What’s the difference between Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana? Archives - Buddhism for Beginners

What’s the Difference Between Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana?

carolyngregoire1 — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 21:36:09 +0000

If you’re just starting out on the Buddhist path, it’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed by the number of different schools and their practices: Should you explore Zen? What is Shambhala? What lineage does Vipassana come from? Is Vajrayana the same thing as Tibetan Buddhism?

Buddhist schools have proliferated and evolved over time. While there exists today an astounding variety of Buddhist schools and lineages, there are three main schools that they can all be traced back to.

The three main branches of Buddhism are the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools. They’re also known as the three “vehicles,” because each represents a different means of carrying the practitioner across the ocean of samsara to the shore of enlightenment. The first school to develop was Theravada, followed by Mahayana, and then Vajrayana, the largest sub-tradition within Mahayana Buddhism. Today, the Mahayana school is the most commonly practiced form of Buddhism around the globe.

Learn about the two major traditions and the largest sub-tradition here.

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What is Theravada Buddhism? Theravada, the “way of the elders,” is the sole surviving sect among those that arose after the Buddha’s death.

What is Mahayana Buddhism? The Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) tradition, which arose in the 4th century, is now the largest Buddhist sect in the world.

What is Vajrayana Buddhism? A form of Mahayana Buddhism, the Vajrayana (“diamond”) vehicle is known for its swift and powerful methods for achieving awakening.

What is Theravada Buddhism?

Eliza Rockefeller — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:58:23 +0000

Of the sects that arose after the Buddha’s death, what we now call Theravada, the “way of the elders,” is the sole surviving strand. As the oldest of the three main Buddhist traditions, it is the one most closely associated with the teachings of the historical Buddha. The school is rooted in the Tipitaka (Sanskrit, Tripitaka), “the three baskets,” three collections of texts. Collected in the Tipitaka are some of the earliest known Buddhist texts: the Suttas (Sanskrit, sutras), accounts of hundreds of oral teachings given by the Buddha and his senior disciples; the Vinaya, rules of the monastic order; and the Abhidhamma (Sanskrit, Abhidharma), later scholarly commentaries on the teachings. Together they form the Pali canon, a collection of foundational texts that comprise the doctrinal basis of Theravada.

Theravada rests on core Buddhist teachings including the four noble truths and eightfold path to enlightenment, the three jewels (Buddha, dharma, and sangha), and concepts such as impermanence, non-self, karma, rebirth, and dependent origination (the co-arising of phenomena), along with ethical precepts and the meditation practices of samatha (calm abiding) and vipassana (insight).

Although the Buddha set out ethical guidelines for lay practitioners, Theravada is essentially a monastic tradition, emphasizing vows of renunciation and self-purification. For the Theravadin, the spiritual ideal is the arahant (Sanskrit, arhat), or “accomplished one,” who through solitary effort attains nirvana—liberation from the suffering of cyclic existence that marks samsara, or worldly life. In classical Theravada, a layperson could become a “stream-enterer”—the first of four levels of attainment on the path to enlightenment. But the disciplined life of a monastic was deemed essential to reach the highest level—a non-returner like the Buddha, whose “final nirvana” experienced at his death freed him from rebirth.

Theravada has sometimes been called “Southern Buddhism”: from its origins in northern India, it fanned out across southern Asia and today remains the predominant form of Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, and it is also practiced in Europe, the Americas, and beyond.

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What is Mahayana Buddhism?

Eliza Rockefeller — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:59:18 +0000

The second major vehicle of enlightenment to emerge is the Mahayana (“great vehicle”) tradition. Though its origins are not precisely known, scholars believed it arose in the 1st century CE and existed side-by-side with Theravada for some time before becoming a separate tradition. Mahayanists view their teachings as the “second turning of the wheel of dharma.” (The first turning refers to the Buddha’s initial teachings after his enlightenment, when he introduced the four noble truths.)

