Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism | World History | Khan Academy

What I'd like to do in this video is talk about the major schools of Buddhism as it is practiced today. It can be broadly divided into Theravada Buddhism, which means "school of the elder monks," and Mahayana Buddhism, which means "great vehicle." Maha means "great."

First, on the commonalities. Both of these schools of Buddhist thought or Buddhist tradition believe in this notion of the cycle of birth and rebirth from one life or one reality to the next that we call samsara, which is also shared with the core of Hindu philosophy. This idea suggests that your goal should be to realize that all is thought, to escape from the dukkha, and eventually obtain nirvana.

Now, the difference between the two schools of thought: in Theravada Buddhism, it is much closer to some of the original practices or teachings that we see with Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. That is a very personal journey that is all about the individual through meditation, perhaps with some help from some teacher, recognizing the non-self, recognizing that we are all one, and eventually either in this life or in future lives achieving nirvana.

Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, actually encompasses a very large set of various practices. But the general idea is that you might have help as you try to achieve nirvana. Someone who achieves nirvana is known as an arhat. So you could view Theravada Buddhism as trying to go on this personal journey to become an arhat, to achieve nirvana. However, in Mahayana Buddhism, the pursuit is not necessarily to get to nirvana as quickly as possible but to get close to nirvana and then help others try to achieve that same state.

So the real goal is to be a bodhisattva. The word "bodhisattva" is used in both traditions. In Theravada Buddhism, it's referred to someone who is trying to become an arhat; someone who is on the path to achieving nirvana. In Mahayana Buddhism, it is someone who has almost achieved nirvana but holds that off in order to help the rest of sentient reality, the rest of sentient beings, eventually achieve nirvana.

And if you aren't one of the bodhisattvas, you have that help not only from bodhisattvas but there's a fairly large grouping of celestial beings that are there to help, that are there to help focus your meditation and your energy. What you see here is a depiction that's not atypical from a Mahayana Buddhist shrine. In the middle here, you have Amitabha Buddha, and a significant chunk of Mahayana Buddhists believe in Amitabha Buddha.

You could view him as someone revered or as almost a deity-like figure. This idea is that by visualizing, by focusing, by invoking Amitabha Buddha, you can get to his pure land of bliss known as Sukhavati. So this idea of almost a kind of salvation, that by focusing on Amitabha, you get to this pure land of bliss, which is a place where it is easier to achieve nirvana from. You can almost view it as something of heaven.

Now, what's interesting is that Amitabha Buddha isn't exactly the same figure as Siddhartha Gautama Buddha. In some traditions, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha is a projection of Amitabha into our reality. In some Mahayana belief systems, there are multiple realities, each with their own Buddha, and you can be born and reborn into these different realities. The pure land, the pure land of bliss, Sukhavati, is where you might want to go if you are following or practicing this belief in Amitabha Buddha.

At a very high level, Theravada Buddhism is all about this personal journey, trying to follow in the practice of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha through meditation, recognizing the Four Noble Truths, and following the Middle Way, getting eventually in this life and in future lives to nirvana, becoming an arhat. Mahayana Buddhism has a more complex pantheon of celestial beings and deities, and it can be diverse from one part of the world to another.

Eventually, the goal is for all sentient beings to achieve nirvana, but your individual goal can be better described as delaying nirvana, becoming a bodhisattva, and assisting all other sentient beings in achieving that nirvana. These are actually the attendant bodhisattvas on the left and the right of Amitabha Buddha. But you don't have just the help of the bodhisattvas; there's also celestial beings, things that you can focus on, things that you can invoke to eventually help you get to that.

Now, in order to see where it is practiced, we have this map right over here. First of all, most of Buddhism is practiced in the Far East of Asia or Southeast Asia. You see the various schools of Buddhism. So in red here, you have the Theravada, the school of the elder monks; in yellow here, you have Mahayana, the great vehicle; and in orange you have Vajrayana. A significant chunk of Vajrayana Buddhists are often referred to as Tibetan Buddhists, and they're sometimes grouped with the Mahayana. It's closer to Mahayana; there's this notion of bodhisattvas, there are celestial beings, and there are more rituals.

Now, in terms of population, the country with the largest Buddhist population is China—roughly 250 million Buddhists of the 500 million Buddhists that there are in the world. But despite the fact that there are so many Buddhists in China, it is still only 18% of the entire Chinese population. In places like Burma and Thailand, you have a much higher percentage of the population that is actually Buddhist. In these regions of Southeast Asia, most of the population is Buddhist.

Now, one other really interesting thing about this map is we talk about Buddhism starting in Northeast India and Southern Nepal. That's where Siddhartha Gautama Buddha lived; that's where he spread his teachings. Not only is that where it originated, you have Ashoka, who really catalyzed the spread of Buddhism, and once again, that was out of India. But when you look at this demographic map of where you have significant Buddhist groupings, you don't see a lot in India. You see a lot in Sri Lanka, and that's actually where the Theravada tradition comes primarily from.

There are a couple of interesting explanations for why you don't see it in India. One possible explanation is that it was so close to many versions of Hindu practice. When we talk about Hinduism as being this very diverse and open religion, it really just got re-absorbed, reassimilated as part of the diverse Hindu tradition. In fact, many Hindus view Buddha as another incarnation of Vishnu.