sentence-transformers/squad huggingface dataset:
Passage: There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas. Initially it was known as Bodhisattvayāna (the "Vehicle of the Bodhisattvas"). Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate Vinaya or ordination lineage from the early schools of Buddhism, and therefore each bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī adhering to the Mahāyāna formally belonged to an early school. This continues today with the Dharmaguptaka ordination lineage in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda ordination lineage in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools. From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.

Question: There is no evidence that Mahayana ever referred to a separate school of what?

Question: The mahayana never tried to have separte what?

Question: We know that both Mahayana and non Mahayana monks live in the same what?
Passage: Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts. These Mahāyāna teachings were first propagated into China by Lokakṣema, the first translator of Mahāyāna sūtras into Chinese during the 2nd century CE.[note 39] Some scholars have traditionally considered the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras to include the very first versions of the Prajñāpāramitā series, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya Buddha, which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.[note 40]

Question: Most of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mhayana comes from what type of translations?

Question: The Mahayana teachings were first propagated into China by who?

Question: The earliest Mahayana sutras included the very first versions of what series?

Question: Texts concerning Aksobhya Buddha were probably composed in what century BCE?
Passage: During the period of Late Mahayana Buddhism, four major types of thought developed: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Tathagatagarbha, and Buddhist Logic as the last and most recent. In India, the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were the Madhyamaka and the later Yogacara. According to Dan Lusthaus, Madhyamaka and Yogacara have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism. There were no great Indian teachers associated with tathagatagarbha thought.

Question: What four types of thought developed during the period of late mahayna buddhism?

Question: What was the latest thought type?

Question: In India the two main philosophical schools of the Mahayana were Madhyamaka and what else?
Passage: Buddhism may have spread only slowly in India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, who was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more stūpas (Buddhist religious memorials) and to efforts to spread Buddhism throughout the enlarged Maurya empire and even into neighboring lands—particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia, beyond the Mauryas' northwest border, and to the island of Sri Lanka south of India. These two missions, in opposite directions, would ultimately lead, in the first case to the spread of Buddhism into China, and in the second case, to the emergence of Theravāda Buddhism and its spread from Sri Lanka to the coastal lands of Southeast Asia.

Question: Buddhism may have spread quickly because of what Mauryan emperor?

Question: The support of Asoka and his descendants led to what being built more?

Question: What does stupas mean in English?
Passage: This period marks the first known spread of Buddhism beyond India. According to the edicts of Aśoka, emissaries were sent to various countries west of India to spread Buddhism (Dharma), particularly in eastern provinces of the neighboring Seleucid Empire, and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean. It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries.

Question: Emissaries were sent to various countries to what direct from India?

Question: Scholars disagree on whether emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist what?

Question: What were the emissaries used for?
Passage: The gradual spread of Buddhism into adjacent areas meant that it came into contact with new ethnical groups. During this period Buddhism was exposed to a variety of influences, from Persian and Greek civilization, to changing trends in non-Buddhist Indian religions—themselves influenced by Buddhism. Striking examples of this syncretistic development can be seen in the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and in the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra. A Greek king, Menander, has even been immortalized in the Buddhist canon.

Question: The gradual spread of Buddhism exposed it to a variety of influences including what civilization?

Question: Who was the Greek king immortalized in Buddhist canon?
Passage: The Theravada school spread south from India in the 3rd century BCE, to Sri Lanka and Thailand and Burma and later also Indonesia. The Dharmagupta school spread (also in 3rd century BCE) north to Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria (Afghanistan).

Question: The Theravada school spread south from india in what century BCE?

Question: The Dharmagupta schol spread in what century to Kashmir?
Passage: The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to question.[note 41] The first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin.

Question: When was the first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China?
Passage: In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.

Question: Mahayana Sutras spread to China during what century?

Question: What two countries after China was the Mahayana sutras spread?

Question: When did Buddhism apread from India to Tibet?
Passage: By the late Middle Ages, Buddhism had become virtually extinct in India, although it continued to exist in surrounding countries. It is now again gaining strength worldwide. China and India are now starting to fund Buddhist shrines in various Asian countries as they compete for influence in the region.[web 20]

Question: China and India are now starting to fund what type of shrines in various Asian countries?
Passage: Formal membership varies between communities, but basic lay adherence is often defined in terms of a traditional formula in which the practitioner takes refuge in The Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha), and the Sangha (the Buddhist community). At the present time, the teachings of all three branches of Buddhism have spread throughout the world, and Buddhist texts are increasingly translated into local languages. While in the West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and progressive, in the East it is regarded as familiar and traditional. Buddhists in Asia are frequently well organized and well funded. In countries such as Cambodia and Bhutan, it is recognized as the state religion and receives government support. Modern influences increasingly lead to new forms of Buddhism that significantly depart from traditional beliefs and practices.

