Buddhism breaks into three overarching traditions:
Theravada— the dominant form of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, claiming to be the original form of Buddhism: The “way of the elders,” also known as Hinayana (“lesser vehicle”), Theravada encompasses all the Buddhist traditions that are based on the Pali scriptures, recorded (according to tradition) by Shakyamuni Buddha’s disciples. Theravada Buddhist schools are dominant in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia. In the West, there are traditional Theravada temples in Southeast Asian communities, as well as some founded by Western students of Theravada teachers. Theravada is best known in the west through Vipassana or Insight Meditation centers founded by Western students of Theravada teachers.
Mahayana— the dominant form of Buddhism in Northeast Asia, claiming to be a more advanced form than Theravada: The “great vehicle,” a general name for a huge variety of schools that were formed during a doctrinal split in the 1st century CE. All Mahayana traditions are rooted in the Prajnaparamita sutras and the Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophical texts, which stress the emptiness of all dharmas, including all mental phenomena. Mahayana schools include Pure Land, Tiantai (Tendai), Huayan, and Zen, which are dominant throughout East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam). Apart from Zen, other Mahayana schools active in the West include traditional Pure Land temples and Soka Gakkai.
Vajrayana— the dominant form of Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia claiming to subsume both Theravada and Mahayana: The “diamond vehicle,” another general term for all the forms of tantric Buddhism practiced in Tibet (and the Tibetan diaspora), Mongolia, and Central Asia. Vajrayana Buddhism preserves not only the tantric practices that arose in the last centuries of Indian Buddhism, but also a huge variety of philosophical schools based on later variations of Mahayana Buddhism. There are hundreds of Vajrayana schools and lineages active in the West, including the Gelug (the Dalai Lama’s sect), Kagyu (for example, Chogyam Trungpa’s Shambhala school), Nyingma, and so on.
The following terms and links are foundational Buddhist teachings you should be familiar with. The links provide concise definitions and further references. (Zen Master Seung Sahn’s The Compass of Zen is an excellent reference for most of them).
Buddhist Terms with Definitions:
Four noble truths
Eightfold path
Three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, non-self
Six paramitas
Five desires
Three poisons
Dependent origination (Pratitya-samutpada)
Mind only (yogacara)
Emptiness (Sunyata)
Nirvana
Enlightenment (bodhi)
Bodhisattvas and the Bodhisattva Path
Skillful means (Upaya)
The Four Noble Truths
The four noble truths are by legend the first teachings of the Buddha after his awakening. They are:
1. Experience is marked by dukkha (varyingly translated as suffering, dissatisfaction, etc.)
2. The cause/origination of dukkha is desire, anger, and ignorance (meaning: ignorance of our true nature)
3. There is a way to end dukkha.
4. This way is the eightfold path.
You can’t ignore the four noble truths; they are the heart of all Buddhisms. But the Mahayana does not simply take them at face value. In its explication of emptiness, the Heart Sutra negates the first three — “no suffering, no origination, no stopping…”
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths
The Eightfold Path
The eightfold path lists eight human qualities leading to liberation:
Correct view.
Correct thought.
Correct speech.
Correct action.
Correct livelihood.
Correct effort.
Correct mindfulness.
Correction meditation.
Since this list is a translation from Sanskrit, it is a little ambiguous. It’s worth looking at the Sanskrit and then discuss possible meanings. In Sanskrit, the list reads:
samyag drsti
samyag samkalpa
samyag vac
samyak karmanta
samyag ajiva
samyag vyayama
samyag smrti
samyag samadhi
Samyag (the Korean pronunciation is samyak, it shows up in our chants) can be translated as correct/complete/perfect/right. Drsti means view, in the sense of point-of-view — seeing reality for what it is. Samkalpa is translated as thought or intention— what is the direction of our action? what is the immediate goal or plan? Vac is speech. Karmanta is action (the attentive reader will note the word karma within the word karmanta). Ajiva is livelihood, and you can have lively arguments about what professions fall within the purviews of correct livelihood. Vyayama is effort. Smrti is mindfulness— paying attention. Samadhi is — well, it’s samadhi, but that’s not an English word, so it’s usually translated as concentration or meditation— the particular sort of highly focused hyper-aware object-less concentration that can happen during meditation, different from the highly focused hyper-aware concentration that can happen when you are deeply absorbed in a purposeful activity — art, music, sports, cooking…
As with the four noble truths, Zen teaching tends towards dissolution: correct view is no view, correct intention is no intention, and so on.
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path
Three Marks of Existence: Impermanence, Suffering, & Non-self
This basic Theravada teaching describes the nature of existence — not as a physicist would (varying forms of matter/energy), but as a philosopher would. Everything arises, sticks around for a while, and then disappears — that’s impermanence (anicca). All experience is marked by suffering (dukkha) — this is the first noble truth. And all those suffering, impermanent things actually aren’t really things, that is, they have no self-nature.
The three marks of existence counters the common human delusions that we aren’t really going to disappear, that suffering is a cosmic mistake, and that we have some kind of permanent essence. Mahayana teaching adds an even more fundamental aspect of existence: emptiness (sunyata).
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence
Six Paramitas
A paramita is a perfection, i.e., the paramitas are virtues we should try to perfect. They are: giving/generosity (dana), virtue/morality/ethics (sila), patience/endurance (ksanti), energy/effort (virya), concentration/meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna).
Technical note: the Sanskrit translated here as concentration/meditation is dhyana. The Sanskrit translated as concentration/meditation for the eightfold path is samadhi. There is a difference — samadhi is a particular state, while dhyana is an action — the act of meditation.
