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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.
Even within Buddhism, states Swearer, Buddha and his ideas are conceptualized differently between Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Japanese and other traditions. Similarly, in various traditions of Hinduism (and elsewhere), Buddha is accepted and interpreted in different ways.
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).
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.
Like in other Southeast Asian countries, medieval Buddhism in Laos included Mahāyāna Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and Theravāda Buddhism. [76] The political influence of Southeast Asian Theravāda helped make it the main religion of the Laotian kingdom of Lan Xang (1353–1707), which had close ties to the Thai and Khmer realms. [ 77 ]
Tiantai doctrine sought to bring together all Buddhist teachings into a comprehensive system based on the ekayana ("one vehicle") doctrine taught in the Lotus Sutra. Tiantai's metaphysics is an immanent holism , which sees every phenomenon (dharma) as conditioned and manifested by the whole of reality (the totality of all other dharmas).
Theravada Buddhism scholars, states Oliver Leaman, consider the Anattā doctrine as one of the main theses of Buddhism. [43] The Buddhist denial of an unchanging, permanent self is what distinguishes Buddhism from major religions of the world such as Christianity and Hinduism, giving it uniqueness, asserts the Theravada tradition. [ 43 ]
However, the teachings of the Buddha are often encapsulated by Theravadins in the basic framework of the Four Noble Truths and the Eighthfold Path. [118] [119] Some Theravada Buddhists also follow the presentation of the path laid out in Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga. This presentation is known as the "Seven Purifications" (satta-visuddhi). [120]