Arizona

The state hosts the following major league teams (called the Cactus league) for spring training:. Lama Surya Das is a prominent Western-born teacher continuing to bring the teachings of Buddhism to Westerners. Arizona is a popular location for Major League Baseball spring training. Another example of a school evolving new idioms for the transmission of the dharma is the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, founded by Sangharakshita. For a complete list, see List of people from Arizona.. Chögyam Trungpa, the founder of the Shambhala meditation movement, claimed in his teachings that his intention was to strip the ethnic baggage away form traditional methods of working with the mind and to deliver the essence of those teachings to his western students. Labor leader Cesar Estrada Chavez is from Yuma. This dynamic aspect is particularly evident today in the West.

Film director Steven Spielberg grew up in Scottsdale, as did Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter. A distinctive feature of Buddhism has been the continuous evolution of the practice as it was transmitted from one country to another. From the rock and roll world, both Alice Cooper and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac are from Phoenix; Linda Ronstadt is from Tucson. Buddhism had become the fastest-growing religion in Australia and many other Western nations by the 1990s, in contrast to the steady decline of traditional western beliefs (see Christianity). Famous Arizonans also include Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author Zane Grey, former Governor and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Presidential candidate (1964) and former Senator Barry Goldwater, Presidential candidate (2000) and Senior Republican Senator John McCain, former senator Carl Hayden and former Solicitor General Rex E. Lee . This Tibetan form of Buddhism proved especially intriguing to quite a number of westerners.
. During and after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, many of them fled to Nepal and India, including most renown Buddhist masters.

Ranked by per capita income. Many people, including celebrities, traveled to Asia in pursuit of gurus and ancient wisdom. Each city named in bold has a population greater than 100,000. The cultural re-evaluations of the hippie generation in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a re-discovery of Buddhism, which seemed to promise a natural path to awareness and enlightenment. See: List of cities in Arizona, List of cities in Arizona (by population), List of Arizona counties. The Buddhist Society, London was founded by Christmas Humphreys in 1924. There is also a significant Mormon population. See the article on Buddhism in America for further information.

Four in five Arizonans are self-described Christians, with large numbers of both Catholics and Protestants living in the state. Hired as cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding industries, they established temples in their settlements along the rail lines. See also the list of Arizona Natives.. The first Buddhists to arrive in the United States were Chinese. 49.9% of the population is male, 50.1% is female. In 1899 Gordon Douglas became the first Westerner to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. As of 2000, 74.1% of Arizona residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 19.5% speak Spanish. Navajo is the third most spoken language at 1.9%, followed by Other Native North American languages at 0.6% and German at 0.5%. The flag was accepted as the International Buddhist Flag by the 1952 World Buddhist Congress.

In 2003, for the first time, there were more Hispanic births in the state than white non-Hispanic births. Its stripes symbolise universal compassion, the middle path, blessings, purity and liberation, wisdom, and the conglomeration of these. Arizona is likely to become a minority-majority state by the year 2035 at the latest. In 1880 J.R. de Silva and Henry Steel Olcott designed the International Buddhist flag to celebrate the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Only California has more Indians than Arizona, and Arizona has slightly more Indians than Oklahoma [1] (http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/states/ST-EST2002-ASRO-03.php). At first Western Buddhology was hampered by poor translations (often translations of translations), but soon Western scholars began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. 286,680 reportedly live in Arizona, this represents more than 10% of the country's total Indian population of 2,752,158. Spiritual enthusiasts enjoyed what they saw as the exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions.

According to 2003 Census esimates, Arizona has the second highest number of Native Americans of any state in the Union. German writer Hermann Hesse also showed great interest in the eastern religion, even writing a book entitled Siddhartha. The racial breakdown of the state is as follows:. These included the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer and the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who translated a Buddhist sutra from French into English. As of 2003, Arizona had a population of 5,580,811 according Census Bureau estimates. In the latter half of the 19th century, Buddhism (along with many other of the world's religions and philosophies) came to the attention of Western intellectuals. High-tech employment was led by software and computers, with 34,314; electronics components manufacturing, 30,358; aerospace manufacturing, 25,641; architectural and engineering services, 21,378; telecommunications, 21,224; and instruments manufacturing, 13,056. Buddhist organizations in Asia frequently are well-funded and enjoy support from the wealthy and influential. In some cases, this has led critics to charge that certain monks and organizations are too closely associated with the powerful and are neglecting their duties to the poor.

