Group 5

Theravāda Buddhism & Mahāyāna Buddhism

What is Buddhism?

 Buddhism is the world’s fourth-largest religion with over 520 million

followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists.
Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual
practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and
resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as
a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE,
spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are
generally recognized by scholars: Theravada (Pali: "The School of the Elders")
and Mahayana (Sanskrit: "The Great Vehicle").
Buddhism

 Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle
of death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of
Buddhahood. Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to
liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the
various Buddhist texts, and their specific teachings and practices.
Nirvana

 is commonly associated with Jainism and Buddhism, and represents its

ultimate state of soteriological release, the liberation from repeated rebirth
in saṃsāra. However, Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions describe these
terms for liberation differently. In the Buddhist context, nirvana refers to
realization of non-self and emptiness, marking the end of rebirth by stilling
the fires that keep the process of rebirth going.
Who is Buddha?

 Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was

a monk (śramaṇa), mendicant, sage, philosopher and teacher on whose
teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught
mostly in the northeastern part of ancient India sometime between the 6th and
4th centuries BCE. Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism. He is believed
by Buddhists to be an enlightened teacher who attained full Buddhahood and
shared his insights to help sentient beings end rebirth and suffering. Accounts
of his life, discourses and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have
been summarised after his death and memorized by his followers. Various
collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral
tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
Theravāda Buddhism

 Theravada Buddhism is the older of two major Buddhist traditions that base
their philosophies on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the
Buddha. Theravada means ''Way of the Elders'' in Pali, the original language of
these teachings. These teachings are usually referred to as sutras. Theravadins
only adhere to what they consider to be the original sutras. Theravada began in
India around 500 B.C. and has been practiced in numerous, mostly south
Asian, countries. Today it is practiced primarily in Burma, Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka.
Sacred Scriptures

 Sacred text in Theravada Buddhism consists strictly of the Tripitaka, or Pali

Canon. This oldest Buddhist text, written originally on three baskets, consists
of the “Discipline Basket” or “Vinaya Pitaka,” the “Discourse Basket” or
“Sutta Pitaka,” and the “Further Teaching” or “Abhidhamma Pitaka” The
Vinaya Pitaka contains five books detailing 277 monastic rules, the Sutta
Pitaka contains five collections of Buddha’s teachings and dialogues, and the
Abhidhamma Pitaka contains seven books of elaborations on other teachings
The Abhidhamma Pitaka includes the Dhammapada, a list of Buddha’s sayings
on significant topics such as thought, anger, and evil Theravada only allows its
sacred texts to be written in Pali.
Tripitaka (Pali Canon)
 The Tripiṭaka or Tipiṭaka is the traditional term for the Buddhist
scriptures. The version canonical to Theravada Buddhism is generally referred
to in English as the Pali Canon. The Tripitaka was composed between about
500 BCE to about the start of the common era, likely written down for the first
time in the 1st century BCE. The Dipavamsa states that during the reign
of Valagamba of Anuradhapura (29–17 BCE) the monks who had previously
remembered the Tipitaka and its commentary orally now wrote them down in
books, because of the threat posed by famine and war.
Vinaya Pitaka (Discipline Basket)

 The Vinaya Pitaka (Pali; English: Basket of Discipline) is

a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tripitaka (literally.
"Three Baskets"). The other two parts of the Tripitaka are the Sutta Pitaka and
the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Its primary subject matter is the monastic rules for
monks and nuns. The name Vinaya Pitaka (vinayapi aka) is the same in Pāli,
Sanskrit and other dialects used by early Buddhists.
Sutta Pitaka (Discourse Basket)

 The Sutta Pitaka (suttapiṭaka or Suttanta Pitaka Basket of Discourse) is the

second of the three divisions of the Tripitaka or Pali Canon, the Pali collection
of Buddhist writings of Theravada Buddhism. The Sutta Pitaka contains more
than 10,000 suttas (teachings) attributed to the Buddha or his close
companions.
Abhidhamma Pitaka
 The Abhidhamma Piṭaka is the last of the three pitakas (Pali for "baskets")
constituting the Pali Canon, the scriptures of Theravāda Buddhism.
The Abhidhamma Piṭaka is a detailed scholastic analysis and summary of the
Buddha's teachings in the Suttas. Here the suttas are reworked into a
schematized system of general principles that might be called 'Buddhist
Psychology'. In the Abhidhamma the generally dispersed teachings and
principles of the suttas are organized into a coherent science of Buddhist
doctrine.
Beliefs & Doctrines

 Theravadin Buddhists aspire to a perfect state of enlightenment, or nirvana.

