Theravada Buddhism

Overview

Recall questions on Theravada and Nikaya Buddhism, its refusal of the three-vehicle scheme, Gautama, images and stupas, renunciation and the four stages to arahantship, its distinctive emphases and modern changes, and Gombrich and Gunaratana.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does Theravada mean, and what is Nikaya Buddhism?

   Model answer

   Theravada means the teaching of the elders. Nikaya Buddhism is the modern label for the early schools into which the Buddhist community divided in the centuries after the Buddha's death, traditionally counted as eighteen; Theravada is the one of them still in existence.

2. 2

   Why does it matter to Theravada Buddhists that they are the surviving early school?

   Model answer

   It grounds their claim to continuity: an unbroken ordination line, a canon in an Indic language close to what the Buddha spoke, and a practice they present as conservative rather than innovative. Critics reply that survival is not proof of fidelity and that Theravada has developed too, but the claim shapes the tradition's sense of itself.

3. 3

   What is the three-vehicle scheme, and why does Theravada refuse it?

   Model answer

   Mahayana texts classify practitioners as followers of the hearers' vehicle, the solitary buddhas' vehicle, and the bodhisattva vehicle, with the last as highest. Theravada does not accept that ranking, holding that the path the Buddha taught is one path, that the arahant's liberation is complete rather than inferior, and that the scheme comes from texts it does not treat as the Buddha's word.

4. 4

   What place does Gautama hold in Theravada practice?

   Model answer

   He is the single Buddha of this era and the focus of the tradition's devotion and gratitude, but he is understood to have passed fully away and so not to be reachable by prayer. Honour is paid to him rather than help requested of him, though popular practice is often warmer than the doctrine strictly allows.

5. 5

   How are images and stupas used in Theravada?

   Model answer

   Buddha images are the focus of puja, receiving offerings of light, incense and flowers, and stupas enshrine relics and function as places of circumambulation and merit-making. Theravada teachers explain these as expressions of reverence and reminders of qualities to cultivate, not as objects containing a living presence.

6. 6

   Why is nibbana with renunciation so central to Theravada?

   Model answer

   Because the tradition holds that the end of craving is the point of the path and that renunciation is the condition that makes deep progress practicable. Hence the prestige of monastic life, the support relationship with the laity, and the traditional expectation that final liberation is a monastic achievement, though the texts record enlightened laypeople too.

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