The Great Western Vehicle is a 4th Wheel Buddhist tradition that seeks to teach Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practices within the context of any culture or religious tradition. We are not interested in Buddhism as a religion, but as a philosophy and practice strategy (dharma) that any one can follow to enlightenment, regardless of one’s cultural or religious background.
We are Mahayanist because we believe in being a tradition for everyone, and we acknowledge parity between monastic and lay teachers. However we do not reject enlightenment at any time. All of our members are fully committed to enlightenment in this very lifetime. And, we dedicate every thought, word, action and resource to the benefit of all beings.
Western Buddhism needs a canon of Buddhist literature therefore we embrace the Pali canon in English translation as the foundation of the Western canon of Buddhist literature. We however also accept the literature from all three Asian vehicles into our canon, as well as contemporary Buddhist literature. And, since Western thought is founded upon Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Roman and Islamic literature, then we embrace those literary traditions into our canon as well. Since Buddhism is founded upon Vedic literature we also embrace the Vedas. And finally, we also embrace Confucian and Taoist literary sources, because Chinese, Korean and Japanese forms of Buddhism are founded upon those literary traditions.
The Great Western Vehicle is committed to training native speakers of the various cultures of the world to become teachers of Western Buddhism, because we believe every contemplative tradition should be taught by native speakers of that culture.
