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Śāsana

Buddhist term for their philosophy and practice

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2025
Entity authorityQ3847686
Source-derived summary

Śāsana (Sanskrit: शासन, śāsana; Pali: sāsana) is a Buddhist term for the distribution time or availability of the teachings of a Buddha. The currently available philosophy and practice dates back to Siddhartha Gautama, and is only accessible for a limited period.

It can be translated as teaching, practice, discipline, doctrine, and the "Teaching of the Buddha". Śāsana is considered a more accurate term than "religion", as it avoids the implication of an unchanging, divine call from an all-knowing creator god.

The term śāsana is also used for the 5,000-year Buddha's Dispensation; the current śāsana is of Śakyamuni Buddha.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Śāsana” is buddhist term for their philosophy and practice. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Śāsana, Buddhist and term, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 98-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Śāsana, Buddhist and term is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “buddhist term for their philosophy and practice” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3847686. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Śāsana”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Śāsana primary sources, Śāsana archive and Śāsana research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Śāsana”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Śāsana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.