Types of Buddhism

There are many many types of Buddhism much like there are many denominations of Christianity. They broadly split into 2 groups, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, both of which have their origins in India:

1. Theravada Buddhism

This school is the oldest school and is based on the earliest collections of Buddha’s teachings which were written in a language called Pali. Indeed the very word theravada means the teaching of the elders. Its teachings include the 4 noble truths, the 3 characteristics of existence, the 8-fold path and meditation.

2. Mahayana Buddhism

Literally meaning “Great Vehicle”, this is the larger school of Buddhism and has many subcategories, the most well known being Zen, Tibetan and Pure Land Buddhism. It was developed a few hundred years after Buddha’s time at around 100 BCE.

The main teaching that marks it out as being different is the bodhisattva ideal. While bodhisattva literally means one with a pure intellect (Sanskrit: bodhi = intellect, sattva = purity) and was originally used by the Theravada to refer to the Buddha in his former lives before he attained enlightenment, it has come to mean one who works to help all sentient being attain enlightenment. In some teachings a bodhisattva is someone who attains enlightenment and then tries to help others, and in other teachings the bodhisattva is someone who delays his own enlightenment in order to help others.

Mahayana stresses teachings on emptiness (Sanskrit: s unyata ) which is also discussed in the Theravada and also talks about various concepts not present in the Theravada teachings such as Buddha Nature.

In many respects Mahayana is strikingly similar to the Hindu school of Vedanta, often using similar concepts and even the same Sanskrit words. Like all these systems, they have borrowed from each other over the centuries and in my view they all essentially say the same thing anyway.

Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibetan schools sometimes consider themselves to be a separate form of Buddhism. They classify their teachings as having 3 parts: the Hinayana (lesser vehicle), Mahayana (greater vehicle) and Vajrayana (Tantra, literally = Diamond vehicle, Vajra = diamond). This Tantra is not to be confused with the Tantra of the Kama Sutra and does not specifically refer to sexual practices, but refers to practices that require direct transmission between student and teacher and includes various meditations, rituals, visualisations and yogic disclipines.