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Kyoto, Japan, late 14th century

    T’hanka depicting a stūpa surrounded by eight Bodhisattvas, Tibet, 18th century T’hanka of the Kalachakra mandala , Tibet, late 15th century

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    An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism
    The Four Brahma-Viharas
    The “Four Divine Dwellings”
    or “Cardinal Virtues” of Buddhism

    (1)loving-kindness ( maitrī )

    (2) compassion ( karunā )

    (3) joy( muditā )

    (4)serenity ( upekshā )
    Bodhisattva Padmapani, “bearer of the lotus”,
    Ajanta Caves, India, 6th century A.D.

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    (8) The Nature and the Teachings of Buddhism
    Buddhism emerged from Hinduism, rather as Christianity emerged
    from Judaism. Christianity mediated Abrahamic monotheism to the
    world of the Gentiles, just as Buddhism mediated the wisdom of the
    Vedas to almost the whole of Eastern Asia. Christianity and Buddhism
    are nevertheless completely original as revelations in their own right,
    and not mere adaptations or developments of the respective anteced-
    ent revelations.
    Just as Christianity dispensed with the Jewish law (in the name of
    worshiping God “in spirit and in truth”), so Buddhism dispensed with
    the formal institutionalization of caste (in the name of a purely spiri-
    tual brotherhood and sisterhood).
    As explained in chapter 1, in Theravāda Buddhism the Highest
    (or “Divine”) Reality is envisaged not as a Supreme Being (Almighty
    God), as it is in most other religions, but as a Supreme State ( Nirvāna ).
    Nirvāna literal y means “extinction”, and this refers to the extinction of
    all that is fallen, corrupt, finite, and impermanent. Buddhism (with the
    exception of some Mahāyāna currents) does not look on the world as
    a theophany, but as an exile; it does not look on it under its positive as-
    pect of symbol or support, but under its negative aspect of corruption
    and temptation—and so of suffering ( duhkha ).It is on this basis that
    Buddhism, characteristical y, expresses a positive reality in negative
    terms: the intention is to underline the fact that Nirvāna (a negation
    of the negative) is Reality: absolute, infinite, and perfect. In like man-
    ner, Ultimate Reality is also called Shūnyatā (“Void”), that is to say, it is
    empty of the ephemeral pseudo-plenitude of the world. Significantly,
    one of the titles of the Buddha is Shūnyamūrti ,“Manifestation of the
    Void”. This title is a clear indication of the Buddha’s role as Logos or
    Avatārā.
    In Buddhism, Ultimate Reality is also referred to, in different
    contexts, as Dharma (“Law”), Bodhi (“Awakening”, “Enlightenment”,
    “Knowledge”), and Ātmā (“Self”).Ultimate or Divine Reality—and
    this is particularly the case in Mahāyāna Buddhism—is also regarded
    as a Supreme Being.1
    1 Relevant here, and applicable in all religions, is the theological distinction between
    God Transcendent, the Divine Being or “Object” ( Brahma , Mahāvairochana , Jehovah , Allāh )and God Immanent, the Divine Self or “Subject” ( Ātmā ).

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    An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism
    The foregoing makes it clear why, whether Ultimate Reality be
    primarily viewed as a Supreme State ( Nirvāna )or a Supreme Being
    ( Dharmakāya or Mahāvairochana ),it is erroneous to call Buddhism
    “atheistic”. Ultimate Reality, as envisaged by Buddhism (be it conceived
    as “State” or “Being”), is absolute, infinite, and perfect, and these are
    precisely the transcendent categories that atheism denies.
    Likewise, it is incorrect to call Buddhism a “philosophy” (in the
    modern sense of this word), rather than a “religion”. Apart from the
    fact that common sense tel s us that Buddhism has all the marks of a
    religion, and not a “philosophy”, Buddhism is a religion for the simple
    reason that, unlike post-Renaissance “philosophies”, it is not man-
    made, but has its origin in a divine revelation.
    *
    * *
    On receiving “enlightenment” ( bodhi )—which amounted to the provi-
    dential revelation of