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In contrast to Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of the theoretical study of the doctrine and monastic discipline . [3] One element of this conservatism is the fact that Theravāda rejects the authenticity of the Mahayana sutras (which appeared c. 1st century BCE onwards).
Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of Iron Age India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. [5] This was a period of great intellectual ferment and socio-cultural change known as the Second Urbanisation, marked by the growth of towns and trade, the composition of the Upanishads and the historical emergence of the Śramaṇa traditions.
Theravāda (/ ˌ t ɛr ə ˈ v ɑː ð ə /; [a] lit. 'School of the Elders') [1] [2] is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. [1] [2] The school's adherents, termed Theravādins (anglicized from Pali theravādī), [3] [4] have preserved their version of Gautama Buddha's teaching or Dhamma in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia.
The Hīnayāna (or Theravada) is considered as the preliminary or small (hina) vehicle (yana) of the Buddha's teachings. It is often contrasted with Mahāyāna, the second vehicle of the Buddha's teachings, or the great (maha) vehicle (yana). The third vehicle of the Buddha's teachings is the Vajrayana, the indestructible (vajra) vehicle (yana).
According to the scriptures, a council was held shortly after the Buddha's passing to collect and preserve his teachings. The Theravada tradition states that the Canon was recited orally from the 5th century to the first century BC, when it was written down. [23] The memorization was reinforced by regular communal recitations.
The Buddha's threefold training is similar to the threefold grouping of the Noble Eightfold Path articulated by Bhikkhuni Dhammadinna in Culavedalla Sutta ("The Shorter Set of Questions-And-Answers Discourse," MN 44): virtue (sīlakkhandha), concentration (samādhikkhandha), wisdom (paññākkhandha ). [5]
The Basic Points Unifying the Theravāda and the Mahāyāna is an important Buddhist ecumenical statement created in 1967 during the First Congress of the World Buddhist Sangha Council (WBSC), where its founder Secretary-General, the late Venerable Pandita Pimbure Sorata Thera, requested the Ven. Walpola Rahula to present a concise formula for the unification of all the different Buddhist ...
[6] [34] B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian scholar and the Dalit leader who in 1935 declared his intention to convert from Hinduism to Buddhism and converted about 20 years later, rejected the belief that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. [35] [note 5] Ambedkar's 5th vow out of Twenty-two vows is :