High-tech payroll in 2001 was $2.2 billion, or 14.7 percent of the private-sector total. While in the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East Buddhism is regarded as familiar and part of the establishment. In 2001, 161,166 Arizonans were employed in the high-tech sector, accounting for about 8.3 percent of total private-sector employment of more than 1.9 million. Kalmykia, while geographically located in Europe, is culturally closely related to Mongolia and thus its Buddhism is more properly grouped with Asian than with Western Buddhism. Arizona lost much of its advantage as a high-technology industry leader between 1990 and 2001, according to a state Department of Commerce (http://www.commerce.state.az.us/) report. Vajrayāna is predominant in Tibet, Mongolia, portions of Siberia and portions of India, especially those areas bordering Tibet. The state government is the state's largest employer, while Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer, with 17,343 employees in 2003. It has seats in Malaysia and Singapore.

Copper is still produced in abundance from many giant open-pit mines and underground mines. Theravāda predominates in most of Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Sri Lanka. At one point Arizona was the largest producer of cotton in the country. In northern Asia, Mahāyāna remains the most common form of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, (parts of) Indonesia and Singapore. Its per capita income was $27,232, 39^th in the United States. Early in its history, Arizona's economy relied on the "five C's": copper, cotton, cattle, citrus and climate (i.e., tourism). Estimates of the number of Buddhists vary between 230 and 500 million, with 350 million as the most commonly cited figure. [4] (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html). The 2003 total gross state product was $182 billion. Dialogues between the Buddha's disciples and Mahāvīra are recorded in Jain texts, and dialogues between Mahāvīra's disciples and the Buddha are included in Buddhist texts.

It is rare for tornadoes to occur in Arizona. One of its two most revered teachers, Mahāvīra (599 - 527 BC), was a senior contemporary of the Buddha whose philosophy, sometimes described as dynamism or vitalism, was a blend of the earlier Jain teacher Pārśvanātha's order and the reforms instituted by Mahavira himself. The monsoons bring lightning, thunderstorms, wind and torrentious, if usually brief, evening downpours. Jainism is an ancient religion and school of thought that predates Buddhism. Monsoon season in Arizona is from the end of July through August. Some Muslims believe that Gautama Buddha is Dhul-Kifl, one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an. Extreme cold temperatures are not unknown, cold air systems from the northern states and Canada occasionally push into the state bringing temperatures below -20C ( subzero Fahrenheit) temperatures in the higher parts of the state. Siddhartha Gautama is thought to have been sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Josaphat based on a mistaken account of his conversion to Christianity.

However, the northern third of Arizona is a plateau at signficantly higher altitudes than the lower desert, and has an appreciably cooler climate, with cold winters and mild summers. The Bahá'í Faith states he was an independent Manifestation of God. Due to the primarily dry climate, large temperature swings often occur between day and night temperatures, with temperature swings as large as 10 C (50 F) in the summer months. In the Japanese religion of Shintoism Buddha is seen as a Kami (god). The summer months of May through August bring a dry, heat ranging from 35 to 40 degrees Celsius (the high 90-100s), with occasional high temperatures exceeding 50C (125 F) have been observed in the desert area. Traditionally, there has been a sharp distinction between Buddhism and what is today called "Hinduism"; this distinction is more accurately between Astika and Nastika philosophies, that is, philosophies in India which either affirmed the Vedas as divinely revealed scriptures or else regarded them as fallible human inventions. Thus Buddhism is essentially a heresy vis à vis orthodox Indian philosophy, though there are many syncretic or ecumenical tendencies within either group which are accepting of the beliefs and practices of the other. About midway through February, the temperatures start to rise again with sunny warm days, and cool breezy nights. The avatar theory came into existence in approximately the 9th century CE.

