.

1. Schools of Buddhism

2. Schools of Buddhism
1. Theravada Buddhism (Tradition of the Elders)
2. Vajrayana Buddhism (The Way of the Diamond)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (The Great Vehicle)

3. Some Equate Vajrayana with Mahayana
1. Theravada Buddhism (Tradition of the Elders)
2. Mayayana = Vajrayana

4. Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana
Vajrayana

5. First Council
Rajgir, India (400 BC)
TRIPITAKA - The Three Baskets
Codi
fi
cation of Buddha’s teaching
Written in the Pali (East India) Language

6. Second Council
Vaisali, India (383 BC)
Differences in philosophy
Differences in monastic discipline.
Split between Theravada / Mahayana

8. 1. Theravada
Tradition of the Elders
Pali Language
Southeast Asia

9. Theravada
Beliefs

10. Theravada Beliefs
• Believe they continue the original tradition of Siddhartha Gautama
• Emphasis monastic living

11. Theravada Beliefs
1. Differentiate between Monk and Layman
• Monk can attain Nirvana
• Layman can become a monk in next life

12. Theravada Beliefs
• Rejection divine beings
• Self is an illusion and does not exist
• Nirvana is the extinguishing the self

13. Theravada
Practices

14. Theravada Practice
• Monks bound to the Temple
• Community supports the Monks

15. Theravada Monks
• Orange (yellow) robes
• Orange (yellow) represents
fi
re, which
puri
fi
es
• Shave their heads
• Shaved heads represents
renunciation of personal identity
• Live in Communes

16. Theravada Monks
• Meditation
• Beg for food
• Depend on the temple
• Teach initiates & community

17. Theravada Goal
To become an Arhat (holy man)
To attain Nirvana

18. Purpose of Meditation
1. Focus on Mindfulness - become aware of your body
2. Focus on impermanence of life
3. Focus on nonexistence
4. Focus on empty mind of “self”

19. Chanting
Scriptures from the Pali Canon in the Pali language
1. Buddha bhivadana — reverence for Buddha
2. Tisarana — the Three Refuges
3. Pancasila — the Five Precepts
4. Upjhatthana — the Five Rememberences
5. The 32 parts of the body

20. Theravada Buddhist Meditation

21. Lay People Obligations
1. Keep the
fi
ve precepts
2. Support the monks
3. Help maintain the temples

22. Theravada Ten Precepts
Common People
Common People Initiates Monks

23. 2. Vajrayana
Tantric Buddhism
Way of the Diamond
Tibetan Buddhism
Some equate it with Mahayana

25. Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism
• Arrived from India (6th Century AD)
• Became State religion under King Songtsan Gampo (618-649 AD)
• Dominant version is “Yellow Hat” Buddhism (14th Century)
• Dalai Lama Lineage Began during Mongolian Rule (16th Century)
Lopez, D. S. , Snellgrove, . David Llewelyn , Kitagawa, . Joseph M. , Nakamura, . Hajime , Reynolds, . Frank E. and Tucci, . Giuseppe (2021, April
8). Buddhism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhish (“Vajrana”)

26. 14th Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso (1925 - present)
Dalai Lama (1940 - Present)
Exiled in 1959 to N India
Lopez, D. S. , Snellgrove, . David Llewelyn , Kitagawa, . Joseph M. , Nakamura, . Hajime , Reynolds, . Frank E. and Tucci, . Giuseppe (2021, April
8). Buddhism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhish (“Vajrana”)

27. Beliefs
1. Nirvana is achieved through stages of yogic meditations
2. Nirvana is achieved through understanding this polarity:
• Passive understanding voidness (Female)
• Active compassion without no attachment (Male)
3. Nirvana can be achieved by anyone
4. Nirvana can be achieved in anyone’s lifetime
Lopez, D. S. , Snellgrove, . David Llewelyn , Kitagawa, . Joseph M. , Nakamura, . Hajime , Reynolds, . Frank E. and Tucci, . Giuseppe (2021, April
8). Buddhism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhish (“Vajrana”)

28. Beliefs
Vajrayana Buddhism recognizes local gods
Lopez, D. S. , Snellgrove, . David Llewelyn , Kitagawa, . Joseph M. , Nakamura, . Hajime , Reynolds, . Frank E. and Tucci, . Giuseppe (2021, April
8). Buddhism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhish (“Vajrana”)

