Abstract
Buddhism is the fourth largest global religion, practiced by some 500 million people, roughly 7% of the world’s population. The Buddhist teachings or, in Sanskrit, Buddhadharma, spread from fifth century BCE India throughout Asia, and then more recently to Europe and the Americas. The three main branches of Buddhism are Theravada (practiced in the “Southern” Buddhist countries of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Vietnam), Mahayana (practiced in “Northern” countries such as Japan, Korea, and China) and Vajrayana (practiced in Tibet and Mongolia). Today, in the United States, Canada, and Europe, one can find these three traditional streams represented by, respectively, Insight Meditation centers, Zen centers, and Tibetan Buddhist meditation centers.
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Notes
- 1.
Trungpa (1991), 104.
- 2.
Bodhisattva Vow, translated from the Tibetan of Bodhicharyavatara, by the Nalanda Translation Committee.
- 3.
“Bodhisattva Vow Ceremony,” Trungpa (1991a), 127.
- 4.
Trungpa (1991), 21.
- 5.
Kabat Zinn (1991).
- 6.
Boyatzis et al. (2000).
- 7.
Thera (1963).
- 8.
Suzuki (1970), p. 31.
- 9.
Kongtrul, quoted in Trungpa (1973).
- 10.
Sakyong Mipham (2003), p. 131.
- 11.
Traleg (2007), p. 65.
- 12.
Ibid. p, 65.
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Ferguson, G.J. (2020). Buddhism. In: Yaden, D.B., Zhao, Y., Peng, K., Newberg, A.B. (eds) Rituals and Practices in World Religions. Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27953-0_5
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