Buddha statue

3D Model

Format: fbx Texture resolution 1k Texture format JPG Model accuracy LOD0-5

Around 500 BCE in India, the historical Buddha (Enlightened One), called Shaka-sama in Japan, taught his followers that pain and suffering are born of desire, but by eliminating this desire they can transcend the cycle of suffering and reach Nirvana or Enlightenment.

By the time Buddhism arrived in Japan, a major rift had already formed, dividing sects between Therevada and Mahayana Buddhism. The former is an early school whose goal is introspection, individual enlightenment and the quelling of desire.

Mahayana, the school that arrived in Japan from Korea around 500 CE, focuses more on becoming a bosatsu (or boddhisattva) - a near-Buddha being that delays going to Nirvana in order to help the faithful. This emphasis on public, not personal, salvation represents the shift from philosophy to religion that, as we will see, culminated in Japanese Buddhism.