1- India
A major event in the history of religious belief, worthy of note, occurred when the “Light of Asia” began to shine brightly in the central region of the country of India. In other words, it was at that time that the great wisdom and compassion of the Buddha began to emerge, cultivating and attracting the hearts of humankind for successive centuries up to the present day.
The Buddha Gautama, whom all Buddhists know by the name Shakyamuni, was the “wise sage of the Shakya clan.” He left the royal palace, changed his appearance to that of an ascetic, and journeyed toward the southern region of the Magadha kingdom. According to the understanding of many, he attained the light of enlightenment in the middle of the 6th century BCE under the Bodhi tree. From that time until he entered Mahaparinirvana, a period of 45 years, he fulfilled his Buddhic duties, spreading the religion and saving sentient beings without any thought of his own fatigue. The number of Buddhist monasteries also steadily increased in the kingdoms and among the clans of central India.
During the reign of King Ashoka, the third king of the Mauryan dynasty who ruled from 268 to 232 BCE, the religion of the Buddha Gautama was propagated throughout the entirety of India and even to foreign countries.
The Mauryan Empire was the first of the great empires on the Indian subcontinent. During the reign of its first king, Chandragupta, from approximately 317-293 BCE, the empire already had a vast territory. To the north, it extended to the Himalayan mountain range; to the east, it stretched to the Bay of Bengal; to the west, it reached the Hindu Kush mountain range; and to the south, it extended to the Vindhya mountain range. King Ashoka further expanded this territory across the plateau of the Deccan region by conquering the Kalinga region and many other areas.
It is said that this king had a quick-tempered and irritable character, to the point that he had another name, Chandashoka, or Ashoka the Fierce. However, the king later completely transformed his angry nature after he understood the great destructive consequences of the war with the Kalinga kingdom. He then became a most sincere and devoted follower of the Buddhist religion. From that time on, the king performed many meritorious deeds in his role as a patron of Buddhism. Among these great deeds, two in particular are worthy of note.
The first achievement was the “Edicts of King Ashoka,” which were legal principles for the royal government based on Buddhism. The king ordered these principles to be inscribed on stone pillars and rock walls, which helped Buddhism to flourish even more.
The second achievement was that the king sent missions to all regions to spread Buddhism. Particularly noteworthy were the missions sent to regions such as Syria, Egypt, Libya, Macedonia, and Epirus, which spread Buddhism throughout the Western world. Besides this, what is also remarkable is that the missionary named Mahendra, who was sent to the country of Sri Lanka, achieved great success in organizing the most excellent propagation of the religion in the island of Lanka, and established a foundation for the spread of Buddhism throughout the entire island.
2- The Origin of Mahayana Buddhism
The “eastward movement of Buddhism” has only been frequently discussed by Buddhists in recent centuries. History confirms that Buddhism had turned its face toward the west for many centuries before the Christian era. It was only shortly before or slightly after the Christian era that Buddhism began to turn its face toward the east.
But before getting to that story, we must talk about a major change in the history of Buddhism. This change is the “new movement” called Mahayana Buddhism, or the Great Vehicle, which took deep root and grew into a great branch within Buddhism at that time.
How and where did this “new movement” originate? No one can provide a clear and definite answer to this. Regarding this matter, we can only confirm a few events as follows: First, it was a trend that had to arise within the thinking of the Mahāsāṃghika school, among the most progressive groups of monks at that time. The second event is that some key principles of Mahayana scriptures existed as early as the first century BCE. And when the sublime thought of the venerable Nāgārjuna, based on Mahayana scriptures, grew and became active, Mahayana Buddhism shone brightly, outshining all else in the history of that era.
In the long history of Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism has played a very important role. In countries like China and Japan, for almost their entire history, Buddhism has developed under the influence of Mahayana. There is nothing surprising about this, because Mahayana created a new ideal with the primary purpose of saving humanity, envisioning new saints who are living
Bodhisattvas with the duty to implement this ideal to save sentient beings. Furthermore, the philosophical concepts of Mahayana thinkers in supporting this ideal through metaphysics or psychology are truly exceptional. In this way, the Mahayana school is indeed related to the teachings of the Buddha Gautama, but it has many new developments related to supreme wisdom and great compassion that were added to these Buddhist teachings. Because of these new developments, Buddhism became very active and flourished vigorously in the Far East, comparable to the strong current of a mighty river.