29. Practices
• Tibetan master leads students through meditation on these two
opposites using visualization.
• Gods are visualized
• Yogic postures practiced
• Mantras vocalized
• Icons venerated
Lopez, D. S. , Snellgrove, . David Llewelyn , Kitagawa, . Joseph M. , Nakamura, . Hajime , Reynolds, . Frank E. and Tucci, . Giuseppe (2021, April
8). Buddhism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhish (“Vajrana”)

30. Tibetan Book of the Dead
• Bardo Thosgrol Chenmo
• Means “Great Liberation”
• Written in 11th Century AD
• Describes journey after death
• Describes funeral rituals
Irons, E. A. (2008). Tibetan book of the dead. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Facts on File, Inc. 512

32. 3. Mahayana
Great Vehicle
Sanskrit Language
China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan

33. Mahayana Beliefs
• Great Vehicle — Buddhism for commoners
• Anyone can become enlightened
• Buddha’s practices are for all people

34. Mahayana Goals
• Achieve personal enlightenment
• Working for the bene
fi
t of other people
• Help others achieve enlightenment

35. Mahayana Sanskrit Scriptures
• Diamond Sutra
• Flower Garland Sutra
• Lotus Sutra

36. Six Schools of
Mahayana

37. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school

38. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school
2. Shingdon — Magical Buddhism

39. Shingdon
China, Japan
Magical Buddhism

40. Shingdon Buddhism
• Spread through China during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD)
• Brought to Japan by monk named Kukai (805 AD)
• Kukai gathered magical practices together

41. Beliefs
• Enlightenment is not a distant hope, but immediate possibility
• Enlightenment is possible for everyone
• Enlightenment is accessible through right practices

42. The Thirteen Buddhas (or Bodhisattvas)
1. Wisdom King Acala
2. Gautama Buddha
3. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva
4. Samantabhadra Bodhisattva
5. Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva
6. Maitreya Bodhisattva
7. Bhaiṣajyaguru Buddha
8. Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva
9. Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva
10.Amitābha Buddha
11.Akṣobhya Buddha
12.Mahavairocana Buddha
13.Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva (

43. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school
2. Shingdon — Magical Buddhism
3. Pure Land — Japan, followers of Amitabha Buddha

44. Pure Land Buddhism
Follow Buddha Amitabha
Japan

45. Honen
1133 - 1212
Mimasaka Japan

46. Pure Land Buddhism
Anyone can attain enlightenment in this life
All people die and go to the Pure Land where experience “release”

47. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school
2. Shingdon — Magical Buddhism
3. Pure Land — Japan, followers of Amitabha Buddha
4. Zen Buddhism — Japan

48. Zen Buddhism
Zen means Meditation
Japan

49. History
• Zen is Japanese for Sanskrit dhyana (meditation)_
• Began in China during Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD)
• Spread to Japan

50. Daoyun
1004 AD
Authored the book
“Records of the Transmission
of the Lamp”

51. Zen Beliefs
• Buddha’s consciousness exists in every follower
• Enlightenment is a single experience / event
• Realizations are events leading to enlightenment
• Anybody can and must attain spiritual awakening
through meditation and personal discipline

52. Zen Buddhism
• Emphasizes Personal Restraint
• Mindfulness Meditation
• De-emphasizes study, focuses on practice
• Stresses applying the things Buddha did over sutras

53. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school
2. Shingdon — Magical Buddhism
3. Pure Land — Japan, followers of Amitabha Buddha
4. Zen Buddhism — Japan
5. Nichiren Shoshu — Japan

54. Nichiren Shoshu
Means:
Orthodox followers of Nichiren
Japan

55. History
Japanese Buddhist Priest
Nichiren Shonen (1222 - 1282 AD)

56. Beliefs
1. We are in the third Age of Buddhism
2. Nichiren Shonen taught the only true interpretation of Buddhism
3. The Lotus Sutra is the only true Buddhist Scripture
4. Buddhists can attain enlightenment by chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge Kyo

57. Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō
南無妙法蓮華経
I am devoted to the mystic law of the Lotus Sutra

58. Beliefs
Nichiren continues to live embodied
by the Dai Gohonzon which is a wood
carving in the Taiseki-Ji Temple in
Shizuoka, Japan

59. Nichiren comes to the U S
Nichiren Shoshu of American (NSA)
established in 1902
Came to Hawaii and spread among
the Japanese
Came to California after that
Their logo is the Crane

