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What is Theravada Buddhism?
by
John Bullitt
 

Theravada
(pronounced — more or less — “terra-VAH-dah”), the “Doctrine of the
Elders,” is the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration
from the Tipitaka, or Pali canon, which scholars generally agree
contains the earliest surviving record of the Buddha’s teachings.1 For
many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant religion of
continental Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Cambodia, and Laos)
and Sri Lanka. Today Theravada Buddhists number well over 100 million
worldwide.2 In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the
West.
Many Buddhisms, One Dhamma-vinaya

The Buddha — the
“Awakened One” — called the religion he founded Dhamma-vinaya — “the
doctrine and discipline.” To provide a social structure supportive of
the practice of Dhamma-vinaya (or Dhamma for short [Sanskrit: Dharma]),
and to preserve these teachings for posterity, the Buddha established
the order of bhikkhus (monks) and bhikkhunis (nuns) — the Sangha — which
continues to this day to pass his teachings on to subsequent
generations of laypeople and monastics, alike.

As the Dhamma
continued its spread across India after the Buddha’s passing, differing
interpretations of the original teachings arose, which led to schisms
within the Sangha and the emergence of as many as eighteen distinct
sects of Buddhism.3 One of these schools eventually gave rise to a
reform movement that called itself Mahayana (the “Greater Vehicle”)4 and
that referred to the other schools disparagingly as Hinayana (the
“Lesser Vehicle”). What we call Theravada today is the sole survivor of
those early non-Mahayana schools.5 To avoid the pejorative tone implied
by the terms Hinayana and Mahayana, it is common today to use more
neutral language to distinguish between these two main branches of
Buddhism. Because Theravada historically dominated southern Asia, it is
sometimes called “Southern” Buddhism, while Mahayana, which migrated
northwards from India into China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea, is known as
“Northern” Buddhism.6
Pali: The Language of Theravada Buddhism

The
language of the Theravada canonical texts is Pali (lit., “text”), which
is based on a dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan that was probably spoken in
central India during the Buddha’s time.7 Ven. Ananda, the Buddha’s
cousin and close personal attendant, committed the Buddha’s sermons
(suttas) to memory and thus became a living repository of these
teachings.8 Shortly after the Buddha’s death (ca. 480 BCE), five hundred
of the most senior monks — including Ananda — convened to recite and
verify all the sermons they had heard during the Buddha’s forty-five
year teaching career.9 Most of these sermons therefore begin with the
disclaimer, “Evam me sutam” — “Thus have I heard.”

After the
Buddha’s death the teachings continued to be passed down orally within
the monastic community, in keeping with an Indian oral tradition that
long predated the Buddha.10 By 250 BCE the Sangha had systematically
arranged and compiled these teachings into three divisions: the Vinaya
Pitaka (the “basket of discipline” — the texts concerning the rules and
customs of the Sangha), the Sutta Pitaka (the “basket of discourses” —
the sermons and utterances by the Buddha and his close disciples), and
the Abhidhamma Pitaka (the “basket of special/higher doctrine” — a
detailed psycho-philosophical analysis of the Dhamma). Together these
three are known as the Tipitaka, the “three baskets.” In the third
century BCE Sri Lankan monks began compiling a series of exhaustive
commentaries to the Tipitaka; these were subsequently collated and
translated into Pali beginning in the fifth century CE. The Tipitaka
plus the post-canonical texts (commentaries, chronicles, etc.) together
constitute the complete body of classical Theravada literature.

Pali
was originally a spoken language with no alphabet of its own. It wasn’t
until about 100 BCE that the Tipitaka was first fixed in writing, by
Sri Lankan scribe-monks,11 who wrote the Pali phonetically in a form of
early Brahmi script.12 Since then the Tipitaka has been transliterated
into many different scripts (Devanagari, Thai, Burmese, Roman, Cyrillic,
to name a few). Although English translations of the most popular
Tipitaka texts abound, many students of Theravada find that learning the
Pali language — even just a little bit here and there — greatly deepens
their understanding and appreciation of the Buddha’s teachings.