November through February are the coldest months with temperatures typically ranging from 4 - 24 degrees Celsius (40-75 degrees Fahrenheit), although occasional frosts are not uncommon. This is not a majority view, however. Typically, from late fall to early spring, the weather is mild, averaging a minimum of 15 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit). Some Hindus (primarily in the northern regions of India) believe that Gautama is the 9th incarnation (see avatar) of Vishnu; there are accounts of the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu that are pro- and anti-Buddhist (i.e., either that Vishnu "really meant" what he said while incarnated as Buddha or that he was intentionally tricking those who follow unorthodox doctrines). In the lower elevations, the climate is primarily desert, with mild winters and hot summers. Donated to the British Library in 1994, they are now being studied in a joint project at the University of Washington[3] (http://depts.washington.edu/ebmp/). Due to its large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide variety of climates. These fragments, written on birch bark, are dated to the 1st century and have been compared to the Dead Sea scrolls in importance.

Several major Hollywood films, such as U-Turn, Waiting to Exhale, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure have been made there (as indeed have many Westerns). Recently an important archaeological discovery was made, consisting of the earliest known Buddhist manuscripts, recovered from somewhere near ancient Gandhara in northwest Pakistan. Many tourist souvenirs produced in Arizona or by its residents display immediately characteristic images, such as sunsets, coyotes, and desert plants. Vajrayāna practitioners also study distinctive texts such as the Buddhist tantras. Sedona and Tubac are known as budding artist colonies, and small arts scenes exist in the larger cities and near the state universities. This is split into those texts attributed to be authored by the Buddha (Kanjur), and those texts which are understood to be commentaries by Indian practitioners (Tenjur). The state is a recognized center of Native American art, with a number of galleries such as the Heard Museum showcasing historical and contemporary works. Arguably the most thorough compilation of Mahayana works is found in the Tibetan canon.

Arizona has witnessed a continuous string of dancing and performing groups of many ethnicities. These included, for example, in Korea, some of the writings of Jinul, and in Japan, works such as Dogen's Shobogenzo. Nearly 2 billion years of the Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of sediment as the Colorado Plateaus have uplifted. In the course of the development of Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism, further important texts were composed. The canyon, created by the Colorado River cutting a channel over millions of years, is about 277 mile (446 km) long, ranges in width from 6 to 29 kilometers (4 to 18 miles) and attains a depth of more than 1,6 km (1 mile). Later writings include the Linji Lu of Chan master Linji. President Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent of the Grand Canyon area, visiting on numerous occasions to hunt mountain lion and enjoy the breathtaking scenery. On the other hand, there were texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment did not pretend to be of Indian origin, but are widely accepted as valid scriptures on their own merits.

The canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is largely contained in the Grand Canyon National Park - one of the first national parks in the United States. Some of these works are considered by modern scholars to be spurious. The Grand Canyon is a colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in northern Arizona. The Mahāyāna corpus of sutras further expanded after Buddhism was transmitted to China, where the existing texts were translated, and new texts were composed for the purpose of adapting the Indian tradition to the East Asian philosophical mindset. The Mogollon Rim, a 600-meters (2000-foot) escarpment, cuts across the central section of the state and marks the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, where the state experienced its worst forest fire ever in 2002. Many of the Mahayana sutras were translated into Tibetan and classical Chinese and are also now read in the West. More than half of the state features mountains and plateaus and contains the largest stand of Ponderosa pine in the United States. These include the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, the Avataṃsaka, the Lotus Sutra, the Vimalakīrti Sutra, and the Nirvana Sutra.

Like other states of the Southwest, Arizona has an abundance of topographical characteristics in addition to its desert climes. The appearance of the Mahāyāna tradition brought with it a collection of new texts, composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, many of which were also described as actual sermons of the Buddha. Arizona gained two seats in the House of Representatives due to redistricting based on Census 2000. Full versions of the original text[1] (http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/palicanon.html) and partial English translations[2] (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/) are now readily available on the internet. Hayworth (R-5), Jeff Flake (R-6), Raul Grijalva (D-7), and Jim Kolbe (R-8). The most notable set of texts from the early period is the Pali Canon, which was preserved in Sri Lanka by the Theravāda school. The sutras it contains are also part of the canon of every other Buddhist sect. Arizona's representatives in the United States House of Representatives are Rick Renzi (R-1), Trent Franks (R-2), John Shadegg (R-3), Ed Pastor (D-4), J.D. A given school of Buddhism will generally have its own distinctive canon of texts, which will partially overlap with those of other schools.