Question: What is the Dharma?

Question: What is the Sangha?

Question: West Buddhism is often seen as exotic and what?

Question: New forms of Buddhism are created because of what reason?
Passage: A number of modern movements or tendencies in Buddhism emerged during the second half of the 20th Century, including the Dalit Buddhist movement (also sometimes called 'neo-Buddhism'), Engaged Buddhism, and the further development of various Western Buddhist traditions.

Question: When did a number of modern movement in Buddhism emerge?

Question: What is the Dalit buddhist movement sometimes called?
Passage: In the second half of the 20th Century a modern movement in Nichiren Buddhism: Soka Gakkai (Value Creation Society) emerged in Japan and spread further to other countries. Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a lay Buddhist movement linking more than 12 million people around the world, and is currently described as "the most diverse" and "the largest lay Buddhist movement in the world".[web 21]

Question: What Buddhism emerged in the second half of the 20th century in Japan?

Question: What does Soka Gakkai mean in English?

Question: What Buddhist movement has linked more than 12 million people?

Question: What is the largest Buddhist movement in the world?
Passage: Buddhism is practiced by an estimated 488 million,[web 1] 495 million, or 535 million people as of the 2010s, representing 7% to 8% of the world's total population.

Question: What religion is practiced by an estimated 488 to 535 million people?
Passage: China is the country with the largest population of Buddhists, approximately 244 million or 18.2% of its total population.[web 1] They are mostly followers of Chinese schools of Mahayana, making this the largest body of Buddhist traditions. Mahayana, also practiced in broader East Asia, is followed by over half of world Buddhists.[web 1]

Question: What country has the largest population of Buddhists?

Question: How many Buddhists are in China?
Passage: According to a demographic analysis reported by Peter Harvey (2013): Mahayana has 360 million adherents; Theravada has 150 million adherents; and Vajrayana has 18,2 million adherents. Seven million additional Buddhists are found outside of Asia.

Question: How may adherents does Mahayana have?

Question: How many adherents does Thervada have?

Question: How many Buddists are outside of Asia?
Passage: According to Johnson and Grim (2013), Buddhism has grown from a total of 138 million adherents in 1910, of which 137 million were in Asia, to 495 million in 2010, of which 487 million are in Asia. According to them, there was a fast annual growth of Buddhism in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and several Western European countries (1910–2010). More recently (2000–2010), the countries with highest growth rates are Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and some African countries.

Question: How many Buddhists were there in 1910?

Question: How many Buddhists are there in 2010?

Question: How many buddhists are in Asia?
Passage: Some scholars[note 44] use other schemes. Buddhists themselves have a variety of other schemes. Hinayana (literally "lesser vehicle") is used by Mahayana followers to name the family of early philosophical schools and traditions from which contemporary Theravada emerged, but as this term is rooted in the Mahayana viewpoint and can be considered derogatory, a variety of other terms are increasingly used instead, including Śrāvakayāna, Nikaya Buddhism, early Buddhist schools, sectarian Buddhism, conservative Buddhism, mainstream Buddhism and non-Mahayana Buddhism.

Question: What does Hinayana mean in English?

Question: What is used by Mahayana followers to name the early schools?
Passage: Not all traditions of Buddhism share the same philosophical outlook, or treat the same concepts as central. Each tradition, however, does have its own core concepts, and some comparisons can be drawn between them. For example, according to one Buddhist ecumenical organization,[web 23] several concepts common to both major Buddhist branches:

Question: Each tradition has its own core what?

Question: there are common concepts to both major buddhist branches according to what organization?
Passage: Theravada ("Doctrine of the Elders", or "Ancient Doctrine") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It is relatively conservative, and generally closest to early Buddhism. The name Theravāda comes from the ancestral Sthāvirīya, one of the early Buddhist schools, from which the Theravadins claim descent. After unsuccessfully trying to modify the Vinaya, a small group of "elderly members", i.e. sthaviras, broke away from the majority Mahāsāṃghika during the Second Buddhist council, giving rise to the Sthavira sect. Sinhalese Buddhist reformers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries portrayed the Pali Canon as the original version of scripture. They also emphasized Theravada being rational and scientific.

