Theravada Buddhism

Introduction

Background of Theravada Buddhism and its Origination

Theravada means the Doctrine of the Elders, it is the discipline of Buddhism, which depicts its scriptural stimulation through Tipitaka, or Pali rule, which researchers generally consent restrain the most basic existing proof of the Buddha's tradition. For a number of centuries, Theravada is the principal religion encompassing the continent of West along with Southeast Asia.

The foundation of Theravada Buddhism in the United States of America trace back to a speech which was made by Anagarika Dharmapala in the conference in the year 1893 of the World Parliament of Religions. Don David Hewavitharne was born in the year 1864 in Sri Lanka, and became a celibate layman furthermore accepted the title of Anagarika Dharmapala, which means people who are homeless. Greatly prejudiced by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky as well as Henry Steel Olcott, Theosophists who visited India and Srilanka from the United States of America in the year 1878 to 1880, Dharmapala depleted his life dispersal Buddhism across the globe. In the Parliament, he spoke on the topic of Christianity, Buddhism and scientific advances to the world partly cover.

Theosophists along with others in America were inclined by fundamentals of Theravada Buddhism in the late 19th along with the early 20th century. In the United States of America the groups of monks came to visit prior to the 1st organization of the Theravada Buddhist was fashioned in the year 1966 in Washington, D.C. Theravada Buddhism finds it roots in the early Buddhist community that flourished in India during the Mauryan dynasty (324-187 BCE) and spread throughout Southeast Asia up to the present day. Theravada Buddhism claims to be the oldest and most authentic form of Buddhism and possesses a wealth of ritual and devotional practices. In Sri Lanka for example, where Theravada Buddhism is influenced by folk religions and other pre-Buddhist movements, ritual healing ceremonies known in Sinhalese as bali are performed to propitiate planetary deities and to pay homage to the Buddha. As well, Sinhalese Buddhists perform the tovil, an exorcism ceremony, in which uttering the name of the Buddha alone is sufficient to drive away any demons invading the body of the possessed individual.

From the time of early Buddhism, the veneration of hemispherical reliquaries (stupas) containing the relics of the Buddha or revered masters has been an important form of Buddhist ritual worship. Considered to bestow blessings, devotion at a stupa is performed by making pilgrimages to it, by making offerings at its base, and by circumambulating it in a clockwise manner (Robinson et al, p. 46).

The commissioning, building, and ritual consecration of Buddha images is said to accrue great merit and are activities that continue up to the present day. The ritual bathing of Buddha statues is another popular practice present in Southeast and East Asia. Pilgrimage is also common form of devotional worship and merit generation throughout the Buddhist world. Aside from stupas in India, other pilgrimage sites are the Buddha's tooth relics and places of his birth, his first teachings, ...