61. Six Schools of Mahayana Buddhism
1. Tibetan — Although we treat it as a separate school
2. Shingdon — Magical Buddhism
3. Pure Land — Japan, followers of Amitabha Buddha
4. Zen Buddhism — Japan
5. Nichiren Shoshu — Japan
6. Tendai — Rational Buddhism (China, Korea, Japan)

62. Tendai Buddhism
• Tendai is Japanese word for mountain range in Eastern China
• Drew from Hindu philosopher Nagarjuna (150 - 250 AD)
• Founded by Zhiyi (538 - 597 AD)
• Brought to Japan by Saicho (767 - 822 AD)
https://www.tendai.org/tendai/what-is-tendai

63. Tendai Buddhism
Tendai Buddhism takes a comprehensive approach to the study and practice
of Buddhism. Tendai Buddhism incorporates insights from Indian and
Chinese philosophical traditions, the study of the Lotus Sutra and other
Buddhist texts, meditation traditions like Zen as well as Calming and Insight
Meditation (shamata-vipashyanna), Pure Land and Tantric practices.
https://www.tendai.org/tendai/what-is-tendai

64. Tendai Beliefs
1. One Vehicle — Find unifying principles in all the branches of Buddhism
2. Interconnectedness — seeks to find unifying elements in the world
3. Buddha Nature — we all have the ability to achieve enlightenment
https://www.tendai.org/tendai/what-is-tendai

65. Buddhism in America

67. Kung Fu (1972)

68. Chinese Immigration 1849-1943

69. Chinese Immigrants
1849 - 1853
California

70. Chinese Immigrants
In 1870
63,000 Chinese immigrants
lived in California

71. Chinese Immigrants
Economic refugees
Fleeing wars and economic
depression

72. Chinese Immigrants
When they didn’t
fi
nd gold
Worked on Transnational
railroad

73. Chinatowns
Settled in San Francisco
Built China Towns in CA
Founded businesses,
restaurants, clothing stores

74. Racism & Discrimination
1870 National Depression
Discrimination & Racism
American was de
fi
ning itself
as a white Christian nation

75. Chinese Exclusion
Act of 1882
Congress restricted all Chinese
immigration explicitly based on
RACE and blocked current
residents from attaining
citizenship

76. Repeal of the Act
1943 Chinese Exclusion Act
repealed during WWII
because China was ally

77. Birth of American Buddhism

78. Buddhism in California
First Temple in San Francisco 1853
Sze Yap Fraternity
Eight Temples in California by 1900
Called “Buddhist Churches”

79. First Buddhist Church of San Francisco (1898)

80. Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emmerson (1883 - 1882)
Concord, MA in 1830

81. Transcendentalism
Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888)

82. Theosophical Society
New York (1875)

83. Parliament of World Religions in Chicago (1893)
Charles T. Strauss, First American Convert

84. Immigration & Nationality
Act of 1965
Aka Hart-Celler Act
Abolished National Origins
Formula

85. Immigration & Nationality
Act of 1965
18 million immigrants
over next 30 yrs
31 percent from Asia

86. Gibson, Jung (2006) Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign Born Population of the United States. No. 81: US Census Bureau

87. In
fl
uence of Asian Immigation
• Establishment of Buddhist Temples
• Production of Buddhist literature and publications
• Buddhist schools and teaching
• Teachers from China established schools

88. Nature of American Buddhism

89. Reasons for Attraction
• Response to the materialism of the1950s
• Response to stale mainline American religion
• Cynicism & suspicion of American institutions
• Presented itself as a compatible philosophy rather than alternative
• Answered questions about “suffering”
• Presented itself as a path of peace while religion seen as source of con
fl
ict

90. Differences in American Buddhism
1. Therapeutic — presented itself as personal practices helping people be calm in
a disruptive decade that created anxiety

91. Differences in American Buddhism
1. Therapeutic — presented itself as personal practices helping people be calm in a
disruptive decade that created anxiety
2. Spirituality — presented itself as a spirituality instead of a religion or
traditions that is compatible with people’s religious traditions

92. Differences in American Buddhism
1. Therapeutic — presented itself as personal practices helping people be calm in a
disruptive decade that created anxiety
2. Spirituality — presented itself as a spirituality instead of a religion or traditions that is
compatible with people’s religious traditions
3. Solutions — proposed modern answers to modern questions about war,
suffering, and existence

