Early Buddhism

Early Buddhism comprises the teachings, practices, and monastic communities associated with the generations following Gautama Buddha’s death, before later Buddhist schools fully developed.

Gautama Buddha: An ancient Indian religious teacher whose teachings became the foundation of Buddhism. Early Buddhist communities preserved and organized teachings attributed to him.
Nirvana: The liberation from craving and suffering that ends the cycle of rebirth in Buddhist traditions. Early Buddhism presents it as the goal reached through the path.
First Buddhist council: A traditional gathering of senior monks said to have recited and organized the Buddha’s teachings after his death. Later accounts connect this council with the earliest communal preservation of doctrine and discipline.
Theravada: A Buddhist tradition grounded in the Pali Canon and historically established across South and Southeast Asia. It preserves a major lineage of texts and practices associated with early Buddhism.
Historical Buddha: The historically recoverable teacher behind the Buddhist traditions about Gautama Buddha. Separating historical evidence from later biography shapes reconstructions of early Buddhism.
Dharma: The teachings and truths taught by the Buddha, as well as the order of things in Buddhist thought. The community’s central task was to preserve and practice the Buddha’s Dharma.
Karma in Buddhism: The Buddhist account of intentional actions shaping future experience and rebirth. Its emphasis on intention connects ethical conduct with consequences across lives.
Second Buddhist council: A traditional gathering at Vaishali concerning disputes over monastic discipline, conventionally dated about a century after the Buddha. Its account illustrates early disagreements about how monastic rules should be applied.
Mahasamghika: An early Buddhist school that emerged amid disagreements within the monastic community. Its distinct lineage shows that early Buddhism was not doctrinally uniform.
Oral tradition: The transmission of knowledge through spoken recitation and memorization rather than writing. Oral transmission complicates efforts to date and reconstruct early Buddhist teachings.

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