Buddhism
Buddhism names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Buddhism the system of faith introduced or reformed by Buddha
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the system of faith introduced or reformed by Buddha. In its origin Buddhism was a reaction against the caste pretensions of the Brahmins and other Aryan invaders of India, and was, therefore, eminently fitted to become, as it for long was, the religion of the vanquished Turanians. As might have been anticipated, the equality of all castes was, and is, one of its most fundamental tenets. Another tenet is the deification of men, who, when raised to Buddhahood, are called Buddhas. Professors of the faith enumerate about 100 of these personages, but practically confine their reference to about seven. Pre-eminent among these stands Buddha himself. Personally, he never claimed divine honors. It was his disciples who first entitled him Sakhya Muni, i. e., Saint Sakhya. As Gautama, though adored as superhuman, is, after all, confessedly only a deified hero, it has been disputed whether his followers can be said to admit a Supreme Intelligence, Governor of this and all worlds. In philosophy, they believe the universe to be a maya, an illusion or phantom. The later Brahminists do the same, but in the opinion of Krishna Mohun, Banergea, and others, these latter seem to have borrowed the tenet from the Buddhists rather than the Buddhists from them. Of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, those which Buddhism most closely approaches are the Sakhya philosophy of Kapila and the Yoga philosophy of Patanjali. Buddhism enjoins great tenderness to animal life. The felicity at which its professors aim in the future world is called Nirvana, or, It has more accurately, Nibbanam. 15-Vol. been disputed whether this means anblissful repose. Robert nihilation or Cæsar Childers, in his dictionary of the Pali language, uses strong arguments in favor of the former view. Buddhism was attended by an enormous development of monasticism. The language in which Gautama or Buddha taught was the Magadhî or Pali, the language of Magadha, now called Bahar or Behar. It was a Prâkrit or Aryan vernacular of a province, but has now been raised to the dignity of the Buddhist sacred tongue throughout the world. Gautama's followers believe that his sayings were noted down in the Tripitaka, or "Three Treasuries of Discipline, Doctrine and Metaphysics," which constitute the Buddhist scriptures. What their real age is has been a matter of dispute; the discovery by General Cunningham, in 1874, of allusions to them in the "Bharhut Sculptures," which are of date 3d century B. C., is in favor of their genuineness and antiquity. This work is in Pali; the Sanskrit Buddhist books discovered by Brian Hodgson in Nepaul are much more modern, and present a corrupt form of Buddhism. The first general council of the Budhist Church was held at Rajagriha, the capital of the Magadha kingdom, in 543 B. C.; the second at Vesal (Allahabad [?], or a place near Patna) about 443 B. C., or 377 (?), and a third at Pataliputra (Greek, Palibothra modern Patna), on the Ganges, in 307 B. c. or 250. This last one was called by Asoka, an emperor ruling over a great part of India, who had been converted to Buddhism, and is sometimes called the Constantine of that faith, having established it as the state religion of his wide realm. He sent missionaries into western, central and southern India, and also to Ceylon and to Pegu. Buddhism was dominant in India for about 1,000 years after its establishment by Asoka. Then, having become corrupt and its vitality having decayed, reviving Brahminism prevailed over it, and all but extinguished it on the Indian continent, though a modification of it, Jainism, still exists in Marwad and many other parts. It has all along held its own, however, in Ceylon. On losing Continental India, its missionaries transferred their efforts to China, which they converted, and which still remains Buddhist. The religion of Gautama flourishes also in Tibet, Burma, and Japan, and is the great Turanian faith of the modern as of the ancient world. It is estimated that there are about 138,000,000 followers of Buddhism, practically all of whom live in Asia. There has sprung up, since . II-Cyc the latter part of the 19th century, a very extensive literature on the history, philosophy, precepts, and observances of Buddhism. The Rev. G. Smith points out resemblances between Buddhism and Roman Catholicism (these, it may be added, were first discovered by the Jesuit missionaries, who were greatly perplexed by them): "There is the monastery, celibacy, the dress and caps of the priests, the incense, the bells, the rosary of beads, the lighted candles at the altar, the same intonations in the services, the same ideas of purgatory, the praying in an unknown tongue, the offerings to departed spirits in the temple." The closest similarity is in Lamaism, an amplification of Buddhism in Tibet. But most of the resemblances are ceremonial; there is no close similarity in doctrine with between the two faiths.