The two Arizona US Senators are Senator John McCain (Republican) and Senator Jon Kyl (Republican). During the first few centuries after Gautama Buddha, his teachings were transmitted orally, but around the 1st Century CE they began to be written down. She has been governor since 2003. See:List of Arizona Governors. These terms literally mean "three baskets" and refers to the three main divisions of the canon, which are:. The current Governor of Arizona is Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. The Buddhist canon of scripture is known in Sanskrit as the Tripitaka and in Pāli as the Tipitaka. The governor may serve any number of terms, though no more than two in a row. See also: History of Buddhism and Timeline of Buddhism.

Arizona's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. However, it is thought by others that meditative Shiva sects seem to have existed from pre-Vedic times; also, from scriptural citations and study of the Vedas, some say Tantra saw its philosophical basis in the mystical rites and mantras of the Atharva Veda (and later the Hindu Upanishads and Mahayana school of Buddhism). However, no more than four terms may be served consecutively. Buddhist literature tends to predate the later puranic Tantras, and there is some evidence to suggest that the basic structure of tantra depends upon the Mahayana Buddhist philosophical schools. Arizona state senators and representatives are elected for two year terms and there are no terms limits. There is still an active debate as to whether or not Tantrism was initially developed within Buddhism or Hinduism. The executive budget has allocated money to previously passed legislation. An early form of esoteric Vajrayana known as Shingon was also transmitted by the priest Kūkai to Japan, where it continues to be practiced.

Besides the money spent on state agencies, money has also been allocated for tax cuts, pay raises for government employees, and health insurance for government employees. There it initially coexisted with native belief systems such as Bön, but later came to largely supplant or absorb them. The 2002 budget of the Arizona state legislature was $14.3 billion, while the executive budget was $13.8 billion. Vajrayana also evolved at this stage carried from India to Tibet from around 800 by teachers such as Padmasambhava and Atisha. The majority party is the Republican party, which has held power since 1950. However, Buddhism there was supplanted by the introduction of Islam around 1000. Arizona's legislature consists of a thirty-member Senate and a 60-member House of Representatives. At one time, different Turkic and Tocharian groups along the northern fringe of East Turkestan (modern Xinjiang in western China) adhered to Nikaya Buddhism.

See: List of Congressmen. These Chinese travel records constitute extremely valuable sources for information concerning the state of Buddhism in India during the early medieval period. Arizona was admitted into the Union on February 14, 1912. During the first millennium, monks from China such as Faxian, Yijing and Xuanzang made pilgrimages to India and wrote accounts of their travels when they returned home. The site was purchased after the war by the Maytag family, and is currently the Phoenix Zoo. In 475, the Indian monk Bodhidharma travelled to China and established the Chan (Chinese; Japanese: Zen), school. Arizona was also the site of a German and Italian prisoner of war camp during WWII. Mahayana Buddhism established a major regional center in what is today Afghanistan, and from there it spread to China, Korea, Mongolia, and Japan.

With the encouragement of Brigham Young, Mormons went to Arizona from Utah in the mid to late 1800s to the Phoenix Valley (or "Valley of the Sun"), Mesa, Tempe, Prescott, Snowflake, Heber, and many other Arizona towns to settle there. It reached as far as Turkmenistan and Arabia to the west, and eastward to southeast Asia, where the first records of Buddhism date from around 400. Arizona was administered as part of the Territory of New Mexico until it was organized into a separate territory on February 24, 1863. Around the 1st century, Buddhism spread from India through successive waves of merchants and pilgrims. In 1853 the land below the Gila River was acquired from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. During and after the 2nd century explicitly Mahayana philosophies were defined in the works of Nagarjuna, Asanga, Shantideva, Ashvagosha, and Vasubandhu. The United States took possession of most of Arizona at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. For this reason, all major Budhist scholars in India thereafter wrote their commentaries and treatises in Sanskrit.