3- Central Asia
It was from the countries in this Central Asian region that China first received Buddhism. Therefore, to show how this religion traveled from India to China, it is necessary to talk about the “Silk Road.” This road cut through the vast, borderless region of Central Asia with the purpose of connecting the East and the West. This economic route was opened during the reign of Emperor Wu, 140-87 BCE, of the Han dynasty. During that era, the imperial power of the Han dynasty extended far to the west, connecting regions such as Fergana, Sogdiana, Tokhara, Parthia, and so on. The commercial ideas that first emerged from Alexander the Great were extremely active. Along the roads that cut through these regions, silk played the most important role in the sphere of trade. That is why this road was named the “Silk Road.” Shortly before or slightly after the Christian era, India and China began to have cultural contact via this very road. Thus, it can also be said that this road was the “Path for the Propagation of Buddhism.”
4- The Land of China
The history of Chinese Buddhism began when it received Buddhist scriptures and started translating them. The oldest written works from ancient times, according to what is said, include the “Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters,” or in Chinese, Sìshí’èr zhāng jīng, composed by the venerable Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and other works from the Yongping era, 58-76 CE, during the reign of Emperor Ming of the Later Eastern Han dynasty. Today, however, this story is considered a legend. Currently, the consensus based on sufficient evidence is that the venerable An Shigao was the first to translate, in Luoyang, from the year 148 to 171. From that time until the Northern Song dynasty, 960-1129, translation was carried out continuously for a period of nearly a thousand years.
In the very early years, the noteworthy importers and translators of scriptures were mostly monks who came from Central Asia. For example, the venerable An Shigao came from the Parthian region. The venerable Lokakṣema entered the Luoyang region in the 3rd century and translated the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, or the sutra on boundless life; he was a person from the Samarkand region. Besides this, the venerable Dharmarakṣa, or by his Pali name, who was famous for translating the Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra, came from the Tokhara region and settled in Luoyang or Chang’an from the late 3rd century to the early 4th century. When Kumārajīva, from the Kucha region, emerged in the early 5th century, the translation of scriptures in China reached its zenith.
It was from that era that monks began to travel from China to India to seek and study the Sanskrit language and the Buddhist Vinaya. Among those monks was a monk named Faxian (339-420?). This monk left Luoyang for India in the year 399 and returned fifteen years later. Among the monks who went to India, the venerable Xuanzang (602-664) is the most famous. This monk traveled to India in the year 627 and returned in 645, 19 years later. Besides him, there was the venerable Yijing (635-713), who traveled to India by sea in the year 671 and returned to his homeland by the same route 25 years later.
Those monks traveled to India of their own volition to study the Sanskrit language, to bring back to their homeland scriptures that had been carefully selected, and to begin translating those scriptures. In particular, the linguistic knowledge of the venerable Xuanzang was astonishing. Due to the vigorous activities of this venerable monk, the translation of scriptures in China reached another peak. Scholars of Buddhism from later generations named the translations done in the earlier period by monks like the venerable Kumārajīva as the “old translation,” and named the translations done by the venerable Xuanzang and later generations of translators as the “new translation.”
Relying on this vast number of Buddhist scriptures translated from Sanskrit, the numerous philosophical concepts and religious activities of those scholars gradually but surely permeated their minds in a Chinese-influenced manner. This fully demonstrates the nature, race, needs, and faith in this trend. In the field of metaphysics, the fact that those monks, from the very beginning, had a conceptual leaning toward “emptiness” as related in the “Prajñā” (Wisdom) texts, is a particular confirmation of this trend. Later, those monks abandoned the school of thought called “Hinayana” or the Lesser Vehicle, and turned their ideas completely toward “Mahayana” or the Great Vehicle. Furthermore, this trend became progressively clearer within the Tiantai school, and it can be said that this trend reached its peak when the Zen (Chan) school emerged.
At the end of the 6th century, the Tiantai school reached its full maturity in China under the influence of Tiantai Dashi, or Zhiyi (538-597 CE), its third patriarch. This Zhiyi was one of the foremost representatives of high Buddhist thought. The doctrinal classification system, which organized the Buddha’s teachings into five periods and eight teachings, created by this saintly figure, had a strong and long-lasting influence on Buddhism in China as well as in Japan.
Meticulous research has shown that the various scriptures were introduced into China without regard to their historical origins and were translated sequentially as they arrived. With respect to these many scriptures, questions were raised about understanding their origins and value. It was necessary to weigh the value of Buddhism in general, and each person had to think according to their own knowledge and understanding. In valuing the scriptures, the trend of faith in the Chinese style played a very important role. The valuation according to the faith of the venerable Zhiyi was the most systematic, and thus it was believed in astonishingly. However, with the emergence of modern Buddhist research, this strong influence has gradually faded.