Question: What is the oldest surviving Buddhist school?

Question: Where does the name theravada come from?

Question: Sinhalese buddhist reformer portrayed what Canon as the original version of scripture?
Passage: Theravāda is primarily practiced today in Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia as well as small portions of China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bangladesh. It has a growing presence in the west.

Question: Where is there a growing presence of Theravada?
Passage: Theravadin Buddhists believe that personal effort is required to realize rebirth. Monks follow the vinaya: meditating, teaching and serving their lay communities. Laypersons can perform good actions, producing merit.

Question: What type of Buddhists believe that personal effort is required to realize rebirth?

Question: Laypersons can perform good actions, producing what?
Passage: Mahayana Buddhism flourished in India from the 5th century CE onwards, during the dynasty of the Guptas. Mahāyāna centres of learning were established, the most important one being the Nālandā University in north-eastern India.

Question: What was the most important Mahayana centre of learning?
Passage: Mahayana schools recognize all or part of the Mahayana Sutras. Some of these sutras became for Mahayanists a manifestation of the Buddha himself, and faith in and veneration of those texts are stated in some sutras (e.g. the Lotus Sutra and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) to lay the foundations for the later attainment of Buddhahood itself.

Question: Mahayana schools recognize all or part of what?

Question: A few of the sutras for Mahayanists became a manifestation of who?

Question: Faith in and veneration of Mahayana are stated in what sutras?
Passage: Native Mahayana Buddhism is practiced today in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, parts of Russia and most of Vietnam (also commonly referred to as "Eastern Buddhism"). The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions, and Mongolia is also Mahayana in origin, but is discussed below under the heading of Vajrayana (also commonly referred to as "Northern Buddhism"). There are a variety of strands in Eastern Buddhism, of which "the Pure Land school of Mahayana is the most widely practised today.". In most of this area however, they are fused into a single unified form of Buddhism. In Japan in particular, they form separate denominations with the five major ones being: Nichiren, peculiar to Japan; Pure Land; Shingon, a form of Vajrayana; Tendai, and Zen. In Korea, nearly all Buddhists belong to the Chogye school, which is officially Son (Zen), but with substantial elements from other traditions.

Question: Native Mahayana buddhism is also called what?

Question: The Buddhism practiced in Tibet, the Himalayan regions and Mongolia are often referred to as?

Question: What is the most widely practised Eastern Buddhism?
Passage: Various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism. The Mañjusrimulakalpa, which later came to classified under Kriyatantra, states that mantras taught in the Saiva, Garuda and Vaisnava tantras will be effective if applied by Buddhists since they were all taught originally by Manjushri. The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, a work associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Saiva guru and initiating members into Saiva Siddhanta scriptures and mandalas. The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Saiva text Tantrasadbhava, introducing a copying error where a deity was mistaken for a place.

Question: The royal courts sponsored both Buddhism and what?

Question: Mantras taught in the Saiva, Garuda, and Vaisnava tantra will be effective if applied by who?

Question: What work is associated with Guhyasamaja tradition?
Passage: Buddhist scriptures and other texts exist in great variety. Different schools of Buddhism place varying levels of value on learning the various texts. Some schools venerate certain texts as religious objects in themselves, while others take a more scholastic approach. Buddhist scriptures are mainly written in Pāli, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese. Some texts still exist in Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.

Question: There is a great variety of what type of scripture?

Question: Some schools venerate certain texts as religious what?
Passage: Unlike many religions, Buddhism has no single central text that is universally referred to by all traditions. However, some scholars have referred to the Vinaya Pitaka and the first four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka as the common core of all Buddhist traditions.[page needed] This could be considered misleading, as Mahāyāna considers these merely a preliminary, and not a core, teaching. The Tibetan Buddhists have not even translated most of the āgamas (though theoretically they recognize them) and they play no part in the religious life of either clergy or laity in China and Japan. Other scholars say there is no universally accepted common core. The size and complexity of the Buddhist canons have been seen by some (including Buddhist social reformer Babasaheb Ambedkar) as presenting barriers to the wider understanding of Buddhist philosophy.

Question: Unlike most religions, Buddhism has no single central what?

Question: Tibetan Buddhists have not even translated most of the what?

Question: Some scholars say there is no universally accepted common what?

Question: What has been seen by some as a hinderance to understanding Buddhist philosophy?
Passage: Over the years, various attempts have been made to synthesize a single Buddhist text that can encompass all of the major principles of Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, condensed 'study texts' were created that combined popular or influential scriptures into single volumes that could be studied by novice monks. Later in Sri Lanka, the Dhammapada was championed as a unifying scripture.