All of what is now Arizona became part of Mexico's northwest frontier upon the Mexican assertion of independence from Spain in 1810. Although this change was probably effected without significant loss of integrity to the canon, this event was of particular significance since Sanskrit was the learned language of scholars in India, regardless of their specific religious or philosophical allegiance, thus enabling a far wider audience to gain access to Buddhist ideas and practices. Father Kino developed a chain of missions and taught the Indians Christianity in Pimería Alta (now southern Arizona and northern Sonora) in the 1690's and early 1700's. Spain founded fortified towns (presidios) at Tubac in 1752 and Tucson in 1775. Scholars beleieve that it was also around this time that a significant change was made in the language of the Sarvāstivādin canon, by converting an earlier Prakrit version into Sanskrit. Coronado's expedition entered the area in 1540–42 during its search for Cibola. The main fruit of this Council was the vast commentary known as the Mahā-Vibhāshā ("Great Exegesis"), an extensive compendium and reference work on a portion the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma. Beyond its original native inhabitants, Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan, explored the area in 1539. It is said that Kanishka gathered 500 monks, headed by Vasumitra, primarily, it seems, to compile extensive commentaries on the Abhidharma, although it is possible that some editorial work was carried out upon the canon itself.

USS Arizona was named in honor of this state. A Fourth Council is said to have been convened by the Kushan emperor Kanishka, around 100 CE at Jalandhar or in Kashmir, although it seems to have been primarily a Sarvāstivāda affair. For this reason, Theravāda Buddhism does not recognize the authenticity of this council, and sometimes they call it the “council of heretical monks”. Three possible derivations are:. Between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, the terms Mahayana and Hinayana were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra. Historians disagree about the origin of the name "Arizona" and its attachment to the region. Moreover, the origins of specifically Mahāyāna doctrines may be discerned in the teachings of some of these early schools, in particular in the Mahāsānghika and the Sarvāstivāda. Besides the Grand Canyon, a number of other National Forests, Parks, Monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state. Unfortunately, with the exception of the Theravāda, none of early these schools survived beyond the late medieval period by which time several were already long extinct, although a considerable amount of the canonical literature of some of these schools has survived, mainly in Chinese translation.

Its major cities are Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, and Flagstaff. All of these early schools of Nikayan Buddhism eventually came to be known collectively as the Eighteen Schools in later sources. It is also the name of a US Battleship, the USS Arizona. Whatever might be the truth behind the Theravādin account, it was around the time of Asoka that further divisions began to occur within the Buddhist movement and a number of additional schools emerged, including the Sarvāstivāda and the Sammitīya. It is one of the Four Corners states, south and east of the Colorado River, bordering New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California and Mexico, and touching Colorado. The Pali Canon remains the only complete set of Nikaya scriptures to survive, although fragments of other versions exist. Arizona was the 48th state admitted to the United States and is part of the Southwest United States. There it was eventually committed to writing in the Pali language.

Texas Rangers in Surprise. The version of the scriptures that had been established at the Third Council, including the vinaya, sutta and the abhidhamma commentaries (collectively known as Tripitaka), was taken to Sri Lanka by Emperor Ashoka's son, the Venerable Mahinda. Seattle Mariners in Peoria. This school of thought was termed Vibhajjavada (Pali), literally "Teaching of Analysis". San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale. The council sided with Moggaliputta and his version of Buddhism as orthodox; it was then adopted by Emperor Ashoka as his empire's official religion. San Diego Padres in Peoria. At the council, small groups raised questions about the specifics of the vinaya and the interpretation of doctrine. The chairman of the council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book called the Kathavatthu, which was meant to refute these arguments.

