Theravada Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism is different from other widespread arms of Buddhism, and is to be found in the pure form mainly in Sri Lanka. The foundation for Theravada Buddhism is to be found in the Dhamma, the enlightened knowledge which Buddha shared with the world.
It is Theravada Buddhist Dhamma that is considered by us, the Sinhala, to be of a very pure form, and which has remained thus over time. It was brought down through the millennia unadulterated over a period of 2551 years by the dedication of the Theravada Buddhist Sangha or Theras (Buddhist monks).
This Dhamma can be found in the form of the Tripitaka, in the original Pali dialect, in the words uttered by Buddha himself. It should also be noted, that for anyone who is interested, the Tripitaka, in its entirety is available for purchase in a series of 57 hardcover-bound books.
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Theravada Buddhism
A very brief discussion explaining what the Tripitaka is and it's importance in Buddhism.
>> The BuddhaTake an first glimpse of who the Buddha was and then explore further into the life of thise extraordinary man.
In essence Theravada Buddhism sets forth the real truth of life, that life in any form is full of suffering and misery, and shows the way to end this suffering for a living being by ending the cycle of rebirth.
This is also known as reincarnation, and can be explained (inadequately due to language barriers) thus: The living being transforms from one life form to another at the time of death as we know it. In this way the being will pass through countless lives one after another in a never-ending cycle of life, and this holds true for each and every being.
There is also no eternal hell or heaven where a person will go to upon their demise; there are instead a number of different hells and heavens, none of which will hold any being for eternity. And there is no one person, a God who creates or destroys or punishes or rewards any being; instead, there are millions of gods or deities each with varying powers.
According to this Dhamma every Being living today has gone through an immeasurably long period of time in life cycles of different lives. And each individual being is responsible for its actions. The resultant effects give rise to all forms of suffering and of happiness.
The Buddha's doctrine, the Dhamma, shows the way to end this cycle of life which is the only way to end this suffering. This state of no suffering is termed Nirvana. The ultimate goal of a Buddhist is to achieve Nirvana. There are no words which can describe Nirvana. It can only be gleaned into by a being who has attained a sufficiently advanced state of the mind.
Theravada Buddhism is not something which can be justly described in a short article like this. The reader is encouraged to refer to other more advanced books. It is also recommended that you learn Sinhala in order to get a true understanding of the Dhamma, since the content of all books translated into English or any other language is limited by the level of understanding of the subject by each author, and the Dhamma itself is very profound, deep and intricate, sometimes far beyond the scope of translation.