How Buddhism Has Changed

How Buddhism Has Changed Albert Einstein once said, “Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” I though this quote was an interesting beginning into seeing how this ancient religion changed over the course of its existence. I feel that Buddhism has changed over time but has maintained that core teaching that it had with the early Indians and with the Theravada teachings. Mahayana just happens to be the more loose teachings of the Buddha. The term used in our book, The Foundations of Buddhism, defines it as the “non-canonical” sutras. This paper will hopefully give you an understanding of the teachings of the Buddha as well as see how the Theravada and the Mahayana teachings have similarities along with some differences. Buddhism, one of the major religions of the world, was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who lived in northern India from 560 to 480 B.C. The time of the Buddha was one of social and religious change, marked by the further advance of Aryan civilization into the Ganges Plain, the development of trade and cities, the breakdown of old tribal structures, and the rise of a whole spectrum of new religious movements that responded to the demands of the times (Conze). These movements were derived from the Brahmanic tradition of Hinduism but were also reactions against it. Of the new sects,
Buddhism was the most successful and eventually spread throughout India and most of Asia. Buddhism, like many religions and philosophies, offers methods for people to attain spiritual goals. Today it is common to divide Buddhism into two main branches. The Theravada, or "Doctrine of the Elders," is the more conservative of the two. It is dominant in Sri

Bibliography: 1. Conze, Edward, Buddhist Scriptures (Hardmondsworth, 1959) 2. Conze, Edward, Buddhist Thought in India (London, 1962) 3. Gethin, Rupert, The Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford, 1998) 4. Pye, Michael, Skilful Means (London, 1978) 5. Robinson, R.H. and Johnson, W.L., Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction (fifth edition) (Wadsworth, 2005