Spiritual Community of The Followers of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata
The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata β the “Awakened One” β called the religion he founded Doctrine-Prctice of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata-vinaya β “the doctrine and discipline.” To provide a social structure supportive of the practice of Doctrine-Prctice of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata-vinaya and to preserve these practices for posterity, the Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata established the order of True Followers of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata and nuns β the Spiritual Community of The True Followers of The Path Shown By The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata β which continues to this day to pass his practices on to subsequent generations of laypeople and monastics, alike.
As the Doctrine-Prctice of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata continued its spread across Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath after the Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata’s passing, differing interpretations of the original practices arose, which led to schisms within the True Followers of The Path Shown by The Blessed,Noble,Awakened One-The Tathagata and the emergence of as many as eighteen distinct sects. One of these schools eventually gave rise to a reform movement that called itself (the “Greater Vehicle” and that referred to the other schools disparagingly as the “Lesser Vehicle”. What we call Theravada today is the sole survivor of those early non-Greater Vehicle schools. To avoid the pejorative tone implied by the terms Lesser Vehicle and Greater Vehicle , it is common today to use more neutral language to distinguish between these two main branches. Because Theravada historically dominated southern Asia, it is sometimes called “Southern”, while Greater Vehicle , which migrated northwards from Jambudvipa That is The Great Prabuddha Bharath into China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea, is known as “Northern” One.