Borobudur at sunrise · Justine Hong · CC BY 2.0

Buddhism

Tradition·Founded c. 480 BCE·est. ~500 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Buddhism → 3 branches

Branch
Overview Belief 37How to Live 12Practice 34Stories & Scripture 35Community 10 You × Buddhism Discussion 1
Story of Buddhism

Ashoka at Kalinga.

The emperor conquered Kalinga and counted the cost himself: a hundred thousand dead, a hundred and fifty thousand deported, and more dead afterward of other causes. He then had the remorse carved into rock across his empire, along with the policy that followed — a state committed to dharma, wells and shade trees on the roads, medical care for people and animals, and the sangha funded and exported as far as Sri Lanka and the Mediterranean.

Add to My Beliefs →
Where it is toldAshoka's own rock edicts, still standing
Who appearsAshoka Maurya, emperor; the dead of Kalinga, by his own count
What it teachesThe one case of a conqueror publishing his remorse and changing policy because of it
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Ashoka's thirteenth rock edict is the closest thing antiquity produced to a war crimes confession by the winner, and it is still legible on stone. He gives figures — a hundred thousand killed, a hundred and fifty thousand deported — states that he feels profound sorrow, and announces that conquest by dharma has replaced conquest by arms. What followed was material: hospitals and wells, restrictions on animal sacrifice, officers appointed to check on welfare, and missions dispatched as far as Sri Lanka and the Hellenistic kingdoms, which is a large part of why Buddhism left India in the first place. The wheel on the Indian flag is taken from his pillar at Sarnath.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The Sermon on the Mount is a set of instructions, not an ideal. The Bruderhof · core tenet Go deeper →
Hanuman leaps the strait. Hinduism Read it in full →
Non-violence is the highest duty. Jainism · core tenet Go deeper →
Repairing the world is human work. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
The towel and the basin. Christianity Read it in full →
Adab — the courtesies. Islam · precept Go deeper →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the claim it is about All discussion →

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Where next

← Milarepa builds the tower.the previous passage in Buddhism The ten ox-herding pictures. →the next passage in Buddhism Buddhism's Stories & Scripture roomback up one layer Propose a change to this passageone button — it routes to the review pool

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