A major tradition originating in ancient India, spanning many schools and cultures, with a distinctive analysis of self, suffering, and conduct.
Buddhism is a major tradition that originated in ancient India and subsequently spread across much of Asia and, later, the world. It encompasses many schools, texts, and regional forms, and one of the first things this archive wants to establish is that "Buddhism" is not a single, uniform system — treating it as monolithic is a frequent and misleading error.
This is a tradition overview, filed as scholarship. It aims to orient a reader, not to present doctrine as fact or to speak in a devotional voice. Where it describes what Buddhists hold, it does so descriptively — "this tradition analyzes X in this way" — rather than asserting those analyses as established truths about the world.
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The principle of non-harm or non-violence — developed with particular rigor in some traditions and adapted into modern political thought.
The idea of a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth — a shared framework across several traditions that nonetheless interpret it differently.
A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.
The principle linking action to consequence, understood differently across Indian traditions.
A major Buddhist monastic and educational center in ancient Magadha, known from archaeology and textual accounts.
A family of interpretive schools centered on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.