Buddhists agree to revere the Three Jewels and follow the spiritual path the Buddha cleared, but they also have disagreed among themselves in important ways. Divisions among Buddhists began as early as one hundred years after the Buddha's death. And Buddhists today identify at least three major forms of the religion, or three "vehicles" that can carry followers across to the shore of liberation: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. 

THERAVADA BUDDHISTS
Theravada Buddhism (literally "Teachings of the Elders") describes a gradual path of individual religious striving. The original Buddhist community was made up of monks and nuns who renounced the world, while lay supporters offered contributions to the monasteries. Following that early model, lay Theravada Buddhists--or those who are not monks--have followed the same moral and religious teachings of the Buddha, but they have not engaged in the monastic renunciations that lead more directly to nirvana, although they do gain spiritual "merit" by supporting monks and nuns (for example, by providing them food and clothing). And that, they believe, might help them achieve a better rebirth in the next life. This form of Buddhism has had great influence in Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Myanmar (formerly Burma), Cambodia (formerly  Kampuchea), Thailand, and Laos. 

In North Carolina, Theravada Buddhists are found at Asian-American temples where Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian immigrants congregate: Wat Carolina in Bolivia, Greensboro Buddhist Center, the Cambodian Cultural Center in Lexington, Wat Mungme Srisuk in Cameron, and the Cambodian Cultural Society in Charlotte. Some converts also follow traditions inspired by Theravada, including those few European Americans who attend Wat Carolina and other Asian-American temples as well as the converts who practice Insight Meditation at one of the state's three Vipassana centers.  Vipassana is a reformist movement within Theravada that stresses personal meditation practice for lay and monastics alike. 

MAHAYANA BUDDHISTS
A second major form of Buddhism, Mahayana (literally "Great Vehicle"), dismisses their opponents, the Theravadins, as the "lesser vehicle."  The ideal for Theravada Buddhists was the arhat, one who is free from all impurities through the realization of nirvana and, so, is free from all subsequent rebirth. Mahayana Buddhists, even lay followers, claimed to aim higher. They sought to become a Buddha, one who achieves full enlightenment for the sake of all beings, human and non-human, and embodies compassion as well as wisdom. This emphasis on the path of the bodhisattva (future Buddha)--and not the path of the shravaka (future arhat)--has distinguished the Mahayana sects that have predominated in East Asian nations such as China, Korea, and Japan. 

Some forms of East Asian Mahayana Buddhism have made their way to North Carolina. The state does not have a large Japanese American community, and no temples associated with Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo Shinshu) were established, as they were in Hawaii and along the Pacific Coast during the late-nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. But the state is home to a few thousand Chinese immigrants, and about one hundred of those attend Chapel Hill and Cary's Buddha Light International Association, which is formally affiliated with Taiwan's Fo Guang Shan (Buddha's Light Mountain) and California's Hsi Lai Temple, the largest Buddhist building in the United States.  Vietnamese refugees also practice Mahayana Buddhism at urban temples in the Tar Heel State, such as Raleigh's Chuan Van Hanh, Greensboro's Chua Quan Am, and Charlotte's Chua Lien Hoa.  And many convert centers are associated with one or another form of Mahayana Buddhism.  Followers practice seated meditation (zazen) and walking meditation (kinhin) at various Zen temples and at the smaller groups affiliated with the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh's Community of Mindful Living.  And an estimated eight hundred converts to Soka Gakka International--USA, a movement that attracts the most ethnically diverse community of Buddhist converts, meet to chant homage to a sacred text, the Lotus Sutra, in private residences in Raleigh, while others meet in other areas across the state.

VAJRAYANA BUDDHISTS
A third major division within Asian Buddhism, Vajrayana ("Diamond Vehicle"), emphasizes that the religious path could be briefer, even in this lifetime.  It suggests that this world of rebirth and suffering (samsara) is ultimately identical to the final state of liberation and bliss (nirvana), at least for those few spiritually advanced persons who see reality as it is.  Vajrayanists reconceived of the religious goal in texts known as  tantras, and in their practices followers used sacred syllables (mantras) and cosmic paintings (mandalas).  As with the other two forms of Buddhism, this Vajrayana or Tantric tradition has Indian roots, but it predominated in Tibet and Mongolia.

There were less than two thousand Tibetan migrants living in the United States in 1995, and they don't make up a significant community in the state today.  So although the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, appears regularly on television and in newspapers in North Carolina, institutional forms of Vajrayana are mostly found at  convert centers devoted to Tibetan Buddhism, such as the Durham Shambhala Center.  Vajrayana sees itself as a perfection of and improvement on Mahayana Buddhism, so sometimes temples in the Vajrayana tradition include the word "Mahayana" in their title.