Oakland Athletics in Phoenix. However, according to the Theravadin account, this Council was convened primarily for the purpose of establishing an official orthodoxy. Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix. In the 3rd century BCE, Theravadin sources state that a Third Council was convened under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka, but since no mention of this council is found in other sources and because of various implausible features in this account, most scholars treat the historicity of this Third Council with skepticism although it is generally accepted that one or several disputes did occur during Asoka's reign, involving both doctrinal and vinaya matters, although these are likely to have been too informal to be called a Council. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Tempe. However, if one group disputed the vinaya of another, this would often prevent common practice. Kansas City Royals in Surprise. So if two schools shared a vinaya, but were in dispute over doctrinal matters, it was likely that they would continue to practice together.

Colorado Rockies in Tucson. Schism in early Buddhism was typically not on points of doctrine (orthodoxy), but in the area of practice (orthopraxy). Chicago White Sox in Tucson. However, after this initial division, more were to follow. Chicago Cubs in Mesa. According to this version, the Mahāsānghikas were not the defeated party, but the conservative party that preserved the original vinaya unchanged against the reformist attempts of the Sthāviras to establish a reorganized and stricter version. Arizona Diamondbacks in Tucson. Apart from Pāli sources, an important independent account of this split is found in the Shāriputra-pariprcchā (The Enquiry of Shāriputra), an eclectic text of Indic origin, which differs radically from the received Theravādin version.

Phoenix Suns (National Basketball Association). Opinions differ on the cause of the split: the Sthaviravādins described their opponents as lax monks who had ceased to follow all the vinaya rules, while the Mahāsānghikas argued that the Buddha had never intended a rigid adherence to all the minor rules. Phoenix Mercury (Women's National Basketball Association). This resulted in the formation of the Sthaviravādin and Mahāsānghika schools. Phoenix Coyotes (National Hockey League). At the Second Council, one hundred years later, it was not the dharma that was called into question but the monks' code of rules or vinaya. Arizona Sting (National Lacrosse League). These groups of people often cross-checked with each other to ensure that no omissions or additions were made.

Arizona Rattlers (Arena Football League). At this point, no conflict about what the Buddha taught is known to have occurred, so the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory. Arizona Diamondbacks (Major League Baseball). All Arahants unanimously agree that no disciplinary rule laid down by the Buddha should be changed, and no new ones should be introduced. Arizona Cardinals (National Football League). The Dhamma and the Vinaya were recited at the First Council. Arizona Music Educators Association. Maha Kassapa, the most respected and elderly monk, presided at the Council.

Western International University. Three months after the passing of Gautama Buddha, The First Council was held at Rajagaha by his immediate disciples who had attained Arahantship (Enlightenment). University of Phoenix. In Tibet, the Tantric Vajrayana lineage was preserved after it disappeared in India.
. Thunderbird - The Garvin School of International Management. Buddhism also remained in the rest of the world although in Central Asia and later Indonesia it was mostly replaced by Islam. In China and Japan, it adopted aspects of the native beliefs of Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto respectively. Southwestern College. Other areas of India have never parted from Buddhism, including Ladakh and other areas bordering the Tibetan, Nepali and Bhutanese borders.

Prescott College. Elements of Buddhism have remained within India to the current day: the Bauls of Bengal have a syncretic set of practices with strong emphasis on many Buddhist concepts. Grand Canyon University. This was partially due to Muslim invasions and partially due to Hinduism's revival movements such as Advaita and the rise of the bhakti movement. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. After about 500 CE, Buddhism showed signs of waning in India, becoming nearly extinct after about 1200 CE. DeVry University, Phoenix. His promotion led to construction of Buddhist religious sites and missionary efforts that spread the faith into the countries listed at the beginning of the article.

Collins College, Tempe. Buddhism spread slowly in India until the powerful Mauryan emperor Asoka converted to it and actively supported it. American Indian College of the Assemblies of God. At the present time the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world and are now easily available in the developed countries, and increasingly translated into local languages. Northland Pioneer College. Each branch sees itself as representing the true, original teachings of the Buddha, and some schools believe that the dialectic nature of Buddhism allows its format, terminology, and techniques to adapt over time in response to changing circumstances, thus validating dharmic approaches different from their own. Arizona Western College. Of the Nikaya schools, only the Theravada survives.