Nirvana comes with the recognition that the ego, or the thing we think of as our
self, is an illusion that causes us and others pain and suffering. For
Theravadins, attainment of nirvana ends a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth
characterized by this pain and suffering.
The Four Noble Truths

 The Four Noble Truths contain the essence of the Buddha's teachings. It was
these four principles that the Buddha came to understand during his meditation
under the bodhi tree.
1. The truth of suffering (Dukkha)
2. The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)
3. The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)
4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)
Dukkha

 is an important Buddhist concept, commonly translated as "suffering", "pain",

"unsatisfactoriness" or "stress". It refers to the fundamental unsatisfactoriness
and painfulness of mundane life. It is the first of the Four Noble Truths.
Samudāya

 Samudaya sacca is the second of the four noble truths in Buddhism. It is

about the origins of dukkha (suffering). People are never satisfied as they
always want more or something else.
Nirodha

 Nirodha is a concept in Buddhism. It is one of the Four Noble Truths. It is the

end of suffering and its causes. According to Thubten Chodron, Nirodha is the
final disappearance of all bad experiences and their causes in such a way that
they can no longer occur again. By dropping the bonds of craving, one gets to
be released from the fundamental nature of reality.
Magga

 This directs an individual to the path or magga leading to the termination of

craving and desire, and to eventual cessation of pain. This is the path toward
moderation or the “Middle Way” aimed at ending suffering.
The Sangha

 Sangha is a word in Pali and Sanskrit meaning "association", "assembly",

"company" or "community" and most commonly refers in Buddhism to
the monastic community of bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns). These
communities are traditionally referred to as the bhikkhu-sangha or bhikkhuni-
sangha. As a separate category, those who have attained any of the four stages
of enlightenment, whether or not they are members of the monastic
community, are referred to as the āryasaṅgha "noble Sangha".
Mahāyāna Buddhism

 Mahāyāna (Sanskrit for "Great Vehicle") is one of two main existing branches
of Buddhism (the other being Theravada) and a term for classification
of Buddhist philosophies and practice. This movement added a further set of
discourses, and although it was initially small in India, it had long-term
historical significance.The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes
classified as a part of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but some scholars consider it to be
a different branch altogether. The Mahāyāna tradition is the largest major
tradition of Buddhism existing today, with 53% of practitioners, compared to
36% for Theravada and 6% for Vajrayana in 2010.
 Mahāyāna Buddhism takes the basic teachings of the Buddha as recorded
in early scriptures as the starting point of its teachings, such as those
concerning karma and rebirth, anātman, emptiness, dependent origination, and
the Four Noble Truths. Mahāyāna Buddhists in East Asia have traditionally
studied these teachings in the Āgamas preserved in the Chinese Buddhist
canon. "Āgama" is the term used by those traditional Buddhist schools in India
who employed Sanskrit for their basic canon. These correspond to
the Nikāyas used by the Theravāda school. The surviving Āgamas in Chinese
translation belong to at least two schools. Most of the Āgamas were never
translated into the Tibetan canon, which according to Hirakawa, only contains
a few translations of early sutras corresponding to the Nikāyas or Āgamas.
Sutra

 The Mahayana sutras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that various
traditions of Mahayana Buddhism accept as canonical. They are largely
preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibetan Buddhist canon, and in
extant Sanskrit manuscripts. Around one hundred Mahayana sutras survive in
Sanskrit, or in Chinese and Tibetan translations.
The Bodhisattva path

 The Mahāyāna bodhisattva path (mārga) or vehicle (yāna) is seen as

being the superior spiritual path by Mahāyānists, over and above the
paths of those who seek arhatship or "solitary buddhahood" for their
own sake (Śrāvakayāna and Pratyekabuddhayāna). According to eight
century Mahāyāna philosopher Haribhadra, the term "bodhisattva" can
refer to those who follow any of the three vehicles, since all are
working towards bodhi (awakening) and hence the technical term for
a Mahāyāna bodhisattva is a mahāsattva (great being) bodhisattva.