Buddhismus · Theravada · Mahayana · Zen / Chan · Tibetischer Buddhismus
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Siddhattha Gotama · सिद्धार्थ गौतम · 𑀲𑀓𑁆𑀬𑀫𑀼𑀦𑀻 (sakyamunī) · 釋迦牟尼
um 480 v. Chr. – um 400 v. Chr.Erzählung, die Geschichte, Theologie und Überlieferung verbindet
Asket und Lehrer aus dem Norden Indiens, geboren im Klan der Sakya, den die Überlieferung den Buddha nennt, „den Erwachten“. Die kanonischen Quellen, Jahrhunderte nach seinem Tod schriftlich festgehalten, zeigen ihn, wie er einem behaglichen Leben entsagt, in Bodhgaya das Erwachen erlangt und fünfundvierzig Jahre lang einen mittleren Weg zur Auslöschung des Leidens lehrt. Seine historische Existenz wird von der Forschung anerkannt; fast alle Einzelheiten seines Lebens gehören einer religiösen Biographie an, die die Gemeinschaft ausgestaltet hat.
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Buda de pie, arte de Gandhara · Public domain
In eigenen Worten
«All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.»Dhammapada 1 (trad. inglesa de Max Müller, SBE X, 1881; texto pali en SuttaCentral)
Biografie
5 Min. Lesezeit
Unterstützte Übersetzung aus dem spanischen Original, Durchsicht durch einen muttersprachlichen Übersetzer ausstehend.
Ein Mensch hinter einem Titel
„Buddha“ ist kein Name, sondern ein Partizip: buddha bedeutet im Pali wie im Sanskrit „erwacht“ – einer, der aus dem Schlaf herausgetreten ist. Der Mann, der diesen Titel erhielt, hieß den Quellen zufolge Gotama (sanskritisch Gautama), der Geschlechtername einer Familie aus dem Klan der Sakya; der Eigenname Siddhattha („der sein Ziel erreicht hat“) erscheint erst in Texten, die jünger sind als der älteste Kanon, der ihn fast immer Gotama nennt, „den Asketen Gotama“ oder, im Mund seiner Schüler, Bhagavā, den Erhabenen. Später fügte die Überlieferung den Titel Sakyamuni hinzu, „der Weise der Sakya“ – genau das Wort, das auf dem ersten materiellen Zeugnis eingemeißelt ist, das wir von ihm besitzen.
Dieses Zeugnis ist eine Steinsäule. Um 249 v. Chr., im zwanzigsten Jahr seiner Herrschaft, besuchte Kaiser Ashoka das Dorf Lumbini an der heutigen Grenze zwischen Nepal und Indien und ließ in Brahmi-Schrift einmeißeln, dass hier „der Buddha, der Weise der Sakya“ geboren worden sei und er das Dorf deshalb von Abgaben befreie. Die 1896 wiederentdeckte Säule ist der dokumentarische Anker der gesamten Biographie: Sie beweist nicht die Einzelheiten, zeigt aber, dass anderthalb Jahrhunderte nach seinem Tod eine mächtige Gemeinschaft diesen Ort als seine Geburtsstätte verehrte.
Wann er lebte
Die Daten sind das erste Problem. Die Theravada-Tradition Sri Lankas setzte seinen Tod auf 544 oder 543 v. Chr.; die europäische Geschichtsschreibung des 19. Jahrhunderts schlug auf der Grundlage der korrigierten singhalesischen Chroniken um 563–483 v. Chr. vor (die „lange Chronologie“). Die von Heinz Bechert geleiteten Göttinger Kolloquien (1988–1997) haben den Konsens verschoben: Die meisten Fachleute setzen seinen Tod heute um das Jahr 400 v. Chr. an, mit einem Spielraum von zwei bis drei Jahrzehnten, gestützt auf die Lehrerlisten des Vinaya und auf den Abstand, den die indischen Quellen zwischen dem Tod des Buddha und Ashoka angeben. Starb er mit achtzig Jahren, wie der Kanon behauptet, so wäre er um 480 v. Chr. geboren. Alle Daten dieses Eintrags sind daher ungefähr und konventionell.
Der Stoff der Legende
Das Leben des Buddha, wie man es erzählt – der Traum seiner Mutter Maya von einem weißen Elefanten, die Geburt in einem Hain in Lumbini, die sieben Schritte des Neugeborenen, der Palast, in dem sein Vater Suddhodana ihn vor dem Leid bewahrt, die vier Begegnungen mit einem Greis, einem Kranken, einem Leichnam und einem Asketen, die nächtliche Flucht zu Pferd –, stammt nicht aus dem alten Kanon, sondern aus Biographien, die zwischen dem 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und dem 5. Jahrhundert n. Chr. entstanden: dem Mahavastu, dem Lalitavistara, dem Gedicht Buddhacarita des Ashvaghosha und der Nidanakatha der Pali-Tradition. In den alten Lehrreden werden die vier Begegnungen von einem mythischen Buddha der Vergangenheit, Vipassi, erzählt (Digha Nikaya 14), und erst später auf Gotama übertragen. Was der Kanon ihm in den Mund legt, ist nüchterner: Er erinnert sich, zart erzogen worden zu sein, mit drei Residenzen für die drei Jahreszeiten (Anguttara Nikaya 3.38), und klar gesehen zu haben, dass auch er dem Alter, der Krankheit und dem Tod unterworfen war.
Seine Familie war kein Königshaus im strengen Sinn. Die Sakya bildeten eine oligarchische Republik am Rand des Königreichs Kosala, und Suddhodana war vermutlich eines ihrer Häupter. Die Mutter starb kurz nach der Geburt, und er wurde von seiner Tante Mahapajapati Gotami aufgezogen. Er heiratete und hatte einen Sohn, Rahula; der Name der Ehefrau, Yasodhara, erscheint in der späteren Literatur, während der alte Kanon sie schlicht „die Mutter Rahulas“ nennt.
Die Suche und das Erwachen
Mit etwa neunundzwanzig Jahren verließ er das häusliche Leben, um samana zu werden, einer jener umherziehenden Asketen, die im sich verstädternden Ganges-Indien die Autorität des vedischen Rituals in Frage stellten. Das Ariyapariyesana Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 26) lässt ihn erzählen, er habe bei zwei Meditationslehrern, Alara Kalama und Uddaka Ramaputta, gelernt, die von ihnen gelehrten Versenkungszustände erreicht und sie wieder aufgegeben, weil sie nicht zur Befreiung führten. Es folgten Jahre äußerster Selbstkasteiung – Fasten, Anhalten des Atems –, die das Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN 36) schonungslos beschreibt, bis er auch ihnen entsagte, Nahrung annahm und sich an einen Zustand der Ruhe erinnerte, den er als Kind unter einem Rosenapfelbaum erlebt hatte. Am Fluss Neranjara, in Uruvela, unter einer assattha-Feige sitzend – dem Baum, den die Überlieferung bodhi nennen wird –, gelangte er zu dem, was die Texte als unmittelbare Einsicht in das Leiden beschreiben, in seinen Ursprung, sein Aufhören und den Weg, der dorthin führt. Er war, dem Kanon zufolge, fünfunddreißig Jahre alt.
Fünfundvierzig Jahre der Lehre
Er zögerte, so die Texte, etwas so Feines zu lehren; dann begab er sich in den Gazellenhain von Isipatana bei Benares und legte fünf früheren Gefährten der Askese den „mittleren Weg“ zwischen Genusssucht und Selbstkasteiung sowie die vier edlen Wahrheiten dar (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11). Von da an durchwanderte er zu Fuß die Königreiche Magadha und Kosala, mit langen Aufenthalten während der Regenzeit in Parks, die Könige und Kaufleute gestiftet hatten – dem Bambushain des Bimbisara in Rajagaha, dem Jetavana des Anathapindika in Savatthi. Er gründete einen Orden von Mönchen (bhikkhu) und, nach einem Widerstand, den die Texte festhalten, einen Orden von Nonnen (bhikkhuni) unter der Leitung Mahapajapatis; er hatte Laienanhänger aller Stände. Die Lehrreden zeigen ihn als geduldigen Dialektiker, der die Lehre dem Zuhörer anpasst, metaphysische Spekulationen zurückweist, die nicht zur Befreiung führen, und dazu anhält, Lehren eher nach ihren Früchten zu prüfen als nach der Autorität dessen, der sie vorträgt. Auch Konflikte blieben ihm nicht erspart: Der schwerste war der Versuch seines Vetters Devadatta, die Leitung der Gemeinschaft an sich zu reißen.
Der Tod in Kusinara
Der ausführlichste Bericht über sein Leben ist gerade der über sein Ende, das Mahaparinibbana Sutta (Digha Nikaya 16). Achtzigjährig und krank zieht er nach Norden; im Haus des Schmieds Cunda isst er ein Gericht, dessen Namen, sukaramaddava, schon die Kommentatoren nicht mehr sicher zu deuten wussten; er erkrankt an schwerer Ruhr und erreicht einen Hain von Salbäumen in Kusinara, im Land der Malla. Dort weigert er sich, einen Nachfolger zu bestimmen – „die Lehre und die Ordenszucht werden euer Meister sein“ –, ordiniert den letzten Schüler, den Asketen Subhadda, fordert die Mönche auf, ihm ihre Zweifel vorzulegen, und spricht eine letzte Ermahnung zur Unermüdlichkeit. Seine sterblichen Überreste wurden verbrannt und die Reliquien in acht Teilen unter die Völker der Region verteilt.
