Role of Pedagogy in the Development and Vicissitude of Buddhism

From the point of historical analysis, this study recognises the role of pedagogy in bringing vicissitude to Buddhism from its origin to now, and revisits Comte’s three-stage theory in the Indian sub-continent. It also demystifies religious philosophy by illustrating its epistemological base of origin, expansion, and reinterpretation. Information was generated from the translated Nikaya texts and other secondary texts, and analysis was carried out using a hermeneutic approach. From its origin in Varanasi in 600 BC to the Tibetan Plateau in the 20th Century, Buddhism accomplished three major turning points and some minor vicissitudes. Buddhism, whose original form is Dharma-Vinaya, a combination of doctrine and practice, emerged from the practice of the middle path, and the doctrine was developed as a byproduct. Around 300 AD, a new school, Mahayana, emerged that ascended an arhat up to the saviour God. Similarly, around 1400 AD, the noble eightfold path was revised to tantric sex and the arhat into the Tulku. While expanding the doctrine, scholars, monks, and sages interpreted and taught it as per the learners’ epistemological base by changing the content. Pedagogy is the primary cause of vicissitude in Buddhism, and new emergences are the product of fulfilling the ‘gap’ in the epistemological paradigm between the teachers and the learners.