Whenever I talk to someone even remotely interested in Buddhism

>>2750739
Availability to public.

>>2750739
Theravada is too hardcore for the filthy hippies who don't want to commit.

>>2750775
How come? You can easily Google it and find tons of translated sutras.

>>2750788
I don't want to commit either; it's just reading.

>>2750739
>Why isn't Theravada more popular among pseudo intellectuals and hippies/hipsters in the Western hemisphere?
Because these people are not persecuted and none of these people comes to the west selling self improvement books while claiming that buying these books help fighting the plight

>>2750807
General public doesn't know how to use Google.

Or rather they cannot extrapolate the usage of Google from the knowledge of its existence.

>>2750739
because generally speaking, in Theravada Buddhism there is a sharp distinction between the laity and the monks. the techniques are easier to apply, the theory not so difficult either (loosely speaking), but the "institution" itself is quite user unfriendly as a rule.

Also Theravada is very precise and analytical. Your hypothetical pseudo-intellectual fedora types wouldn't be able to b/s as much as they would with Zen, or some forms of Tibetan Buddhism.

Generally, hipsters don't do discipline or austerity very well.

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75KB, 573x274px

>he thinks hinayana is better than mahayana

do u even sunyata?

>>2751079
>Theravada is analytical unlike Mahayana
Durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Your poor understanding of Buddhism is showing.

Because zen got a huge pr.

>>2750739
Theravada is generally less mystical than other branches. For some people it's too cut and dry and lacks the color of Vajrayana, etc. Personally I like it (specifically the Thai Forest tradition) because it's a distilled version of the essentials, but some people want the religious trappings more than the straight philosophical.

>>2750788
This. Theravada is a lifestyle

>>2751131
>Theravada is not mystical or religious

If I had to guess, it's because Mahayana is friendlier (seems easier to an outside observer, the proclaimed stakes are lower and expect less of a person), more similar to conventional religions (with something more resembling a pantheon and stress on a concept of an enlightened afterlife rather than on mortal human transcendence) and less traditional and bound heavily to a specific (foreign, in these cases) culture and language, with the intrinsic idea that the original language the scriptures were written in is of importance, making it much more high-commitment if you want to pursue that path seriously.

And by "if I had to guess" I mean "it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" It's the same reason protestant christians get more converts than catholics, catholicism is hard and most protestant sects are casual as fuck.