Was auf uns gekommen ist
Der Buddha schrieb nichts. Seine Lehre wurde mehrere Jahrhunderte lang mündlich von spezialisierten Rezitatoren weitergegeben; den singhalesischen Chroniken zufolge wurde der Pali-Kanon im 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. in Sri Lanka schriftlich festgehalten, und die übrigen Kanons – sanskritische, chinesische, tibetische – bewahren parallele Sammlungen, die im Wesentlichen übereinstimmen und in vielem voneinander abweichen. Auch die Sutren des Mahayana, verfasst ab den letzten Jahrhunderten vor unserer Zeitrechnung, legen ihre Worte dem Buddha in den Mund, doch die Forschung betrachtet sie als spätere Schöpfungen. Den historischen Gotama vom Buddha des Glaubens zu unterscheiden, ist deshalb eine Sache von Mutmaßungen: Die Archäologie bestätigt die Schauplätze – Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Kusinara –, und der Vergleich der Kanons erlaubt es, einen alten Kern von Lehren herauszuschälen. Der Rest ist die Gestalt, die zweieinhalb Jahrtausende der Verehrung geformt haben und die heute Hunderte Millionen Menschen von Sri Lanka bis Japan verehren.
Quellen: Walshe, Maurice (trad.). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (DN 14 Mahāpadāna Sutta; DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta). ISBN 9780861711031. · Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu y Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trads.). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (MN 26 Ariyapariyesana; MN 36 Mahāsaccaka; MN 22 Alagaddūpama; MN 63 Cūḷamālukya). ISBN 9780861710720. · Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trad.). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2000 (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). ISBN 9780861713318. · Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009. · Bechert, Heinz (ed.). The Dating of the Historical Buddha / Die Datierung des historischen Buddha. 3 vols. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1991–1997 (Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung IV, 1–3).
Zeitleiste
Das Leben, Jahr für Jahr
Jeder Punkt ist ein belegtes Ereignis. Klicken Sie, um es mit Quelle und Grad der Gewissheit zu lesen.
um 480 v. Chr.0 JahreLumbini, territorio de los sakyas (hoy Nepal)
Birth at Lumbini
Conventional date derived from the "short chronology" (death c. 400 BCE, at eighty). Theravada tradition gives 624 BCE and nineteenth-century historiography c. 563 BCE. The place, Lumbini, is confirmed by Ashoka's inscription. Years BCE are expressed as negative numbers.
WahrscheinlichBechert, Heinz (ed.). The Dating of the Historical Buddha / Die Datierung des historischen Buddha. 3 vols. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1991–1997 (Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung IV, 1–3).
Nach dem Tod
- um 249 v. Chr.Ashoka marks his birthplace
- um 100 v. Chr.Ashvaghosha composes the Buddhacarita
- I. Jahrhundert v. Chr.First human images of the Buddha
- um 25 v. Chr.The Pali canon is written down
- Dezember 1896Rediscovery of the Lumbini pillar
- 1997Lumbini, World Heritage Site
- 2013Excavation of the earliest shrine
um 480 v. Chr. · 0 Jahre
Birth at Lumbini
Conventional date derived from the "short chronology" (death c. 400 BCE, at eighty). Theravada tradition gives 624 BCE and nineteenth-century historiography c. 563 BCE. The place, Lumbini, is confirmed by Ashoka's inscription. Years BCE are expressed as negative numbers.
Wahrscheinlich
um 480 v. Chr. · 0 Jahre
His mother dies; Mahapajapati raises him
According to the canon (MN 123) and later biographies, Maya died seven days after the birth; the child was raised by her sister Mahapajapati Gotami, who would later become the first nun.
Überlieferung
um 451 v. Chr. · 29 Jahre
The going forth: he becomes a wandering ascetic
At twenty-nine he leaves household life "while his mother and father wept" (MN 26). The night flight on the horse Kanthaka with the charioteer Channa belongs to later biographies.
Überlieferung
um 451 v. Chr. · 29 Jahre
Pupil of Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta
He learns from two meditation teachers the states of "nothingness" and "neither perception nor non-perception", and abandons them because they do not lead to liberation (MN 26, MN 36).
Überlieferung
um 445 v. Chr. · 35 Jahre
Awakening under the bodhi tree
After six years of search and extreme asceticism, which he abandons, he attains awakening by the Neranjara river, seated beneath an assattha fig. He was thirty-five according to the canon.
Überlieferung
um 445 v. Chr. · 35 Jahre
First sermon: setting the wheel in motion
He sets out for five former companions in asceticism the middle way and the four noble truths (SN 56.11). Kondañña is the first to understand; the monastic community is born.
Überlieferung
um 440 v. Chr.
Royal and merchant patronage
King Bimbisara of Magadha donates the Bamboo Grove (Veluvana) and the merchant Anathapindika buys Jeta's park at Savatthi, where the Buddha will spend most of his rains retreats. The exact chronology is traditional.
Überlieferung
um 440 v. Chr.
Founding of the order of nuns
At Mahapajapati's request and through Ananda's mediation, the Buddha admits women to the order with eight special rules (AN 8.51; Vinaya, Cullavagga X). Several scholars regard the account, and especially the eight rules, as a later elaboration.
Umstritten
um 408 v. Chr. · 72 Jahre
Devadatta's schism
His cousin Devadatta asks to lead the community, attempts according to the texts to take his life and provokes a split that Sariputta and Moggallana bring back (Vinaya, Cullavagga VII). Tradition places it at the beginning of Ajatasattu's reign, some eight years before the Buddha's death.
Überlieferung
um 400 v. Chr. · 80 Jahre
Parinirvana at Kusinara
At eighty, after a meal at the house of the smith Cunda and severe dysentery, he dies between two sala trees. He is cremated and his relics divided into eight portions (DN 16). The date is the one most widely accepted today, within a margin of several decades.
Wahrscheinlich
um 400 v. Chr.
First council
According to the Vinaya (Cullavagga XI), five hundred monks under Mahakassapa recite together the doctrine (Ananda) and the discipline (Upali). Many historians regard it as a later projection legitimising the canon.
Überlieferung
um 249 v. Chr.
Ashoka marks his birthplace
In the twentieth year of his reign the Mauryan emperor visits Lumbini, erects a pillar inscribed "hida budhe jāte sakyamunī" ("here the Buddha, the sage of the Sakyas, was born") and exempts the village from taxes. It is the first epigraphic witness to the Buddha.
Belegt
um 100 v. Chr.
Ashvaghosha composes the Buddhacarita
The poet Ashvaghosha writes in Sanskrit the first complete biography of the Buddha as an epic poem, with the four encounters and the night flight.
Wahrscheinlich
I. Jahrhundert v. Chr.
First human images of the Buddha
After centuries of aniconic art (footprints, tree, wheel, empty throne), the Buddha appears in human form in Gandhara and Mathura. The Bimaran reliquary (British Museum, 1900,0209.1), of the first century, is among the earliest datable representations.
Belegt
um 25 v. Chr.
The Pali canon is written down
According to the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa, under King Vattagamani Abhaya (first century BCE) the monks commit to writing the canon, transmitted until then by memory.
Überlieferung
Dezember 1896
Rediscovery of the Lumbini pillar
Alois Anton Führer and Khadga Shumsher Rana uncover Ashoka's pillar and its inscription, making it possible to identify the traditional birthplace.
Belegt
1997
Lumbini, World Heritage Site
UNESCO inscribes "Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha" on the World Heritage List.
Belegt
2013
Excavation of the earliest shrine
A team led by Robin Coningham documents beneath the Maya Devi temple a timber structure it dates to the sixth century BCE and interprets as a Buddhist tree shrine; the dating and its relation to the Buddha remain debated.
Umstritten
Werke
Grundlegende Werke
Die Werke, ohne die sich das Vermächtnis nicht verstehen lässt.

