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Zen vs. Theravada
Same Cake, Very Different Icing
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Ajahn Brahm once quipped that Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen, and other schools of Buddhism are like different icings on the same cake. As one born and raised in Theravada Sri Lanka, I’ve spent much of my life savouring that particular cake — its rituals, its reasonings, and its zealous footing in scripture.
But a recent trip to Tokyo offered me the opportunity to taste a different icing: Zen.
I must admit — Ajahn Brahm was right. The essence is unmistakably the same. But the icing? I seriously underestimated how different it tasted.
What Are Theravada and Zen?
Theravada, the “Teaching of the Elders”, is the oldest surviving Buddhist tradition. It places strong emphasis on the Pali Canon, the monastic code, and meditation practices rooted in mindfulness and insight. It is the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
Zen, by contrast, is a branch of Buddhism that developed in China (as Chan) before taking root in Japan. It emphasizes direct experience over scripture, meditation (zazen) over study, and intuition over intellect. Zen is known for its austere aesthetics, paradoxical koans (more on these later), and the goal of sudden enlightenment — or satori.