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramita
Five Desires
These are the major human desires that get in the way of awakening: desire for food, for sleep, for money, for sex, and for fame (which really means: wanting to be liked or approved of).
There’s nothing wrong with eating, sleeping, having money, making love, or being liked. But when our thoughts and actions are distorted by our desire for these things we are in the throes of delusion, far from being awake.
This is such an obvious teaching that there isn’t much to reference — it is cited but not discussed.
Three Poisons
These are the main causes of dukkha. The version we are used to is: desire, anger, ignorance. Another version is: greed, aversion, delusion. And so on.
They are the root of the kleshas (mental states that cloud the mind) — in Sino-Korean the word for kleshas is bon nae, which begins the second of the four great vows (translated as delusions).
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_poisons; and you might also want to check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleshas_(Buddhism)
Dependent Origination – Pratitya-samutpada
This is a subtle notion which can be summarized as: no thing/event/action arises independently from any other — Indra’s net is a metaphor for dependent origination (pratityasamutpada). Working out what exactly dependent origination means takes up a lot of Buddhist philosophy. In English it is referred to by many other terms, including dependent co-origination, co-dependent origination, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s interbeing. Dependent origination is the basis for ethical action — hurting you, I am hurting myself.
For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratityasamutpada
Mind Only – Yogacara
A complex and varied school which essentially gives primacy to mind over matter, Yogacara is one of the two main schools of Mahayana Buddhism. A pithy summary of Yogacara philosophy appears in a quotation from the Avatamsaka Sutra from our Morning Bell Chant:
If you wish to understand thoroughly
All Buddhas past, present, and future,
You should view the nature of the universe
As created by mind alone.
Working out what this means — from the truism that our ideas shape what we think the world is, to subtle analyses of how the mind works, to a deeply mystical sense that mind is the substance of the universe, to combinations and variations on these themes — gives rise to a vast philosophical literature.
Note that Yogacara and the other main Mahayana school, Madhyamika, are not mutually exclusive. The Zen tradition freely takes from both systems, depending on context.
For more information see https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Yogacara
Emptiness – Sunyata
Emptiness is the key notion of the Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism, one of the two main Mahayana schools. Often over-simplified by conflation with anatman (no-self), it goes deeper: not just things, but actions, relations, constituents of mind and matter — everything is empty of intrinsic existence. Emptiness is what allows the interpenetration of co-dependent origination. The great expositor of emptiness and the founder of Madhyamika philosophy was the second century Indian monk Nagarjuna.
A word about the word Madhyamika: Madhyamika literally means “the middle way.” In popular discourse, this phrase is often interpreted like the story of Goldilocks and the three bears — neither too much nor too little but just right. While Buddha did speak, for example, of practice being not too tight or too loose, etc., that’s not what “middle way” means. The middle way of the Mahayana is a technical philosophical position denying the truth of any sentence and its negation. For example, reality cannot be captured by “it is raining” and it cannot be captured by “it is not raining.” This notion of the middle way is deeply connected to sunyata.
Note that Madhyamika and the other main Mahayana school, Yogacara, are not mutually exclusive. The Zen tradition freely takes from both systems, depending on context.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunyata
Nirvana
Nirvana is the soteriological (i.e., having to do with salvation) release from samsara (life as it is usually lived, imprisoned by karma, delusion, and dukkha). In some versions of Buddhism, nirvana is the ultimate goal of liberation — Shakyamuni’s death is often referred to as his entrance into nirvana. In the Mahayana, nirvana is entrance into full liberation, which allows beings to liberate others. Nirvana is often confused with samadhi— the latter is a temporary state, which we move in and out of, and which only a fool would want to stay in permanently. You are free to say that you have attained samadhi, but by definition if you have a human, or any other kind of body, you have not attained nirvana.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(Buddhism)
Enlightenment
“Enlightenment” is an inaccurate translation of bodhi which means awake. So a Buddha is, literally, someone who is awake. In Zen, we don’t rest on our laurels — ooooh, I’ve had an experience of awakening and I’m done! Nope. Every time we have this kind of experience of awakening, we need to practice harder to deepen our awakening. Some forms of Zen emphasize awakening experiences (in Japanese, called kensho). Korean Zen tends to take them in stride.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism
Bodhisattvas and the Bodhisattva Path
The big break between the Mahayana and the Theravada is the idea of the bodhisattva — a being whose practice is not aimed at personal liberation, but the liberation of all beings. The Bodhisattva path is the path to Buddhahood after one becomes a Bodhisattva. The steps to becoming a Bodhisattva and the further steps towards Buddhahood are referred to or outlined in many sutras, most notably the Avatamsaka Sutra.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva
Skillful Means – Upaya
Skillful means are the various methods used to teach/transmit Buddhism. The skill is in fitting the means to the student. It is said that there are 84,000 skillful means, since there are so many different kinds of people. This concept that there are many equally valid ways to teach/practice has not completely prevented the kind of deadly sectarian strife that afflicts other religious traditions, but it does manage to minimize it.
For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upaya
Other texts that can provide grounding in the fundamentals include:
Karen Armstrong, Buddha
An excellent contemporary life of Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha’s Words
An accessible introduction to the Theravada tradition and the Buddha’s earliest teachings.
Wahpola Rahula, What The Buddha Taught
A classic introduction to the Theravada tradition.
Lama Yeshe, Introduction to Tantra
For students interested in Tibetan Buddhism, this is probably the single best text to start with, and a helpful corrective for many misperceptions about tantra.
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
An essential reference, published recently, that covers all aspects of the Buddhist tradition.