Spätere Zusammenstellung · um 25 v. Chr.
Tipitaka, the Pali Canon ("Three Baskets")
Tipiṭaka
The only complete collection of early Buddhist scripture preserved in an Indic language, canonical for the Theravada tradition. It is divided into three "baskets": the Vinaya Pitaka (monastic discipline), the Sutta Pitaka (the discourses, arranged in five nikayas: Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta, Anguttara and Khuddaka) and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (systematic analysis, clearly later). Its language, Pali, is a literary Prakrit close to the dialects the Buddha may have spoken, but not identical to them. The Burmese Sixth Council edition (1954–1956) and that of the Pali Text Society are the standard ones.
4 Ausgaben · amazon.es

Spätere Zusammenstellung · um 25 v. Chr.
Dhammapada (Verses on the Dhamma)
Dhammapada
The most widely read and translated Buddhist text. Its short, memorable verses condense the ethics of the path: the primacy of mind ("Phenomena are preceded by the mind"), hatred that ceases only through non-hatred, vigilance against heedlessness, the sage likened to a deep and serene lake, the summary of the teaching of all buddhas (do no evil, cultivate the good, purify the mind). It is recited in Theravada countries and was among the first Buddhist texts translated in the West (Fausbøll into Latin, 1855; Max Müller into English, 1870 and 1881).
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Spätere Zusammenstellung · um 25 v. Chr.
Sutta Nipata (The Group of Discourses)
Suttanipāta
A collection of seventy-two poems and verse dialogues in five chapters, from the Khuddaka Nikaya. It includes the Metta Sutta on boundless goodwill, the Rhinoceros Sutta ("let one wander alone like the rhinoceros"), the account of the sage Asita's visit to the newborn and the meeting with King Bimbisara. Its ideal is the wandering sage, without possessions or opinions to cling to: an image of Buddhism before monastic institutionalisation.
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Traditionelle Zuschreibung · um 100
The Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika)
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra (妙法蓮華經)
One of the most influential texts of East Asian Buddhism, the basis of the Tiantai/Tendai and Nichiren schools. It proclaims that the different vehicles are "skilful means" (upaya) of a single vehicle leading everyone to buddhahood, and reveals a Buddha whose life is immeasurably long: the Gotama who was born and died would be a pedagogical manifestation. Its parables—the burning house, the prodigal son, the phantom city—are among the most celebrated in religious literature.
3 Ausgaben · amazon.com
Das gesamte Werk (24)

Digha Nikaya (The Long Discourses)
25

Majjhima Nikaya (The Middle Length Discourses)
25

Samyutta Nikaya (The Connected Discourses)
25

Anguttara Nikaya (The Numerical Discourses)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Udana (Inspired Utterances)
The Conscious LibraryUdana (Inspired Utterances)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Vinaya Pitaka (The Basket of Discipline)
The Conscious LibraryVinaya Pitaka (The Basket of Discipline)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
The Discourse on Setting the Wheel of the Dhamma in Motion
The Conscious LibraryThe Discourse on Setting the Wheel of the Dhamma in Motion
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Mahaparinibbana Sutta (The Great Discourse on the Final Extinguishment)
The Conscious LibraryMahaparinibbana Sutta (The Great Discourse on the Final Extinguishment)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections
The Conscious LibraryThe Sutra in Forty-Two Sections
150

The Diamond Sutra
300

The Heart Sutra
650

The Lankavatara Sutra
400

Itivuttaka (Thus It Was Said)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Khuddakapatha (The Minor Readings)
The Conscious LibraryKhuddakapatha (The Minor Readings)
25
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
Jataka (Stories of the Buddha's Former Births)
The Conscious LibraryJataka (Stories of the Buddha's Former Births)
25

Satipatthana Sutta (Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness)
25

