"What is Theravada Buddhism?" - With Bhante Ananda Path

Hosted by filmmaker Yujiro Seki, Carving the Divine TV is a series of Q&A sessions with Buddhist scholars and practitioners. These Q&A sessions explore the basic concepts of Buddhism and the history of Buddhism so that when viewers finally watch Carving the Divine they will get the maximum value of the documentary. 

In this special episode, we will have a Theravada Buddhist monk, Bhante Ananda Path, to explain to us about the basic concept of Theravada Buddhism.  

We will ask important questions such as:

1.  What is Theravada  Buddhism? What is the core teaching of it?  
2.  Do we have to give up our ordinary life to be a Theravada Buddhist?
3.  How is Theravada different from Mahayana?  Why is Theravada your choice?
4. Do you live in a monastery?
5. How can you utilize Buddhist teaching in real life?
6. What is the Theravada view of Buddha (Buddhist) statues?

Bhikkhu Ananda is a socially engaged Buddhist monk of Nepal who entered the Order of Theravada Buddhism in 1981. He mastered in Oriental and Buddhist Studies. Ananda helped coordinate the “Civic Solidarity for Peace” movement to end a decade of war (1995-2005) between the Maoist Insurgency and the State of Nepal. From 2007 to 2012, as a Member of Constituent Assembly and Legislature Parliament, he secured religious rights and reservations in the new constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2007, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) of Korea named him an “Ambassador for Peace.”