About Buddhism:

About Buddhism:
People talk about Buddhism as if it is a single religion - as usual without doing any study or understanding about Buddhism. Much before Adi Shankaracarya's time itself Buddhism is not a single religion and had many main sects and sub sects. The so called later Buddhism (the so called early Buddhism itself had many other divisions - many are unknown but were mentioned in Buddhist cannons) is divided into 2 major groups - "Hinayana" and "Mahayana" and from them many main-sects and sub-sects.

[I] First, the Hinayana schools consists further 2 schools 1). "Sautrantika" (a derived version of this along with the original "Pali Teravaada" and together both combined and from which a derived Buddhist sect is what is practiced in Sri Lanka. With some major changes in ontology in this sect is practiced in Thailand such as with Indra (both Vedic Indra & Puranic Indra and with Svarga and Naraka and also Sri. Rama etc.) and 2). "Vaibhashika" of "Abhidharma" school (a partial derivative of this is practiced in some parts of Burma and Hunan and further derived one with Ban and Kashmir Shaivism mix is called as "Vajrayana", which is followed in Tibet and the philosophy is called "Moola Sarvastivaada"). Both "Sautrantika" and "Vaibashika" follow "Sarvastivaada" (Sarvam asti iti - all exists and not "Shunya vaada" or void) this is an ancient Buddhist school of thought existed before "Ashvagosha". There were 18 different schools in "Vaibhashika", there was also another diagonally opposite school called "dharmaguptaka" . 

[II] Second the Mahayana schools in which the 2 main sects are 3). "Moola maadhyamika" of "Nagarjuna", which follows "Maadhyamika vaada" and 4). "Yogacaara" of "Vasabandhu" schools which follows "vijnana vaada" and there was another school which followed "dhaarshtantika" school. In Mahayana the Shao-lin Guru lineage (followed in most of southern China) right from Sri Siddhartha Gautama Buddha to "Mahakashyapa" to "Ananda" to "Upagupta" (Samrat Ashoka's teacher) to "Nagarjuna" to "Bodhidharma" (28th patriarch and founder of "Zen Buddhism") are considered Teachers and each one has contributed to the philosophy. In another school we have Teachers and acharyas like "Dingnaaga", "Dharmakeerti", "Vajrakeerti", etc. In Kerala there was a tradition which started with "Vagbhatta", similarly during Gupta empire time we had "Amarasimha" - such scholars belonged to which school is also a question. Similar to many sects there are many philosophies in Buddhism, in addition to the ones mentioned above, such as "kshanika vaada", "shoonya vaada"etc. 

Starting with Ashvagosha in 1st Century C.E (2000 years back) all most all of the Buddhist texts are in Sanskrit. Sri. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha had given us only "Dhamma pada" in pali means "Dharma patha" which means the path of dharma. Between Buddha's time and Ashvagosha's time there were many Sanskrit /Pali /Prakrit texts, and all got destroyed during the destruction of Takshashila and Nalanda by barbaric invaders. 

Please take note of how many different sects /philosophies/ teachers that I have mentioned in the above passage within "..." quotes. This is just a teaser. If one ventures into Buddhist philosophical studies, it is so confusing and takes years to understand just - who is the initiator of which philosophy - as there are so many. So the pseudo intellectuals have to take note of this.

It is not correct to say that Hinduism, particularly Vedanta Post Adi Shankaracharya period copied Buddhism, because the philosophical foundation itself is different in both. Loosely one can say that Vedanta is a 6 "pramana" philosophy; in this itself - there were many vaadas including the famous "ajati vaada", etc. of Sri. Gaudapada. Where as Buddhism is a 2 "pramana" (pratyaksha and anumana) philosophy. In addition to this the "Language" (paribhaasha), Ontology (padaartha tatvam) and Epistemology (Tarka) of all sects of Buddhists greatly differ from 12 Hindu traditions including Vedanta. The 12 Hindu traditions are highlighted in "Sarvadarshanasangraha" by Sri Vidyaranha (the highlight of this is that the Vyakarana (language)  school of philosophy as a Hindu sect was existing in that time !). The book 'Sarvadarshanasangraha' covers 12 Hindu+ Buddhist+Jainist+Charvaka philosophies. I had put a posting about this treatise earlier. Even within some of the Hindu darshanas (loosly translated as philosophies - we had both nireeshvara vaada and seshvara vaada - means without God and with God)

Even post Buddhism, in various Hindu traditions there were many schools of thought existed which are totally different from any section of Buddhism and there were 100s of great scholars (before Adi Shankaracharya) such as Sri. Vatsayana, Sri. Shabara, Sri. Bhartrhari, Sri. Kumarila Bhatta, Sri. Gauda Paadacharya, Sri. Mandana Mishra, etc. to name a few.  (Please note that I have not mentioned the names of Rishis who had given us the Shad-darshanas or the 3 Vyakarana Munis - Sri.Panini, Sri.Katyayana and Sri. Patanjali)