Do you find Hinayana offensive?

[Laurens]

I don't find the term particularly offensive personally, but I don't think it says much for the person saying it. I don't think a person who is advanced in Dhamma practice should be calling other sects a 'lesser vehicle' to be perfectly honest. It's not a very compassionate thing to do if you ask me.

[Emi]

To me, if someone were to refer to Theravada as Hinayana when speaking to me, I'd have to ask the reason why they'd stopped before the term 'Theravada', and gone with the word 'Hinayana' instead. I certainly wouldn't be thrilled.

[tiltbillings]

To me, if someone were to refer to Theravada as Hinayana when speaking to me, I'd have to ask the reason why they'd stopped before the term 'Theravada', and gone with the word 'Hinayana' instead. I certainly wouldn't be thrilled. ::

One thing that is worth keeping in mind, which can sometimes complicate things, is that the term Theravada is not a substitue for the term hinayana. Sometimes people, who are aware of the problem with the word hinayana and want not to use it for fear of being insensitive, will use Theravada in place of it when they are referring to what would be called within a Mahayana context hinayana. In other words, the category that the Mahayana refers to as hinayana should not be called Theravada. It can get confusing.

[Emi]

To me, if someone were to refer to Theravada as Hinayana when speaking to me, I'd have to ask the reason why they'd stopped before the term 'Theravada', and gone with the word 'Hinayana' instead. I certainly wouldn't be thrilled. ::

One thing that is worth keeping in mind, which can sometimes complicate things, is that the term Theravada is not a substitue for the term hinayana. Sometimes people, who are aware of the problem with the word hinayana and want to to use it for fear of being insensitive, will use Theravada in place of it when they are referring to what would be called within a Mahayana context hinayana. In other words, the category that the Mahayana refers to as hinayana should not be called Theravada. It can get confusing.

I understand where you're coming from, but if the person was aware of my being a follower of the Theravada tradition, and they were a follower of Mahayana Buddhism, I would see the usage of the term 'hinayana' as unnecessary - personally, it would see it as as hurtful as it would be to them if I were to tell them that their beliefs were 'lower' than mine.

Can't we just bury now what is essentially an redundant term? Entirely unoffensive alternatives exist - or we could just all call each other Buddhists and leave it at that.

These terms, words, tradition names, aren't they all attachments?

[pink_trike]

These terms, words, tradition names, aren't they all attachments?

They can be very strong attachments and are for many Buddhists. But they don't have to be. They can just serve as useful guide posts, lightly held.

[Paññāsikhara]

These terms, words, tradition names, aren't they all attachments?

Some people may be attached to them,
but they are not attachments in and of themselves,
and it is possible to use them without attachment.

[Ben]

Hi Emi

To me, if someone were to refer to Theravada as Hinayana when speaking to me, I'd have to ask the reason why they'd stopped before the term 'Theravada', and gone with the word 'Hinayana' instead. I certainly wouldn't be thrilled.

About 23 years ago I was invited to attend a puja at a local Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the hills behind Noosa Heads in Australia. I went with a Tibetan Buddhist friend shortly after I moved to the area. On the way, we stopped by to pick up some of his friends and in the car on the way to Chenrezig Institute, I was asked very politely about my 'Hinayana' practice. Their intention was not to be hurtful or make me feel inferior or whatever - they just weren't aware that the term Hinayana has negative associations for Theravadins. And they were genuinely interested in the practices I was involved in. I very kindly and sensitively corrected them and left it at that.
So in any given situation, I recommend that you respond appropriately because not everyone using a particular word will be using it with full knowledge of its negative meaning.
kind regards

Ben

[Emi]

Hi Emi

To me, if someone were to refer to Theravada as Hinayana when speaking to me, I'd have to ask the reason why they'd stopped before the term 'Theravada', and gone with the word 'Hinayana' instead. I certainly wouldn't be thrilled.

