The Diptych

Buddhism and Mahayana

Buddhism stands as a Worldview; Mahayana stands as a Branch. This comparison renders under slot registry version 1.0, in the registry's fixed order. The Diptych displays; it does not score, rank, or adjudicate.

Coverage: Buddhism has 6 sections documented and 10 partial; its evaluative coverage is pending. Mahayana has 6 sections documented and 2 partial; its evaluative coverage is pending.

1. In its own words

The entity stated in its own words: its self-description, before any external description.

Buddhism

Buddhism spread from the Gangetic plain across Asia and divided, over centuries, into great vehicles that share the founder and the earliest texts while differing on scripture, practice, and the goal itself. This tree models the vehicles and their schools as first-class entities.

Buddhism

Source: The Pali Canon (Tipitaka).

Confidence: high

Mahayana

Mahayana Buddhism arose in the first centuries of the common era and became the Buddhism of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Its sutras present the Buddha's teaching as unfolding in turnings of the wheel, and its schools argue over emptiness, Buddha-nature, and the pure land.

Mahayana

Source: The Prajnaparamita Sutras; the Lotus Sutra.

Confidence: high

2. Scale and spread

How large the entity is and where it is found: adherents, bodies, and geography, with sources.

Buddhism

Buddhism counts roughly 490 million adherents, about seven percent of the world's people. Majorities stand in Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Laos, and Mongolia, with large populations in Japan, China, Vietnam, and South Korea.

Buddhism

The range inside, as documented:

Theravada: The way of the elders, which keeps the Pali Canon as its scripture and the arahant as its goal, and carries the Buddhism of Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.
Mahayana: The great vehicle, which sets the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings above the solitary goal, and reads its own sutras beside the early discourses.

Source: Pew Research Center, 'The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050' (2015).

Confidence: high

Mahayana

Mahayana Buddhism is the larger of Buddhism's two great divisions, standing across East and northern Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Singapore hold its largest populations, in Zen, Pure Land, Tiantai, and other schools.

Mahayana

The range inside, as documented:

Zen: The meditation school that points directly at the mind: zazen, the koan, and transmission outside the scriptures, from Chan China to Zen Japan and the modern West.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Mahayana'; Pew Research Center, 'The Global Religious Landscape' (2012).

Confidence: high

3. Historical timeline

The entity's timeline: the events of its history, drawn from the History of Worldviews timelines.

Buddhism

Source: The Pali Nikayas

Confidence: high

Mahayana

Source: The Pali Nikayas

Confidence: high

4. Sources of authority

What the entity treats as authoritative: its scriptures, creeds, councils, and reference works.

Buddhism

Confidence: moderate

Mahayana

Not yet documented

Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.

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10. Community and governance

How the entity is organized: its bodies, offices, and the directory of its communities.

Buddhism

Partial coverage

Buddhist

The range inside, as documented:

Theravada: The way of the elders, which keeps the Pali Canon as its scripture and the arahant as its goal, and carries the Buddhism of Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.
Mahayana: The great vehicle, which sets the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings above the solitary goal, and reads its own sutras beside the early discourses.
Vajrayana: The diamond vehicle, which adds tantra's initiations, mantras, and visualizations to the Mahayana path and carries the Buddhism of Tibet and the Himalayas.
Navayana: The new vehicle proclaimed by B. R. Ambedkar in 1956: Buddhism re-founded as the path of social liberation for India's oppressed castes.
Secular Buddhism: The modern reading that keeps the Buddha's ethics and meditation while setting aside rebirth, karma as cosmic law, and the supernatural frame of the early texts.

Confidence: moderate

Mahayana

Partial coverage

Mahayana

The range inside, as documented:

Zen: The meditation school that points directly at the mind: zazen, the koan, and transmission outside the scriptures, from Chan China to Zen Japan and the modern West.
Pure Land: The school that entrusts itself to Amida Buddha's vow: birth in his Pure Land through the nembutsu, the calling of his name, as the path open to all in the latter age.
Nichiren Buddhism: The school of the monk Nichiren, which holds the Lotus Sutra alone as the true teaching for this age and chants its title as the whole practice.

Confidence: moderate

11. Art and material culture

The entity's art and material culture, drawn from the Religious Art section.