Anattalakkhana Sutta (Discourse on the Characteristic of Not-Self)
25

Kalama Sutta (Discourse to the Kalamas)
25

Pure Land Sutras (Sukhavativyuha)
150

Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Ornament Sutra)
400
Zitate
Zitate, die in einem bestimmten Werk nachgewiesen sind. Jedes trägt seine Herkunft und seinen Grad an Verlässlichkeit.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā; manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā; tato naṁ dukkhamanveti, cakkaṁva vahato padaṁ.
GeprüftDhammapada 1 (trad. inglesa de Max Müller, SBE X, 1881; texto pali en SuttaCentral)
Apokryphe Zitate oder Zitate umstrittener Zuschreibung (5)
«Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.»
It does not appear in the canon. According to Bodhipaksa's research, it is a modern reworking of an image used by the commentator Buddhaghosa (5th century) in the Visuddhimagga, comparing the angry person to someone who picks up embers or excrement to strike another.
«Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.»
It has not been located in the Pali canon or in the Mahayana texts consulted; it circulates in quotation collections with no reference to any text. Its origin could not be traced.
«What we think, we become.»
It is a simplification of Max Müller's Victorian rendering of Dhammapada 1 ("All that we are is the result of what we have thought"), itself a free translation; the Pali says that phenomena are preceded by mind and that suffering follows action done with a corrupted mind.
«Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.»
A distortion of Anguttara Nikaya 3.131, which contrasts three things that shine openly (the moon, the sun and the Tathagata's teaching) with three that work in secret (women, the brahmins' hymns and wrong views). The popular version drops the second half.
«Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.»
A modern paraphrase of the Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65). The text does not appeal to "one's own reason": it lists logic and inference among the insufficient criteria and proposes judging doctrines by whether they lead to harm or well-being, as confirmed by the wise.
Letzte Worte
Widersprüchliche Fassungen
«"Come now, mendicants, I say to you all: 'Conditions fall apart. Persist with diligence.'"»handa dāni, bhikkhave, āmantayāmi vo: vayadhammā saṅkhārā, appamādena sampādethā
Pali version: the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16, 6.7) gives these words and adds "these were the Tathagata's last words"; before them the Buddha has asked the monks three times whether any doubt remains and declared that the teaching and the discipline will be their teacher. Chinese version: the Dirgha Agama parallel (Youxing jing, T1 no. 1, fasc. 4) presents a different scene—the Buddha uncovers his golden arm and recalls that buddhas appear as rarely as the udumbara flower—and closes with another formula: "Therefore, monks, do not be heedless: through heedfulness I attained perfect awakening by myself… None of the ten thousand things endures: this is the last thing the Tathagata said" (是故,比丘!無為放逸,我以不放逸故,自致正覺……一切萬物無常存者,此是如來末後所說). The Sanskrit parallel edited by Waldschmidt also preserves the exhortation to diligence, with variants. Finally, the Mahayana tradition places in the final days whole teachings of different content: the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra proclaims the permanence of the Tathagata and buddha-nature, and the Sutra of the Bequeathed Teaching (Yijiao jing) ascribes to him a long farewell discourse. All versions were composed by the community; none is a direct testimony.
Quelle: Walshe, Maurice (trad.). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (DN 14 Mahāpadāna Sutta; DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta). ISBN 9780861711031.
Fragen
Was das Werk beantwortet
Zwölf große Fragen der Menschheit und was sich aus den Texten darauf antworten lässt, mit Belegen. Wir legen niemandem Worte in den Mund.
Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott?
Liberation does not depend on a creator, nor does the question lead to it
Kein SchöpfergottAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon, the Buddha does not deny the existence of gods (devas), but places them within the cycle of rebirth, subject to impermanence. The Brahmajala Sutta (DN 1) explains, almost ironically, how the god Brahma, the first being to appear in a new cycle, comes to believe himself creator of the world, and how others give him credence. The Kevaddha Sutta (DN 11) shows Brahma unable to answer a fundamental question and sending the monk back to the Buddha. Faced with metaphysical questions — whether the world is eternal, whether the Tathagata exists after death — the Buddha keeps silent and, in the Cula-Malunkya Sutta (MN 63), compares one who demands answers to a wounded man who refuses to have the arrow removed until he knows who shot it. What matters is the end of suffering, not a creator.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst?
Nothing observed in oneself is «I» or «mine»
Es gibt kein bleibendes SelbstAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon, the Buddha examines the person as five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. In the Anattalakkhana Sutta (SN 22.59), addressed to his first five disciples, he shows that none of them can be a self, since all are impermanent, produce dissatisfaction and do not obey our will; of none can one say «this is mine, this I am, this is my self». The Alagaddupama Sutta (MN 22) explicitly rejects the idea of an eternal self identical with the world, the Upanishadic thesis. What we call a person is a process of conditioned elements arising and ceasing. Clinging to the idea of a self, whether to affirm it or to deny it with attachment, is a source of suffering; seeing the absence of self in the aggregates leads to detachment and liberation.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWarum leiden wir?
Suffering has a cause, craving, and therefore an end
Begehren und AnhaftenAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon, the Buddha's first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11), formulates the four noble truths: conditioned existence is unsatisfactory (dukkha); its origin is thirst or craving (tanha), craving for pleasures, for being and for non-being; its cessation is possible when that craving is extinguished; and there is a path, the noble eightfold path, leading to it. The Mahanidana Sutta (DN 15) develops dependent origination, the chain of conditions in which ignorance, mental formations, contact, feeling and craving lead to clinging, becoming, birth, ageing and death. Suffering is neither punishment nor mystery: it has observable causes, and what has a cause can cease. That is why the Buddha presents himself as a physician rather than a theologian.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWas geschieht nach dem Tod?
As long as there is craving there is rebirth; on the liberated one after death, silence
Wiedergeburt nach dem KarmaAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon the Buddha affirms rebirth as part of what he saw on the night of awakening: he recalled his former lives and saw beings dying and being reborn according to their deeds. As long as ignorance and craving persist, death gives way to a new existence in one of the possible destinations; liberation (nibbāna) is precisely the end of that cycle. But rebirth does not imply a soul passing from one body to another: the canon denies a permanent self and describes a conditioned process. And there is one question the Buddha expressly leaves unanswered: whether the Tathāgata, the liberated one, exists or does not exist after death. In the dialogues with Māluṅkyaputta and with Vacchagotta he declares that such theses do not lead to awakening and that, like an extinguished fire, the liberated one cannot be said to go in any direction.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWie erlangt man Befreiung oder Erlösung?