Buddhism bood'dizm, a form of religious belief
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
bood'dizm, a form of religious belief. The name is from Buddha, a word meaning teacher. Buddhism may be regarded as a reformed Brahminism. Clarke, in his Ten Great Religions, calls the Buddhists the Protestants of the East. Buddha began his teaching at Benares, India; but his followers appear to have been driven from Hindustan at a later period. Brahminism, however, acknowledges a trinity, while Buddhism does not recognize any supreme being. Buddhism rejects also the castes of Brahminism. Any one may become a Buddhist priest, but the priest is only a monk; for in this religion there are neither sacraments to administer nor rites to perform. The four "sublime verities" which lie at the foundation of the religion of Buddha are: 1. Pain is inseparable from existence. 2. Pain is the offspring of desire. 3. Existence can only cease with Nirvana. 4. Nirvana may be attained only through the extinction of desire. The Buddhist religion accepts the Brahminical theory of the transmigration of souls. According to this theory, gross, that is to say, ordinary souls are born over and over, and are thus required to pass repeatedly through a world of birth, sin, suffering, and death. After the purification of countless existences the soul may be absorbed at last into Nirvana the Blest, a state where all desire is extinct. Buddha himself was believed to have passed through every possible form of existence before he became "the Enlightened." The extinction of desire, which leads into the "path" to Nirvana, is acquired by the fulfillment of eight conditions. These are right view, right judgment, right language, right purpose, right practice, right obedience, right memory, and right meditation. Five precepts to be obeyed forbid man to kill, to lie, to steal, to commit adultery, and to fall into drunkenness. The virtues to be cultivated are charity, purity, patience, courage, contemplation, and knowledge. If acquired in this life, these virtues lead to a painless existence in the next life. As a mere ethical code Buddhism ranks second to Christianity. It is a mild code of morals, abhorrent of cruelty. The Brahminical practices of infanticide and burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pyres were forbidden by Buddhism. The theological beliefs of the Buddhist form a collection of 108 volumes, which are believed to date from about 200 B. C. Much space is occupied with accounts of the previous existences of Buddha; for when he became "the Enlightened," he was able to remember all his former experiences. The Buddhists held exclusive sway in Ceylon, Siam, Burma, Nepal, Java, Indo-China, and Tibet. They have followers in India, in China, and in Japan. There are in all about 148,000,000 Buddhists. As many more profess a semi-buddhist belief. Although the Buddhist nations are decadent, they have been great builders. Their shrines, towers, topes, and cave temples form a prominent chapter in the history of oriental architecture. There is a remarkable statue of Buddha near Yokohama, Japan. It represents the founder of the religion as seated, tailor-fashion. The sitting figure is "as tall as a four-story house." It is made of bronze plates, fitted together so neatly that the joints cannot be seen. The brow wears a coronet, apparently of jewels. The eyes are of gold, and are a yard wide. It must be remembered that in theory Buddha is not a god to be worshiped, but an ideal of what any man may become. It is probable, however, that to the ignorant this distinction is of little weight, and that Buddhism is simple idolatry. See Brahman; India ; Buddha
Buddhism ESOTERIC. See THEOS- OPHY
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ESOTERIC. See THEOS- OPHY.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's counted "about 138,000,000 followers of Buddhism, practically all of whom live in Asia" in 1921; estimates today run to roughly half a billion, with sizeable communities in Europe, the Americas and Australia and mindfulness practice detached from religion altogether. The claim that Buddhism was "all but extinguished" in India has been overtaken by B. R. Ambedkar's mass conversion of Dalits at Nagpur in 1956, which created millions of Indian Buddhists; meanwhile China, which Collier's said "still remains Buddhist," saw monasteries closed and clergy dispersed after 1949 and especially during the Cultural Revolution, and the Dalai Lama has lived in exile since 1959. Scholarship has moved too: the racial framing of Buddhism as the faith of "vanquished Turanians" has been abandoned entirely, the Buddha's death is now usually placed around 400 BC rather than the traditional 543 BC reckoning behind the council dates given here, and birch-bark Gandhari manuscripts surfacing from Afghanistan since the 1990s are older than any Pali text, complicating the picture of Pali as the single original scripture language. The old debate over whether Nirvana means annihilation or blissful repose still runs, but few now take Childers' annihilationist reading as settled.
Written for this edition, 2026.