Buddhism is one of the world’s “five great religions of the world,” dating back some 2600 years to its founding teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha. Despite its status as such, it might alternatively be considered a philosophy, an approach to psychology, or simply a discipline that can help us live our lives with less stress and more clarity, peace, and interconnection.
Buddhist teachings, also known as the dharma, can be those attributed to the historical Buddha — for example, the universally accepted Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path — or any confluent teachings from any Buddhist teacher after him, so long as they maintain the core quality of addressing and working with the causes of suffering through the conscious cultivation of key capacities like compassion, wisdom, meditation, clear-seeing, mindfulness, renunciation, community, and more.
While different Buddhist individuals and groups might address the cultivation of these capacities in what might appear to be slightly or sometimes even wholly different ways, there needn’t be any conflict in one’s mind about which are “better” than the others. This is because Buddhists uphold the notion of upaya, or skillful means — which asserts that it’s only a positive thing that there are so many different approaches, because there are so many different kinds of people and approaches to learning. What might work for some might not work for others, but with so many teachings and innovations developing over millennia, there’s an approach to the dharma out there for everyone.
What we might think of as the “tree of Buddhism” has seemingly endless small branches and even some relatively new budding ones, but essentially comes down to two main traditions: Theravada and Mahayana, and then Vajrayana, which developed from Mahayana.
Theravada
Theravada Buddhism, focused on preserving the Buddha’s teachings as found in the Pali Canon, is the longest-surviving school of Buddhism. It is dominant in Southeast Asia and has been influential in the West, particularly through the Insight tradition.
Theravada means “the teachings of the elders of the order,” a reference to the fact that this is the tradition that dates back the furthest/closest to the time of Shakyamuni Buddha and the spiritually inclined compatriots who practiced and studied the dharma with him. It should be noted that it wouldn’t be until centuries after Shakyamuni’s death that his teachings would be written down — until that time, the teachings had been transmitted solely via recitation.
As such, Theravada is the closest source we have for the dharma as the Buddha himself taught it, and may be considered a sort of “foundational Buddhism,” though its rules for monastics (vinaya) and other types of codification would be recorded and further developed by the Buddha’s followers, as noted, well after his death. Though many innovations and even differences would be forthcoming from across centuries and geographic boundaries, all Buddhist teachings share roots with the core teachings found in the Theravada. These include, as noted, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold path; ethical teachings; an emphasis on meditation as a path to peace; the doctrines of non-self (anatta), impermanence (annica) and nirvana (the cessation of suffering); dependent arising or interdependent origination, and more.
Theravada is common in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kampuchea), and is recognized in the West and worldwide, with its teachings being adopted widely and adapted, specifically, by the modern Vipassana, or Insight meditation, movement as championed by modern teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, S.N. Goenka, Dipa Ma, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Larry Rosenberg, Tara Brach, Ruth Denison, Gil Fronsdal, and others.
Theravada Principles
Theravada adheres to the path of the Buddha as laid out in the three baskets of the Pali Canon: the Suttas (discourses of the Buddha), the Vinaya (rules of conduct), and Abhidharma (Buddhist psychology). These teachings emphasize the renunciation of worldly desires and meditation practice leading to complete insight into the true nature of existence as impermanent (Pali, anicca), marked by suffering (Pali, dukkha), and free of a continuously existing self (Pali, anatta)—thereby achieving nirvana and liberation from the endless cycle of rebirth (samsara).
Buddhists who identify as Theravada follow closely the path laid out in the Pali Canon and in the commentaries that emerge from it, such as The Path of Purification (Pali: Visuddhimagga), a summary of commentaries produced in the fifth century by the great teacher and translator Buddhaghosa and a prominent source of core meditation teachings.
Theravada’s Forms
Since its birth, Theravada has manifested in several forms, most notably:
- The Kammatthana Forest Tradition of Thailand, also known as the Thai Forest tradition began with Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto around 1900. Ajahn Mun emphasized the rules of Buddhist monasticism (vinaya) as well as the practice of Vipassana, or Insight meditation, which would of course become the major element of the modern Insight movement.
- The Sri Lankan Forest Tradition has been and remains a vital part of Theravada. Indeed, the Pali Canon was first transcribed from the oral teachings in Sri Lanka, the world’s oldest Theravada Buddhist country.
- There is also a form known as Southern Esoteric Buddhism, which the British scholar of Buddhism L.S. Cousins (1942-2015) described as “a type of Southern Buddhism which links magical and ritual practices to a theoretical systematization of the Buddhist path itself.”