Question: In Sri Lanka, what was determined to be the best unifying scripture?

Question: There have been attempts to create a single text with all the main ideas of what religion?

Question: condensed study texts where created in what tradition?
Passage: Dwight Goddard collected a sample of Buddhist scriptures, with the emphasis on Zen, along with other classics of Eastern philosophy, such as the Tao Te Ching, into his 'Buddhist Bible' in the 1920s. More recently, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to create a single, combined document of Buddhist principles in "The Buddha and His Dhamma". Other such efforts have persisted to present day, but currently there is no single text that represents all Buddhist traditions.

Question: Goddard collected mainly what type of Buddhist scripture?

Question: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar attempted to create a single combined document with all Buddhist principles and called it?
Passage: The Pāli Tipitaka, which means "three baskets", refers to the Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka. The Vinaya Pitaka contains disciplinary rules for the Buddhist monks and nuns, as well as explanations of why and how these rules were instituted, supporting material, and doctrinal clarification. The Sutta Pitaka contains discourses ascribed to Gautama Buddha. The Abhidhamma Pitaka contains material often described as systematic expositions of the Gautama Buddha's teachings.

Question: What means "three baskets"?

Question: What does the "three baskets" refer to?

Question: What contains disciplinary rules for Buddhist Monks and nuns?

Question: What contains discourses ascribed to Gautama Buddha?

Question: What contains material ofen described as systematic expositions of the Gautama Buddha teachings?
Passage: The Pāli Tipitaka is the only early Tipitaka (Sanskrit: Tripiṭaka) to survive intact in its original language, but a number of early schools had their own recensions of the Tipitaka featuring much of the same material. We have portions of the Tipitakas of the Sārvāstivāda, Dharmaguptaka, Sammitya, Mahāsaṅghika, Kāśyapīya, and Mahīśāsaka schools, most of which survive in Chinese translation only. According to some sources, some early schools of Buddhism had five or seven pitakas.

Question: What is the only Tipitaka to survive intact in its original language?

Question: Is is said that some early schools of buddhism had how many pitakas?
Passage: According to the scriptures, soon after the death of the Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held; a monk named Mahākāśyapa (Pāli: Mahākassapa) presided. The goal of the council was to record the Buddha's teachings. Upāli recited the vinaya. Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, was called upon to recite the dhamma. These became the basis of the Tripitaka. However, this record was initially transmitted orally in form of chanting, and was committed to text in the last century BCE. Both the sūtras and the vinaya of every Buddhist school contain a wide variety of elements including discourses on the Dharma, commentaries on other teachings, cosmological and cosmogonical texts, stories of the Gautama Buddha's previous lives, and various other subjects.

Question: Which monk presided after the death of the Buddha?

Question: What was the goal of the council?

Question: the vinaya was recited by?

Question: Who was the Buddha's personal attendant?

Question: Ananda was called upon to recite what?
Passage: Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically "Theravadin", but is instead the collection of teachings that this school preserved from the early, non-sectarian body of teachings. According to Peter Harvey, it contains material at odds with later Theravadin orthodoxy. He states: "The Theravadins, then, may have added texts to the Canon for some time, but they do not appear to have tampered with what they already had from an earlier period."

Question: Much of the material in the Canon is not specifically what?

Question: Who may have added texts to the Canon for some time?
Passage: The Mahayana sutras are a very broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that the Mahayana Buddhist tradition holds are original teachings of the Buddha. Some adherents of Mahayana accept both the early teachings (including in this the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, which was criticized by Nagarjuna and is in fact opposed to early Buddhist thought) and the Mahayana sutras as authentic teachings of Gautama Buddha, and claim they were designed for different types of persons and different levels of spiritual understanding.

Question: What are considered the original teachings of the Buddha?

Question: What is a very broad genre of Buddhist scripture?

Question: What teaching was criticized by Nagarjuna?
Passage: The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path. That path is explained as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings from unhappiness. Hence the name Mahāyāna (lit., the Great Vehicle).

Question: What sutras are reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path?

Question: What does Mahayana mean?

Question: What path is described as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings?
Passage: According to Mahayana tradition, the Mahayana sutras were transmitted in secret, came from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or were preserved in non-human worlds because human beings at the time could not understand them:

Question: What sutras were transmitted in secret?

Question: What sutras could have been preserved in non-human worlds?

Question: What tradition says that sutras might have come from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas?