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Buddhist polemics revolve around the veracity and efficacy of doctrine and practice. It seems that from the very beginning Buddhists were involved in a struggle with non-believers to establish the Truth. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... The cultural elements of Buddhism vary by region and include: Buddhist cuisine Buddhist art Buddharupa Art and architecture of Japan Greco-Buddhism Tibetan Buddhist sacred art Buddhist music Buddhist chant Shomyo Categories: Buddhism-related stubs ... The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. ... Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z The following is a List of Buddhist topics: A Abhidharma Ahimsa Ajahn Ajahn Chah Ajanta Aksobhya Alexandra David-Néel Amara Sinha B... Buddhist beliefs and practices vary according to region. ... The percentage of Buddhist population of each country was taken from the US State Departments International Religious Freedom Report 2004 [1]. Other sources used were CIA Factbook [2] and adherents. ... An image of Gautama Buddha with a swastika, traditionally a Buddhist symbol of good luck, on his chest. ... The Buddhist temple Wat Chiang Man, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which dates from the late 13th century Buddhist temples and monasteries, sorted by location. ... Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. ... There is great variety in Buddhist texts. ... Before Common Era Trad. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... When someone sincerely agrees with an assertion, they might claim that it is the truth. ...

What we see is a process of ultraism in which each group, including the authors of the earliest texts, is inclined to denigrate those that had come before it. So the Pali suttas ridicule Jain and other non-Buddhist teachings, the Mahayana Sutras ridicule the Arahants, and so on. The thing that seems to be driving this process is a sequence of reform movements which seek to establish, or re-establish, norms of practice in line with a set of ideals which is actually common to all Buddhist schools. Alongside this reformist agenda is a strong conservatism which constrains Buddhists to accept texts as the word of the Buddha and therefore sacrosanct. The result is that a hierarchy of ideals is built up over time. In very early Buddhist texts (such as the Dhammapada, or Sutta Nipata) an Arahant (ie one who has achieved the goal, is enlightened, completely liberated from suffering) is seen as second to the Buddha only in the sense that he led them to the goal. Their 'state' is ontologically undefinable, but is equivalent to that of the Buddha, ie both the Buddha and the Arahant have achieved Nirvana or final liberation. But even before the Mahayana came into being there were attempts to redefine the status of the Arahant as falling short of the goal, and capable of error. By the time the early Mahayana Sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Arahant is portrayed as conceited and stubborn. The Perfection of Wisdom sutras, which span the entire development of the Mahayana, portray Arahants such as Subhuti and Sariputra as being instructed by mythic Bodhisattvas, whereas the Pali suttas have these two being the ones giving instruction. This article is about the poetic genre. ... Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon The Pali Canon is one the earliest existing scripture collections of the Buddhist tradition. ... The hand with a wheel on the palm symbolizes the Jain Vow of Ahinsa, meaning non-injury and nonviolence. ... Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that were originally put in writing starting in the first century BCE. They form the basis of the various Mahayana schools. ... A garden featuring depictions of various arhats (Hsi Lai Temple, California) An arhat (Sanskrit, also arahat or arahant (Pali); Chinese: 阿羅漢, aluohan; Tibetan: dgra-bcom-pa; Jp. ... Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE, Musée Guimet. ... The Dhammapada (Pali, translates as Path of the Dharma. ... Bodhi (Pali and Sanskrit. ... Suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. ... A stone image of the Buddha. ... The following article is about the term Nirvana in the context of Buddhism. ... The Lotus Sutra or Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Sanskrit: Saddharmapundarīka-sūtra; 妙法蓮華經 Cn: Miàofǎ Liánhuā Jīng; Jp: Myōhō Renge Kyō) is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sutras in East Asia and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism... Perfection of Wisdom is a translation of the Sanskrit term prajñā pāramitā (Hanzi. ... Subhuti was one of Shakyamunis Ten Major Disciples. ... Śāriputra (Pali: Sariputta; Chinese: 舍利弗) was the one of the disciples of the Buddha, an arhat who was renowned for his wisdom. ... Prince Siddhartha Gautama as a bodhisattva, before becoming a Buddha. ...

By the time the Vajrayana came into being there was already a considerable superstructure of doctrine and practice built up. But the Vajrayana was bound by the same constraints and so ended up adopting everything and trying to make sense of it. The Tibetans synthesised it all into a complex hierarchical system which has Hinayana, Mahayana, and various grades of Tantra as a towering stairlike path through which the spiritual aspirant must ascend in order to follow the Buddha. Somewhat ironically the highest levels of Tantric practice, such as Dzog Chen starts to resemble the simple mindfulness of the Pali Canon. Similarly in East Asian Vajrayana Kukai adopted a hierarchical structure for the various teachings, in which the Hinayana and Mahayana both rated as merely provisional teachings which were not effective in attaining enlightenment. A mandala used in Vajrayana Buddhist practices. ... Tibet (Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, pinyin: Xīzàng; older splling Thibet) is a region and former independent country in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ... Tantra (Sanskrit: loom), tantric yoga or tantrism is any of several esoteric traditions rooted in the religions of India. ... Painting of Kukai (774-835). ...

It is difficult to know what to make of this building of ever higher teachings, and more secret practices. If one accepts the Pali Canon as evidence (and most Buddhists would) then there is ample evidence that the so-called 'Hinayana' practices were efficacious. It is also clear that an Arahant was definitely one who had attained the goal set out by the Buddha. The differences between the Arahant Ideal (as the Mahayana designates the Hinayana goal), and the Bodhisattva Ideal (as the Mahayana designated itself) are not so much differences in goal or aim, as they are differences of emphasis - one emphasising the subjective, internal transformation of self; the other emphasising the altruistic, other regarding aspects of the teachings.

see also Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Yanas, Buddhist philosophy. Hinayana (Sanskrit: inferior vehicle; Chinese:小乘, Xiǎoshèng; Japanese: Shōjō) is a term coined by the Mahayana, which appeared publicly around the 1st century CE. There are differing views on the use and meaning of the term, both among scholars and within Buddhism. ... Relief image of the bodhisattva Guan Yin (Avalokitesvara) from Mt. ... A mandala used in Vajrayana Buddhist practices. ... Yana is a Sanskrit word meaning vehicle. ... Buddhist philosophy is the branch of Eastern philosophy based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha (c. ...