No
one can prove that the Tipitaka contains any of the words actually
uttered by the historical Buddha. Practicing Buddhists have never found
this problematic. Unlike the scriptures of many of the world’s great
religions, the Tipitaka is not regarded as gospel, as an unassailable
statement of divine truth, revealed by a prophet, to be accepted purely
on faith. Instead, its teachings are meant to be assessed firsthand, to
be put into practice in one’s life so that one can find out for oneself
if they do, in fact, yield the promised results. It is the truth towards
which the words in the Tipitaka point that ultimately matters, not the
words themselves. Although scholars will continue to debate the
authorship of passages from the Tipitaka for years to come (and thus
miss the point of these teachings entirely), the Tipitaka will quietly
continue to serve — as it has for centuries — as an indispensable guide
for millions of followers in their quest for Awakening.
A Brief Summary of the Buddha’s Teachings
The Four Noble Truths

Shortly
after his Awakening, the Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he
laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings
were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four
fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha’s
radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. He
taught these truths not as metaphysical theories or as articles of
faith, but as categories by which we should frame our direct experience
in a way that conduces to Awakening:

    Dukkha: suffering, unsatisfactoriness, discontent, stress;
   
The cause of dukkha: the cause of this dissatisfaction iscraving
(tanha) for sensuality, for states of becoming, and states of no
becoming;
    The cessation of dukkha: the relinquishment of that craving;
   
The path of practice leading to the cessation of dukkha: the Noble
Eightfold Path of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action,
right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration.

Because of our ignorance (avijja) of these Noble
Truths, because of our inexperience in framing the world in their terms,
we remain bound to samsara, the wearisome cycle of birth, aging,
illness, death, and rebirth. Craving propels this process onward, from
one moment to the next and over the course of countless lifetimes, in
accordance with kamma (Skt. karma), the universal law of cause and
effect. According to this immutable law, every action that one performs
in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself —
eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful
and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and
happiness will ultimately ensue.13 As long as one remains ignorant of
this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment,
in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell.

The
Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning
to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to
be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the
fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves
the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and
kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and
supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha’s
teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt.
Nirvana).
The Eightfold Path and the Practice of Dhamma

Because
the roots of ignorance are so intimately entwined with the fabric of
the psyche, the unawakened mind is capable of deceiving itself with
breathtaking ingenuity. The solution therefore requires more than simply
being kind, loving, and mindful in the present moment. The practitioner
must equip him- or herself with the expertise to use a range of tools
to outwit, outlast, and eventually uproot the mind’s unskillful
tendencies. For example, the practice of generosity (dana) erodes the
heart’s habitual tendencies towards craving and teaches valuable lessons
about the motivations behind, and the results of, skillful action. The
practice of virtue (sila) guards one against straying wildly off-course
and into harm’s way. The cultivation of goodwill (metta) helps to
undermine anger’s seductive grasp. The ten recollections offer ways to
alleviate doubt, bear physical pain with composure, maintain a healthy
sense of self-respect, overcome laziness and complacency, and restrain
oneself from unbridled lust. And there are many more skills to learn.

The
good qualities that emerge and mature from these practices not only
smooth the way for the journey to Nibbana; over time they have the
effect of transforming the practitioner into a more generous, loving,
compassionate, peaceful, and clear-headed member of society. The
individual’s sincere pursuit of Awakening is thus a priceless and timely
gift to a world in desperate need of help.
Discernment (pañña)

The
Eightfold Path is best understood as a collection of personal qualities
to be developed, rather than as a sequence of steps along a linear
path. The development of right view and right resolve (the factors
classically identified with wisdom and discernment) facilitates the
development of right speech, action, and livelihood (the factors
identified with virtue). As virtue develops so do the factors identified
with concentration (right effort, mindfulness, and concentration).
Likewise, as concentration matures, discernment evolves to a still
deeper level. And so the process unfolds: development of one factor
fosters development of the next, lifting the practitioner in an upward
spiral of spiritual maturity that eventually culminates in Awakening.

