Theravada Buddhism Essay, Research Paper

Throughout history there have been numerous religions and theologies that men

and women have entrusted their lives and ways of living to. One of the most

intriguing is that of Buddhism. The great Buddha referred to his way as the

middle way, and he, as the ?Enlightened One? began the teachings of the

religion with his first five Ascetics who he shows his middle way. This great

occasion is the start to what will be known as Theravadan Buddhism. Although

Theravadan Buddhism would later be seen as the ?small vehicle,? it provides

the first idea of the doctrine anatman or having no-self that shapes the ideas

of every Buddhist today. Theravadan Buddhism which means ?The teaching of the

elders,? is the teaching of the Buddha in its true traditional form. After

attaining enlightenment under the Bohdi tree, the Buddha returns to five ascetic

monks he had been associated with previously. He taught them the essential parts

of Buddhism which include the vital Four Noble Truths. These teachings were

taught by monks, and they give the fundamental truths on which the religion was

founded. These are the Four Noble Truths: (1) all life is inevitably filled with

sorrow; (2) sorrow is directly due to craving; (3) sorrow can only be stopped by

stopping the craving; and (4) this can be done only by disciplined and moral

conduct with meditation led by the Buddhist monk. These truths show that the

Buddhists saw all things as transient, and being transient there is no eternal

Self or soul, hence anatman or no true self. While the Theravadan Buddhist

practiced the idea of anatman, there were other movements that practiced the

idea of atman or true self. The Upanishadic movement, which started about 300

years before the Theravadan practice, revolves around a story of a boy who Yama

tells there is a self in everyone. This true self or atman is covered up by the

illusion of an individual. As this way of thinking was being taught, people

began to uprise and question if religion is worth it. This leads to many ascetic

movements in which people leave their homes to be scavengers. Because this could

be done by any it began to get very popular. The many ascetic movements gave

rise to many different individual movements, but the main one besides Buddhism

was Jainism. Jainism was a movement that said in every thing there is a Jiva or

soul which resembles the atman. Karma is the stuff or gunk that covers up the

Jivas and makes things appear to be different. Even though a monk was the only

one who could totally free Jivas, lay people could do good deeds and suffer

willingly to dissipate karma from their atman. In this movement the final step

for a monk to reach Nirvana was the starving to death of one?s self. In a

complete contrast to the teachings of the Jainic movement the Theravadan

Buddhists saw there being no atman at all. Buddhists accepted the teaching of

the doctrine of karma which causes all who have it to be reborn into a state of

life according to the built up karma. The only way to stop this rebirth is to

achieve Nirvana. The state of non-existence or annihilation. They also felt that

when passing from one existence to another no permanent entity or atman

transmigrated from body to body. The reason for there being no self is because

self can not be found in the five basic aggregates or Skandhas. These being

matter, feeling, perception, constructing activities, and consciousness were all

made up of dharma or small atomic units. This seems to be contradictory because

if there is no self then these dharma shouldn?t be present because they would

in a sense create a self, even if they just came in and left every second. The

Theravadan Buddhists were very particular in what they practiced and what they

worshipped. They were never found praising idols or human images, rather they

took to praising the Bodhi trees, footprints, and stupas or burial mounds. Their

worship centered around the continuous life and rebirth into one of the five

levels of society. These were heavenly devas, humans, animals and plants, praeta,

and hell beings. All of ones karma that he or she accumulates in their life

determines the level they are reborn into. This is all tied into the seeing of

existence as Dukka and the goal is to get out of Dukka into Nirvana. In almost a

total contrast to the Theravadan way of thinking is the much earlier teaching of

the Vedic religion of the Aryan people. According to Vedic thought, Brahman or

the atman is a passenger of a chariot. The chariot is the body and the driver of

the chariot is the mind which the atman is trying to escape from. In their

religion there are numerous gods like Indra the god of war and Agni the god of

fire. There are eventually four classes structured from the body of Purusa,

these are Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. While people liked the

idea of having gods watching over them, the fact that the Brahman class began to

gain a monopoly on maintaining cosmic order and power made many uneasy. People

begin to see the earth as a trap, and they doubt the greatness of Heaven and the

oneness, unchanging unity in the world. From this is a rise to the Upanishads.

These are speculative elaborations of the Vedas. While each of these movements

has a very distinct meaning to it and path to follow, I feel that all of these

ways of life are flawed. In most of the religions only the higher classes can

reach the supreme way of life. The regular people are stuck, and they can only

help the monks or Brahmans to attain their goal. This seems very unfair even if

they are producing good karma. In the Vedic religion the Shudras don?t even

have the option of studying the holy text. They have no chance of gaining

entrance to another level of being until their next life. Theravadan belief of

the being no true self is all together mind boggling. If there was no self then

how can karma pass from one existence to another. It can?t. Each period in

time has new ways of thinking and viewing the world. India has been a place of

many movements in the field of religion. These early ideas and practices of

Theravadan monks can be seen as one of the many religious ideas of the past,

that has in some places lasted to the present day. As is the case with all

religion, it will be subject to scrutiny, questioning, and slander. While many

may not see the Theravadan way of anatman as being right or even sane, it is

their way of life and they should be respected for it.