The Eightfold Path: ethics, concentration and wisdom extinguish the craving that causes suffering
Durch disziplinierte ÜbungAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali Canon, the Buddha's answer is formulated from his first discourse (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11): there is suffering, it originates in craving, it ceases with the extinction of that craving, and the path leading to cessation is the Noble Eightfold Path, a middle way between indulgence and mortification. Tradition groups it into three trainings: ethical conduct, meditative concentration and wisdom, understood as direct insight into impermanence, suffering and the absence of a permanent self. Nirvana is not received from a god nor obtained through rites: each person attains it by their own effort. According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, his last words urge perseverance with diligence, since all compounded things are subject to passing away.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenBraucht es einen Lehrer?
Buddhas only point the way; the effort belongs to each person
Hilfreich, aber nicht unverzichtbarAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali Canon, the Buddha presents himself as one who has discovered and shows a path, not as one who walks it for others: the Tathagatas only point the way, each must make the effort (Dhammapada 276). Before dying, according to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, he urges his disciples to be an island and refuge to themselves, with the Dhamma as island and refuge, and declares that after his death the Dhamma and the discipline will be their teacher. This does not make the guide superfluous: in the Samyutta Nikaya he states that noble friendship, the company of admirable people, is not half but the whole of the holy life. The teacher and community are valuable conditions, but each person realises liberation.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenIst die Welt wirklich?
Neither existence nor non-existence: everything arises dependent on conditions
Ein Geflecht von Ursachen ohne SubstanzAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali Canon, the Buddha avoids asserting either that the world exists in an absolute sense or that it does not exist. In the Kaccanagotta Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 12.15) he explains that whoever sees with wisdom the arising of the world does not hold to its non-existence, and whoever sees its ceasing does not hold to its existence: the Tathagata teaches by the middle, through dependent arising, the chain of conditions by which, this being, that arises. Moreover, the Buddha brings the question back to experience: in the Sabba Sutta (SN 35.23) he defines «the all» as the senses and their objects, setting aside what lies beyond as an object of useless speculation. The world is a conditioned, impermanent process without a substantial self.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWas ist Liebe?
Goodwill towards all beings, like a mother towards her only child
Grenzenloses MitgefühlAusdrücklich gesagt
The Pali canon carefully distinguishes two forms of love. The first is clinging affection (pema, piya), which the Dhammapada identifies as a source of grief and fear: from what is dear, sorrow is born. The second are the four sublime abidings (brahmavihāra): goodwill (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā), which are cultivated in meditation by radiating them without limit in all directions. The Karaṇīya Metta Sutta asks one to wish for the well-being of all beings, seen and unseen, near and far, and to guard that goodwill as a mother guards her only child with her life. In the simile of the saw, the Buddha demands that the mind remain benevolent even if bandits were to sever one limb by limb. This love is not attachment to particular persons but a boundless disposition that frees the one who cultivates it.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenSind wir frei, oder ist alles vorherbestimmt?
Intention is karma: not everything comes from past, god or chance
Karma und WahlAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon the Buddha explicitly rejects three doctrines that, in his view, nullify moral life: that everything experienced is due to past actions, that it is due to the creation of a supreme god, or that it happens without any cause. Were any of them true, he argues, there would be no desire or effort to do what should be done (AN 3.61). His position is that intention (*cetanā*) is karma itself (AN 6.63): the past conditions, but every present intentional act is a new cause. The simile of the salt crystal (AN 3.100) refines this: the same act weighs differently depending on who bears it; a pinch of salt makes a cup of water undrinkable, not a river.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenWozu meditieren oder beten?
Establishing mindfulness of body, feelings, mind and phenomena to see impermanence
Die Wirklichkeit sehen, wie sie istAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon meditation is the central means of liberation, and its purpose is to see things as they are. The *Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta* (MN 10) presents it as the direct path for the purification of beings: establishing mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind and phenomena, observing how they arise and cease. The *Ānāpānasati Sutta* (MN 118) guides practice from the breath, in sixteen steps that end in contemplating impermanence, dispassion, cessation and relinquishment. Calm (*samatha*) prepares the mind, but what liberates is clear seeing (*vipassanā*) that everything conditioned is impermanent, unsatisfactory and without a self.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenKann die Vernunft das Letzte erkennen?
A Dhamma profound and beyond reasoning, which each one verifies
Das Letzte liegt jenseits des VerstandesAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon, after the awakening, the Buddha hesitates to teach because the Dhamma he has understood is profound, hard to see, peaceful, sublime and beyond the scope of mere reasoning (*atakkāvacara*), to be experienced only by the wise (MN 26). He also rejects metaphysical speculation: whoever demands to know whether the world is eternal or whether the Tathāgata exists after death he likens to a man struck by an arrow who will not be treated until he knows who shot it (MN 63). This does not lead him to ask for blind faith. He advises the Kālāmas to accept nothing on tradition, logic or a teacher's authority, but to verify for themselves what leads to harm and what to well-being (AN 3.65). Discernment prepares; liberation is direct seeing.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichenSich von der Welt zurückziehen oder sie verwandeln?
Household life is dust; going forth into homelessness is open air
Sich zurückziehen, um zu findenAusdrücklich gesagt
In the Pali canon the Buddha left his home, his wife and his son to seek awakening, and founded a community of monks and nuns (saṅgha) who renounced household life. Several discourses repeat the formula according to which domestic life is cramped, a path of dust, while going forth into homelessness is like the open air, and it is not easy, living in a house, to lead the holy life, complete and pure. Renunciation is the ideal framework of practice. But the canon does not despise the world: the Buddha teaches lay people and kings, gives in the Sigālovāda Sutta a detailed ethic for the householder — duties towards parents, teachers, wife, friends and workers — and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta lists the conditions for the welfare of a republic. The monastic community also depends on the laity, whom it repays with teaching.
Diese Frage mit anderen Meistern vergleichen
Affinitäten und Spannungen
Affinitäten und Spannungen
Frage für Frage aus den Positionen berechnet. Den Grund jeder Übereinstimmung und jedes Widerspruchs zeigt ein Klick.
Denkt ähnlich wie

