Buddhist Denominations Explained | Theravada vs Mahayana

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As a Buddhist person I feel that you covered every school of Buddhism really well. Love from the land of the Buddha ❤

As a Theravada Buddhist, I feel like you forgot an essential aspect of Theravada Buddhism: The Lokas. We definitely believe in gods (devas) more like spiritual deities who have collected lots of good karma to be a step closer to enlightenment. They live in the deva realms (heavens). In Buddhism there are realms of existence (lokas) there are hells, where demons and malevolent spirits who have collected bad karma live, and are furthest away from nirvana, animal realms, human realms (in the middle) and upper realms for gods. We worship gods to receive blessings from them because they are so close to enlightenment they can bless us, but we cannot ask for specific things from them. We offer flowers and incense as a sign of respect, not as a literal offering. There are also realms of non-existence, and atmospheres. These lokas are categorized into 30 something realms of existence, where the entire universe can be found. So therevada Buddhists definitely believe in gods. During an Almsgiving in Sri Lanka, we place a small stand made of coconut leaves outside the house, with flowers and lamps, for gods to come and listen to the sermon given by the monks.

Would be cool to have one about different schools of philosophy. How Neoplatonism is a form of syncretism of Platonism and other Greek philosophies. How Pyrrhonism likely was influenced by Indic philosophy. How Islamic and Christian philosophy related to each other and where they took their inspiration, etc. From our frist written history till today's New Age philosophies.

Swetambara Jains don't only wear the masks for keeping ritual items pure, but also because they try their best to avoid harming other creatures (which is why most Jains are vegetarians), and this includes harming creatures by inhaling them in by mistake. They also carry a small broom to brush aside insects in their path while walking. Digambara Jains are "sky clad" because they seek to most closely emulate Mahavira, who is said to have eschewed all possessions including clothing.

One thing missing is that Tibetan buddhism is also practiced in Mongolia, which is quite intresting

Generally you have done a good job from a prof. teaching history of Indian Buddhism at a Buddhist university in Southeast Asia. A few things to add - although coming from the same linguistic root, Pāli, the scriptura language of Theravada, is known to be one or combined vernacular form of Middle-Indic languages called Prakrit, quite distinct from the modern Sanskrit which is literally a synthetic Indic language originated from the older Vedic Sanksrit. Another region where Vajrayana takes on a stronghold is Mongolia from which this branch of Buddhism spread to several Siberia regions in Russia such as Buryatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia.

As a Buddhist, I thank you for making this video. Buddhism is such a vast and complicated religion that even many of us Buddhists barely know its teachings and history. Videos such as yours help us to learn more about our own religion.

Thanks for this video, and was waiting for it since the Christian Denomination series. I am from Sri Lanka originally and as a youngster been to Matale Rock temple multiple times, where the complete Pali Canon first written on palm leaves (in the 1st Century BCE). We dint pay much attention to it back in those younger days, just visited the temple as buddhists.

it’s really cool how we live in a time where we can watch and learn for free

Something about the Middle Way: In the Mahayana Buddhism school of thought, beyond moderation, the middle way is the declaration that you can only achieve spiritual enlightenment as a human being. You can’t do it as a Deva (beings of the higher worlds), they are too happy, and you can’t do it as a being from the lower worlds, they are too miserable. On top of being the most difficult life to achieve, to be human is to be the middle way, where the two extremes merge and create an opening for one to experience the truth.

I think one thing westerners often get wrong from the translation of “the lesser path” and “the greater path”, that’s the “lesser” or “greater” here doesn’t imply inferiority or superiority. They strictly describe quantity. “The lesser path” really just means less people have the means to go through it to reach enlightenment, while “the greater path” is available to everyone, thus more people can reach enlightenment this way.

As a so called Buddhist I think you did a pretty good job, this is by far one of the best if not only video i have seen on YouTube explaining Buddhism. Very nice.❤

One of the largest schools in Japan, Shingon, is also Vajrayana. So saying that it's just Tibet and its surroundings is kind of wrong. Vajrayana also spread to China, where it mixed with all the other schools over the centuries (and that's why there are many esoteric practices in Chinese Buddhism today).

Excellent video- as a clarification, I would like to say that the word "Hinayana" does not necessarily imply a "lesser," as in "inferior," vehicle to nirvana, but simply "smaller" vehicle. The metaphor used is that of a raft in which an arhat transports themself to nirvana through their own effort (with the help of the sangha's instruction, of course). The "Mahayana," or "larger" vehicle, is portrayed through the metaphor of a ship piloted to nirvana by a buddha or bodhisattva, carrying many passengers at once, who depend upon the efforts of said buddha or bodhisattva to get to nirvana. I hope in the future you will expand your chart to include all schools of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism (Theravada is generally less sectarian).

Vajrayana Buddhism is also traditionally practiced in Nepal, portions of northeast India adjacent to Nepal, Bhutan or Tibet, as well as in Mongolia, and among Mongol ethnic groups in Russia and China (including among the Kalmyks, who live near the Caspian Sea, in European Russia). Shingon Buddhism in Japan also uses versions of some Vajrayana texts and is closely related to Vajrayana Buddhism.

15:08 Seems like there might be room for some language-order clarification here. I don't know of any Buddhists who regard the Sanskrit texts as older than the Pali texts. It's generally believed that Pali (or another Prakrit) was the colloquial language of the Buddha and his initial disciples, and thus the oral tradition was established in Pali and later recorded into the Pali canon. Sanskrit emerged in Buddhism later as it became the de-facto written liturgical language in North India, but it was not the original oral tradition. In fact, the priestly vedic Sanskrit was probably regarded with some disdain by the pragmatic Nastika schools (Jainism records their canon in Prakrit as well) because they were, and still are, more focused on the usefulness of colloquial language as a teaching tool. Sanskrit was adopted by Buddhist universities who spread it around as a liturgical language and all of the initial Chinese canon was translated and copied at such universities.This was roughly contemporaneous with the Mahayana movement so all the earliest Mahayana texts are Sanskrit.

I am so excited for this episode like the Hindu, Islamic and Christian denominations!

If it helps most modern writing, esp. academic writing, refers to Southern Buddhism (Sri Lanka etc.), Northern Buddhism (Tibet etc.), and Eastern Buddhism (China etc.) In order to avoid either the doctrinal murkiness, or pejorative undertones of Hinayana vs. Mahayana vs. Vajrayana. edit: I also realise you were trying to cover a lot of ground here, but schools within a lot of the traditions you talk about can vary by significant degrees, for example The Dalai Lama only speaks for one school (Gelug), which does make distinct readings as opposed to Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya (1073). Ditto with Zen, and the differences in transplanted Japanese practice and syncretic Chinese practices post 17th cent.

As a Buddhist I will say it was very good. I only have two very pedantic things. Mahayana Buddhist don't typically call Theravada, Hinayana in modern speech as it can be seen as a pejorative. Also the Yana at the end of Mahayana, Hinayana etc in this context would more closely translate as vehicle. So Great Vehicle and Small Vehicle.