Tradition

Buddhism

from c. 5th–4th century BCE onward · originating in South Asia; later worldwide

The Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India — Photograph by Hiroki Ogawa, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0

Buddhism is a family of traditions that grew from the teaching associated with Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. It is not one single doctrine. Over twenty-five centuries, schools have differed about practice, metaphysics, and what awakening means.

What many branches share is a sustained interest in suffering, craving, ethics, meditation, and the construction of self. Early teachings preserved in texts such as the Dhammapada emphasize mind and conduct. Later developments—Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and many regional forms—extend the same root in different directions.

Seeing Buddhism as a whole keeps central ideas like not-self from floating free of history, or from being mistaken for Advaita Vedanta simply because both question ordinary identity.

A few words worth clarifying

anatta: A Buddhist teaching usually translated as “not-self.” It does not simply mean that you do not exist. It points to the difficulty of finding one permanent, independent “me” behind experience that is always changing.

Related doors

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Sources

Dhammapada
Early Buddhist tradition (attributed teachings of the Buddha) · compiled in Pali Canon; dating debated
Widely read early Buddhist text.
Primary source · primary
Pali Canon, Khuddaka Nikāya; English translations commonly used for study include those based on the Pali Text Society editions.