In the history of Chinese Buddhism, the last school to emerge was the Zen (Chan) school. According to tradition, the founder of this school was a monk from a foreign country named Bodhidharma (?-528 CE). However, the seeds that this monk planted came to fruition gloriously during the time of Huineng (638-713 CE), the sixth patriarch of this lineage. After the 8th century, this school produced many skilled monks in succession, which caused the Zen school to prosper for many centuries.
It is observed that with regard to Buddhism, a new way of thinking emerged, one with deep roots in the character of the Chinese people. This was nothing other than Buddhism that was oriented towards Chinese thought. Because of this new stream of thought, the religion of the Buddha Gautama grew even larger and flourished luxuriantly in the Far East.
5- Japan
The history of Buddhism in Japan began in the 6th century of the Christian era. In the year 538, the king of the Baekje kingdom, called Kudara in Japanese, which is modern-day Korea, sent an envoy to present a Buddha statue and a volume of scripture to Emperor Kinmei. This was the first introduction of Buddhism into Japan. Thus, the history of Buddhism in Japan up to the present day is over 1400 years old.
In this long history, we can consider Japanese Buddhism through three centers. The first center is Buddhism in the 7th and 8th centuries. To clarify this, we can describe the Hōryū-ji temple (607 CE) and the Tōdai-ji temple (752 CE). Both of these temples were built in that era. When one recalls that era, one must not forget to think of the astonishingly high level of culture throughout the Asian continent at that time. During that period, when civilization in the West was in darkness, civilization in the East was moving with vigorous and amazing activity. In China, Central Asia, India, and other countries in the Southeast region, activities in the intellectual, religious, and artistic fields were intensely dynamic. In line with this movement, Buddhism irrigated the Eastern world with a great current of humanism. The new movement of Japanese culture, evidenced by the elegant construction of the Hōryū-ji and Tōdai-ji temples, and the religious and artistic activities, full of brilliant color associated with those temples, clearly shows the level of culture that covered the vast expanse of the Asian continent, reaching all the way to the Far East.
Japan, which until then still had a low level of civilization, was irrigated by this great cultural current, and the fruits of civilization blossomed rapidly. This was a good fortune that the Japanese people received in that century. The most important cause that led to the growth of this culture was none other than Buddhism. The Buddhist temples of that era became important centers of society, and the monks served as leaders in this new field of education. It was not only in the field of religion alone; those monks expanded it into a broad and great culture. This was the state of Buddhism when it was first introduced into Japan.
The second center is Buddhism in the 12th and 13th centuries. In Japan at that time, many great and famous clergy emerged, such as the venerable Hōnen (1133-1212 CE), the venerable Shinran (1173-1262 CE), the venerable Dōgen (1200-1253 CE), the venerable Nichiren (1222-1282 CE), and others. Even today, when one speaks of Japanese Buddhism, one cannot describe it without mentioning those great clergy. Why did such astonishingly famous clergy arise in that particular century? There is no wonder, because a general issue arose for the great figures of that era. What was that general issue? It seems to have been due to the fact that Buddhism was accepted by the Japanese people in a special, Japanized manner.
This story raises a question for us: why so? Wasn’t Buddhism introduced into this country of Japan a very long time ago? According to history, that is indeed the case. But another thing is also true: the Japanese people needed many centuries to be able to fully believe in the religion that was introduced and to reform it into their own true religion. In short, it was during the 7th and 8th centuries that Japan began to strive to accept Buddhism, but this effort only bore fruit in the 12th and 13th centuries, under the activities of the great monks.
Subsequently, Japanese Buddhism, whose foundations had been laid by those great clergy, continued its activities successfully up to the present day. After the era of those great and marvelous clergy, a light as bright as the light of that century never shone again in the history of Japanese Buddhism. However, according to the author of this book, there seems to be another special matter that attracts our attention: the results of research on early Buddhism that have been conducted in recent times.
From the time Japan first accepted it, Japanese Buddhism has been almost entirely Mahayana Buddhism, under the influence of Chinese Buddhism. In particular, after the great venerables of the 12th and 13th centuries appeared, Mahayana Buddhism has been the main foundation up to the present day, with the founders of these sects as the central figures. In the history of Japanese Buddhism, research on early Buddhism began around the latter half of the Meiji era. The image of the Buddha Gautama re-emerged clearly before the eyes of those who had forgotten that it was not the founders of the sects, but the Buddha Gautama himself, who was the founder of Buddhism. And those who had thought of nothing but Mahayana religion came to understand clearly that within Mahayana, there is another foundational belief of Buddhism. This new development is still entirely in the academic sphere, so it has not yet been able to cause strong activity in terms of religious faith. However, the academic knowledge of the Japanese people regarding Buddhism seems to have reached another major turning point. The author of this book intends to clarify this new evolutionary journey and considers it the third main center among the three main centers mentioned above.
