Theravada
Theravadomain authority (Pali: “Way of the Elders”), or Sthaviravadomain authority (Sanskrit), emerged as one of the Hinayana (Sanskrit: “Lesser Vehicle”) schools, traditionally numbered at 18, of early Buddhism. The Theravadins trace their lineage big the Sthaviravada school, one of two major schools (the Mahasanghika was the other) that supposedly formed in the wake of the Council of Vaishali (now in Bihar state) held some 100 years after the Buddha’s death. Employing Pali as their sacred language, the Theravadins preserved their version of the Buddha’s teaching in the Tipitaka (“Three Baskets”).
During the reign of the emperor Ashoka (3rd century bce), the Theravadomain authority school was established in Sri Lanka, where it subsequently divided into three subgroups, known after their respective sad monastic centres. The cosmopolitan Abhayagiriviharavasi mê maintained open relations with Mahayana & later Vajrayana monks & welcomed new ideas from India. The Mahaviharavasi—with whom the third group, the Jetavanaviharavayêu thích, was loosely associated—established the first monastery in Sri Lanka and preserved intact the original Theravadin teachings.
The Mahavihara (“Great Monastery”) school became dominant in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 2nd millennium ce & gradually spread through mainl& Southeast Asia. It was established in Myanmar in the late 11th century, in Đất nước xinh đẹp Thái Lan in the 13th and early 14th centuries, and in Cambodia and Laos by the kết thúc of the 14th century. Although Mahavihara never completely replaced other schools in Southeast Asia, it received special favour at most royal courts and, as a result of the support it received from local elites, exerted a very strong religious and social influence.
Beliefs, doctrines, and practices
Cosmology
Like other Buddhists, Theravadins believe sad that the number of cosmos is infinite. Moreover, they giới thiệu the near-universal Buddhist view that the cosmos inhabited by humankind, lượt thích all cosmos, has three planes of existence: the realm of desire (Pali & Sanskrit: kama-loka), the lowest of the planes; the realm of material size (Pali & Sanskrit: rupa-loka), which is associated with meditational states in which sensuous desire is reduced big a minimum; & the realm of immateriality or formlessness (Pali & Sanskrit: arupa-loka), which is associated with meditational states that are even more exalted.
The three planes are divided inbig various levels. The realm of desire is divided inbig heavens, hells, & the earth. It is inhabited by those suffering in the various hells—a species of wandering, famished ghosts (Sanskrit: pretas), animals, hell beings, human beings, gods, and a sixth group that is not universally acknowledged, the asuras (Sanskrit: demigods). The entire cosmos is enclosed by a great Chakkavala wall, a ring of iron mountains that serves as a kind of container for the realm of desire. Mount Meru, the great cosmic mountain topped by the heaven of the 33 gods over which Indra (Sakka) presides, is surrounded by a great ocean where people live on four island continents, each inhabited by a different type of human being. (The southern continent, loosely correlated with South—and sometimes Southeast—Asia, is called Jambudvipa.) The material aspect of the realm of desire is made up of four elements: earth, water, fire, and air, held together in various combinations.
In this cosmos, as in all others, time moves in cycles of great duration involving a period of involution (destruction of the cosmos by fire, water, air), a period of reformation of the cosmic structure, a series of cycles of decline & renewal, and, finally, another period of involution from which the process is initiated once again. Five sad buddhas are destined to big appear in the cosmos in which humans live, including Gotama (Sanskrit: Gautama), who is to big be the fourth, and Metteyya (Sanskrit: Maitreya), who is to big be the fifth.
Human existence is a privileged state, because only as a human being can a bodhisattva become a buddha. Moreover, according to big Theravada, human beings can choose big bởi vì good works (which will result in a good rebirth) or bad works (which result in a bad rebirth); above sad all, they have sad the capacity to big become perfected saints. All these capacities are accounted for in terms of a carefully enumerated series of dhammas (Sanskrit: dharmas), the elements’ impermanent existence. In continual motion, these changing states appear, age, & disappear.
Classification of dhammas
Dhammas are divided and subdivided into big many groups. Those that are essential to psychophysical existence are the 5 components (Sanskrit: skandhas; Pali: khandhas), the 12 bases (Pali and Sanskrit: ayatanas), & the 18 sensory elements (Pali and Sanskrit: dhatus). The 5 skandhas are rupa (Pali & Sanskrit), materiality, or form; vedana, feelings of pleasure or pain or the absence of either; sanna (Pali), cognitive perception; sankhara (Pali & Sanskrit), the forces that condition the psychic activity of an individual; & vinnana (Sanskrit: vijnana), consciousness. The 12 ayatanas comprise the five sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body) & the mind (manas), as well as the five related sense fields (sights, sounds, odours, tastes, & tangibles) and objects of cognition—that is, objects as they are reflected in mental perception. The 18 elements, or dhatus, include the five sense organs and the mano-dhatu (Pali & Sanskrit: “mind element”), their six correlated objects, and the consciousnesses (Pali: vinnana) of the sense organs & manas.
The Theravada system of dhammas (Pali) is not only an analysis of empirical reality but a delineation of the psychosomatic components of the human personality. Moreover, Theravadins believe that an awareness of the interrelation and operation of these components, as well as the ability to manipulate them, is necessary for an individual to big attain the exalted state of an arhat (Pali: arahant, “worthy one”). Through the classification of dhammas, a person is defined as an aggregate of many interrelated elements governed by the law of karma—thus destined big suffer good or bad consequences. All of this presupposes that there is no eternal metaphysical entity such as an “I,” or atman (Pali: attan), but that there is a psychosomatic aggregate situated in time. This aggregate has freedom of choice and can perform acts that may generate consequences.
Such classifications are not purely doctrinal but also are intended big guide those who seek big follow the Buddha’s teachings & to overcome the cycle of rebirths. Further guidance is found in the seven factors of enlightenment: clear memory, energy, sympathy, tranquility, impartiality, the exact investigation of the nature of things, and a disposition for concentration. Moreover, “four sublime states”—love for all living creatures, compassion, delight in that which is good or well done, and, again, impartiality—provide the necessary preconditions for liberation from karma & samsara (the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth).
Meditation
Two basic forms of meditation (Pali: jhana; Sanskrit: dhyana) have sad been practiced in the Theravada tradition. Closely related big a Hindu tradition of yoga, the first of these involves a process of moral & intellectual purification. Initially, the Theravadin meditator seeks to big achieve detachment from sensual desires and impure states of mind through reflection and big enter a state of satisfaction and joy. In the second stage of this size of meditation, intellectual activity gives way to big a complete inner serenity; the mind is in a state of “one-pointedness” (concentration), joy, and pleasantness. In the third stage, every emotion, including joy, has disappeared, and the meditator is left indifferent to big everything. In the fourth stage, satisfaction, any inclination to big a good or bad state of mind, pain, & serenity are left behind, and the meditator enters a state of supreme purity, indifference, and pure consciousness.