta teaching (compact educational)
Metta motif from early texts (paraphrase for education).
Core ideas
- Four Noble Truths
- Eightfold Path
- Impermanence
- Non-self
- Dependent arising
- Compassion
Seven dimensions
Multi-dimensional structure so no path is reduced to a slogan.
Doctrine & philosophy
Four Noble Truths and dependent arising as core early grammar. Non-self and emptiness (shunyata) develop with different emphases. Buddha-nature theories in Mahayana. Gods may exist in cosmology without being ultimate refuge.
Story & mythos
Jataka past lives, awakening under the Bodhi tree, teaching career, parinirvana; later cosmic Buddhas and pure lands.
Practice & ritual
Sila–samadhi–prajna triad; monastic and lay tracks; Zen koan/zazen; Pure Land recitation; tantric sadhana.
Ethics
Five precepts baseline; ahimsa; compassion and bodhisattva vows in Mahayana.
Community & institutions
Sangha as jewel; state patronage histories; modern lay movements and Western convert communities.
Experience & mysticism
Insight, calm, jhana/dhyana, compassion practices, sudden vs gradual awakening debates.
Material culture
Stupas, buddha-rupas, mandalas, monasteries, prayer flags, texts as sacred objects.
Timeline
c. 5th–4th c. BCE · circa / debated
Life of the Buddha
Dating contested (long/short chronologies).
c. 3rd c. BCE · circa / debated
Ashokan period
Imperial patronage; early spread.
early CE onward
Mahayana rise
New sutras and ideals; complex dating.
7th c. onward
Tibetan & East Asian formations
Distinct canons and schools.
19th–21st c.
Global Buddhism & secular mindfulness
Colonial encounter, diaspora, psychotherapy interfaces.
Key figures
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
Awakened teacher
Historical core accepted by most scholars; hagiography layered.
Nagarjuna
Mahayana philosopher
Madhyamaka emptiness analysis.
Dogen / Huineng (examples)
Zen ancestors
Channel East Asian meditation lineages.
Contested claims
Live debates stay open. Positions are summarized — not ranked for your conscience.
Is Buddhism a religion, philosophy, or psychology?
Modern Western frames vs Asian lived religion.
- · Full religious system with ritual & cosmology
- · Philosophy of mind/ethics
- · Secular therapeutic extraction
What did the earliest Buddhism teach about self and rebirth?
Text layers and interpretation.
- · Classical rebirth + non-self
- · Modern demythologized readings
- · Critical historical reconstruction debates
Intelligence lens
Buddhism treats mind as a laboratory. The method is trained observation of causes — a proto-scientific spirituality of experience. Documents preserve analytical psychology centuries before modern cognitive science, without being reducible to it.
Indian origin; Ashokan patronage; transmission to Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Central/East Asia, Tibet; modern global spread and secular mindfulness offshoots.
Key texts
- Pali Canon
- Mahayana sutras
- Abhidharma/Abhidhamma
- Shastras
- Terma & tantric corpora (Vajrayana)
Practices
- · Meditation
- · Precepts
- · Dana
- · Chanting
- · Monastic vinaya
- · Puja / guru yoga (streams)
Branches / streams
- Theravada
- Mahayana
- Vajrayana
- Zen/Chan
- Pure Land
- Modern convert Buddhisms
Theme answers (compare-ready)
Ultimate reality
Early: not a creator God focus; later: Buddha-nature / emptiness / cosmic Buddhas.
Avoid forcing theistic categories.
Human condition
Dukkha — unsatisfactoriness — driven by craving and ignorance.
Analytic, not merely pessimistic.
Path & practice
Eightfold Path; bodhisattva path in Mahayana.
Sudden/gradual maps differ.
Ethics & neighbor
Non-harm, truthfulness, compassion.
Engaged Buddhism adds social justice frames.
Community & authority
Sangha; lay support of monastics (classic pattern).
Western lay-centric forms common.
Death & destiny
Rebirth until nirvana; pure land trajectories.
Secular Buddhists may bracket metaphysics.
Knowledge & revelation
Pramana traditions + meditative verification.
Scripture + teacher + experience.
Intelligence of the era
Analytical psychology of mind as era-transcending method.
Risk: reducing Buddhism to neuroscience slogans.
Sources
Registry references for this pack. Prefer primary public-domain texts and named secondary introductions.
Pali Nikayas (Sutta Pitaka selections)
primary · public domain
Early Buddhist discourses preserved in Pali.
Dhammapada
primary · public domain
Popular early Buddhist verse collection.
The Foundations of Buddhism
secondary · Rupert Gethin
Clear academic intro to early Buddhist thought and practice.
Internet Sacred Text Archive
primary · public domain
Large public-domain corpus; quality varies by edition — prefer critical editions when available.
Pew Research Center — Global Religious Landscape / surveys
reference
Demographic estimates; numbers shift by methodology and year.