South Mountain Community College. Buddhism has evolved into myriad schools that can be roughly grouped into three types: Nikaya (also called Hinayana), Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Mohave Community College. Lay Buddhists generally follow dietary rules less rigorously than monks. Cochise College. In the West, of course, a wide variety of practices are followed. Prescott College. In Tibet, where vegetable nutrition was historically very scarce, and the adopted vinaya was the Nikaya Sarvāstivāda, vegetarianism is very rare, although the Dalai Lama and other esteemed Lamas invite their audiences to adopt vegetarianism when they can.

Yavapai Community College. In Japan and Korea, some monks practice vegetarianism, and most will do so at least when training at a monastery, but otherwise they typically do eat meat. Eastern Arizona College. In the Theravada countries of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, monks are bound by the vinaya to accept almost any food that is offered to them, often including meat, while in China and Vietnam, monks are expected to eat no meat. Pima Community College. In the modern world, attitudes toward vegetarianism vary by location. South Mountain Community College. From those days onwards Chinese monastics, and others who came to inhabit northern countries, cultivated their own vegetable plots and bought everything else they needed in terms of food in the market.

Scottsdale Community College. A solution to this problem was given when monks from the Indian sphere of influence migrated to China, as of the year 65 AD. There they met followers who provided them with money instead of food. Rio Salado Community College. Several other Mahayana sutras also emphatically prohibit the consumption of meat. Phoenix College. A long passage in the Lankavatara Sutra shows the Buddha weighing strongly in favor of vegetarianism, since the eating of the flesh of fellow sentient beings is said by him to be incompatible with the compassion which a Bodhisattva should strive to cultivate. Paradise Valley Community College. The Buddha also predicts in this sutra that later monks will "hold spurious writings to be the authentic Dharma" and will concoct their own sutras and mendaciously claim that the Buddha allows the eating of meat, whereas in fact (he says) he does not.

Mesa Community College. In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha states that "the eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion", adding that all and every kind of meat and fish consumption (even of animals already found dead) is prohibited by him. Glendale Community College. On the other hand, the Buddha in certain Mahayana sutras strongly denounces the eating of meat. GateWay Community College. Therefore, eating commercially purchased meat is not prohibited. Estrella Mountain Community College. This rule was not applied to commercial purchase of meat in the case of a general who sent a servant to purchase meat specifically to feed the Buddha.

Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Monks are also prohibited from consuming meat if the monk witnessed the animal's death or knows that it was killed specifically for him. Northern Arizona University. There were, however, rules prohibiting certain types of meat, such as human, leopard or elephant meat. University of Arizona. In fact, at one point the Buddha specifically refused to institute vegetarianism and the Pali Canon records the Buddha himself eating meat on several occasions. Arizona State University. In one of the Pali sutras belonging to the Theravada lineage of Buddhism, Buddha says that vegetarianism is preferable, but as monks in ancient India were expected to receive all of their food by begging they had little or no control over their diet. Furthermore, Buddha did not wish to lay an extra burden on his lay followers by demanding that the food should be vegetarian. During the Buddha's time, there was no general rule requiring monks to refrain from eating meat.

18% No Religion. The Buddha made distinction between killing an animal and consumption of meat, stressing that it is immoral conduct that makes one impure, not the food one eats. 2% Non-Christian religions. However, this is not necessarily the case. 6% Mormon. Many see this as implying that Buddhists should not eat the meat of animals. 25% Other Protestants. The first lay precept in Buddhism prohibits killing.

4% Lutheran. The doctrine of the Tathagatagarbha/Buddha-dhatu is stated by the Buddha of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra to be the "absolutely final culmination" of his Dharma. 5% Methodist. Once the Buddha-dhatu is finally seen and known by the faithful Buddhist practitioner, it has the power to transform that seer and knower into a Buddha. 9% Baptist. This Tathagatagarbha/ Buddha-dhatu, inherent in all beings, can never be destroyed or harmed, and yet is concealed from view by a mass of obscuring mental and moral taints within the mind-stream of the individual being. 43% Protestant