Could you also tell me if how Buddhists participate in worship in the Diaspora differs for Mahayana or Theravada Buddhists?

 

Could you also tell me if how Buddhists participate in worship in the Diaspora differs for Mahayana or Theravada Buddhists?

 

 

Answer:

by: Venerable Nicolas Thanissaro

  

Theravada Buddhism by its nature is more conservative - it tends to be practised in a way authentic to how it is practised in Asia. Most of the modernisations of Buddhism that have come as byproducts of the so-called Buddhist Diaspora have happened within the Mahayana school - because by its nature it is more adaptive to circumstances (it emphasises more the spirit than the letter of the Buddhist teachings).