Mahabodhi IP: The Fourteen Fundamental Beliefs of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

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Theravada Buddhism

The abridged version of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM which appears on this site is compiled from various editions which followed it's first publication in 1881 by Col. Henry Steel Olcott, providing not only an excellent introduction to Buddhist history and practice, but also the fundamental beliefs shared in common by all Buddhists.

1. Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.
2. The universe was evolved, not created; and it functions according to law, not according to the caprice of any God.
3. The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive world-periods, by certain illuminated beings called Buddhas, the name Buddha meaning "Enlightened".
4. The fourth teacher in the present world-period was Gautama Buddha, who was born to a royal family in India about 2600 years ago. He is an historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Guatama.
5. Gautama Buddha taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.
6. Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end to itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for men, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.
7. The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the persevering practice of an all embracing altruism in conduct, development of intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower personal pleasures.
8. The desire to live is the cause of rebirth, when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected individual attains by meditation the highest state of peace called Nirvana.
9. Gautama Buddha taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four noble truths, which are:

(1) The miseries of existence;
(2) The cause productive of misery, which is the desire ever renewed of satisfying oneself without being able ever to secure that end;
(3) The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of oneself from it;
(4) The means of obtaining this destruction of desire. The means which he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path: Right Belief; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Means of Livelihood; Right Exertion; Right Remembrance; Right Meditation.

10. Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment, or the development of a Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.
11. The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Buddha himself, is:

To cease from all error,
To get virtue,
And to purify the heart.

12. The universe is subject to a natural causation known as Karma. The merits and demerits of a being in past existences determine his condition in the present one. Each man, therefore, has prepared the causes of the effects which he now experiences.
13. The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed by the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the moral code of Buddhism: (1) Kill not; (2) Steal not; (3) Indulge not in sexual misconduct; (4) Lie not; (5) Take no intoxication or stupefying drug or liquor. Five other precepts which need not be here enumerated should be observed by those who would attain, more quickly than the average layman, the release from misery and rebirth.
14. Buddhism discourages superstitious practices. The Buddha taught it to be the duty of parents to have their children educated in science and literature. He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accords with reason.

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