93. Differences in American Buddhism
1. Therapeutic — presented itself as personal practices helping people be calm in a
disruptive decade that created anxiety
2. Spirituality — presented itself as a spirituality instead of a religion or traditions that is
compatible with people’s religious traditions
3. Solutions — proposed modern answers to modern questions about war, suffering, and
existence
4. Unifying — Proposed to unite all religious truth claims at a time when
con
fl
ict was tearing apart American culture

94. Differences in American Buddhism
1. Therapeutic — presented itself as personal practices helping people be calm in a
disruptive decade that created anxiety
2. Spirituality — presented itself as a spirituality instead of a religion or traditions that is
compatible with people’s religious traditions
3. Solutions — proposed modern answers to modern questions about war, suffering, and
existence
4. Unifying — Proposed to unite all religious truth claims at a time when con
fl
ict was tearing
apart American culture
5. Compatible with Science — Proposed to bring science and religion together
(ex. Psychology) instead of pitting them against each other.

95. Leading Buddhist Advocates

96. Allen Ginsberg
1926-1997
Beatnik Movement
Postwar interest in Buddhism

97. The Jew & the Lotus
Roger Kamenetz (1994)
JuBus

98. Jewish Buddhism
• Compatible with Judaism
• Offered mystical explanations of
Jewish traditions
• Proposed inclusive rather than
tribalistic alternatives
•

99. Carl Jung
1875 - 1961
Founder of Analytic Psychology
Writer on Buddhism

100. Spiritual explanations of scienti
fi
c
fi
ndings
Explained how we are spiritual beings,
not packages of chemicals and sparks
Brought science and spirituality
together
Proposed transcendent answers to
ultimate questions in a scienti
fi
c
context

101. “The goal in psychotherapy is exactly the
same as in Buddhism”
“The difference between Buddhism and
Western psychology is concept of the
self”
“Christ overcame the world by burning
himself with its suffering, but Buddha
overcame both the pleasure and
suffering of the world by disposing of
both” (p. 367).
“To the Western man, the
meaninglessness of a static universe is
unbearable. The oriental does not make
that assumption…rather he embodies it”
(p. 317)

102. Center for Mindfulness
at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center (1970)

103. Mindfulness Movement

104. Jon Kabat Zinn
• 1979 — student at MIT encountered Zen Buddhism
• Founded the Mindfulness Stress Reduction Clinic
• Professor of Medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Authored over 15 books in 45 different languages on Mindful Meditation

105. American Buddhism

106. Zen Buddhism

107. Soyen Shaku
1860 - 1919
Born Kamakura, Japan
Buddhist Monk
1893 Came to Chicago for the
World Parliament of Religions

108. Soyen Shaku
1905 Returned to the US
Sponsored by Millionaire Ida Russell
Established School for Zen in
San Francisco

109. D. T. Suzuki
Came to America with Shaky
Published Outlines of Mahayana
Buddhism in English 1907
One of the
fi
rst English books about
Buddhism to gain popularity

110. D. T. Suzuki
1951 Began teaching Buddhism at
Columbia University popularizing Zen
Buddhism on the East coast

111. D. T. Suzuki
Opened the San Francisco Zen Center
And
Zen Center of Los Angeles

112. Zen Buddhism
Worldwide 200,000 adherents

113. Nichiren Shoshu of
America (NSA)
“Orthodox School of Nichiren”
Japanese School of Zen Buddhism

114. Nichiren Shoshu of America
• Founded in 13th Century in Northern Japan
• Nikko Shonin, the next Buddha
• US Headquarters in Los Angeles California
• 12 Million adherents in 188 countries
• Organized missionary work worldwide
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/nichiren_1.shtml

115. NSA Beliefs
• Rejects all other forms of Buddhism as heretical
• Claims to be the only true Buddhism
• Believes we are in the 3rd Age
• Nichiren Shobeb is the New Buddha
• Believes anyone can easily achieve enlightenment
• Text is the Lotus Sutra
• Chants mantra “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo”
• Worships the Dai. Gohonzon, a Japanese goddess
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/nichiren_1.shtml

116. NSA Ten Principles
1. Hell - personal despair in this life
2. Hunger - desiring something rather
than contentment
3. Animality - being governed by animal
instincts
4. Anger - any kind of sel
fi
shness, or
competitiveness
5. Tranquility - Calm state
6. Rapture - pleasure when desire is
ful
fi
lled (??!!)
7. Learning - new skills
8. Aborption - condition following gaining
new wisdom
9. Bodhisattva - disciple of the new
Buddha
10.Buddhahood - achieving the state of
compassion, wisdom, and humaneness
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/nichiren_1.shtml