The Diptych
Mahayana and Theravada
Mahayana stands as a Branch; Theravada 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: Mahayana has 6 sections documented and 2 partial; its evaluative coverage is pending. Theravada has 5 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.
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.
Source: The Prajnaparamita Sutras; the Lotus Sutra.
Confidence: high
Theravada
Theravada is the Buddhism of the Pali Canon, the earliest complete canon to survive. Its monks keep the Vinaya in its Pali form, its laity support the sangha and make merit, and its meditation traditions were carried worldwide in the modern centuries.
Source: The Pali Canon.
Confidence: high
2. Scale and spread
How large the entity is and where it is found: adherents, bodies, and geography, with sources.
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.
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
Theravada
Theravada Buddhism is the majority form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, counting roughly 150 million adherents, and it has grown a substantial following in Western convert communities.
Source: Pew Research Center, 'The Global Religious Landscape' (2012); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Theravada'.
Confidence: high
3. Historical timeline
The entity's timeline: the events of its history, drawn from the History of Worldviews timelines.
Mahayana
- The buddhist timeline
- Life of the Buddha
- Reign of Ashoka
- Emergence of the Mahayana
- Nagarjuna
- Asanga and Vasubandhu
- Huiyuan's White Lotus Society on Mount Lu
Source: The Pali Nikayas
Confidence: high
Theravada
- The buddhist timeline
- Life of the Buddha
- First Council at Rajagaha
- Second Council at Vaishali
- Reign of Ashoka
- Third Council at Pataliputra
- Pali Canon committed to writing (Sri Lanka)
Source: The Pali Nikayas
Confidence: high
10. Community and governance
How the entity is organized: its bodies, offices, and the directory of its communities.
Mahayana
Partial coverage
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
13. Internal diversity
The range inside the entity: its branches, schools, and movements, each in its own terms.
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
Theravada
Not yet documented
Coverage record created at intake; content not yet documented.
17. Contested history
The points of the entity's history that are contested, and by whom.
20. Sources
Mahayana
- The Prajnaparamita Sutras; the Lotus Sutra.
- Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2009).
Theravada
- The Pali Canon.
- Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism (2006).
Citations resolve to the site's References register as that rebuild lands; exports of this comparison stand under the tools above.
| Section | Mahayana | Theravada |
|---|---|---|
| In its own words | 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. | populated: Theravada is the Buddhism of the Pali Canon, the earliest complete canon to survive. Its monks keep the Vinaya in its Pali form, its laity support the sangha and make merit, and its meditation traditions were carried worldwide in the modern centuries. |
| Scale and spread | 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. | populated: Theravada Buddhism is the majority form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, counting roughly 150 million adherents, and it has grown a substantial following in Western convert communities. |
| Historical timeline | populated | populated |
| Sources of authority | not documented | not documented |
| Ultimate reality | not documented | not documented |
| The human person | not documented | not documented |
| Problem and solution | not documented | not documented |
| Ethics and hard cases | not documented | not documented |
| Practice and devotion | not documented | not documented |
| Community and governance | partial | partial |
| Art and material culture | not documented | not documented |
| Science and technology posture | not documented | not documented |
| Internal diversity | populated | not documented |
| 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 |