DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Mahayana and Theravada? Which did Shakyamuni teach? (my opinion)

**Reftsheette** · 11-22-2011, 04:18 PM

Don't both Mahayana and Theravada taught sunyata, nidanas, anicca and anatta? Aren't the differences 1. what the implications are, 2. how to go about realizing these and 3. what they emphasize.

The fact that these are different is probably due to cultural differences. I don't think it is a surprises that these different schools are regional/culture based. And why not, the goal is the same, the path is different because we have different facilities.

Plus, Buddha himself was probably teaching to an audience of Indians from 2500 years ago, so he probably choose words and concepts that were easy for those Indians to understand. If Buddha is alive today, he might use different words. Some oft used words, like Dukkha, might have a different twist to those Indians than what we can possible comprehend, after all, we don't live in the same space and time.

For example, when an average people 2500 years from now read "Vulcan", "Use the force", or "Beam me up", do you think they would understand the pop-culture reference, or come up with some really off the wall explanations for these terms?

11-22-2011, 04:18 PM	#15
Reftsheette Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 529 Senior Member	Don't both Mahayana and Theravada taught sunyata, nidanas, anicca and anatta? Aren't the differences 1. what the implications are, 2. how to go about realizing these and 3. what they emphasize. The fact that these are different is probably due to cultural differences. I don't think it is a surprises that these different schools are regional/culture based. And why not, the goal is the same, the path is different because we have different facilities. Plus, Buddha himself was probably teaching to an audience of Indians from 2500 years ago, so he probably choose words and concepts that were easy for those Indians to understand. If Buddha is alive today, he might use different words. Some oft used words, like Dukkha, might have a different twist to those Indians than what we can possible comprehend, after all, we don't live in the same space and time. For example, when an average people 2500 years from now read "Vulcan", "Use the force", or "Beam me up", do you think they would understand the pop-culture reference, or come up with some really off the wall explanations for these terms?
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