Zen Buddhism: Did you mean...?

A detail of the Zen rock garden of Ryoanji temple, Kyoto, Japan. The garden dates to c. 1500 CE but the exact significance of its 15 stones is unknown except that they are designed to promote meditation.

The Enryakuji is a Buddhist monastic complex on the sacred Mt. Hiei, near Kyoto, Japan. The site was selected by the monk Saicho to become the headquarters of the Tendai sect, which he founded in Japan in the early 9th century CE. Enryakuji...

Cyrus the Great (558-530 BCE) built the first universal empire, stretching from Greece to the Indus River. This was the famous Achaemenid Empire of Persia. An inscription at Naqsh-i-Rustam, the tomb of his able successor Darius I (521-486...

A stupa (literally “heap” or “pile”) is a reliquary, a shrine containing the remains of a holy or sainted person and/or artifacts (relics) associated with them, originating in India prior to the 5th century BCE as tombs of holy men and evolving...

A map illustrating the spread of Buddhism from its origins in India in the 5th century BCE with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha.

The medieval period of Japan is considered by most historians to stretch from 1185 to 1603 CE. Stand out features of the period include the replacement of the aristocracy by the samurai class as the most powerful social group, the establishment...

This map traces the expansion of Buddhism from its origins in the Ganges Plain of Magadha (modern Bihar, India) during the 5th–4th century BCE when Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) attained enlightenment. From this heartland, Buddhism spread...

This infographic illustrates the Eightfold Path (आर्याष्टाङ्गमार्ग", Āryāṣṭāṅgamārga), a core teaching in Buddhism, established by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, over 2,500 years ago as a way to overcome suffering and achieve enlightenment...

A sutra (Sanskrit for “thread”) is a written work in the belief systems of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism which is understood to accurately preserve important teachings of the respective faiths and guide an adherent on the path from ignorance...

The Four Noble Truths are the foundational tenets of Buddhism, which spark awareness of suffering as the nature of existence, its cause, and how to live without it. The truths are understood as the realization which led to the enlightenment...