DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Is anyone else drawn to aspects of both Mahayana and Theravada?

**Wluwsdtn** · 01-27-2012, 02:27 PM

I think one way of looking at the question Theravada or Mahayana is to see that our realizations about the truth - both absolute and relative - manifest in our own mind and so it is largely down to our own efforts, our own meditation and contemplative practices.

But at some stage we usually accept that we need help from outside our own mind in order to make further progress and we are attracted by and turn increasingly to certain teachings and teachers. It is these that determine which aspect of Buddhism we follow - one of the Theravada schools or one of the Mahayana schools or a combination of schools from different traditions - in fact whatever we, ourselves, feel comfortable with.

We cannot follow some school or teacher simply out of recommendation or because it is good for someone else - we choose according to our own inclination and experience.

The Tibetans have a saying that when we are ready for a teacher, he will appear. I also don't think we should be in too much of a hurry with the choice of school or teacher to follow, but practice with as open a mind as possible to begin with and indeed, as the Zen Master Suzuki Roshi advises, to keep this "Beginner's Mind" because in the mind of the beginner there are endless possibilities whereas in the mind of the expert there are few.

01-27-2012, 02:27 PM	#9
Wluwsdtn Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 596 Senior Member	I think one way of looking at the question Theravada or Mahayana is to see that our realizations about the truth - both absolute and relative - manifest in our own mind and so it is largely down to our own efforts, our own meditation and contemplative practices. But at some stage we usually accept that we need help from outside our own mind in order to make further progress and we are attracted by and turn increasingly to certain teachings and teachers. It is these that determine which aspect of Buddhism we follow - one of the Theravada schools or one of the Mahayana schools or a combination of schools from different traditions - in fact whatever we, ourselves, feel comfortable with. We cannot follow some school or teacher simply out of recommendation or because it is good for someone else - we choose according to our own inclination and experience. The Tibetans have a saying that when we are ready for a teacher, he will appear. I also don't think we should be in too much of a hurry with the choice of school or teacher to follow, but practice with as open a mind as possible to begin with and indeed, as the Zen Master Suzuki Roshi advises, to keep this "Beginner's Mind" because in the mind of the beginner there are endless possibilities whereas in the mind of the expert there are few.
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