This change was done in order for the laypeople to be able to obtain salvation through faith and good works that helped others. Through this thinking came the Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism was designed for the everyday life of the laypeople in order for them to be able to comprehend and observe Buddhism (84). So Buddhism was started by one man's seek for truth, yet he never set out to start a religion or claimed to be a god. It was only after his death, that his disciples decided to continue preaching his teachings. His teachings continue to spread throughout India until 600 C.E. Buddhism then started to decline because it offered no ceremonies for birth, marriage or death. Failing to provide the people in India with the understanding of life, Buddhism faded within India, but then moved on into central Asia and China. The teachings of Buddha were spread by traders, missionaries, and by Chinese converter's who studied in India and traveled along the silk trade route. When Buddhism was first presented to the Chinese, it was done so under the influence of the Taoist who used their own vocabulary for the translations. Therefore, the Chinese assumed Buddhism was only a slight variation of their own religion, when in fact they contradicted each other (Braudel 182). The Taoist believes in the absolute, which is the primary life force from which everything derives. They seek to reach the state in which there is neither present, nor past and that there is neither life nor death, it just is. Whereas the Buddhist believe in reincarnation and that life involves suffering. That the self has no real existence- they are only illusions. Buddhism reached its peak in China around 700 C.E. From there Buddhism would then face yet another decline. The cause of the decline was due to internal decay and government -2- hostility. Monasteries and shrines were destroyed; nuns and monks were defrocked by the thousands.