Pema Chödrön
Übereinstimmung bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Warum leiden wir?

Milarepa
Übereinstimmung bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Ist die Welt wirklich?

The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)
Übereinstimmung bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Warum leiden wir?

Śāntideva
Übereinstimmung bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Warum leiden wir?
Denkt anders als

Francis of Assisi
Widerspruch bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Was geschieht nach dem Tod?

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Widerspruch bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Was geschieht nach dem Tod?

Emanuel Swedenborg
Widerspruch bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Was geschieht nach dem Tod?

Theophan the Recluse
Widerspruch bei: Was ist das Absolute? Gibt es Gott? · Wer bin ich? Gibt es ein wahres Selbst? · Was geschieht nach dem Tod?
Widerspruch beiGrundsätzliche Meinungsverschiedenheit
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Adi Shankara
The Self that is Brahman versus the absence of self: India's great controversy
Warum: The clash is not a modern construction: Shankara devotes sutras 2.2.18–32 of his Brahma Sutra commentary to refuting the Buddhist schools, realist, idealist and those of emptiness, and concludes that the Buddha's teaching is incoherent. Some scholars argue that no-self denies the empirical self rather than the atman, so the distance would be smaller than both believed; but the canon itself rejects the eternal self in MN 22, and Shankara held that denying a permanent subject made memory and liberation impossible. The two traditions start from a similar analysis of experience and reach incompatible metaphysical conclusions, which is why they treated each other as rivals for centuries.
Widerspruch beiGrundsätzliche Meinungsverschiedenheit
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Confucius
Filial piety as the root, or leaving home as open air
Warum: The contradiction is real and had historical consequences: when Buddhism reached China, Confucian scholars reproached it for centuries because monks abandoned their parents and left no descendants, and Chinese Buddhists answered by stressing the filial duties found in the canon. The two masters never met; the clash arises from their aims. Confucius seeks the harmony of a society at war and sees in the family the model of the state. The Buddha seeks the end of suffering, which arises from attachment, and sees in domestic ties one more attachment. Neither despises what the other values: one leaves renunciation as an exception; the other, the household as a stage.
Widerspruch beiGrundsätzliche Meinungsverschiedenheit
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Jesus of Nazareth
Abba versus the arrow: a Father who listens and a question that leads nowhere
Warum: The contradiction is real, but it should be framed carefully. Jesus is a first-century Jew who does not argue for God's existence but radicalises it as a filial relationship; the Buddha teaches in an India full of speculation about the creator and the atman, and deliberately sets those questions aside because they do not lead to the end of suffering. They do not, then, answer exactly the same question: one announces whom to turn to; the other, how to extinguish the cause of pain. Both reach us, moreover, through texts of faith fixed decades or centuries later. The difference over a personal God, however, is not apparent: the Buddhist tradition has always maintained it.
Widerspruch beiGrundsätzliche Meinungsverschiedenheit
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Helena Blavatsky
A Theosophist who took refuge in the Buddha, and an Ego that reincarnates
Warum: The relationship is documented: in 1880, in Ceylon, Blavatsky and Henry Olcott publicly took the Buddhist refuges and precepts, and Theosophy contributed to the island's Buddhist revival. Her Buddhism, however, was esoteric: Theosophists held that what the Buddha denies is the passing personality and not a higher individuality, a reading the Theravada tradition does not accept. The tension is real because no-self, in the canon, also extends to any entity that transmigrates. It is explained by Blavatsky's project, which sought a primordial wisdom common to all traditions and read each of them through her own scheme of principles and planes.
Übereinstimmung bei
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha · Jiddu Krishnamurti
A bundle of processes without a centre: no-self and the observer who is the observed
Warum: The relationship is documented in a precise sense: in the late 1970s Krishnamurti held conversations at Brockwood Park with the monk and scholar Walpola Rahula and other Buddhists, later published as Can Humanity Change?, in which they discussed whether his teaching coincided with the Buddha's. Rahula saw a great affinity; Krishnamurti declined any comparison, because comparing seemed to him another form of authority. The real difference lies in the path: the canon proposes a gradual path of ethics, concentration and wisdom, with teacher and community, while Krishnamurti rejects every method. The diagnosis of the self brings them close; pedagogy separates them.
Anekdoten und Erzählungen
Anekdoten und Erzählungen
Hagiographische Erzählungs. V a. C. (tradicional)
Kisa Gotami and the mustard seed
Herkunft der Erzählung: The mustard episode is not in the canon: it comes from the fifth-century Pali commentaries, chiefly the Dhammapada commentary (story of verse 114) and the Therigatha commentary ascribed to Dhammapala. Kisa Gotami's verses (Therigatha 213–223) speak of the loss of her children but do not mention mustard.
Quelle: Buddhaghosa (atrib.). Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā (comentario al Dhammapada, s. V). Trad. E. W. Burlingame, Buddhist Legends, 3 vols., Harvard Oriental Series 28–30, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 1921. Dominio público.
Mündliche Überlieferungs. V a. C. (tradicional)
Angulimala: "I have stopped"
Herkunft der Erzählung: Majjhima Nikaya 86 (Angulimala Sutta), with parallels in the Chinese Samyukta Agama (SA 1077) and Ekottarika Agama (EA 38.6); the commentaries add the backstory (the teacher who demands a thousand fingers). It is a canonical narrative of oral transmission; the details cannot be verified.
Quelle: Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu y Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trads.). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (MN 26 Ariyapariyesana; MN 36 Mahāsaccaka; MN 22 Alagaddūpama; MN 63 Cūḷamālukya). ISBN 9780861710720.
Hagiographische Erzählungs. V a. C. (tradicional)
The four encounters
Herkunft der Erzählung: In the canon, Digha Nikaya 14 (Mahapadana Sutta) applies the four encounters to the buddha Vipassi. Referred to Gotama they appear in later biographies: Mahavastu, Lalitavistara, Ashvaghosha's Buddhacarita (cantos 3–5) and the Nidanakatha. In AN 3.38 the Buddha only recalls his comfortable life and his reflection on ageing, sickness and death.
Quelle: Walshe, Maurice (trad.). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (DN 14 Mahāpadāna Sutta; DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta). ISBN 9780861711031.
Hagiographische Erzählungc. 445 a. C. (tradicional)
Mara and the earth as witness
Herkunft der Erzählung: Canonical version: Padhana Sutta (Sutta Nipata 3.2, vv. 425–449). The assault of the armies and the earth's testimony appear in the Lalitavistara, the Buddhacarita (canto 13) and the Nidanakatha; the gesture becomes fixed in Gandharan art and widespread in Gupta and Pala sculpture.
Mündliche Überlieferungs. V a. C. (tradicional)
The poisoned arrow
Herkunft der Erzählung: Majjhima Nikaya 63 (Culamalunkya Sutta), with a parallel in the Chinese Madhyama Agama (MA 221). It is one of the classic sources for the Buddha's attitude to metaphysical speculation.
Quelle: Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu y Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trads.). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (MN 26 Ariyapariyesana; MN 36 Mahāsaccaka; MN 22 Alagaddūpama; MN 63 Cūḷamālukya). ISBN 9780861710720.
Mündliche Überlieferungs. V a. C. (tradicional)
The blind men and the elephant
Herkunft der Erzählung: Udana 6.4 (Titthasutta). The parable also exists in Jain and Hindu sources and spread in the Islamic world (Sanai, Rumi), so its Buddhist origin cannot be established.
Hagiographische Erzählungs. V a. C. (tradicional); relato del s. XI d. C.
Mahakasyapa's smile
Herkunft der Erzählung: It exists in no Indian source nor in the early canons. It appears in Chinese texts of the Song dynasty: first in the Tiansheng guangdeng lu (1036) and then, in its classic form, in the Wumenguan (1228, case 6). Albert Welter has studied its formation as the founding myth of the Chan school.
Quelle: Welter, Albert. «Mahākāśyapa's Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Kōan) Tradition», en S. Heine y D. S. Wright (eds.), The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 2000.
Lehren
Lehren
Die Begriffe, die das Denken gliedern, in ihrem Zusammenhang erklärt.
The four noble truthscuatro-nobles-verdades
Doctrinal core shared by all Buddhist schools; the Mahayana reinterprets it from emptiness (the Heart Sutra goes so far as to deny its own-existence).