- And there is the modern Vipassana, or Insight movement, which derives from Theravada but has adapted its teachings to render them more suitable for nonmonastic lay practitioners as well.
Key Theravada Teachings and Texts
The Pali Canon — the Pali Tipitaka, also known as the Pali Canon, is one of the earliest and most comprehensive collections of Buddhist teachings attributed to the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. It also contains sections on rules for monastics and Buddhist philosophy. It is indispensable for students of Buddhism in general and foundational Buddhism in particular. As with Buddhaghosa’s aforementioned The Path of Purification, many Theravada texts followed to comment and expand upon what was laid out in the Pali Canon, including works on meditation, ethics, Buddhist psychology (Abdhidhamma) and more.
Mahayana
Mahayana (Sanskrit for “Great Vehicle” or “Great Path”) is the second primary branch of Buddhism. It is the dominant form of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. In Tibet, it developed into Vajrayana. Its birth and development are traced back to India in the first century BCE.
Mahayana Principles
A primary focus of Mahayana is the bodhisattva ideal, putting others’ needs — including the need for ultimate spiritual realization — before one’s own, and what Mahayana Buddhists refer to as the perfection of wisdom.
Around the second or first century BCE, at the time the earliest Buddhist teachings were being committed to writing, a new cycle of sutras (foundational Buddhist texts) began to appear called Prajnaparamita (Sanskrit: Perfection of Wisdom) sutras. Though their designation as actual words of the historical Buddha was and remains controversial, they gradually developed a large following. The Prajnaparamita sutras expanded the insights of Buddhism as they had been expounded up to that time — declaring that there is nothing truly existing for the mind to cling to. They proclaimed that the nature of all phenomena is shunyata (emptiness).
The notion of the bodhisattva also existed in the earliest dharma teachings. But the Mahayana sutras took what had been a historical description of a future buddha, and transformed it into an ideal motivation to which all practitioners could aspire.
The Mahayana sutras also introduced many elements not found in the earlier sutras. They contained novel cosmologies and mythologies, stories of pure lands and cosmic buddhas and bodhisattvas. The central force of the tradition, however, lay in cultivating the experience of shunyata and engaging in practices to develop the bodhisattva virtues. A robust commentarial tradition emerged that flourished in great Buddhist monastic universities such as Nalanda and Vikramashila.
Mahayana would be exported to East Asia when, according to legend, the great teacher Bodhidharma traveled from India to China around the fifth or sixth century.
Mahayana’s Forms
Mahayana’s forms include:
- The Madhyamika or “Middle Way” school, informed by the teachings on emptiness by the great teacher Nagarjuna as recorded in his famed work, Mulamadhyamakakarika (“Root Verses on the Middle Way”);
- The Yogacara or “yoga practice” school, founded by the 4th-century teacher Asanga, with its emphasis on meditation as a tool for investigating and analyzing consciousness;
- The Chan / Zen / Seon schools and their permutations;
- Pure Land Buddhism, with its focus on achieving rebirth in a Pure Land or “buddhafield”;
- The Jodo Shinshu school, also known as Shin — the most practiced Japanese form
- Shingon, also known as the “mantra” school and one of the few East Asian Vajrayana schools still extant;
- Nichiren Buddhism, based on the teachings of the Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher Nichiren Daishonin (1222–1282), which emphasize the idea of buddhanature as a trait inherent to us all, and that buddhahood is thereby attainable to all;
and many, many(!) others.
Key Mahayana Teachings and Texts
The core teachings of Mahayana are that all phenomena lack permanent independent existence, all phenomena dependently arise (i.e., they emerge in an interdependent web of relationship with all other phenomena), and the practice of the paramitas (transcendent, virtuous conduct of the bodhisattvas) will lead to realization. The basic motivation in the Mahayana is bodhichitta, the desire to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. This is achieved by realizing two-fold selflessness: personal selflessness and phenomenal selflessness (that what we see, hear, etc., lacks an ongoing permanent existence that we can cling to).
Probably the most well-known and frequently recited text in the Mahayana tradition is the Heart Sutra (Prajñaparamitahrdaya Sutra). Other seminal Mahayana texts are Nagarjuna’s Root Verses on the Middle Way, Chandrakirti’s Entering the Middle Way, Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva and Maitreya’s Uttaratantra. Influential Mahayana sutras, in addition to the Heart Sutra, include the Lotus Sutra, the Lankavatara Sutra, and the Avatamsaka Sutra, which is also known as the Flower Ornament Sutra and is highly influential in Chan and Zen. It includes the widely cited metaphor of Indra’s Net.
