@igm,
igm wrote:
I of course apologize if the term is seen by 'some' as derogatory. It can mean that the vehicle is one that does not lead to Buddhahood but to freedom from Dukkha only.
Since Buddhahood has a greater scope then it - the other vehicle - is seen as a vehicle with a scope that is less than the wish to attain Buddhahood. This is a simple statement of fact not a derogatory term just as being able to free oneself from a prison is not seen as having a scope superior to freeing everyone from the same prison.
The tone of your reply makes my reply easy... there won't be another post to you from me but should you have evidence that the Buddha didn't teach the Mahayana or Vajrayana during his lifetime please let me see it because I say there is evidence that he did... so can you prove otherwise?
Also, if it works follow it, if not don't.. the Buddha's teachings on the Mahayana and Vajrayana work as long as you don't 'cherry pick'.
Do some research on the topic you claim to know. The sangha didn't divide into sects until around the time of the Third Council, centuries after the Buddha died. And the first divisions were neither Theravada (which you errantly term 'Hinayana'), Mahayana nor Vajrayana. During the Buddha's lifetime, the sangha was undivided.
The Buddhism of the Pali Canon was exoteric: "There is nothing, Ananda, with regard to the teachings that the Tathagata holds to the last with the closed fist of a teacher who keeps some things back." (Digha Nikaya, Mahaparinibbana Sutta,32)
Mahayana in general and Vajrayana in particular are all about esoteric knowledge held by a few accomplished masters and only handed down to "worthy" disciples after they have attained a certain level of accomplishment.
Which is antipathetic to the exoteric teachings of the Pali literature.
In order for the Mahayanists to explain away the fact that their sutras didn't appear until centuries after the Buddha's death, they claim it was held in a mystical place called the 'land of the nagas.' Nagas were some sort of spiritual, non-physical being not so unlike Christian angels. Woo.
In order for Mahayanists to explain the contradictions between their new sutras and the radical shift of focus from personal liberation to the bodhissatva ideal, they came up with the story that the Buddha saw that mankind wasn't ready for his ultimate teachings during his lifetime and hid them away in the aforementioned 'land of the nagas'. Indistinguishable from a scam foisted off on unsuspecting gullible masses.
I once mentioned to a Korean Buddhist (Mahayana) that the Buddha was just a man, a very wise man, who died 2,500 years ago. I thought she was going to faint. She very coldly replied, "You definitely belong in that 'other' Buddhism." She had to have her placebo, ie, her belief that the Buddha is some sort of spirit who resided in a heaven re-named Nirvana, and that this Buddha is someone who can/will grant her wishes. Not terribly unlike more mainstream theists.
Study what the scholars have to say, dood. You're showing nothing but playground rhetoric and half-formed opinions so far.
