Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism

Travel Day 1099-01 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND

While all my Buddhist studies at Kopan Monastery in Nepal had been in the Mahayana tradition, now in Thailand it was great to finally learn a little bit more about the Theravada Buddhism…

Mahayana Meditation Hall at Kopan

Obviously the fundamental teachings of the Buddha like the “Four Noble Truths” and the “Noble Eightfold Path” were pretty much identical, but the overall approach of Buddhism was quite different. At the Mahayana monastery the goal of this precious human rebirth was always to become a Bodhisattva and ultimately attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. The underlying idea was to bring happiness to all sentient beings as every single one of them wanted to be free from suffering…

Whenever the monks from the Mahayana tradition talked about the Theravada Buddhism, it almost seemed as if they were looking down on them a little bit. They actually seemed to portray the Theravada monks as rather selfish people because they were only seeking personal liberation for their own sake, instead of enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. The Mahayana approach always appeared to be the nobler because it was rather focused on others while the Theravada approach seemed to be only focused on oneself…

Theravada Meditation Hall, Suan Mokkh

While this was technically true, the Theravada approach, even if focused on oneself, appeared to be everything but egoistic, it was rather ascetic. The Theravada monks were putting themselves constantly through tremendous hardships while living like we did during the retreat. They would sleep on hard surfaces, rise at 4am, only eat two meals per day and they would even have to go and beg for their little food at the doorsteps of people’s houses. Every delicious food they would receive, they even gave away…

For me it was actually quite remarkable to see how the Theravada monks were living. They literally tried to avoid anything that would be pleasurable, because the sensation of delight would unnecessarily give rise to the self-sense and the ego. Instead, the Theravada approach was not to be happy and not to be sad because both would be extremes. The idea was to rather maintain a state that lay in-between, following the path of the middle way…

Mahayana Breakfast with Pleasure

Unfortunately, the way the Theravada monks lived also showed on their bodies and their faces. While putting themselves through the daily hardships and restricting themselves from any pleasures, the Theravada monks appeared as skinny, ascetic looking people with a slightly sad expression on their faces. This stood in great contrast to everything I had ever experienced with the Mahayana monks who seemed to be those somewhat overweight, but constantly smiling people who were never shy to make a silly joke and enjoy life…

But there were obviously other undeniable differences between the Theravada and the Mahayana approach of Buddhism. For example the overall appearance of the monasteries and the meditation halls could not have been more different. While the Mahayana meditation hall came with lots of colors and ornamentation, it also came with a golden Buddha statue, a throne for the photo of the Dalai Lama, statues of all sorts of Bodhisattvas and many other decorative items. The Theravada meditation hall on the other hand came simply in bare concrete and stripped of everything else, even walls and a floor…

Theravada Breakfast without Pleasure

It was actually quite remarkable to see those differences, which even extended into the surrounding environment. While the Mahayana monastery had a lot of prayer flags, prayer wheels, mantas, malas, prostrations, Buddha statues and kitschy, ornamented stupas, the Theravada monastery didn’t come with any of there things. The only thing that existed was a pond with an island called Nirvana and a simple bridge leading to it. The bridge was supported by 16 concrete pillars, symbolizing the 16 steps of Anapanasiti which one had to go through, one by one, in order to cross over the bridge to Nirvana. Things could be that simple and yet meaningful…

Another difference between the two types of Buddhism became apparent to me during our usual food reflections. In the Mahayana tradition our nun had read aloud a text that was mainly concerned with other people. Just as Mahayana Buddhism wanted to benefit all sentient beings, in the food reflection we thanked every single person involved in creating our meal, from the farmers to the truck drivers, from the cooks to the cleaners and after that everyone would wander off to eat on their own…

Mahayana Religious Attachment

In the Theravada monastery on the other hand, we had to wait for everyone to be served and then while looking at our meal which was served in one bowl only, reminding of the usual begging bowl, we would then recite the food reflection together. The Theravada food reflection was focused on oneself and again, without being egoistic, we spoke together that we would only eat this food to maintain this body of ours. We would not eat this food for fattening, for pleasure or for beautification, only out of pure necessity, for the purpose of continuing to live a spiritual life…

Sometimes it was actually hard to believe that Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism were both following the same teachings of the Buddha. But the teachings had been passed on only verbally for a very long time and they had been adapted to different cultures and different peoples. It obviously came to no real surprise that Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition had rather developed into something that would best be described as a religion, while in the Theravada tradition Buddhism was presented simply as a “Way of Life”…

Theravada Simplicity at Suan Mokkh

Another point that struck me as interesting was the way how Buddha himself was presented. The Mahayana tradition always used great words and phrases to describe the Buddha as an enlightened being. But who amongst us could actually claim to fully know what it meant to be enlightened? In the Theravada tradition on the other hand Buddha was described as a normal human being. He was just a normally functioning human being. In fact, he was the only normally functioning human being around. So all of us not normally functioning human beings, all of us with delusions, emotions and ego, all we needed to strive for was to become a normal human being…

This kind of simple view of Buddhism was really talking to me, even if my roots lay rather in the Mahayana tradition. But the extremely pure and simplistic approach of the Theravada Buddhism seemed somewhat closer to what the Buddha might have actually taught and it definitely seemed like something I would like to look into in greater detail in the future. For now, both Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism seemed to have their good points and the best practice was probably lying somewhere in-between of them. It was probably lying once again in the middle way…

Find all Wat Suan Mokkh and Kopan Monastery Photos here.