As you may know, there are many forms
of Buddhism, all of which are rooted in the Buddha's teachings.
The different schools focus on different
aspects of the teachings. One of the best descriptions of the
reason for so many different types
of Buddhism that I have read comes from a small piece of text on
BuddhaNet
which states:
Buddhism has
evolved into different forms so that it can be relevant to the different
cultures in which it exists.
It has been
reinterpreted over the centuries so that it can remain relevant to each
new generation. Outwardly,
the types
of Buddhism may seem very different but at the centre of all of them is
the Four Noble Truths and
the Eightfold
Path. All major religions, Buddhism included, have split into schools and
sects. But the different
sects of
Buddhism have never gone to war with each other and to this day, they go
to each other's temples
and worship
together. Such tolerance and understanding is certainly rare.
Mahayana Buddhism
This is one of the earliest great
schools of buddhism, the other being Theravada (Hinayana). Mahayana
is Sanskrit for "Great Vehicle"
- it is called "great vehicle" because it expresses the intention to liberate
all beings rather than just oneself.
The Mahayana and Theravada are both rooted in the basic teachings
of the historical Buddha, but stress
different aspects of those teachings. While Theravada seeks the
liberation of the individual, Mahayana
seeks to attain enlightenment for the sake of the welfare of all
beings. There is a zen story that
seems to be addressed to expressing the difference between Mahayana
and Theravada Buddhism:
Paradise
Two people are lost in the desert.
They are dying from hunger and thirst. Finally, they come to a high
wall. On the other side they
can hear the sound of a waterfall and birds singing. Above, they can see
the branches of a lush tree extending
over the top of the wall. Its fruit look delicious.
One of them manages to climb over
the wall and disappears down the other side. The other, instead,
returns to the desert to help
other lost travelers find their way to the oasis.
The Mahayana places less value on
monasticism than the Theravada; by contrast to early Buddhism,
here the layperson can also attain
nirvana, in which endeavor he can rely on the active help of
buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Bodhisattva
The Bodhisattva ("enlightened essence")
is a being who delays his entry into Nirvana in order to
help all sentient beings attain
enlightenment, out of compassion, remaining in the samsaric realm
in order to help others along the
path. Mahayana Buddhists take what is called the Bodhisattva
vow, which states:
The deluding passions are inexhaustible.
I vow to extinguish them all.
Sentient beings are numberless.
I vow to save them all.
The truth is impossible to expound.
I vow to expound it.
The way of the Buddha is unattainable.
I vow to attain it.
The Mahayana developed from the Theravada
schools of the Mahasanghikas and Sarvastivadins,
which formulated important aspects
of its teaching. From the Mahasanghikas came the teaching,
characteristic of the Mahayana,
of the transcendent nature of a buddha, as well as the bodhisattva
ideal and notion of emptiness. Seeds
of the trikaya teaching can be recognized in the doctrine of the Savrastivadins.
Pure Land Buddhism
This type of Buddhism primarily consists
of faith. The goal of the followers of this school is to be reborn
into the pure land of Buddha Amitabha.
This school is characterized by its stress on the importance on
the profound faith in the power
and active compassion of Buddha Amitabha.
Amitabha made a vow to cause all
beings to be reborn in his pure land (Sukhavati), who trust themselves
to him with faithful devotion. Thus,
the way of the Pure Land school is often regarded as the "way of faith".
To be reborn into the Pure Land,
one (during death) has to call Amitabha's name ten times while visualizing
the paradise, and he will appear
and escort the person to Sukhavati.
There are generally two forms of
practice in that the followers of this school take part in. The recitation
of Amitabha's name serves to bring the mind under control. The practitioner
commits himself to a certain, usually very large, number of repetitions.
This meditation is intended to make it possible to have a vision of Amitahba
and his companions Avalokiteshvara
and Mahasthamaprapta even during this lifetime and to gain foreknowledge
concerning the time of one's death. This recitation can be done loud or
silently, with or without concentration
on an image of Amitabha. The second
type of practice consists of visualizations-which serve to cause Amitabha
and his pure land to arise before the spiritual eye of the practitioner.
The supreme stage of practice is the contemplation of Buddha Amitabha as
not separate from one's own being. The supreme achievement is seeing Amitabha
in a vision, which is considered a guarantee of being reborn in his pure
land.
In the modern world this form of
Buddhist practice is particularly stressed by the followers of Nichiren
Daishonin, a Japanese master of
the thirteenth century. He regarded the Lotus Sutra as the supreme
teaching of the Buddha, and faith
as the supreme attribute. Faith can be increased by daily chanting.
Chanting the mantra "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo"
becomes a practice of purification, which will affect daily
living and develop wisdom and compassion.
A teaching by Nichiren Daishonin states:
The common mortal himself is the
Buddha when he single-mindedly
chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with
strong faith. This is how he attains
enlightenment naturally without
discarding his life as a common-mortal.
