What is Buddhism?
A family of traditions concerned with suffering, awakening and how to live. Start with the shared questions, then explore the differences.
Already familiar? Compare teachings by subject.A path toward freedom from suffering.
Buddhism begins with the Buddha’s teaching in ancient South Asia. Its central concern is practical and far-reaching: understanding suffering and bringing its causes to an end.
A foundational formulation is the Four Noble Truths:
- Understand suffering. Life includes pain, loss and the unease of trying to hold on to what changes.
- Recognize its causes. Craving and clinging sustain this predicament.
- Know that release is possible. These causes can cease.
- Cultivate a path. Understanding, conduct and meditation support that release.
A little deeper: what does “suffering” mean?
Dukkha can mean suffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness. It includes obvious pain and the instability of relying on changing experiences for lasting security. The point is to understand this condition and its causes.
Read SN 56:11 · a foundational discourseA whole way of living and learning.
Meditation belongs to a wider path. A useful first map is three mutually supporting kinds of training:
Ethical conduct
Attend to intentions, speech and actions. Generosity, honesty and care shape the conditions of practice.
Meditative cultivation
Develop attention, steadiness and qualities such as goodwill. Communities teach different methods.
Wisdom
Investigate experience and the patterns that sustain suffering. Study and direct observation can support one another.
For many Buddhists, practice also includes devotion, chanting, ritual, monastic support and community life. Silent meditation is one part of a much larger landscape.
A little deeper: the Eightfold Path
The traditional factors are right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. “Right” indicates qualities that support the path; it is worth studying what each factor means in context.
Karma, rebirth and liberation are also important in traditional Buddhist accounts. Contemporary communities differ in how they understand and emphasize them.
Read AN 3:88 · the three trainingsShared foundations, different inheritances.
Buddhism spread through travel, translation and living communities. It did not divide neatly into a few isolated branches.
| Broad family or approach | A first orientation | Some familiar settings |
|---|---|---|
| Theravāda | The Pāli canon and its interpretation are central. Ethics, meditation and liberation are developed through diverse traditions. | Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar; forest and insight networks. |
| Mahāyāna | The bodhisattva path emphasizes Buddhahood for the benefit of beings, with additional scriptures and philosophical traditions. | Chan and Zen, Pure Land, Tibetan traditions, and many others. |
| Vajrayāna | Esoteric approaches within the wider Mahāyāna world, with distinctive ritual and contemplative transmissions. | Tibetan tantric traditions and Japanese Shingon. |
These are broad orientation labels. Compassion is not exclusive to Mahāyāna; insight and wisdom are not exclusive to Theravāda. A tradition contains many teachers and approaches.
A little deeper: why the tree also needs connections
A text can be read by several schools. Chan and Pure Land can coexist in one community. Madhyamaka and Yogācāra influence several traditions. The atlas’s tree organizes an introduction; its links show some of those overlaps.
Compare traditions, canons and paths in more detailKnow what kind of source you are reading.
There is no single Buddhist book that plays the same role for every tradition. Three distinctions make the landscape much easier to navigate.
- A sutta or sūtra
- A discourse or scripture. Sutta is Pāli; sūtra is Sanskrit. Collections and traditions differ.
- A canon
- A body of texts recognized as scripture. The Pāli, Chinese and Tibetan inheritances overlap without being identical.
- A commentary or teaching work
- An explanation, interpretation or practice manual. It can be deeply influential without being a canonical discourse.
In this atlas, complete translation means you can read the saved text in full. A study guide is an introduction that points you toward a source.
A little deeper: text, translation and interpretation
A modern translation is already a set of careful choices. A teacher’s instructions add another interpretive layer. Compare these layers before deciding that two traditions agree or disagree.
Historical composition, a manuscript’s date and a tradition’s account of scriptural authority are distinct questions.
Explore collections and historical contextChoose the question that matters to you.
Where does this tradition fit?
Explore the tree, follow its history, or compare an idea across traditions.
Open the atlas →BEGIN WITH A TEXTWhat do the teachings say?
Read a short illustrated discourse on goodwill, then return to the library for more.
Read the Discourse on Love →DEEPEN YOUR PRACTICEWhere could I go on retreat?
Explore upcoming retreats online and on either US coast, or find a center around the world.
Find a retreat →You can move freely between these pages. Reading or completing a game does not measure meditation skill or attainment.