The Mahavihara (“Great Monastery”) school became dominant in Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 2nd millennium ce and gradually spread through mainland Southeast Asia. It was established in Myanmar in the late 11th century, in Thailand in the 13th and early 14th centuries, and in Cambodia and Laos by the end of the 14th century. Although Mahavihara never completely replaced other schools in Southeast Asia, it received special favour at most royal courts and, as a result of the support it received from local elites, exerted a very strong religious and social influence. Beliefs, doctrines, and practices Cosmology
Like other Buddhists, Theravadins believe that the number of cosmos is infinite. Moreover, they share the near-universal Buddhist view that the cosmos inhabited by humankind, like all cosmos, has three planes of existence: the realm of desire (Pali and Sanskrit: kama-loka), the lowest of the planes; the realm of material form (Pali and Sanskrit: rupa-loka), which is associated with meditational states in which sensuous desire is reduced to a minimum; and the realm of immateriality or formlessness (Pali and Sanskrit: arupa-loka), which is associated with meditational states that are even more exalted.
The three planes are divided into various levels. The realm of desire is divided into heavens, hells, and the earth. It is inhabited by those suffering in the various hells—a species of wandering, famished ghosts (Sanskrit: pretas), animals, hell beings, human beings, gods, and a sixth group that is not universally acknowledged, the asuras (Sanskrit: demigods). The entire cosmos is enclosed by a great Chakkavala wall, a ring of iron mountains that serves as a kind of container for the realm of desire. Mount Meru, the great cosmic mountain topped by the heaven of the 33 gods over which Indra (Sakka) presides, is surrounded by a great ocean where people live on four island continents, each inhabited by a different type of human being. (The southern continent, loosely correlated with South—and sometimes Southeast—Asia, is called Jambudvipa.) The material aspect of the realm of desire is made up of four elements: earth, water, fire, and air, held together in various combinations.
In this cosmos, as in all others, time moves in cycles of great duration involving a period of involution (destruction of the cosmos by fire, water, air), a period of reformation of the cosmic structure, a series of cycles of decline and renewal, and, finally, another period of involution from which the process is initiated once again. Five buddhas are destined to appear in the cosmos in which humans live, including Gotama (Sanskrit: Gautama), who is to be the fourth, and Metteyya (Sanskrit: Maitreya), who is to be the fifth.
Human existence is a privileged state, because only as a human being can a bodhisattva become a buddha. Moreover, according to Theravada, human beings can choose to do good works (which will result in a good rebirth) or bad works (which result in a bad rebirth); above all, they have the capacity to become perfected saints. All these capacities are accounted for in terms of a carefully enumerated series of dhammas (Sanskrit: dharmas), the elements’ impermanent existence. In continual motion, these changing states appear, age, and disappear. Classification of dhammas
Dhammas are divided and subdivided into many groups. Those that are essential to psychophysical existence are the 5 components (Sanskrit: skandhas" class="md-crosslink">skandhas; Pali: khandhas), the 12 bases (Pali and Sanskrit: ayatanas" class="md-crosslink">ayatanas), and the 18 sensory elements (Pali and Sanskrit: dhatus). The 5 skandhas are rupa (Pali and Sanskrit), materiality, or form; vedana, feelings of pleasure or pain or the absence of either; sanna (Pali), cognitive perception; sankhara (Pali and Sanskrit), the forces that condition the psychic activity of an individual; and vinnana (Sanskrit: vijnana), consciousness. The 12 ayatanas comprise the five sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body) and the mind (manas), as well as the five related sense fields (sights, sounds, odours, tastes, and tangibles) and objects of cognition—that is, objects as they are reflected in mental perception. The 18 elements, or dhatus, include the five sense organs and the mano-dhatu (Pali and Sanskrit: “mind element”), their six correlated objects, and the consciousnesses (Pali: vinnana) of the sense organs and manas.
The Theravada system of dhammas (Pali) is not only an analysis of empirical reality but a delineation of the psychosomatic components of the human personality. Moreover, Theravadins believe that an awareness of the interrelation and operation of these components, as well as the ability to manipulate them, is necessary for an individual to attain the exalted state of an arhat (Pali: arahant, “worthy one”). Through the classification of dhammas, a person is defined as an aggregate of many interrelated elements governed by the law of karma—thus destined to suffer good or bad consequences. All of this presupposes that there is no eternal metaphysical entity such as an “I,” or atman (Pali: attan), but that there is a psychosomatic aggregate situated in time. This aggregate has freedom of choice and can perform acts that may generate consequences.
Such classifications are not purely doctrinal but also are intended to guide those who seek to follow the Buddha’s teachings and to overcome the cycle of rebirths. Further guidance is found in the seven factors of enlightenment: clear memory, energy, sympathy, tranquility, impartiality, the exact investigation of the nature of things, and a disposition for concentration. Moreover, “four sublime states”—love for all living creatures, compassion, delight in that which is good or well done, and, again, impartiality—provide the necessary preconditions for liberation from karma and samsara (the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth). Meditation
Two basic forms of meditation (Pali: jhana; Sanskrit: dhyana) have been practiced in the Theravada tradition. Closely related to a Hindu tradition of yoga, the first of these involves a process of moral and intellectual purification. Initially, the Theravadin meditator seeks to achieve detachment from sensual desires and impure states of mind through reflection and to enter a state of satisfaction and joy. In the second stage of this form of meditation, intellectual activity gives way to a complete inner serenity; the mind is in a state of “one-pointedness” (concentration), joy, and pleasantness. In the third stage, every emotion, including joy, has disappeared, and the meditator is left indifferent to everything. In the fourth stage, satisfaction, any inclination to a good or bad state of mind, pain, and serenity are left behind, and the meditator enters a state of supreme purity, indifference, and pure consciousness.
According to Theravada belief, at this point the meditator begins pursuit of the samapattis (or the higher jhanic attainments). Beyond all awareness of form, withdrawn from the influence of perception, especially the perception of plurality, the meditator concentrates on and reposes in infinite space. Transcending this stage, the meditator focuses on the limitlessness of consciousness and attains it. Proceeding still further by concentrating on the nonexistence of everything, the meditator achieves a state of nothingness. Finally, the meditator reaches the highest level of attainment, in which there is neither perception nor nonperception.