Quelle: Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trad.). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2000 (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). ISBN 9780861713318.
The middle way and the eightfold pathsendero-octuple
It is the fourth noble truth and the practical scheme of all early Buddhism; tradition links it to the Buddha's biography, since he is said to have tried both extremes.
Quelle: Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trad.). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2000 (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). ISBN 9780861713318.
Not-self (anatta) and the three characteristicsanatta
A distinctive feature of Buddhism compared with contemporary Brahmanical and Jain traditions.
Quelle: Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009.
Dependent origination (paticca-samuppada)paticca-samuppada
A causal formulation underpinning the not-self doctrine and the possibility of liberation.
Quelle: Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009.
Nirvana (nibbana)nirvana
Soteriological goal of all Buddhist schools; in the West, since the nineteenth century, the subject of debate over whether Buddhism was a nihilism.
Quelle: Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009.
Karma as intentionkarma
A concept shared with Hinduism and Jainism, reinterpreted by the Buddha in terms of intention.
Quelle: Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009.
Retreats
Retreats und Zentren
Orte und Begegnungen, die mit dieser Lehre verbunden sind. Wir stellen den Kontakt zu den Veranstaltern her.
Centros en todos los continentes (sede histórica: Dhamma Giri, Igatpuri, India) · Internacional
Vipassana meditation courses (Dhamma.org)
Vipassana Meditation – centros de la tradición de S. N. Goenka
The Vipassana courses taught by S. N. Goenka, in the line of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, pass on a technique of observing bodily sensations that this tradition traces back to the Buddha himself. The format is demanding and sober: ten residential days of silence, with a daily discipline of many hours of meditation and recorded talks explaining the method. Nothing is charged, not even food or lodging; everything is sustained by donations from those who have already completed a course. There are centres on every continent, and the website, in dozens of languages, lists each centre's calendar.
Lumbini, provincia de Lumbini · Nepal
Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha
Lumbini Development Trust (Gobierno de Nepal)
Lumbini, on the plains of southern Nepal, is where tradition places the birth of Siddhartha Gautama. The Maya Devi Temple shelters the archaeological remains associated with that moment, beside the sacred pool and the pillar the emperor Ashoka had raised in the third century BCE with an inscription commemorating it. The World Heritage site is managed by the Lumbini Development Trust, a Nepali government body that also looks after the monastic zone, where various Buddhist countries have built monasteries, and other places linked to the Buddha's life such as Kapilvastu, Ramagrama and Devadaha.
Bodh Gaya, Bihar · India
Bodh Gaya: the Mahabodhi Temple
Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee
Bodh Gaya is the place where, according to tradition, Siddhartha Gautama attained awakening beneath the Bodhi tree, and the most important of the four great Buddhist pilgrimage sites. The Mahabodhi Temple, a World Heritage Site, stands beside a descendant of that tree and the stone platform marking the Buddha's seat. It is run by a management committee that holds daily sessions of chanting and meditation at dawn and evening chanting, in Pali and in the Mahayana tradition. Around the temple, monasteries from many Buddhist countries welcome pilgrims and students throughout the year.
Videos
Videos
Aufnahmen, Gespräche und Dokumentarfilme. Die Videos werden von YouTube wiedergegeben; sie werden nicht hier gespeichert.
Towards a sustainable Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha
Dokumentarfilm· EN· 2014· 20 min
UNESCOOffizieller Kanal
The oldest, dateable depiction of the Buddha in human form | Curator's Corner S4 Ep7
Analyse· EN· 2018· 8 min
The British MuseumOffizieller Kanal
Curators' tour of Ancient India: living traditions
Analyse· EN· 2025· 17 min
The British MuseumOffizieller Kanal
A Short Introduction to Buddhism Course by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi - 1 (July 15th, 2018)
Vortrag· EN· 2018· 56 min
BAUS Chuang Yen MonasteryOffizieller Kanal
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Francis Gombrich
Vortrag· EN· 2013· 104 min
UoH VisualDossiersOffizieller Kanal
New Discoveries about the Origins of the Buddhist Order of Nuns
Vortrag· EN· 2017· 66 min
Oxford Centre for Buddhist StudiesOffizieller Kanal
Buda, su enseñanza y la comunidad con Agustín Pániker
Vortrag· ES· 2020· 55 min
Librería PorrúaOffizieller Kanal
[PHILO] Bouddha et le Bouddhisme avec Frédéric Lenoir
Vortrag· FR· 2017· 61 min
PhiloCloud
Documentary - The Buddha - PBS Documentary (Narrated by Richard Gere)
Dokumentarfilm· EN· 2010· 161 min
Dhamma in English
Galerie
Galerie
Bilder mit geprüfter Lizenz. Jedes bewahrt seine Urheberschaft und seinen Herkunftsnachweis.
Handschriften
Handschriften
Handschriftliche Zeugen und alte Texte, mit ihrer verwahrenden Einrichtung und ihren Einsichtsbedingungen.
PRA · Brahmi · c. 249 a. C. (vigésimo año de reinado de Ashoka)
Lumbini (Rummindei) pillar inscription
- Erhaltener Textzeuge
- Inscripción de cinco líneas grabada en el fuste de una columna de arenisca pulida
- Verwahrende Einrichtung
- Departamento de Arqueología del Gobierno de Nepal / Lumbini Development Trust (in situ)
- Digitalisierung
- commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lumbini_inscript…
PGD · Kharoshthi · primera mitad del s. I d. C. (copia)
Khaggavisāṇa-sutra (Gandhari)
- Erhaltener Textzeuge
- Fragmento de rollo de corteza de abedul, parte de un conjunto de unos ochenta fragmentos conservados en vasijas de barro
- Verwahrende Einrichtung
- British Library, Londres · British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 5B
ZH · Han (impresión xilográfica) · Colofón fechado el 11 de mayo de 868
金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Vajracchedikā, versión de Kumarajiva)
- Erhaltener Textzeuge
- Rollo impreso de unos cinco metros, con frontispicio grabado del Buda predicando a Subhuti; el libro impreso fechado más antiguo que se conserva
- Verwahrende Einrichtung
- British Library, Londres · Or.8210/P.2
- Digitalisierung
- www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra…
Beziehungen
Beziehungen
Einflüsse, Schülerschaften und Verwandtschaften. Die belegte Beziehung wird von der durch Analyse ermittelten Ähnlichkeit unterschieden.
Zeitgenosse von
The Pali canon mentions Nigantha Nataputta, identified with Mahavira, as a contemporary rival teacher and relates the quarrel among his followers after his death (DN 29, DN 33). There is no record of their meeting.
Belegte Beziehung
Beeinflusste
Nagarjuna opens his Verses on the Middle Way with homage to the Buddha as teacher of dependent origination and develops his doctrine of emptiness as an interpretation of the Buddha's teaching.
Belegte Beziehung
Beeinflusste
Chan tradition makes Bodhidharma the twenty-eighth patriarch of a lineage beginning with the Buddha's transmission to Mahakasyapa; the lineage is a construction of the school.
Durch Analyse ermittelte Ähnlichkeit
Beeinflusste
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote a biography of the Buddha based on the canonical sources, Old Path White Clouds (1991), and presented his teaching as a continuation of the Buddha's.
Belegte Beziehung
Verwandte Gedanken mit
Since the nineteenth century their teachings on renunciation, compassion and love of enemies have been compared; there is no documented historical link between them.
Durch Analyse ermittelte Ähnlichkeit
Verwandte Gedanken mit
Chinese Buddhism often read the Dao in the light of emptiness and vice versa; the Taoist legend of the "conversion of the barbarians" even claimed that Laozi had taught in India. It is a late polemic, not a historical link.
Durch Analyse ermittelte Ähnlichkeit
Von anderen Einträgen aus verknüpft
- Thich Nhat Hanh · Beeinflusst von
- Aristotle · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Heraclitus · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Laozi · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Ajahn Chah · Beeinflusst von
- The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) · Beeinflusst von
- Bodhidharma · Beeinflusst von
- Carl Gustav Jung · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Leo Tolstoy · Beeinflusst von
- Osho · Beeinflusst von
- Epicurus · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Jiddu Krishnamurti · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Mahāvīra · Zeitgenosse von
- Nāgārjuna · Beeinflusst von
- Jesus of Nazareth · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Patañjali · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Kapila · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Martin Buber · Widersprach
- Helena Roerich · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Padmasambhava · Beeinflusst von
- Pythagoras · Verwandte Gedanken mit
- Śāntideva · Beeinflusst von
- Shunryu Suzuki · Beeinflusst von
- Tsongkhapa · Beeinflusst von
- Confucius · Zeitgenosse von
Quellen
Quellen
Für diesen Eintrag herangezogene Bibliografie und Kataloge.
