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| TOPIC
| THERAVADA BUDDHISM
| MAHAYANA BUDDHISM
|
1 | The Buddha | Only the historical Gautama (Sakyamuni) Buddha and past buddhas are accepted. | Besides Sakyamuni Buddha, other contemporary buddhas like Amitabha and Medicine Buddha are also very popular. |
2 | Bodhisattvas | Only Maitreya bodhisattva is accepted. | Avalokitesvara, Mansjuri, Ksitigarbha and Samanthabadra are four very well known bodhisattvas besides Maitreya. |
3 | Objective of training | Arahant or pacceka-buddha. | Buddhahood (via bodhisattva path). |
4 | Organisation of Buddhist scriptures
| The Pali Canon is pided into 3 baskets (Tipitaka): Vinaya Pitaka of 5 books, Sutta Pitaka of 5 collections (many suttas) and Abhidhamma Pitaka of 7 books. | The Mahayana Buddhist Canon also consists of Tripitaka of disciplines, discourses (sutras) and dharma analysis. It is usually organised in 12 pisions of topics like Cause and Conditions and Verses. It contains virtually all the Theravada Tipikata and many sutras that the latter does not have. |
5 | Concept of Bodhicitta | Main emphasis is self liberation. 《Snapshots of Buddhism: Differences between Theravada and Mahayana· 》全文閱讀結束。 |