Buddhism/Schools

Introduction

There are many schools of Buddhism while the surviving schools today can be roughly grouped under the categories of Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna schools.

It will be useful for us to look at the circumstances that lead to the divisions among the early Buddhist schools. The division came about due to doctrinal or practical differences in the views of the Buddhist Sangha following the death of the Buddha. The initial split was between Sthaviravāda and Mahāsaṃghika occurred about 100 years after Buddha's death, due to differing views concerning the rigidity of monastic rules.

It is important for us to follow the development of various school of thoughts and how they had developed to what we have today.

List of schools

• Theravāda
• Mahāyāna
• Vajrayāna
• Sthaviravāda
• Mahāsaṃghika
• Pudgalavāda
• Pure Land
• Ekayāna
• Nikāya