- Wikidata, entidad Q9441 «The Buddha / Buda Gautama» (P31=Q5; 277 enlaces entre wikis). Registra como nacimiento -563, -623 y c. -500, y como muerte -483, -543 y c. -500; lugar de nacimiento Q9213 (Lumbini), de muerte Q825673 (Kushinagar).
- Walshe, Maurice (trad.). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (DN 14 Mahāpadāna Sutta; DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta). ISBN 9780861711031.
- Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu y Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trads.). The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 1995 (MN 26 Ariyapariyesana; MN 36 Mahāsaccaka; MN 22 Alagaddūpama; MN 63 Cūḷamālukya). ISBN 9780861710720.
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trad.). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2000 (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). ISBN 9780861713318.
- Gombrich, Richard F. What the Buddha Thought. Equinox (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Monographs), Londres y Oakville, 2009.
- Bechert, Heinz (ed.). The Dating of the Historical Buddha / Die Datierung des historischen Buddha. 3 vols. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Gotinga, 1991–1997 (Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung IV, 1–3).
- Hultzsch, E. Inscriptions of Asoka (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. I). Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1925: «Rummindei pillar inscription», pp. 164–165.
- Strong, John S. The Buddha: A Short Biography. Oneworld, Oxford, 2001.
- Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu. The Life of the Buddha according to the Pali Canon. Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, 1972 (reed. Pariyatti, 2001).
- Carrithers, Michael. The Buddha. Oxford University Press (Past Masters), Oxford, 1983 (trad. esp.: Buda, Alianza Editorial).
- Coningham, R. A. E., Acharya, K. P., Strickland, K. M., et al. «The earliest Buddhist shrine: excavating the birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini (Nepal)». Antiquity 87 (338), 2013, pp. 1104–1123.
- Waldschmidt, Ernst. Das Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra: Text in Sanskrit und Tibetisch, verglichen mit dem Pāli nebst einer Übersetzung der chinesischen Entsprechung im Vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins. 3 vols. Akademie-Verlag, Berlín, 1950–1951.
- Max Müller, F. (trad. Dhammapada) y Fausbøll, V. (trad. Sutta-Nipāta). The Dhammapada and the Sutta-Nipāta. Sacred Books of the East, vol. X. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1881. Dominio público.
- Rhys Davids, T. W. (trad.). Buddhist Suttas. Sacred Books of the East, vol. XI. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1881 (incluye Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta y Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta). Dominio público.
- Kern, H. (trad.). The Saddharma-puṇḍarîka, or The Lotus of the True Law. Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXI. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1884. Dominio público.
- Cowell, E. B., Max Müller, F. y Takakusu, J. (trads.). Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts. Sacred Books of the East, vol. XLIX. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1894 (Buddhacarita de Aśvaghoṣa; Vajracchedikā; Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya; Sukhāvatīvyūha). Dominio público.
- SuttaCentral. Textos pali con traducciones de Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0) y paralelos en chino, sánscrito y tibetano. Consultados: DN 16, MN 22, MN 26, MN 63, SN 56.11, AN 3.38, AN 3.65, AN 3.131, Ud 1.10, Dhp, Snp 1.8.
- UNESCO, Centro del Patrimonio Mundial. «Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha» (inscrito en 1997, n.º 666).
- Bodhipaksa. Fake Buddha Quotes (base de datos de citas falsamente atribuidas al Buda, con su origen documentado).
- Norman, K. R. Pāli Literature, Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All the Hīnayāna Schools of Buddhism. A History of Indian Literature, vol. VII, fasc. 2. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1983.
- Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge, Londres, 1989 (2.ª ed. 2009).
- Pániker, Agustín. El budismo: historia, doctrinas, prácticas. Kairós, Barcelona, 2018.
- British Museum. Ficha de colección: «Bimaran casket» (n.º de registro 1900,0209.1), Gandhara, s. I d. C.
- Ashvaghosha. Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha). Ed. y trad. E. H. Johnston, 3 partes, Lahore, 1935–1936; trad. Patrick Olivelle, Life of the Buddha, Clay Sanskrit Library, New York University Press, 2008.
- Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, vol. 1, n.º 1: Chang ahan jing (Dirgha Agama), trad. Buddhayaśas y Zhu Fonian (413), fasc. 2–4, «Youxing jing» (paralelo chino del Mahaparinibbana Sutta). Texto digital CBETA.
- Buddhaghosa (atrib.). Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā (comentario al Dhammapada, s. V). Trad. E. W. Burlingame, Buddhist Legends, 3 vols., Harvard Oriental Series 28–30, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 1921. Dominio público.
- Welter, Albert. «Mahākāśyapa's Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Kōan) Tradition», en S. Heine y D. S. Wright (eds.), The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford University Press, Nueva York, 2000.
- Nhat Hanh, Thich. Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha. Parallax Press, Berkeley, 1991 (trad. esp.: Camino viejo, nubes blancas, Oniro).
- Salomon, Richard. Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra: The British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments. University of Washington Press / British Library, Seattle y Londres, 1999; y A Gāndhārī Version of the Rhinoceros Sūtra: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 5B, University of Washington Press, 2000.
- British Library. «The Diamond Sutra» (Or.8210/P.2), ficha de la colección, Dunhuang, 868.
- Rechteinhaber
- Textos antiguos en dominio público; cada traducción pertenece a su traductor o editorial (las de Bhikkhu Sujato en SuttaCentral, CC0)
Bestätigung ausstehend
Was dieser Eintrag noch nicht klären konnte. Wir sagen es lieber, als es aufzufüllen.
- No se ha encontrado ninguna traducción española del Sutta Nipata con ISBN en Open Library (Google Books no estaba disponible: cuota agotada). Buscar en el catálogo de ISBN de España y en editoriales como Kairós, Trotta, Etnos o Dharma.
- Sutra del diamante y Sutra Lankavatara: falta una edición española con ISBN verificado.
- Ediciones francesas e italianas del Dhammapada: Open Library solo ofrece ediciones antiguas sin ISBN o autoediciones; no se han incluido. Revisar catálogos de Gallimard, Seuil, Adelphi.
- Trotta, «Diálogos mayores de Buda» (2010): la ficha de la editorial no permitió confirmar si traduce el Dīgha Nikāya completo o una selección.
- Confirmar la signatura de la colección de fragmentos gandhari de la British Library (citada en una leyenda como Or. 14915) y si existe digitalización pública del Fragmento 5B.
- La fecha de nacimiento (c. 480 a. C.) es convencional, derivada de la cronología corta; Wikidata recoge -563, -623 y c. -500. La de muerte (c. 400 a. C.) es la más aceptada hoy, con un margen de unas tres décadas.
- Programas de afiliación: ninguno verificado (Wisdom Publications, Trotta, Kairós, Penguin no publican uno accesible). Lista vacía.
- El documental de PBS «The Buddha» (2010) solo se ha encontrado en subidas de terceros; buscar una versión oficial de PBS insertable.
- Sala de lectura: no hay en línea ninguna traducción española de dominio público comprobable del Dhammapada ni de otros textos del canon pali (búsqueda en Gutenberg, Wikisource e Internet Archive, 2026-10-25).
- Sala de lectura: la traducción francesa del Dhammapada de Fernand Hû (Leroux, 1878) está en Wikisource por capítulos, pero no se ha podido acreditar la fecha de muerte del traductor (Wikidata trae un dato erróneo); la del Sutra del diamante de William Gemmell (Kegan Paul, 1912; Gutenberg #64623), tampoco. Registrarlas cuando se confirme.
- Sala de lectura: las traducciones de dominio público del Mahaparinibbana Sutta y del Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Rhys Davids, SBE XI, 1881), del Sutta Nipata (Fausbøll, SBE X, 1881; Chalmers, 1932), del Udana (Strong, 1902) y del Sutra del diamante y del Corazón (Max Müller, SBE XLIX) solo están en Internet Archive como volúmenes enteros o con OCR defectuoso (el control de calidad del ingestor rechaza el Sutta Nipata de Chalmers y el de Coomaraswamy). El Sutra del loto íntegro de Kern (SBE XXI) está en Wikisource, pero sus subpáginas se ordenan alfabéticamente (1, 10, 11…) y los versos numerados se parten; por eso se ha registrado la versión abreviada de Soothill.
- Sala de lectura: Dialogues of the Buddha (Rhys Davids, 1899–1921, Digha) y Further Dialogues (Chalmers, 1926–27, Majjhima) están en Internet Archive en varios volúmenes; el ingestor guarda un solo texto por obra e idioma, así que no se registran hasta poder unir volúmenes. Lo mismo con Die Reden Gotamo Buddhos de K. E. Neumann (Gutenberg #48345, #48901, #49044).
- Obras: el inventario de sutras mahayana atribuidos al Buda es inabarcable (miles de textos en los cánones chino y tibetano); se registran los de mayor difusión (Loto, Diamante, Corazón, Lankavatara, Tierra Pura, Avatamsaka). Faltan, entre otros, el Mahaparinirvana Sutra mahayana, el Sutra de la luz dorada y el Sutra del Buda de la Medicina.
Recherchiert am 2026-10-23