Fellow Travelers

Rev. Gregory Gibbs

Q: Why are there so many different types of Buddhism?

A: The Buddhist religion is dedicated to leading people to Enlightenment. Enlightenment profound recognition of the deep Oneness of all life. When we thoroughly realize that all persons, places and events are One, we become genuinely free and achieve a subtle, but, lasting happiness.

The Buddhist religion has grown more accessible over the past 2,500 years. The motivating force behind this development is the commitment to leading as many people as possible to Enlightenment. In order to guide as many persons as possible to Liberation, many, many Buddhist ways of thinking and acting have been innovated.

Numerous adaptations in Buddhist philosophy and practice developed for ten or twelve centuries before discernibly different schools of Buddhism were distinguished. After more than a thousand years in which new ideas and newer and more effective forms of Buddhist practice emerged, the result was an embarrassment of riches. Too many ways of thinking,...to many distinct perspectives,...excessively many practices had come to populate the Buddhist world. Only a handful of geniuses like Honen Shonin, Shinran Shonin and Myonyo Shonin still had a grasp of the crucial matter; what Buddhist is and how it works to free us from our deluded self-centeredness.

The need to simplify and clarify led to the formation of specific schools. This was done by selecting a manageable set of ideas and a do-able practice. This is why Buddhist tradition comes to us in the form of discrete schools. We need ideas that we can understand. We need coherent ways of living which harmonize with those ideas. Once a school like Soto Zen, Nichiren Shu or Jodo Shinshu has been pulled together out of the embarrassment of riches which is Buddhist tradition, ordinary people again have a chance to participate.

It was geniuses like Saicho, Dogen and Shinran who pulled together discrete streams of tradition out of the dizzying abundance. Such discerning scholar-priests founded, or planted the seeds for the founding of, particular schools of Buddhism.

In principle, Jodo Shinshu, for example, is accessible to everyone. In fact, it doesn't suit everyone's taste. It doesn't touch everyone's heart. It does happen to be exactly what I was looking for over a period of two decades of spiritual search. One or more of the 200 living schools of Buddhism is probably just what most people are looking for;...most people who are engaged upon a project of trying to understand themselves and their lives. Buddhism seeks to lead us to genuine freedom and lasting happiness, and to empower us to liberate others as well. This is what all persons need, whether they have already engaged upon a search for liberation and contentment or not.

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