Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna share the same foundational Buddhist vision—rooted in the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, karma, rebirth, and liberation—yet they unfold that vision in distinct ways. Theravāda is closely tied to the Pāli Canon and presents itself as preserving the earliest strata of the Buddha’s teaching, with a strong emphasis on monastic discipline and careful, gradual cultivation of insight. Mahāyāna accepts this early corpus but also embraces a vast body of later sūtras, while Vajrayāna in turn builds on the Mahāyāna scriptures by adding tantric texts and esoteric commentaries. These differing scriptural horizons shape how each tradition understands the scope of the Buddha’s message, from a historically focused teaching to a more expansive, cosmic vision of Buddhahood.

A central point of divergence lies in the ideal of awakening. Theravāda holds up the arahant, the one who has eradicated all defilements and escaped saṃsāra, as the classical model of full realization, with the Buddha regarded as a supremely accomplished arahant and teacher. Mahāyāna shifts the emphasis to the bodhisattva, who aspires to complete Buddhahood for the sake of all beings and is portrayed as willingly postponing final nirvāṇa until others are liberated; in this vision, countless Buddhas and bodhisattvas are active throughout the cosmos. Vajrayāna shares the Mahāyāna bodhisattva ideal and the goal of Buddhahood, while highlighting that one’s own mind is already endowed with Buddha-nature and that this can be realized swiftly through tantric methods.

These differing ideals naturally give rise to distinct paths of practice. Theravāda highlights renunciation, strict adherence to the Vinaya, and meditation that combines concentration with insight, especially through mindfulness practices such as observation of breathing and the four foundations of mindfulness; lay followers typically focus on generosity, ethical conduct, and simpler forms of meditation, while monastics are the primary full-time practitioners. Mahāyāna retains these disciplines but frames them within the bodhisattva path, emphasizing the perfections such as generosity, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom, and making extensive use of devotional practices, chanting, and visualizations of Buddhas and bodhisattvas; lay bodhisattvas are explicitly affirmed. Vajrayāna incorporates all of this and adds deity yoga, mantra recitation, mandala visualization, subtle-body yogas, and elaborate rituals transmitted through close guru–disciple relationships, presenting these as a swift means of transforming passions directly into wisdom.

Underlying these practical differences are distinctive doctrinal accents. Theravāda, drawing on the Pāli Canon and its commentarial and Abhidhamma traditions, gives analytical precision to teachings on non-self, impermanence, and dependent origination, and tends to focus on the historical Buddha without extensive speculation about innumerable Buddha realms. Mahāyāna elaborates doctrines such as emptiness as the nature of all phenomena, Buddha-nature, and the three bodies of the Buddha, and it develops a vast cosmology populated by many Buddhas and pure lands. Vajrayāna takes these Mahāyāna insights further, stressing the deepest identity of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa and employing esoteric symbolism and ritual to reveal the Buddha-nature that is said to be already present. Across these three streams, one can discern not a contradiction of fundamentals but a widening arc of interpretation, from a carefully preserved early discipline to ever more expansive and imaginative ways of embodying awakening.