School of thought
Theravada
Tradition
Classification
- Period
- c. 250 BCE onward
- Regions
- South Asia (origin)
- Domains
- Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion
Overview
Theravada ('School of the Elders') is the oldest surviving Buddhist tradition, based on the Pali Canon. It emphasizes individual liberation through the practice of insight meditation (vipassana), strict monastic discipline, and the systematic analysis of mental and physical phenomena (Abhidhamma). The ideal is the arhat — one who has attained nirvana through personal effort.
Key ideas
- Pali Canon: The Tipitaka ('Three Baskets') — the oldest complete Buddhist scripture, comprising the Buddha's discourses (Suttas), monastic rules (Vinaya), and systematic philosophy (Abhidhamma).
- Abhidhamma Analysis: A minute analysis of experience into ultimate constituents (dhammas) — momentary mental and physical events that arise and pass away in rapid succession.
- Vipassana: Insight meditation: the systematic observation of body and mind to directly see impermanence, suffering, and non-self — leading to liberation.
Key figures
Buddhaghosa · Mahinda · Anuruddha · Dhammapala
Methods used
Positions held
- No-Self
Theravada Abhidhamma explains how one life continues without an enduring self through the life-continuum mind (bhavanga), itself a series of separate mental moments.
Question scope: Existence of the Self
Influenced by
- Buddhism
Carries forward the Buddha's own teaching as its doctrinal core: the four noble truths, the eightfold path, dependent origination, and no-self.
References
- Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 1998)
- Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 1998), ch. 3; Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life (Cambridge University Press, 1990), Introduction — Formation: the lineage developed in India and Sri Lanka from the third century BCE.
- Samyutta Nikaya 22.59 (Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy, §5.2 'Life-Continuum Mind' (Theravāda authors account for the continuity of mind in the absence of an enduring, substantive self through the life-continuum mind)
- Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 1998), ch. 1
- Aṅguttara Nikāya 2.31
- Aṅguttara Nikāya 4.94 and 7.16–19
- A Thematic Guide to the Aṅguttara Nikāya, SuttaCentral
- Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification) — Buddhaghosa (trans. Bhikkhu Nanamoli)
- In the Buddha's Words — Bhikkhu Bodhi