DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Is anyone else drawn to aspects of both Mahayana and Theravada?

**MondayBlues** · 03-16-2012, 02:03 PM

Just out of curiosity - is it only Westerners who have difficulty in making their minds up about what Buddhist tradition to follow or are there any members who were born into Buddhist families, in Buddhist countries who have wondered whether or not to change traditions?

Are there any Theravada Buddhists among the Tibetan exile community, for example or any Zen Buddhists living and practicing their religion in Sri Lanka? Is what we mean by Buddhist really a Western concept - a kind of religion, a kind of philosophy, a kind of culture?

Buddhists born in Buddhist countries probably choose traditions the same way Christians in Christian countries choose their traditions/churches.

There are Theravada, Tibetan and practitioners of other Buddhist traditions in Taiwan, which I would say is predominately humanistic Buddhism at this point. The number of practitioners for these other traditions might be small, but they do exist.

03-16-2012, 02:03 PM	#24
MondayBlues Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 429 Senior Member	Just out of curiosity - is it only Westerners who have difficulty in making their minds up about what Buddhist tradition to follow or are there any members who were born into Buddhist families, in Buddhist countries who have wondered whether or not to change traditions? Are there any Theravada Buddhists among the Tibetan exile community, for example or any Zen Buddhists living and practicing their religion in Sri Lanka? Is what we mean by Buddhist really a Western concept - a kind of religion, a kind of philosophy, a kind of culture? Buddhists born in Buddhist countries probably choose traditions the same way Christians in Christian countries choose their traditions/churches. There are Theravada, Tibetan and practitioners of other Buddhist traditions in Taiwan, which I would say is predominately humanistic Buddhism at this point. The number of practitioners for these other traditions might be small, but they do exist.
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