Theravada Buddhism
Theravada (formerly known as Hinayana-"small
vehicle") means "way of the elders." Theravada Buddhism
regards itself as the school closest
to the original form of Buddhism. Its canon, composed in the language
of Pali (the language Buddha spoke),
comes according to the view of the Theravadins, directly from the
mouth of Buddha. The teaching of
the Theravada consists essentially of the four noble truths, the eightfold
path, the doctrine of conditioned
arising, and the doctrine of man. The emphasis in the Theravada is on the
liberation of the individual, which takes place through one's own effort
(in meditation), and through observance
of the rules of moral discipline
and leading a monastic life.
It is said that the first Buddhist
scriptures were written down by Theravada monks at the fourth council in
Sri Lanka. The scriptures were written on palm leaves and became known
as the
Pali canon or Tipitaka. The term Tipitaka means "three
baskets," which refers to the threefold division of the scriptures,
known as Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka, and Abhidhamma Pitaka.
These scriptures can be found online
at http://world.std.com/~metta/canon/
Arhat
The Arhat (or Arahant) is the ideal
figure of this school, as is the bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism.
It is the highest aspiration in
Theravada Buddhism - to become an Arhat, or one who has passed beyond
the fetters of samsaric existence.
Arhat refers to "saints" or "sages" who, having followed the Buddha's
teachings, upon death, will enter
into Nirvana. The scriptures describe an arahant by a standard formula,
as one in whom the "outflows" (sense,
desire, becoming, ignorance) have "dried up"; one who has "done
what has to be done." However, the
question remained as to the distinction between an Arhat and a
Buddha. It was this distinction
that the Mahayana school exploited, indicating that the ideal of arhatship
and the goal of Nirvana were inferior
to the larger aspiration of Buddhahood and the Bodhisattva path,
which accentuated the virtues of
compassion, and of gaining emancipation for the sake of others rather
than for one's own entry into Nirvana.
Vajrayana Buddhism
Vajrayana means "Diamond Vehicle". This school of Buddhism developed around the middle of the first millennium, out of the teachings of the Mahayana, and reached Tibet, China, and Japan from central Asia and India, along with the Mahayana. This movement arose from a need to extend the worldview of Buddhism to confirm "magical" practices and is characterized by a psychological method based on highly developed ritual practices. Because of the use of mantras, Tibetan Buddhism also refers to the Vajrayana as the Mantrayana.
The teachings of the Vajrayana formed an esoteric tradition that combined elements of yoga and of the ancient Indian nature religion with original Buddhist thought. Decisive influences came from northwest India that led to a pronounced symbology of light.
A decisive role is played in the
Vajrayana by initiations, given by an authorized master that empower
the practitioner for meditative
practice connected with a specific deity and also necessarily place him
or
her under an obligation to carry
out such practice. Among these techniques are the recitation of mantras,
contemplation of mandalas, and special ritual gestures. For Vajrayana Buddhists,
the elimination of all
duality (unity in enlightenment)
is symbolized by the vajra.
Zen Buddhism
"Not thinking about anything is Zen.
Once you know this, walking, standing,
sitting, or lying down, everything
you do is Zen. To know that the mind is
empty is to see the Buddha...To
see no mind is to see the Buddha."
-Bodhidharma
Zen (or Ch'an, in Chinese) is derived
from the Indian word dhyana, which refers to meditation. When
Buddhism spread into China, and
then into Japan, the Ch'an and Zen schools developed from the teachings
and practice of the sixth-century
Indian monk, Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma's message was that Buddhist
tradition had become to attached
to the scriptures, and that the Buddha's teaching was understood by
watching the mind or looking into
one's own heart. Though the meditation school appeals to scripture to
ground its practices in the authority
of the Buddha, it does so only to support the capability of meditation
as an end in itself, as the truth
realized in action.
More than any other school, Zen stresses
the prime importance of the enlightenment experience and the uselessness
of ritual religious practices and intellectual analysis of doctrine for
the attainment of enlightenment. Zen teaches the practices of zazen, sitting
in meditative absorption, as the shortest, but also steepest,
way to awakening. Zen seeks meaning
from creative experiencing brought about in meditation. In this
simple, direct state, the mind is
fully open. The individual is neither striving nor planning but simply
"being".
Trivial concerns lose their attraction
in Zen, and things clarify intuitively and naturally.
Bodhidharma
When Bodhidharma brought Dhyana Buddhism
from India to China at the beginning of the 6th century,
he became the founder and first
patriarch of the lineage of Zen. He believed that people should not be
concerned with mere appearances,
that all appearances are illusions. Like the early Buddhists, Bodhidharma
saw the transitory nature of the
of everyday concerns and the importance of full commitment to meditation.
According to him, only the mind is always present; we just do not realize
it. When we get in touch with the
mind, we find the source of wisdom.
In "The Wake-Up Sermon," Bodhidharma
defined what he meant by mind and showed how our own mind is
the source of enlightenment:
To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind impossible.
The reality of your own self-nature, the absence of cause and effect,
is what is meant by mind. Your mind is nirvana. You might think you
can find a Buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind, but
such a place does not exist.
resources: The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen and T.Y.Buddhism
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