The big idea: There is no Buddhist pope and no Buddhist council that can bind the tradition.
Authority runs through the monastic order, through texts whose standing rests on transmission, and — in Vajrayana Buddhism — through a system of lamas.
Four kinds of Buddhist authority. None of them can overrule another.
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Lay and monastic goals differ: The guide says it directly: lay people aim for punya (merit) to ensure a good rebirth, but monks aim for nirvana.
In Mahayana the emphasis is still on monks, but all can aim for nirvana and the higher goal of Buddhahood — which is the single clearest doctrinal difference between the branches.
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The guide lists them, with their names translated, and the translations tell you what each branch thought it was doing.
The branches the guide names, with what distinguishes each. None is a deviation from the others.
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And the West: The guide names as content the spread of Buddhism and adaptations in the West.
Western Buddhism tends to foreground meditation and to downplay the monastic and merit-making structures that carry Buddhism in Asia — which is itself an example of the guide's point that cultural context shapes practice.
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Theravada
- Siddhartha Gotama — the historical Buddha
- A single source, transmitted through the monastic order
- The arahant is the ideal: one who has reached enlightenment
Mahayana
- The historical Buddha, and prominent bodhisattvas
- So the source of doctrine is wider from the start
- The bodhisattva is the ideal: enlightenment for the sake of others
That difference of source is the hinge of the whole unit. If doctrine can come from bodhisattvas as well as from the historical Buddha, then the canon can grow, new practices can be authorised, and Buddhahood can be held open to everyone.
Every Mahayana distinctive follows from it.
Theme 3's key question, answered: "To what extent do doctrines unite, or create divisions, within a religion?"
Buddhism does both from one doctrine: who may teach. It divides Theravada from Mahayana, and it unites each branch internally around a shared account of its own scripture.
How this is tested. Paper 2 has asked directly about the Three Jewels, about which of them matters most, and about the differences between branches.
“Dhamma/dharma is the most important of the Three Jewels.” To what extent do you agree?
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