Mahayana Buddhism shares with Theravada a belief in the core teachings of the Buddha, but follows Sanskrit scriptures composed as much as 400 years after the Buddha’s death that are held to represent the words of the Buddha (buddhavacana). While individual awakening is the goal for most Theravadins, attained in gradual stages and only after lifetimes of practice, the Mahayana tradition teaches that all beings inherently possess buddhanature, the seed of awakening: thus perfecting the qualities of a buddha the buddha-to-be can remove hindrances to realization even within a single lifetime. The Mahayana spiritual model is the bodhisattva, who is motivated by bodhicitta, the desire to awaken to help all beings realize their true nature. The Buddha in Mahayana is eternally present in a pantheon of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and enlightened beings who can be called on for support.

Like the Theravada, the Mahayana schools teach practitioners to cultivate the paramitas (Pali, paramis), qualities such as generosity, morality, patience, concentration, and wisdom. Particularly associated with Mahayana is prajnaparamita, the understanding that all beings and phenomena are empty of inherent existence and arise only interdependently. Shunyata, or emptiness, is a central teaching in the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutras, fundamental texts of the Madhyamaka, or Middle Way school. The related doctrine of “two truths” holds that the everyday dualistic world of appearances (relative or conventional reality) and absolute or ultimate reality (emptiness) are not separate but one. Yogacara, the Mind-only school, asserts that reality in any form is a mental construct. Continuity of the phenomenal world is ascribed to a “storehouse” consciousness.

As Theravada moved south from the Ganges Valley, the Mahayana tradition spread north and east, roughly following the trading routes of the Silk Road. From China, Chan Buddhism migrated to Korea as Seon (or Son), to Vietnam as Thien, and to Japan as Zen. Other Mahayana schools developed in Japan, including the Pure Land schools and those based on the teachings of Nichiren, a Japanese priest. Vajrayana, a form of Mahayana that draws upon on esoteric Indian texts called tantras, settled in Tibet and the Himalayan region, and to some extent in Japan, in the Shingon and Tendai traditions.

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What is Vajrayana Buddhism?

Eliza Rockefeller — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:58:42 +0000

Vajrayana is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in northern India around the 5th century CE, took root in Tibet in the 7th and 8th centuries, and then spread across the Himalayan region. It is widely known as Tibetan Buddhism though tantric Buddhism is also found in Japan, in the Shingon and Tendai traditions. Vajrayana takes its name from vajra, Sanskrit for “diamond” or “thunderbolt,” suggesting the power of its methods.

Although Vajrayana shares with the Mahayana schools generally the view that we are already perfected and can awaken in a single lifetime, Vajrayana considers itself the fastest way to enlightenment. Its canon consists of texts known as the Kangyur (sutras and tantras considered to be the words of the Buddha) and the Tengyur (commentaries).

Vajrayana, like Mahayana, makes no distinction between samsara and nirvana: passions and aversions alike are embraced as skillful means to awakening. Though Vajrayana upholds the Mahayana bodhisattva ideal, its pantheon of celestial beings is more extensive, including a wealth of fierce protector deities and dakinis (female deities). Deity yoga—whereby a student takes on the identity of a chosen deity who represents enlightened qualities—is a central practice, guided by the guru, or lama, the master who initiates the student into esoteric practices. Ritual is key, including repetition of mantras (sacred syllables and verses), visualization of mandalas (sacred diagrams), sacred hand gestures (mudras), and prostrations. Ngondro, preliminaries, are prerequisites for higher tantric practices. The highest practices involve the symbolic union of the feminine (wisdom) and masculine (compassion) principles. Tantric practices are largely kept secret, to preserve the sanctity of the teachings and protect practitioners from energies they have not yet been trained to handle.

Of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the oldest is the Nyingma, whose founder is held to be the 8th-century Indian master Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche. Revered as the second Buddha, he is said to have hidden treasure texts (termas) to be discovered later both physically and in the mindstreams of tertons, or sacred masters. The Sakya school, headed by the Sakya Trizin (a hereditary title) is closely associated with the Hevajra-tantra, a text on nondualism, symbolized by the sacred union of the deity Hevajra and his consort. The Kagyu school traces its origins and practices to the Indian yogi Tilopa, the master Naropa, the translator Marpa, and his disciple Milarepa, Tibet’s poet-saint. The Kagyu school introduced the tulku system, the practice of recognizing reincarnations of great masters, thus continuing their lineages. The Gelug, the newest of the major Vajrayana schools, is a monastic sect incorporating elements of earlier schools; its most notable leader is the Dalai Lama.