The
long journey to Awakening begins in earnest with the first tentative
stirrings of right view — the discernment by which one recognizes the
validity of the four Noble Truths and the principle of kamma. One begins
to see that one’s future well-being is neither predestined by fate, nor
left to the whims of a divine being or random chance. The
responsibility for one’s happiness rests squarely on one’s own
shoulders. Seeing this, one’s spiritual aims become suddenly clear: to
relinquish the habitual unskillful tendencies of the mind in favor of
skillful ones. As this right resolve grows stronger, so does the
heartfelt desire to live a morally upright life, to choose one’s actions
with care.

At this point many followers make the inward
commitment to take the Buddha’s teachings to heart, to become “Buddhist”
through the act of taking refuge in the Triple Gem: the Buddha (both
the historical Buddha and one’s own innate potential for Awakening), the
Dhamma (both the Buddha’s teachings and the ultimate Truth towards
which they point), and the Sangha (both the unbroken monastic lineage
that has preserved the teachings since the Buddha’s day, and all those
who have achieved at least some degree of Awakening). With one’s feet
thus planted on solid ground, and with the help of an admirable friend
or teacher (kalyanamitta) to guide the way, one is now well-equipped to
proceed down the Path, following in the footsteps left by the Buddha
himself.
Virtue (sila)

Right view and right resolve continue
to mature through the development of the path factors associated with
sila, or virtue — namely, right speech, right action, and right
livelihood. These are condensed into a very practical form in the five
precepts, the basic code of ethical conduct to which every practicing
Buddhist subscribes: refraining from killing, stealing, sexual
misconduct, lying, and using intoxicants. Even the monks’ complex code
of 227 rules and the nuns’ 311 ultimately have these five basic precepts
at their core.
Concentration (samadhi)

Having gained a
foothold in the purification of one’s outward behavior through the
practice of sila, the essential groundwork has been laid for delving
into the most subtle and transformative aspect of the path: meditation
and the development of samadhi, or concentration. This is spelled out in
detail in the final three path factors: right effort, by which one
learns how to favor skillful qualities of mind over unskillful ones;
right mindfulness, by which one learns to keep one’s attention
continually grounded in the present moment of experience; and right
concentration, by which one learns to immerse the mind so thoroughly and
unwaveringly in its meditation object that it enters jhana, a series of
progressively deeper states of mental and physical tranquillity.

Right
mindfulness and right concentration are developed in tandem through
satipatthana (”frames of reference” or “foundations of mindfulness”), a
systematic approach to meditation practice that embraces a wide range of
skills and techniques. Of these practices, mindfulness of the body
(especially mindfulness of breathing) is particularly effective at
bringing into balance the twin qualities of tranquillity (samatha) and
insight (vipassana), or clear-seeing. Through persistent practice, the
meditator becomes more adept at bringing the combined powers of
samatha-vipassana to bear in an exploration of the fundamental nature of
mind and body.14 As the meditator masters the ability to frame his
immediate experience in terms of anicca (inconstancy), dukkha, and
anatta (not-self), even the subtlest manifestations of these three
characteristics of experience are brought into exquisitely sharp focus.
At the same time, the root cause of dukkha — craving — is relentlessly
exposed to the light of awareness. Eventually craving is left with no
place to hide, the entire karmic process that fabricates dukkha
unravels, the eightfold path reaches its noble climax, and the meditator
gains, at long last, his or her first unmistakable glimpse of the
Unconditioned — Nibbana.
Awakening

This first enlightenment
experience, known as stream-entry (sotapatti), is the first of four
progressive stages of Awakening, each of which entails the irreversible
shedding or weakening of several fetters (samyojana), the manifestations
of ignorance that bind a person to the cycle of birth and death.
Stream-entry marks an unprecedented and radical turning point both in
the practitioner’s current life and in the entirety of his or her long
journey in samsara. For it is at this point that any lingering doubts
about the truth of the Buddha’s teachings disappear; it is at this point
that any belief in the purifying efficacy of rites and rituals
evaporates; and it is at this point that the long-cherished notion of an
abiding personal “self” falls away. The stream-enterer is said to be
assured of no more than seven future rebirths (all of them favorable)
before eventually attaining full Awakening.

