The Story of Buddhism

     

Short Brief of Buddhism

    In this Blog post I will be talking about Buddhism and how it has an affect on the lives of its practitioners. Both of these chapters talk about the practicing of Buddhism. The differences between these two chapters though are that they each are talking about a different type of Buddhism. Chapter 11 talks about Theravada Buddhism, while chapter 12 talks about Mahayana Buddhism. The main ideas of both of these chapters is explaining the differences between the two Buddhism's and their teachings. "As mentioned earlier, the history of Buddhism is broadly divided between two great traditions, Theravada (also known as Hinayana) and Mahayana. Over time, Mahayana would become the larger and historically more influential movement"(Bresnan 243). Theravada Buddhism was a lot more exclusive on who was able to achieve freedom from pain and followed more from the oldest school in Buddhism, while Mahayana Buddhism was a lot more inclusive on who can reach peace and they followed the Buddhist traditions, texts, practices, and philosophies.

Buddhist praying to Buddha

   

 The question I will be answering for chapter 11 is question 1. In the centuries following Buddha's death, there was no such thing as Buddhism. The picture above this directly proves this statement. In Buddhism there is no deity it is a way of life and a philosophy. It was created to help people free themselves from this pain to eventually reach Nirvana. While this fact isn't entirely true as recent Buddhist always try to reach Nirvana, they now see Buddha as a god which is not what he wanted. "Buddhism was not intended to be a religious institution; it was fundamentally a secular movement based on the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha, within which men and to some degree women could devote their lives to the great quest for personal liberation"(Bresnan 262). He only wanted his teachings to be passed down to hep those in need of this wisdom and experience. The liberation from pain was his true goal before death.

Buddhist sharing their knowledge with each other.

    The question for chapter 12 will also be question. What was it about the character of the Theravadin tradition that opened the way for the rise of Mahayana? Why did Mahayanists refer to the Theravada tradition as “Hinayana? The character about the Theravadin that opened the way for Mahayana were that they seemed to selfish about their ideas. They became to elitist and to self-centered. "And within the orders, which seemed to attract members almost exclusively from the upper classes, each monk directed virtually all of his attention to his own personal goal of achieving nirvana. Theravada had become far too self-centered"(Bresnan 263). This selfishness of teachings caused the revolutionary movement of the Mahayanist to become popular. The Mahayanist referred to them as Hinayana as that was a vehicle to carry only a few select of people and the Theravada tradition only kept the teachings to the elite few rather than the public. Buddhism's teachings are very inspiring and these two different types have the same goal but two very different ways of teaching them.

Works Cited

Besnan, Patrick S. Awakening An Introduction to the the History of Eastern Thought. Routledge, 2018. 

Frederick, Randall. “The Meaning of Theravada Buddhism.” Theology & the City, 21 Dec. 2017, https://theologyandthecity.com/2017/12/21/the-meaning-of-theravada-buddhism/. 

“Mahayana Buddhism.” Mahayana Buddhism - Mahayana Buddhism Basics - Mahayana Buddhism Guide - Mahayana School of Buddhism, http://www.buddhist-temples.com/buddhism-schools/mahayana-buddhism.html.