Dharma : Buddhist

Abstract

Developing from the etymological meaning of the word, dharma is outlined in its Buddhist meanings. The entry explains how the word dharma in a Buddhist context is, on the one hand, interpreted from within the traditional Indian philosophical and religious spheres, and how, on the other hand, new meanings were given to the word which are exclusively Buddhist. These new meanings are the outcome of the fundamentally different approach Buddhism had to the nature of a person and a person's relation to the world, as well as of the particular Buddhist interpretation of this world as such. These new meanings of the word dharma are intrinsically related to the person of the historical Buddha.