Buddhism
The religion based upon the doctrine originally taught by Gautama Buddha. The Great Enlightenment consisted in a perception of causes of suffering and of the way of salvation from suffering. Buddhism teaches that nirvana, release from liability to suffering, from mortality, is the highest goal attainable, now or hereafter. All beings, gods and men alike, are in need of such salvation. The teaching (dharma) as to the way of salvation is embodied in the “Four Aryan (or Noble) Truths”: (1) that all life is subject to suffering; (2) that desire or the will to live is the cause of repeated existences, in which sorrow is inevitable; (3) that only the annihilation of desire (that is, yearning, craving, ambition, as distinct from will) can give release; (4) that the way of escape is the “Eightfold Path” of right belief, right resolve, right word, right act, right life, right effort, right thinking, right meditation. Buddha denied the special virtue of caste, ritualism, and asceticism, and insisted upon the necessity of pity, kindliness, and patience, for salvation. Buddhism has developed and still embraces many sects. The two main divisions are Hinayana (literally, small vehicle, known as Early, Pali, or less correctly, Southern, Buddhism) and Mahayana (great vehicle, known also as Northern, or Later, Buddhism) In the latter the Buddha is deified, and an elaborate pantheon of Bodhisattvas and other divinities is found. The greater part of Buddhist art is Mahayana. (WD)
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