jcsuperstar wrote:where did the mahayana come from
whats "our side of the story"?
A question of two parts. The Mahayana arose in order to rectify the incorrect views of some schools, which were subsequently termed Hinayana.
It is a mistake to equate these now-defunct schools with the Theravadan tradition, as they are nothing to do with it.
I am always astonished at how many Buddhists, across all traditions make this fundamental error. The Theravadans have no case to answer, as they were never amongst any Hinayana sects, listed within the Mahayana tenets.
In the Indian Mahayana Buddhist monasteries, such as Nalanda, monks studied four systems of Buddhist tenets. Two – Vaibhashika and Sautrantika – were subdivisions of the Sarvastivada school within Hinayana. The other two – Chittamatra and Madhyamaka – were subdivisions within Mahayana.
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Dhammanando wrote:Not very much is said on the subject, for the polemical thrust of post-canonical Pali texts is directed chiefly against the doctrines of the Sabbatthivāda (Skt. Sarvāstivāda school) and its many off-shoots and the various Puggalavādin schools.
One thing in common there. Neither liked the Sarvāstivādas.
The paucity of Theravadan comment seems to indicate that there has been, historically, little connection between the two.