My Perspective on the Story of Buddhism

 Introduction

Aniconism-Mara's assault on the Buddha,
 with an empty throne, 2nd century, Amaravati, India.

In this module, we studied deep about Buddhism, and also Shakyamuni himself, from the spark of Hinduism. Through there, we learned more about the Buddhsim that we don't usually encounter, not just one way to focus our minds and bodies, but multiple, such as the Theravada Buddhism and the Mahayana Buddhism, like the text explained, "As mentioned earlier, the history of Buddhism is broadly divided between two great traditions, Theravada and Mahayana."(Bresnan 243) 

However, there is one distinctive differencee between the two traditions of Buddhism, their view on the Buddha. Interestingly, we see usually the Mahayana Buddhists usually built these large statues of Buddha to represent him, but the Theravada Buddhists do not use human depictions to represent the Buddha, a kind of aniconism. That is one distinctive difference that we can find when we proceed in this module.

Chapter 11-Theravada

Theravada is also known less popular and less practiced by people compared to the Mahayana, some might call it The Lesser Way, introduced from the module, but such word contains negative meaning, so many would avoid using it to describe the Theravada Buddhism. For my question of Chapter 11, it would be "What is the meaning of the word Theravada."(Bresnan 261) The answer is quiet simple, but one that we would need to explain. The text stated, "Theravada literally means 'teaching (doctrine) of the elders."(Bresnan 252) Theravada's meaning is very direct, just as the way they promote their teachings. They believe that self-responsibility is important, as well as experience and reasoning. Like mentioned before, they do have the idea of aniconism, this comes from the reason that they don't think that Buddha a divine figure to be worshipped, rather a very great and wise teacher from the past.

Chapter 12-Mahayana

As we see, Theravada Budddhism thinks in the idea of analysis and they do not imagine Buddha as the divine. Mahayana, on the other hand, supports the idea that Buddha is the incredible divine. For my question of Chapter 12, I choose "How does the nature of Shakyamuni Buddha change from Theravada to Mahayana? How do you make sense of that enormous transformation?"(Bresnan 297) Their version of Shakyamuni Buddha comes different as Buddha holds divinity, and he, the divinity, simply chose to incarnate himself as Shakyamuni. This is explained by the text, "Mahayana teaching holds that Buddha chose to incarnate himself as Shakyamuni purely out of a spirit of love and compassion for suffering humanity."(Bresnan 272) So in Mahayana tradition, we see the Buddha as this powerful divine similar to Jesus in Christianity.

What is Mahayana Buddhism? - Youtube - By LamaJampaThaye

In conclusion, I think those who side with the Mahayana tradition would more likely to seek guide and wish from Buddha, they worship more and follow Buddha as this light in all things, rather in Theravada tradition, believe more in self-responsibility, seek enlightenment by self. Nonetheless, I do think that both tradition hold their own wisdoms, just like the ways of yoga expressed in Bhagavad Gita, there is no better way, as all are the best ways.

Works Cited

“Aniconism in Buddhism.” Wikipedia, 2 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniconism_in_Buddhism. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021.

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening : An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

“What Is Mahayana Buddhism?” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUwfrlL5lE. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.