From the Four Noble Truths to the Diamond Vehicle: Buddhist Beliefs in Order

The shared starting point: suffering, its cause in craving, its cessation in nirvana, and the Noble Eightfold Path as the way. The entry describes it as a physician's diagnosis, cause, prognosis and cure.

The Theravada scripture in three baskets: discipline, discourses and Abhidhamma. It was written down in Sri Lanka around the first century before the common era, and scholars treat it as early but sectarian evidence.

The Theravada goal of one who has destroyed the defilements and ended rebirth. Mahayana called this the lesser vehicle, a characterisation Theravada rejects as a caricature.

The Mahayana answer: a vow to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. The entry warns that the popular idea of refusing nirvana is a simplification of what the texts describe.

The teaching that every being has the potential for Buddhahood. The entry notes the difficulty it raises, since an innate nature can sound like the permanent self Buddhism denies, and that the reading is debated within Buddhism.

Nichiren in thirteenth-century Japan held the Lotus Sutra to be the complete teaching and taught chanting its title. The entry records the schisms that followed, including the 1991 separation of Soka Gakkai.

Pure Land teaching relies on the vow of Amitabha and the recitation of his name. Honen made recitation the sole practice and Shinran held that even the recitation is Amitabha's gift.

Zen describes itself as a transmission outside the scriptures. The entry covers the eighth-century dispute over gradual and sudden awakening and the later split between Rinzai koan practice and Soto seated meditation.

Vajrayana holds that awakening is possible in a single lifetime through visualisation, mantra and mandala practice, under a qualified teacher. The entry records the tradition's own warning about the risks of speed.