乾县铁佛寺移动版

ANSWER: At its height, Buddhism stretched from Mongolia to the Maldives, from Balkh to Bali, and thus it had to appeal to people of many different cultures. Further, it endured for many centuries and had to adopt and adapt as people’s social and intellectual   life  developed.   Consequently  while  the  essence  of  the   Dhamma remained the same its outward form changed greatly. Today there are three main types of Buddhism – Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana.

QUESTION: What is Theravada?

ANSWER: The name Theravada means The Teachings of the Elders and is based mainly on the Pali Tipitaka, the oldest and most complete record of the Buddha’s teachings.  Theravada  is  a  more  conservative  and  monastic-centered  form  of

Buddhism which emphasizes the basics of the Dhamma and  tends to  take a more simple and austere approach. Today Theravada is practiced mainly in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and parts of South-east Asia.

QUESTION:  What is Mahayana Buddhism?

ANSWER: By about  the 1st  century BCE some of  the implications of   the Buddha’s teachings were being explored more deeply.  Also, society was developing and this required new and more relevant interpretations of the teachings.  The many schools that grew out of these new developments and interpretations  were collectively called Mahayana,  meaning  The  Great  Way,  because     they  claimed  to  be  relevant  to everyone, not just   to  monks and nuns who had renounced the world. Mahayana eventually became the dominant form of Buddhism in India and today is practiced in China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Japan. Some Theravadins say that Mahayana is a distortion of the  Buddha’s  teachings.  However,  Mahayanists  point  out  that  the Buddha accepted change as one of the most fundamental of all truths and that their interpretation of Buddhism is no more a distortion of the Dhamma than an oak tree is a distortion of an acorn.

QUESTION: I have often seen the term Hinayana. What does this term mean?

ANSWER: When Mahayana was developing it wanted to distinguish itself from the earlier schools of Buddhism so it called itself Mahayana, the Great Way, and dubbed the  earlier  schools  Hinayana,  meaning  the  Little  Way.  Therefore,  Hinayana  is  a somewhat sectarian term that Mahayanists give to Theravadins.

QUESTION: What about Vajrayana?

ANSWER:  This  type  of  Buddhism  began  to  emerge  in  India  in  the  6th    and  7th centuries CE at a time when Hinduism was undergoing a major revival in India. In response to this some Buddhists were influenced by aspects of Hinduism especially the worship of deities and the use of elaborate rituals. In the 11th  century Vajrayana became well established in Tibet where it underwent further developments. The word Vajrayana means the Diamond Way and refers to the supposedly unbreakable logic that Vajrayanists used to justify and defend some of their ideas. Vajrayana relies more on a type of literature called tantras than on the traditional Buddhist scriptures and therefore is sometimes also known as Tantrayana. Vajrayana now prevails in Mongolia, Tibet, Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan and amongst Tibetans living in India.

QUESTION: This could all be very confusing. If I want to practice Buddhism how can I know which type to choose?

ANSWER: Perhaps we could compare it to a river. If you went to the source of a river and then to its mouth they would probably look very different. But if you followed the river from its source, as it wound its way through hills and dales, over waterfalls and past the numerous small streams that flowed into it, you would eventually arrive at  its mouth and understand why it seemed to be so different from the source. If you wish to study Buddhism, start with the earliest basic teachings – the  Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the life of the historical Buddha and so on. Then study  how  and  why  these  teachings  and  ideas  evolved  and  then  focus  on  the (责任编辑：admin)