II The Method of Transmitting Buddhism to Later Generations
Buddhism is a religion based on the teachings of Shakyamuni. He promulgated these teachings during the last 45 years of his life. Therefore, the words he used in his sermons have absolute authority in this religion. The 84,000 Dharma articles and the many schools that have arisen are all related to the teachings of Shakyamuni. The books that deal with the Buddha’s teachings are called Issaikyō, or another term, Daizōkyō, which means the complete collection of all sacred scriptures.
Shakyamuni asserted with great firmness the equality of humanity, and he taught the Dharma in simple, clear words so that all beings could fully understand these teachings. Until the final day of his life, at the age of80, he continued to deliver sermons for the benefit of humankind, never resting for a moment.
After Shakyamuni passed into nirvana, his disciples delivered sermons according to what they had heard. Therefore, in the transmission of these teachings to later generations, some discrepancies were unavoidable. These unintentional confusions arose because the Buddhist disciples were only thinking of explaining and spreading the religion according to what they had heard and understood.
However, it was necessary that the words of Shakyamuni Buddha be transmitted to later generations correctly and accurately, and that all classes of beings be able to hear his teachings. Therefore, the great monks gathered to standardize the words and teachings, by reciting to each other the things that each had heard and understood. This meeting lasted for many months. The work that resulted from this great council is called “Kesshū” or “the act of putting in order.” This shows how much compassion and unity of thought those great monks had in order to transmit the true words that the Supreme Teacher had left behind. These standardized teachings were then written down. In the teachings transmitted to later generations in written form, the great monks of the early period included their own commentaries and explanations, called “ron” or “commentary.” The teachings of the Buddha, the added commentaries, and the Buddhist Vinaya (discipline), these three categories are collectively called “Sanzōkyō” or, in Sanskrit, “Tripitaka,” meaning “the collection of the three baskets of scriptures.”
The “Sanzōkyō” or “Tripitaka” is divided into the “Kyōzō,” “Risshū,” and “Ronzō.” The word “zō” means vessel or collection. The word “kyō” is Sanskrit for sūtra, referring to the words of the Buddha’s teachings. The word “ritsu” is Sanskrit for vinaya, referring to the rules related to the life of the Buddhist community. The word “ron” is Sanskrit for śāstra or abhidharma, referring to the commentaries that the great monks have written.
According to legend, Buddhism entered China in the 10th year of the Yongping era, 67 CE. But today, it is believed that Buddhist scriptures began to enter China and were translated about 84 years later, in the first year of the Jianning era, 151 CE, during the reign of the Han emperor of the later Eastern Han dynasty. From that time on, the effort to translate scriptures into Chinese continued for over 1700 years. 1440 texts, published in 5586 volumes, were translated during that period. The effort to preserve these translated scriptures began during the Wei dynasty (386-535), but printing began during the Northern Song dynasty (1127). From that time on, the works of the great Chinese monks were added to the Buddhist scriptures, which led people to stop recognizing these books as the Tripitaka scriptures. It was during the Sui dynasty (581-618 CE) that this collection of books was named the “Issaikyō” or the complete collection of sacred scriptures. During the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE), it was given a new name, “Daizōkyō,” for this collection of scriptures and rules of the Buddhist religion.
Buddhism entered Tibet around the 8th century CE. During a period of 150 years from the 9th to the 11th century, the effort to translate scriptures continued uninterrupted, until almost all scriptures were translated into the Tibetan language at that time.
In summary, seeing that the scriptures were not only translated into Korean, Japanese, Sinhalese, Khmer, Turkish, and many other languages of the East, but were also translated into Latin, French, English, German, and Italian, one can conclude with certainty that today the blessings of Buddhism have spread throughout the world.
However, considering the nature of the growth and evolution of Buddhism over more than 2000 years, and considering the more than 10,000 books that have been written, it is difficult to extract the true meaning of Shakyamuni’s words, even with the help of the “Daizōkyō” which collects all the scriptures and rules of Buddhism. For this reason, it is necessary to extract the essential points from the “Daizōkyō” to serve as a criterion and a basis for each individual to build their own religious faith.
In Buddhism, the highest authority lies in the words spoken by Shakyamuni.