But full Awakening is
still a long way off. As the practitioner presses on with renewed
diligence, he or she passes through two more significant landmarks:
once-returning (sakadagati), which is accompanied by the weakening of
the fetters of sensual desire and ill-will, and non-returning (agati),
in which these two fetters are uprooted altogether. The final stage of
Awakening — arahatta — occurs when even the most refined and subtle
levels of craving and conceit are irrevocably extinguished. At this
point the practitioner — now an arahant, or “worthy one” — arrives at
the end-point of the Buddha’s teaching. With ignorance, suffering,
stress, and rebirth having all come to their end, the arahant at last
can utter the victory cry first proclaimed by the Buddha upon his
Awakening:

“Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done! There is nothing further for the sake of this world.”

[MN 36]

The
arahant lives out the remainder of his or her life inwardly enjoying
the bliss of Nibbana, secure at last from the possibility of any future
rebirth. When the arahant’s aeons-long trail of past kamma eventually
unwinds to its end, the arahant dies and he or she enters into
parinibbana — total Unbinding. Although language utterly fails at
describing this extraordinary event, the Buddha likened it to what
happens when a fire finally burns up all its fuel.
“The serious pursuit of happiness”

Buddhism
is sometimes naïvely criticized as a “negative” or “pessimistic”
religion and philosophy. Surely life is not all misery and
disappointment: it offers many kinds of happiness and sublime joy. Why
then this dreary Buddhist obsession with unsatisfactoriness and
suffering?

The Buddha based his teachings on a frank assessment
of our plight as humans: there is unsatisfactoriness and suffering in
the world. No one can argue this fact. Dukkha lurks behind even the
highest forms of worldly pleasure and joy, for, sooner or later, as
surely as night follows day, that happiness must come to an end. Were
the Buddha’s teachings to stop there, we might indeed regard them as
pessimistic and life as utterly hopeless. But, like a doctor who
prescribes a remedy for an illness, the Buddha offers both a hope (the
third Noble Truth) and a cure (the fourth). The Buddha’s teachings thus
give cause for unparalleled optimism and joy. The teachings offer as
their reward the noblest, truest kind of happiness, and give profound
value and meaning to an otherwise grim existence. One modern teacher
summed it up well: “Buddhism is the serious pursuit of happiness.”
Theravada Comes West

Until
the late 19th century, the teachings of Theravada were little known
outside of southern Asia, where they had flourished for some two and
one-half millennia. In the past century, however, the West has begun to
take notice of Theravada’s unique spiritual legacy in its teachings of
Awakening. In recent decades this interest has swelled, with the
monastic Sangha from various schools within Theravada establishing
dozens of monasteries across Europe and North America. Increasing
numbers of lay meditation centers, founded and operated independently of
the monastic Sangha, strain to meet the demands of lay men and women —
Buddhist and otherwise — seeking to learn selected aspects of the
Buddha’s teachings.

The turn of the 21st century presents both
opportunities and dangers for Theravada in the West: Will the Buddha’s
teachings be patiently studied and put into practice, and allowed to
establish deep roots in Western soil, for the benefit of many
generations to come? Will the current popular Western climate of
“openness” and cross-fertilization between spiritual traditions lead to
the emergence of a strong new form of Buddhist practice unique to the
modern era, or will it simply lead to confusion and the dilution of
these priceless teachings? These are open questions; only time will
tell.

