ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at ideas of time in Buddhism. Its unusual organization A attempts to mirror the fragmented character of Buddhist culture. Some contemporary scholars are reluctant to describe Buddhism as a single religion, preferring to speak of 'Buddhisms' as a means of describing the sects that have emerged since the death of Gotama, the figure conventionally known as the Buddha. The structure I have adopted here represents an attempt to negotiate a balance between stressing the unifying aspects of different branches of the faith and the avoidance of the creation of false commonalties between these different schools.