Theravada

Theravāda

The "teaching of the elders", the Buddhist school of the Pali Canon.

Editorial overviewTheravada traces itself to the early Sthavira lineage; its Pali Canon was, by tradition, written down in Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE, and its commentarial tradition was consolidated by Buddhaghosa around the 5th century CE.

In simple words

Theravada is the oldest surviving school of Buddhism. It focuses on the Buddha's early teachings, careful ethical living and meditation that sees clearly how the mind and body work, leading to nirvana.

Overview

Theravada is the Buddhist tradition preserved in Pali, today dominant in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. It regards the Pali Canon (Tipitaka) as the authoritative record of the Buddha's teaching and emphasises the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and the three marks of existence: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. Its Abhidhamma analyses experience into momentary mental and physical phenomena (dhammas) and their conditions. The ideal figure is the arahant, one who has fully realised nirvana, though Theravada also recognises the path of a future Buddha. Meditation is organised around calm (samatha) and insight (vipassana).

Scholar’s note

The Theravada Abhidhamma Pitaka comprises seven books; Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga is the classic synthesis of path and practice. Modern Theravada includes both forest traditions and the twentieth-century insight meditation movements.

Core questions

?What did the Buddha teach in the earliest records?
?How can experience be analysed into its elements?
?What is the difference between calm and insight meditation?
?Who is an arahant?

Core concepts

ConceptदुःखDukkha — suffering, unsatisfactorinessSuffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness — the starting point of the Buddha's teaching and a shared concern of Indian thought.Conceptअनात्मन्Anatta (Anatman)No-self: the Buddhist teaching that no permanent, independent self is found in experience.Conceptअनित्यAnitya / Anicca — impermanenceEverything conditioned changes and passes away.Conceptप्रतीत्यसमुत्पादPratityasamutpada — dependent originationThe Buddhist teaching that everything arises in dependence on conditions, with no independent, self-caused existence.Conceptनिर्वाणNirvanaThe 'blowing out' of craving, hatred and delusion — the Buddhist goal; also used in the Gita as brahma-nirvana.Conceptध्यानDhyanaMeditation: an unbroken flow of attention toward one object.ConceptसमाधिSamadhiComplete absorption of the mind in its object, or beyond any object.Conceptकर्मKarmaAction — and the way actions shape future experience.

Primary texts

DhammapadaA collection of 423 verses in the Pali canon on the mind, ethics and the path to liberation, one of the most read Buddhist texts.Source not yet ingested

Major thinkers

Thinkerगौतम बुद्धSiddhartha Gautama, the BuddhaTraditionally c. 563–483 BCE; many scholars now place his death around 400 BCE. Dates are debated.

Where it disagrees

Stated neutrally. The purpose is understanding, not a verdict.

With Madhyamaka · status of the elements
Abhidharma thinkers treat dhammas as ultimate constituents; Madhyamaka argues that they too are empty of intrinsic nature. (Whether Theravada Abhidhamma held a strong intrinsic-nature doctrine is debated.)

Traditionबौद्ध दर्शनBuddhist philosophyOne of the major branches of Buddhism Traditionमध्यमकMadhyamakaA Mahayana school that critiques the idea that dhammas have intrinsic nature TraditionयोगYoga (Patanjala)Shares a vocabulary of meditative absorption (jhana / dhyana)

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