Vajrayana
Vajrayana (the “vajra” or “diamond vehicle,” signifying the indestructibility of its wisdom) is one of the terms for an esoteric tradition of Buddhism that is also known as Buddhist Tantra or Mantrayana. Yana is a Sanskrit word meaning vehicle or path. While all of these terms identify the same tradition, each emphasizes something slightly different about it.
Use of the term tantra, or tantrayana, signifies the use of yogic practices, visualization, chanting, and other forms of esoteric practice as means of gaining realization. While mantra, in its most basic meaning, refers to a sacred utterance chanted in a ritual setting, its deeper meaning is sacred speech that protects the mind from being distracted into samsara. Mantra protects the mind from the tendency to jump away from the present moment.
Vajrayana Principles
The Vajrayana is presented from the perspective that all beings possess buddhanature, self-existing, original wisdom. At its core are the skillful methods used to reveal this wisdom under the guidance of a qualified teacher or teachers. These methods are the practices of the “creation stage” of deity meditation, and the “completion stage” of dissolving the visualization into emptiness, as well as direct investigations into the nature of mind. The basic motivation in Vajrayana is to recognize our own buddhanature, the true nature of our own minds, and the true nature of the environment and all beings.
In the Vajrayana view, all phenomena are primordially pure. Ego is understood as a factor that emerges to obscure this understanding, and it can be transformed into wisdom by the use of various skillful means. Adherence to this view is enhanced through a devotional relationship to a guru, or Vajrayana teacher, who holds to this view with uncompromising conviction.
Vajrayana’s Forms
While it is common to see “Vajrayana” reductively referred to as “Tibetan Buddhism” — most likely its best-known form — this can be a bit of a misnomer. Vajrayana first developed in fifty-century India, spreading in time to Tibet, Nepal, and beyond into East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Mongolia. There are traditions well outside of “Tibetan Buddhism” that are considered Vajrayana, for example Shingon (also known as Japanese Esoteric Buddhism) and Newar Buddhism.
Key Vajrayana Teachings
The view of Vajrayana is transmitted through advanced Mahayana teachings, especially on buddhanature (that each of us is a Buddha in essence); on sunyata (Sanskrit: emptiness; indicating that all beings and all phenomena are empty of independent existence); and on compassion (when ego-clinging is fully dispelled, a natural caring for all beings emerges). Vajrayana employs a wide range of practices that will vary from lineage to lineage and student to student. In general, these include formless meditation (meditation with no particular object of meditation), visualization, chanting, mantra recitation, movement, yoga, art, and many other methods—all intended to accelerate the realization arising from mindfulness and awareness.
Related Reading
Looking Into the Future of Vajrayana Buddhism In the West
Lama Karma Yeshe Chödrön, Lama Justin von Bujdoss, and Lama Drupgyu Tenzin (Anthony Chapman) join Lion’s Roar/Buddhadharma editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod to discuss how, or if, the very advanced practices of Tantric Buddhism can be introduced and promulgated in modern Western society.
Theravada Practice Off the Cushion
A roundtable discussion with Gil Fronsdal, Michael Liebenson Grady and Marcia Rose. Introduction by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Vajrayana Explained
The late Karma Kagyu master Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche presents a clear explanation of the view of Vajrayana and its main practices of generation and completion.
American Theravada Buddhism in the 21st Century
The oldest lineage of Buddhism, Theravada is known for sharing the earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha. Building on this ancient lineage, Theravada today is innovative and diverse. Derek Pyle reports on the tapestry of communities that make up American Theravada.
To Enter the Vajrayana Start at the Beginning
It is the kindness of the buddhas to provide us with a complete path, and the preliminary practices are part of that path.
The Bodhisattva Path of Mahayana Buddhism
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on the bodhisattva path of Mahayana Buddhism.
Glimpses of Mahayana
The Mahayana Buddhist path is a way of expanding, and the Mahayana teacher, the spiritual friend, acts as the entrance to that journey.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in the Mahayana Tradition
In the Mahayana tradition, mindfulness is regarded as wisdom, transcendental knowledge, which is known in Sanskrit as prajna. There are several stages we progress through in our study and cultivation of prajna. These become the means for integrating our understanding into our experience, and progressively developing that experience into the full state of realization.
Trikaya: The Mahayana Buddhist Trinity
The “three bodies of the Buddha” may seem like a remote construct, says Reginald Ray, but the trikaya is present in every moment of our experience.
Buddhism A–Z
Explore essential Buddhist terms, concepts, and traditions.