However, the Buddha’s advice must be closely related to the reality of daily life. Otherwise, this religion cannot inspire sincere belief in people’s hearts. Therefore, for these teachings to become the teachings of everyone, it is necessary that they be natural, specific, and egalitarian for all people, of all classes. Furthermore, the words must be specific and be the words used in everyday life.
This book has been compiled with consideration of the points mentioned above, and it is a legacy of the great scripture “Daizōkyō,” which has a history of over 2500 years. Indeed, the explanations in this book cannot be considered exhaustive. The words of the Buddha have a profound meaning without end; the virtue of those words is vast, without limit, and cannot be easily valued.
However, we hope that this book will get better and better, and become more accurate in accordance with the truth, step by step, as it is reviewed, corrected, and reprinted in the future. This is our wish.
III History of the Book “The Teaching of Buddha”
This Buddhist book is the result of collecting and reviewing the original Japanese book “A New Translation of Buddhist Texts,” published in July 1925 by the Association for the Publication of “A New Translation of Buddhist Texts,” led by the Most Venerable Mii-an Kishi. The first edition of this book in Japanese was compiled by Dr. Shugaku Yamabe and Dr. Chizen Akanuma, with the cooperation of many Japanese Buddhist teachers, over a period of more than 5 years.
During the Shōwa era (from 1926), “Popular Buddhist Texts” was published in Japanese by the above-mentioned association and was disseminated throughout Japan. In July 1934, at the Pan-Pacific Young Buddhist Conference in Japan, the book “The Teaching of Buddha,” translated into English from the aforementioned Buddhist texts, was published by the All-Japan Young Buddhist Federation, with the support of Mr. Goddard, as a commemorative item. In 1962, to commemorate the anniversary of the 70th anniversary of the introduction of Buddhism to America, Mr. Yehan Numata, president of the Mitutoyo Company, published this book “The Teaching of Buddha” in English once again.
In 1965, when Mr. Numata established the “Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai” (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism) in Tokyo, the publication of this book in English to the entire world was planned as an activity of this foundation.
To realize this project, a committee for revision, review, and collection of documents related to “The Teaching of Buddha” was established in 1966. The members of this committee included Professor Kazuyoshi Kino, Professor Shinko Kanaoka, Professor Zenno Ishigami, Professor Shinko Sayeki, Professor Kodo Matsunami, Professor Shōjun Bandō, and Professor Takemi Takase. Professor Fumio Masutani, Professor Waddell, and Professor Toshishige Shimizu also helped with the review and correction. As a result of this revision, “The Teaching of Buddha” was published in a new English-Japanese format.
In 1972, Professor Shuei Nakaoka, Professor Zenno Ishigami, Professor Shoyu Hanayama, Professor Kwansei Tamura and Professor Takemi Takase reviewed it again, corrected some errors, and republished it.
Subsequently, a committee comprising Professor Ryōtan Shioiri, Takemi Takase, Hiroshi Tachikawa, Kwansei Tamura, Shōjun Bandō, and Shōyū Hanayama (Editor-in-Chief) was formed to supplement the Japanese text of “The Teaching of Buddha,” which was published in 1973.
Once again, in 1974, a committee comprising Professor Kōdō Matsunami, Shōjun Bandō, Shinkō Sayeki, Dōyū Tokunaga, Kwansei Tamura, and Shōyū Hanayama (Editor-in-Chief) was formed to supplement the English text of “The Teaching of Buddha,” which they did in cooperation with Mr. Richard R. Steiner. This was a joint compilation with the Japanese version (published in 1973), which resulted in the publication of the English-Japanese bilingual edition of “The Teaching of Buddha.”
In 1978, Professor Shigeo Kamata and Professor Yasuaki Nara joined the committee. In 2001, Professor Kenneth Tanaka, Shōgu Watanabe, Yoshiyashi Yonezawa, and Professor Sengaku Mayeda (Acting Editor-in-Chief) joined the editorial committee.
Later, in 2013, the Society for the Promotion of Buddhism changed its organizational status from a “incorporated foundation” to a “public interest incorporated foundation.” During that transition, the members of the editorial committee included: Professor Sengaku Mayeda (Editor-in-Chief), Professor Zenno Ishigami, Kiyotaka Kimura, Kenneth Tanaka, Makio Takemura, Yasuaki Nara, Shizuka Yoshimizu, Yoshiyashi Yonezawa, and Professor Shōgu Watanabe. The editorial committee meets annually in an effort to make the book “The Teaching of Buddha” responsive to the needs of contemporary society.