About 23 years ago I was invited to attend a puja at a local Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the hills behind Noosa Heads in Australia. I went with a Tibetan Buddhist friend shortly after I moved to the area. On the way, we stopped by to pick up some of his friends and in the car on the way to Chenrezig Institute, I was asked very politely about my 'Hinayana' practice. Their intention was not to be hurtful or make me feel inferior or whatever - they just weren't aware that the term Hinayana has negative associations for Theravadins. And they were genuinely interested in the practices I was involved in. I very kindly and sensitively corrected them and left it at that.
So in any given situation, I recommend that you respond appropriately because not everyone using a particular word will be using it with full knowledge of its negative meaning.
kind regards

Ben

Sadly, the only times anyone has ever used the term 'hinayana' around me, it has been with offensive intent, from ironically often from non-Buddhists!

Some people may be attached to them,
but they are not attachments in and of themselves,
and it is possible to use them without attachment.

How? Names are fleeting, so one can point to something and say, "That is mine."

[notself]

This is an email that I received from a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism. He meant to send it to someone we both know who was just beginning to be interested in Buddhism. I had recommended some books to our common friend and had sent her an email about rebirth. She sent a copy of my email to him and he sent his response to me by accident. He appologized for sending it to me but not for the sentiments it expressed. Although I have never criticize another tradtion of Buddhism, it appears that Nichirens have no problem painting Theravada as inferior and a waste of time. The quote from a letter of Nichiren was a real eye opener.

HI D,
Well, this is a very difficult thing to understand. The basic problem is that you are learning about a form of Buddhism that is ineffective for the modern age. Although one might gain some insight through these teachings, they are teachings that benefitted an earlier era and are but a shell of the teaching for this age. The eightfold path is an early teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha. All these teachings are based on pre-Lotus Sutra teachings, which Shakyamuni said to discard. The best explanations you can find about life and death are in the Buddhist book I left for you. If you read it, you may gain a really profound explanation of this.

Here is an explanation from a letter written by Nichiren Daishonin to a follower who was sick:

The Buddha’s teachings, however,are various, perhaps because people’s minds also differ greatly. In any event, Shakyamuni Buddha taught for no more than fifty years. Among the teachings he expounded during the first forty and more years, we find the Flower Garland Sutra, which says,“The mind, the Buddha, and all living beings—these three things are without distinction”; the Agama sutras, which set forth the principles of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and nonself; the Great Collection Sutra, which asserts the interpenetration of the defiled aspect and the pure aspect; the Larger Wisdom Sutra, which teaches mutual identification and nonduality; and the Two-Volumed, Meditation, and Amida sutras, which emphasize rebirth in the Land of Perfect Bliss. All of these teachings were expounded specifically for the purpose of saving all living beings in the Former, Middle, and Latter Days of the Law.

Nevertheless, for some reason of his own, the Buddha declared in the Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, “[Preaching the Law in various different ways], I made use of the power of expedient means. But in these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.” Like a parent who has second thoughts about the transfer deed he wrote out earlier, Shakyamuni looked back with regret upon all the sutras he had expounded during the previous forty and more years, including those that taught rebirth in the Land of Perfect Bliss, and declared that “though immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable asamkhya kalpas may pass, they will in the end fail to gain unsurpassed enlightenment [through these sutras].”2 He reiterated this in the “Expedient Means” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, saying, “Honestly discarding expedient means, I will preach only the unsurpassed way.”

By“discarding expedient means,” he meant that one should discard the Nembutsu and other teachings preached during those more than forty years. Having thus undoubtedly regretted and reversed his previous teachings, he made clear his true intention, saying, “The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and now must reveal the truth,”

Those who practice teachings based on the first 42 years of Shakyamuni’s teachings are following teachings the Buddha himself said to discard. As seen above, he also said that no one can reach enlightenment through those teachings. The reason is that the Buddha taught according to the people’s mind in the first 42 years of his teaching. In the last 8 years, however, he taught a teaching for the future called the Lotus Sutra, based on the Buddha’s own mind. . He proclaimed it his highest teaching and the teachings that preceded it were like the scaffolding of a house. Once the Lotus Sutra (the house) was built, the scaffolding(the pre-Lotus teachings) is no longer needed. It’s not that these early teachings have no merit. It’s just that they must be viewed as incomplete teachings.

