tiltbillings wrote:As I have pointed elsewhere in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, the Theravada does not assert that about dhammas.

What is the ultimate truth of an apple then, if it is not its base physical parts?

If one wants to learn about Yogachara, the last place to look is with the tenets system writings.

Why is that?

In fact, as we shall see presently, "Hinayana" refers to a critical but strictly limited set of views, practices, and results. The pre-Mahayana historical traditions such as the Theravada are far richer, more complex, and more profound than the definition of "Hinayana" would allow. ...The tern "Hin...

I dont see (in my limited experience) that Theravada has any analytical meditation process on Emptiness...or am I off the mark? For non-mahayana it is utterly nihilistic to say that, an apple for example, does not come from its own side. Of course it comes from its own side! It is made up of fundam...

The followers of reason within Sautrantika say that only the first moment of contact between a mental consciousness and an object is nonconceptual. This is because the object that makes contact with the physical sense consciousness only carries through to the first moment of a mental consciousness f...

Divination is harmful because people actually believe it and might make dangerous desisions based upon the advice given. I don't need to say alot more about why that is dangerous. The logic seems a little confused. Why are you calling deceptive methods (ie. tricks such as cold reading, etc) divinat...

Dhammabodhi wrote:Is the peace one experiences through meditation just a 'security blanket' which is self-decieving? I know there is no straightforward answer

Yes there is: no.

I dont see (in my limited experience) that Theravada has any analytical meditation process on Emptiness...or am I off the mark? For non-mahayana it is utterly nihilistic to say that, an apple for example, does not come from its own side. Of course it comes from its own side! It is made up of fundam...

"Small vehicle" is no compliment, but they don't think that it is a nasty insult, either. If we always think that when modern Anglophone Mahayanists use the word "hinayana" they mean it as "inferior / despicable vehicle", then we are probably misrepresenting them. But misrepresentation seems par fo...

So, having rejected "hinayana" (obviously!) and "mainstream" as terms to describe non-Mahayana groups as a whole, do you have any other terms that will work? I think that this is an important question. If we are keen to drop the nasty terms as long gone history, how are we to proceed in the present...

Also, contrary to what many Mahayanists might think, the Theravada is not hinayana, the garbage vehicle, or even the "lower" vehicle. Why? From the mahayana pov, any vehicle leading to liberation which does not include bodhichitta as a path is by definition "lower". In the same way that shravaka ar...

retrofuturist wrote:Your comments are inappropriate for a Discovering Theravada forum.

How so, and where are the guidelines (I can't see them anywhere)?

-- A Treasury of Mahayana Sutras, Garma Chang page 116. So? Assuming that the translation good, it's something you have to take up with the little princess. You could ask her about the sutras which lay out the bodhisattva vows, including the one where you break your vows if you denigrate or give up...

The lesser/higher vehicle distinction comes straight from the mahayana sutras. From that point of view mahayana is higher in every way (ie. motivation, final goal, qualities of the path, etc) and non-mahayana is lesser in every way. When talking about various vehicles there can be no element of bein...