Buddhism

Partial coverage

The range inside, as documented:

Vajrayana: The diamond vehicle, which adds tantra's initiations, mantras, and visualizations to the Mahayana path and carries the Buddhism of Tibet and the Himalayas.

Confidence: moderate

Mahayana

Not yet documented

Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.

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12. Science and technology posture

The entity's posture toward science and technology.

Buddhism

Partial coverage

Confidence: moderate

Mahayana

Not yet documented

Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.

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13. Internal diversity

The range inside the entity: its branches, schools, and movements, each in its own terms.

Buddhism

The range inside, as documented:

Mahayana: The great vehicle, which sets the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings above the solitary goal, and reads its own sutras beside the early discourses.
Vajrayana: The diamond vehicle, which adds tantra's initiations, mantras, and visualizations to the Mahayana path and carries the Buddhism of Tibet and the Himalayas.

Confidence: high

Mahayana

The range inside, as documented:

Nichiren Buddhism: The school of the monk Nichiren, which holds the Lotus Sutra alone as the true teaching for this age and chants its title as the whole practice.

Confidence: high

17. Contested history

The points of the entity's history that are contested, and by whom.

Buddhism

Partial coverage

Mahayana-Theravada Divergence

The range inside, as documented:

Theravada: The way of the elders, which keeps the Pali Canon as its scripture and the arahant as its goal, and carries the Buddhism of Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.
Mahayana: The great vehicle, which sets the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings above the solitary goal, and reads its own sutras beside the early discourses.

Confidence: moderate

Mahayana

Partial coverage

Mahayana-Theravada Divergence

Confidence: moderate

20. Sources

Buddhism

The Pali Canon (Tipitaka).
Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism (2013).

Mahayana

The Prajnaparamita Sutras; the Lotus Sutra.
Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2009).

Citations resolve to the site's References register as that rebuild lands; exports of this comparison stand under the tools above.

Buddhism and Mahayana, section by section
Section	Buddhism	Mahayana
In its own words	populated: Buddhism spread from the Gangetic plain across Asia and divided, over centuries, into great vehicles that share the founder and the earliest texts while differing on scripture, practice, and the goal itself. This tree models the vehicles and their schools as first-class entities.	populated: Mahayana Buddhism arose in the first centuries of the common era and became the Buddhism of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Its sutras present the Buddha's teaching as unfolding in turnings of the wheel, and its schools argue over emptiness, Buddha-nature, and the pure land.
Scale and spread	populated: Buddhism counts roughly 490 million adherents, about seven percent of the world's people. Majorities stand in Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Laos, and Mongolia, with large populations in Japan, China, Vietnam, and South Korea.	populated: Mahayana Buddhism is the larger of Buddhism's two great divisions, standing across East and northern Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Singapore hold its largest populations, in Zen, Pure Land, Tiantai, and other schools.
Historical timeline	populated	populated
Sources of authority	partial	not documented
Ultimate reality	partial	not documented
The human person	partial	not documented
Problem and solution	partial	not documented
Ethics and hard cases	partial	not documented
Practice and devotion	partial	not documented
Community and governance	partial	partial
Art and material culture	partial	not documented
Science and technology posture	partial	not documented
Internal diversity	populated	populated
Contributions	not documented	not documented
Internal critique	not documented	not documented
External critique and reply	not documented	not documented
Contested history	partial	partial
What each says about the other	not documented	not documented
What this comparison cannot settle	populated: This comparison sets two self-descriptions side by side; it does not decide between them. A tradition is a living range of positions, and each panel renders the range this site has documented, which is not the whole of the tradition. Where a cell is marked not yet documented, the gap belongs to this site's documentation, not to the tradition. Questions of truth between the panels turn on premises the reader brings: what counts as evidence, what authority is recognized, and what a human life is for. The instrument does not score, rank, or adjudicate.	populated: This comparison sets two self-descriptions side by side; it does not decide between them. A tradition is a living range of positions, and each panel renders the range this site has documented, which is not the whole of the tradition. Where a cell is marked not yet documented, the gap belongs to this site's documentation, not to the tradition. Questions of truth between the panels turn on premises the reader brings: what counts as evidence, what authority is recognized, and what a human life is for. The instrument does not score, rank, or adjudicate.
Sources	populated	populated