Buddhist Philosphy

There are many different ways to view and practice the Buddhist religion, whether its different forms of meditation or different schools to learn through. The buddhist religion has been around for nearly 2,500 years, beginning in India and slowly progressing towards Asia and the West. Buddhism originated from the teachings of Siddarttha Gautman, who came to be called the Buddha or “the enlightened one” after leaving his kingdom at 29 to live the ascetic life.

When looking deeper into the buddhist religion, you find two separate schools that are taught and practiced; Theravada and Mahayana. Within the first five hundred years after Buddha’s death the two schools; Theravada and Mahayana, were developed. The separation between these two schools were divided on their opinions of three essential questions (“The Main Schools of Buddhism,” n.d.). These three questions focus on whether or not human beings are inherently social creatures or not, if the world is essentially safe or dangerous, and lastly is feeling or reason the more basic attribute of human beings. Depending on which answer you give to each question, you are directed in the path of either the Theravada (Little Raft) or the Mahayana (Big Raft) school.

To distinguish between the two schools, as I mentioned, an individual is asked three essential questions. The first question being; “Are human beings inherently social creatures or not?” if answer “no” you are directed to Theravada, where if your answer is “yes” you are directed to Mahayana (“The Main Schools of Buddhism,” n.d.). The second question asked is “Is the world essentially safe or dangerous?” when answering this question, “safe” would be for the Mahayana school, where “dangerous” would be the Theravada school (“The Main Schools of Buddhism,” n.d.). Lastly, when asked the final question “Is feeling (valuing) or reason the more basic attribute of human beings?” the answer “feeling” relates to the Mahayana school and the answer “reason” relates to the Theravada school (“The Main Schools of Buddhism,” n.d.).

Theravada is also known as the “Way of the Elders” and goes by many other names, Buddha himself called the religion he founded Dhamma-vinaya, “the doctrine and discipline,” which is in reference to two fundamental aspects of the system (Bullitt, n.d). The Theravada school could also be identified as “Southern Buddhism,” because of its historical dominance in Southern Asia (Bullitt, n.d.). When studying the Theravada school in more depth you come to notice it focuses on realism and the realization by self-effort rather than the idea of absolute idealism. Up until the late 19th century the Theravada teaching were little known outside of both Southern and Southeast Asia where it grew for about two and one-half millennia (Bullitt, n.d.). Many Theravada schools were established across of Europe and North America, also a large number of