Unless one knows the correct teaching for the age one lives in, it is easy to follow erroneous Buddhist teachings. Although you friend is only trying to be helpful, I’m afraid her devotion is to a form of Buddhism that can never lead to enlightenment “though immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable asamkhya kalpas may pass, they will in the end fail to gain unsurpassed enlightenment [through these sutras].

Like I said, it’s a hard subject to grasp. I do hope you’ll read the book. Then I imagine you will have many more questions which I will be glad to answer.
R.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings notself,

It's a bit scary, that... it's like reading some kind of outlandish conspiracy theory.

Metta,
Retro.

[tiltbillings]

This is an email that I received from a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism. He meant to send it to someone we both know who was just beginning to be interested in Buddhism. I had recommended some books to our common friend and had sent her an email about rebirth. She sent a copy of my email to him and he sent his response to me by accident. He appologized for sending it to me but not for the sentiments it expressed. Although I have never criticize another tradtion of Buddhism, it appears that Nichirens have no problem painting Theravada as inferior and a waste of time. The quote from a letter of Nichiren was a real eye opener.

My guess your friend is SGI. As for the quote by Nichiren, that is very mild, given that he advocated beheading monks and burning temples of those schools with whom he disagreed. He bemoaned the fact that the Mongols did not invade Japan because that would have taken care of his enemies (any schools of Buddhism in Japan that did not agree with him).

"Nichiren suffered from self-assertiveness and bad temper, and he manifested a degree of personal and tribal egotism which disqualifies him as a Buddhist teacher. He did not only convince himself that he, personally, was mentioned in the "The Lotus of the Good Law," but also that the Japanese were the chosen race which would regenerate the world." -- E. Conze, Buddhism p 206.

Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra should beware of and guard themselves against the sutra's enemies. Know that the Nembutsu priests, the upholders of the precepts, and the Shingon teachers--in fact, all those who refuse to chant Nam-myoho-renge-kyo--are the enemies of the Lotus Sutra, no matter how earnestly they may read it. If you do not know your enemies, you will be deceived by them. How I wish I could see you personally and talk to you about these matters in detail! Whenever you see Sammi-bo or Sado-ko, who will visit your area from Minobu, have them read this letter to you. Place it in the custody of Myoe-bo. Those lacking in wisdom would no doubt mock me or criticize this letter as mere clever words on my part. Or they would compare me with others, saying, "This priest could never match the Great Teacher Kobo or surpass the Great Teacher Jikaku!" Consider those who say such things ignorant.

Nichiren

Written in the third month in the second year of Kenji (1276), cyclical sign hinoe-ne, in the mountains of Hakiri Village in the Nambu area of Kai Province
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:0It ... clnk&gl=us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One could go on at some length quoting Nichiren in this vein.

[Ben]

Hi Notself

Thanks for sharing. I can only imagine the discomfort and disappointment at discovering the contempt which your Nichiren/SGI 'friend' holds your chosen path and perhaps even you. Take some consolation that your Nichiren friend may just shoot himself/herself in the foot with that needless polemic. In the face of such invective, I urge you just to focus on maintaining sila and developing samadhi and panna. You may also wish to extend compassion towards your Nichiren friend, hold her ot him as an object of Metta Bhavana.
May you be a beacon of the Dhamma Notself!
metta

Ben

[tiltbillings]

While SGI, Soka Gakkai International, is probably one of the more combative sects of Nichirenism, reflecting Nichiren's more extreme positions, there is on the other extreme the Nipponzan-Myōhōji sect of Nichirenism which is responsible for the Peace Pagodas built around the world and who are often part of large peace marches.

[tiltbillings]

I missed an earlier part of the letter I quoted by Nichiren, which sort of gives a flavor of Nichiren's attitudes towards others schools: I attacked the Zen sect as the work of devils, and Shingon as a heresy that will ruin the nation, and insisted that the temples of the Nembutsu priests, the Zen sect, and the Ritsu priests be burned down, and the priests of the Nembutsu beheaded. ... http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:0It ... clnk&gl=us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cooran]

Goodness me!

Kammasakata .....