Theravada Buddhism

Theravada “ Doctrine of the Elders “  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.  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.  In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the West.

•Theravada Buddhism is strongest in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and the Mekong Delta areas of Vietnam. It is sometimes called 'Southern Buddhism'.

• Theravada Buddhism stresses spirituality, the enlightenment of the individual, self-discipline, the importance or pure thought and deed, the importance of the monastic life and the strict observance of the ancient Vinaya code It has distinct roles for monks and lay people, emphasizes that each individual is responsible for his or her salvation and takes the position that only monks are capable of reaching nirvana.

HISTORY OF THERAVADA BUDDHISM • Theravada Buddhism was one of 18 schools that existed in centuries after The Buddha's death. It spread from India to Sri Lanka and then to Southeast Asia and remained close to the original Pali canon. The other 17 schools disappeared when Muslims swept into northern India and destroyed the Buddhist monasteries that existed there. Theravada Buddhism is sometimes referred to in a somewhat dismissing way as Hinayana (‘Lesser Vehicle’) Buddhism by Mahayana Buddhists.

• By the third century B.C., Buddhism had spread widely in Asia, and divergent interpretations of the Buddha's teachings had led to the establishment of several sects. The teachings that reached Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) were given in a final written form in Pali (an IndoAryan language closely related to Sanskrit) to religious centers there in the first century A.D. and provided the Tipitaka (the scriptures or "three baskets"; in Sanskrit, Tripitaka) of Theravada Buddhism. This form of Buddhism reached what is now Thailand around the sixth century A.D. Theravada Buddhism was made the state religion only with the establishment of the Thai kingdom of Sukhothai in the thirteenth century A.D.

THERAVADA BUDDHIST BELIEFS • The Noble Virtues of Therevada Buddhism are loving kindness, understanding, serenity and satisfaction for others’ well-being. Theravada Buddhism doctrine stresses the three principal aspects of existence: 1.) dukkha (stress, suffering, pursuit of desire, disease, impurity); 2.) anicca (impermanence, transience and temporary state of all things): and 3.) annayya (the illusion and non-essentiality of reality and the non-existence of a permanent ‘soul’).

THERAVADA BUDDHIST BELIEFS ABOUT MERIT AND ALMS GIVING • The most effective way to work actively to improve one's karma is to earn merit. Any act of benevolence or generosity can gain merit for the doer. Cambodian Buddhists tend to regard opportunities for earning merit as primarily connected with interaction with the sangha, contributing to its support through money, goods, and labor, and participating in its activities.

• Some of the favorite ways for a male to earn merit are to enter the sangha as a monk (after the age of twenty) or as a novice, or to live in the wat as a temple servant; in the case of a female (usually the elderly), the favorite way is to become a nun.

• Earning merit is an important aspect of Buddhist life. Buddhists earn merit by giving money, goods, and labor to the temples, or by providing one of the two daily meals of the monks. Children often look after the fruits trees and vegetable gardens inside their local wat, or temple. Boys can earn merit by becoming temple servants or novice monks for a short time. Most young men remain monks for less than a year.

THERAVADA BUDDHIST BELIEFS ABOUT HEAVEN, HELL AND THE LIVES OF THE BUDDHA

• Theravada Buddhists insist that Gautama, both as Siddhartha and The Buddha, was a man, not a god or myth or legend, and was subject to the same pain and suffering as other humans but sought a transcendent state beyond human life.

• According to Theravada Buddhism. there are 31 planes, or forms of beings, 6 floors of heaven. and 7 floors of hell. They are: • 1.) 20 planes of Brahmas. or higher spiritual beings; • 2.)6 planes of Nats or Devas. or lower spiritual beings; • 3.) Human existence; • 4.) Animals; • 5.) Peta. Apaya beings-in-woe; • 6.) Asuraka. Apaya beings in-semi-woe; • 7.) Hell. beings-in-torment. composed of 8 floors.

• The last 10 lives of Buddha is most prominant. and many wrote about these in the past. They are: • 1.) Prince Taymi; • 2.) Zanekka; • 3.) Thuwunna Tharma; • 4.) Nay-mi; • 5.)Prophet Mahaw-tha-htar; • 6.) Bu-ri-dut; • 7.) San; • 8.)Nar; • 9.) Widura Minister; • 10.) King Weithantayar .

• Buddha taught the followers that there are other planets. other different types of beings... Buddhists believe that there are 5 Buddhas on this planet earth. Out of the 5. four Buddha has came. and one more is to come: • 1.) Kotekathan Buddha; • 2.) Kawnargon Buddha; • 3.) Kuthapha Buddha; • 4.) Gawtama Buddha; • 5.) Areinmadeya Buddha (the up-coming Buddha).

• Theravada Buddhists sometimes make wishes to avoid certain places in their everyday prayer. They are: 1.) four lower beings (hell, animal, ghost,demon); 2.) three disasters (starvation, war and plague); 3.) eight places one can't reach (Nivirna, hell, animal, ghost, paganism,retarded, living where no god exist); 4.) Five Enemies (water, fire, king, thief, who hates); four defects ( being in nether worlds,birth defects, being in bad society, doing only the bad); 5.) five great losts (lost of relatives, lost of wealth, lost by disease, lost by misbelief, lost by misbehavior).

An introduction to Theravada Buddhism

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