bagong

Yeah, a lot of the bashing in this thread is attacking a straw man. I don't think there are any examples in history of Buddhists wasting "their whole lives arguing on the superiority of Mahayana over Hinayana or verus vice."

It's true that a lot of early Mahaayaana suutras are extremely critical and dismissive of earlier Buddhists, but Chinese records show that adherents of both traditions lived together in peace at the great monastic universities of Bihar and Bengal. This is the equivalent of Shia and Sunni Muslims studying together at Al-Azhar, or Jesuits and Calvinists at Salamanca.

Outside of India, it was extremely rare for more than one tradition to be present in a single country, so there was rarely any opportunity for partisans of the two sides to get angry at each other. For example, I doubt any Tibetan before the 20th century had the opportunity to even meet a "Hiinayaana" monk - much less debate the superiority of their respective paths - for over 1000 years!

Answerer

You don't need historical evidences(although there are, which I will show if I had the time) to prove that such conflicts do exist now. I, myself, had experienced some real-life cases of some radical Thervada supporters bashing up Mahayana teaching right in the middle of a peaceful Buddhist forum or discussion group. One of them even declared that he is undergoing the task of publishing a book to disprove the credibility of Mahayana teaching.

Of course, its easy of me by that time to ignore him and get on with my life but somehow, I decided not to and try to persuade him. However, after some time, I stopped as nothing beneficial could be seen especially when his conviction, that Mahayana's "void theory" is wrong, was deep.

Nevertheless those unfortunate incidents (that I experienced) convinced me that Buddhism community is still not as united as some will like it to be.

The day of bashing is long over for me. Now, I only seek to have my doubts answered and help those who wishes for their doubts to be answered or cleared as well.

:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

bagong

I don't think you should base your conclusions on your experiences on a message board; it's impossible to say how much time message board trolls put in, or how much hate they really feel. A lot of people take a perverse pleasure out of flaming message boards; it's a game to them and does not reflect on their actual opinions or daily life.

Also, try looking at it from the other side: perfectly ordinary mainstream Mahaayaana books, websites, message board posters, even secular/academic books about Buddhism routinely repeat the standard soundbites like "Hiinayaana is enlightenment for selfish motivation, Mahaayaana is compassionate enlightenment for the benefit of all beings." "Abhidharma was taught for the simple-minded who cannot comprehend the profound teaching of Emptiness."

You can understand why some Theravaadins might get upset when this type of stuff is constantly passed-off as fact, rather than just Mahaayaana opinion. Obviously the best way to defend against this is to highlight the importance of loving-kindness and compassion in the Theravaadin tradition, but sometimes the temptation is to attack the claims of the other side. It doesn't necessarily mean the person is obsessed with bringing down Mahaayaana.

Anyway, we're WAAAYY off topic, start another post about "Hiinayaana vs. Mahaayaana" if you want to discuss this further.

Answerer

I don't know about everyone but so far, those had been posting in this thread are not trolls.

Ok, back to the thread now.

andy_d

Are these little guys doing prostrations?