My Midterm

Explain the "differing schools of thought" (main branches) within Buddhism and how they arose. What are the similarities (main Buddhist teachings that constitute them as Buddhist in the first place) and what are the main differences of each? Explain in depth. Compare and contrast these schools of thought. Use Smith's description of the different schools.

Answer:

After Buddha’s death, his believers split into two different camps. The first fundamental difference was whether a person is independent or interdependent. Some feel that they make their own way through life, whereas the other side believes that we are dependent upon each other for life. The second fundamental difference is relative to where humans stand in relation to the universe. Does the universe work with or against one? And the third fundamental difference is where the best part of a human is, within the mind or within its heart (is a thought more important than a feeling, or does one go after wisdom then compassion.) The first group based their belief on Buddha saying regarding how one should diligently work out his/her own salvation and felt that this should be there full time vocation. The other group attached themselves more to the compassionate side of Buddha and related more to the regular working person. The outlooks came to be known with the analogy of a raft (yana,) as rafts were vessels capable of taking people across the river of life. The second group really adopted Buddhism for all people in general and became better known as the big raft (Mahayana.) The first group was then better known as the little raft (Hinayana.) The Hinayana group preferred to call their group the Theravada (or “the way of the Elders”) and claimed to exhibit original Buddhism.

For a Theravada Buddhist, ones way is a result of individual effort with no help coming from any exterior source. This is counter to what the Mahayana’s think as for them grace and outside influence is the key. A Theravada Buddhist works towards wisdom or the true nature of reality, what causes anxiety, suffering, etc… From these flow the Four Noble Truths. From the Mahayana view, one must continually seek after and work for compassion. Most of the Buddhist monks and nuns (professional believers) come from the Theravada Buddhist side, whereas Mahayana side is more a less a religion for regular (non-professional) believers. One from the Theravada camp would pursue his/her quest for Nirvana alone, whereas one from the Mahayana camp would still pursue, but just before reaching it would return to help others obtain it. Each of the two camps has a different idea about who Buddha was. The Theravada camp thinks of him as a saint, one who on his own efforts awakened himself to the truth, whereas the Mahayana camp believes he is a savior and continues to draw people to himself. Further differences can be found in the way Threravadins; don’t dwell or speculate; only form of prayer was meditation and stay very close to only early Pali texts. Mahayana’s on the other hand, their prayer made requests that called on Buddha himself for assistance, accepted most later texts of Buddhist thought and had a much higher opinion of themselves in relation to being able to reach Nirvana. Theravadains also believed in the concept of having an entire society founded on monarchy, the monastic community and laity. Each would have their own unique contributions serving each other. Some counties (Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia) have actually adopted this vision. Other counties (China, Korea, Japan and Tibet) adopted more of a Mahayanist view. Of the two camps, the Mahayana side has many more followers than that of its counter part the Theravada camp.

Over time the Theravada camp has continued in the same fashion. The Mahayana camp on the other hand divided its self up into different schools. The Pure Land school relies on Buddha’s compassion to bring them to the final destination. Ti’en Tai in China and Tendai in Japan connected concepts of Confucianism to Buddhism for promoting learning and harmony.

The Buddhism that Taoism most affected became “Ch’an” (Zen in Japanese.) The Zen form of Buddhism is unique in that it actually turns things around to arrive at the opposite meaning without saying it. All of it is carried off in a cheerful but innocent form. It originated from a sermon by Buddha where instead of speaking all he did was hold up a golden lotus flower. Zen followers work on problems that go beyond the agitation of ones mind to press one to go higher.

A third camp emerged form Buddhism called the Diamond Way (Vajrayana.) This camp looks at strength and in particular how it can be used to realize the wisdom and compassion that Buddha taught. It also added to Buddha’s teachings the interrelatedness of things. The lifeblood of Vajrayana is Tantra. Tantra energy that is best known is sex. Tantra embraces sex as a spiritual ally.

Each of the camps respects Buddha the founder, and each utilizes the symbol of a raft crossing the river. For Buddhism is used for the voyage one takes in life. It shows us how to build a raft. For Theravada, it’s a single person raft, for the Mahayana the raft becomes more like a river raft.