Spiritual teachings of every description inundate the media
and the marketplace today. Many of today’s popular spiritual teachings
borrow liberally from the Buddha, though only rarely do they place the
Buddha’s words in their true context. Earnest seekers of truth are
therefore often faced with the unsavory task of wading through
fragmentary teachings of dubious accuracy. How are we to make sense of
it all?

Fortunately the Buddha left us with some simple
guidelines to help us navigate through this bewildering flood. Whenever
you find yourself questioning the authenticity of a particular teaching,
heed well the Buddha’s advice to his stepmother:

[The teachings
that promote] the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead
to passion, not to dispassion; to being fettered, not to being
unfettered; to accumulating, not to shedding; to self-aggrandizement,
not to modesty; to discontent, not to contentment; to entanglement, not
to seclusion; to laziness, not to aroused persistence; to being
burdensome, not to being unburdensome’: You may definitely hold, ‘This
is not the Dhamma, this is not the Vinaya, this is not the Teacher’s
instruction.’

[As for the teachings that promote] the qualities
of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to
passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to
accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment,
not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused
persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being
burdensome’: You may definitely hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the
Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’

[AN 8.53]

The
truest test of these teachings, of course, is whether they yield the
promised results in the crucible of your own heart. The Buddha presents
the challenge; the rest is up to you.
Notes

1. Buddhist
Religions: A Historical Introduction (fifth edition) by R.H. Robinson,
W.L. Johnson, and Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Belmont, California: Wadsworth,
2005), p. 46.

2. This estimate is based on data appearing in CIA
World Factbook 2004. South Asia’s largest Theravada Buddhist populations
are found in Thailand (61 million Theravadans), Myanmar (38 million),
Sri Lanka (13 million), and Cambodia (12 million).

3.Buddhist Religions, p. 46.

4. Mahayana today includes Zen, Ch’an, Nichiren, Tendai, and Pure Land Buddhism.

5.Guide Through The Abhidhamma Pitaka by Nyanatiloka Mahathera (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971), pp. 60ff.

6.
A third major branch of Buddhism emerged much later (ca. 8th century
CE) in India:Vajrayana, the “Diamond Vehicle.” Vajrayana’s elaborate
system of esoteric initiations, tantric rituals, and mantra recitations
eventually spread north into central and east Asia, leaving a
particularly strong imprint on Tibetan Buddhism. See Buddhist Religions,
pp. 124ff. and chapter 11.

7. Modern scholarship suggests that
Pali was probably never spoken by the Buddha himself. In the centuries
after the Buddha’s death, as Buddhism spread across India into regions
of different dialects, Buddhist monks increasingly depended on a common
tongue for their Dhamma discussions and recitations of memorized texts.
It was out of this necessity that the language we now know as Pali
emerged. See Bhikkhu Bodhi’s Introduction in Numerical Discourses of the
Buddha (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1999), pp. 1ff, and n. 1 (p.
275) and “The Pali Language and Literature” by the Pali Text Society (»
http://www.palitext.com/subpages/lan_lite.htm; 15 April 2002).

8. Great Disciples of the Buddha by Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 1997), pp. 140, 150.

9. Buddhist Religions, p. 48.

10. The Hindu Vedas, for example, predate the Buddha by at least a millennium (Buddhist Religions, p. 2).

11. Buddhist Religions, p. 77.

12. Anandajoti Bhikkhu, personal communication.

13. See Dhp 1-2.

14.
This description of the unified role of samatha and vipassana is based
upon the Buddha’s meditation teachings as presented in the suttas (see
“One Tool Among Many” by Thanissaro Bhikkhu). The Abhidhamma and the
Commentaries, by contrast, state that samatha and vipassana are two
distinct meditation paths (see, for example, The Jhanas in Theravada
Buddhist Meditation by H. Gunaratana, ch. 5). It is difficult to
reconcile these two views just from studying the texts; any remaining
doubts and concerns about the roles of samatha and vipassana are best
resolved through the actual practice of meditation.