Schools of Buddhism

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Schools of Buddhism number, by some estimates, perhaps in the thousands. A single teaching tradition has produced sects, sub-sects, movements, and worldviews that defy easy counting. The branching began in ancient times and has not stopped.

  Some doctrines have proved durable. The four noble truths and the teachings of karma and rebirth appear consistently across traditions. But other questions have resisted agreement. The nature of the Buddha himself, and the question of which scriptures carry authority, have divided communities permanently.

  Geography contributed to the splintering. Historical schisms played a part. Competing interpretations of shared texts pulled communities in opposing directions. The first concrete crack traces back to a dispute over monastic conduct. Most scholars place that rupture in the era just after the Indian emperor Ashoka.

• 2. The First Schism

  ›

  Most scholars now believe the rupture arose from disagreements about vinaya, the code of monastic conduct, rather than theology. That split created two camps: the Sthavira Nikaya, whose name means Elders, and the Mahasanghika, meaning the Great Community.

  From the Sthaviras eventually came several distinct schools: the Sarvastivada sects, the Vibhajyavadins, the Theravadins, the Dharmaguptakas, and the Pudgalavada. The Pudgalavada tradition traces its origin to an elder named Vatsipurta, active circa the 3rd century BCE. Their distinctive doctrine concerned the pudgala, or person, a concept that set them apart from other Sthavira branches.

  The Sarvastivada school grew strongest in northwest India and Kashmir. Its name translates as "the theory that all exists," reflecting the doctrine that dharmas persist through past, present, and future. Sarvastivada thinkers later divided: the Vaibhashika defended that doctrine in a compendium called the Mahavibhasha Shastra, while the Sautrantika rejected it.

  Among the Mahasanghika branches, the Lokottaravadins took an especially striking position. Every action of the Buddha, including mundane acts like eating, was supramundane and transcendental in their view. One of the few surviving Mahasanghika texts, the Mahavastu, comes from this school. Another branch, the Caitika, concentrated in Andhra Pradesh and South India. Scholar A. K. Warder holds that many important Mahayana sutras originated among these groups.

  The Indian philosopher Paramartha recorded a further division among the Mahasanghika when the Mahayana sutras arrived. Sub-schools like the Kukkutikas refused to accept those texts as the word of the Buddha, while others welcomed them.

• 3. The School That Remained

  ›

  The Pali Canon, the only complete Buddhist scriptural collection surviving in a classical Indian language, is the doctrinal bedrock of Theravada. Theravada derives from the Sri Lankan Mahavihara sect, itself a branch of the South Indian Vibhajjavadins. Pali serves not only as the school's sacred language but as the lingua franca binding its widely dispersed communities.

  Today the school is dominant in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and parts of Vietnam, China, India, and Malaysia. Within this broad geography, the various sects emphasize different aspects of the Pali canon and the later commentaries. Significant differences also exist in how strictly different monastics interpret the Vinaya Pitaka.

  Thailand's Thai Forest Tradition focuses on monastic living in the wilderness. Santi Asoke describes itself as a recent reform movement within Thai practice. In Burma, the tradition has branched into a wide range of separate Nikayas, each with its own rules of conduct.

  The Vipassana movement, strongly lay-focused and also known in the West as Insight Meditation, represents a more recent current in Theravada's development. Scholars like Francois Bizot have documented a Cambodian sub-tradition called Tantric Theravada, which incorporates esoteric elements not found in classical practice. That case sits at the boundary of what Theravada and Vajrayana each claim as their own.

• 4. The Great Vehicle

  ›

  East Asian Buddhists constitute the largest body of Buddhist traditions in the world, numbering over half of all Buddhists worldwide. This branch traces its origins to China during the Han dynasty, when Buddhism first arrived from Central Asia.

  Nagarjuna, active circa 150 to 250 CE, founded the earliest of the two major philosophical traditions within Indian Mahayana: the Madhyamaka, or Middle Way. The other was the Yogacara, founded by Asanga and Vasubandhu in the 4th century AD. Mahayana sutras are seen by modern scholars as dating back as far as the 1st century BCE.

  Travelers like Xuanzang observed that many Mahayanists lived in mixed monasteries alongside non-Mahayanists. East Asian masters like Zhiyi, Fazang, and Linji produced influential writings that shaped distinctly Asian interpretations of Buddhist teaching. Mahayana schools generally hold that many Buddhas exist in other realms or pure lands, and that these beings are transcendental with vast powers.

  The concept of Ekayāna, meaning one vehicle, became central to several traditions. Texts like the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra sought to unite all Buddhist teachings into a single great way. In Japan, Nichiren Buddhist sects placed the Lotus Sutra at the center of their practice. Meditation was replaced there by chanting Namu Myoho Renge Kyo, the Japanese phrase meaning the Way of the Lotus Sutra.

  Some scholars identify a third strand of Indian Mahayana: the compilers of the Tathāgatagarbha texts. This movement influenced Tibetan traditions alongside East Asian schools including the Dashabhumika, Huayan, Tiantai, Jonang, Nichiren, and Zen. Its reach extended into Tibet, where the largest body of esoteric practice would later develop.

• 5. The Esoteric Path

  ›

  In medieval India, a class of adepts called the Mahāsiddhas developed the practices at the heart of this tradition. Those practices center on mantras, dharanis, mudras, mandalas, and the visualization of deities and Buddhas. Alongside the classic scriptures, practitioners also study a separate body of texts known as the Buddhist Tantras.

  Tibetan Buddhism is the most widespread form of this tradition today. It is practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Bhutan, Sikkim, the Himalayan region, and the Russian republics of Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva. Monastics in this tradition generally follow the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya. The main texts of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism are contained in the Kanjur and the Tenjur.

  Within Tibetan Buddhism, the major sub-schools include the Nyingma, Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya, and Jonang traditions. The Rimé movement, a non-sectarian approach, arose as a counterweight to the divisions within Tibetan practice. In Japan, the Tendai and Shingon schools have been described as influenced by the esoteric tradition.

  Some scholars place Vajrayana within the broader Mahayana category rather than treating it as a separate tradition. Others do not. The Shingon school in Japan is universally recognized as falling under the Vajrayana heading. As one scholar has written, "it remains exceedingly difficult to identify precisely what it is that sets the Vajrayana apart."

• 6. New Departures

  ›

  B. R. Ambedkar, a modern Indian jurist and social reformer, developed Navayana, also known as the Dalit Buddhist movement. He grounded it in the idea of "Implementing the Principles of Buddhism for the Welfare of Many People." Its name, Navayana, translates as "new vehicle," marking a departure from older traditions.

  A Vietnamese reform movement called Hoa Hao was founded in 1939 by Huynh Phu So in the Mekong Delta. Its followers sought liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and ascent to what the movement calls the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

  The 20th century produced many further movements across a wide spectrum. These include Buddhist modernism, Buddhist feminism, Buddhist socialism, Critical Buddhism, and Secular Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism emerged as a significant strand, bringing together organizations like the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Plum Village Tradition, and the Order of Interbeing.

  In Japan, Nichiren-based lay movements proliferated, among them Soka Gakkai and Rissho Kosei Kai. Western Buddhism now encompasses traditions taking root in Australia, Europe, Russia, and the United States. One of the movements to emerge from the 20th century's Buddhist ferment bears the name Coconut Religion.