Do you find Hinayana offensive?

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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tiltbillings
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Re: Do you find Hinayana offensive?

Post by tiltbillings »

Bubbabuddhist wrote:Been called lots of things in my life, if I took offense at them all I would always be mad. Hinyana isn't the most common epithet in my case--I've been called "dogmatic" by Zen folk so much I got some dogtags with Buddha stamped on them.

J
I noticed that there was a bump button feature and I sort of accidentally bumped this thread up. When I pressed it, I thought it might ask me if I wanted to complete the action, but it did not. It just bumped it up. I was looking at this thread, which had sunk to page four, because someone had PMed me about a "hinayana" thread on another forum and I was asking myself: do I want get entangled in all this again when I got distracted by the bump option. To answer my question to me: I really do not.

But to respond to your point: It is not that the term hinayana is offensive, though it obviously was coined to be so; it is, rather, that the word hinayana has been defined by the Mahayana (being of Mahayana coinage) in a way that grossly mischaracterizes the Theravada if applied to the Theravada, which can be an occasion for someone who takes such characterization to heart from seeing what it is that the Theravada really teaches. That is important enough to respond to when the occasion is right.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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BubbaBuddhist
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Re: Do you find Hinayana offensive?

Post by BubbaBuddhist »

Agreed Tilt, it is important enough to respond to--assuming the other person will listen. I find though, when someone as authoritative as HHDL has spoken disparagingly about the Arhant path, many Mahayana practitioners won't listen to a goon like me. But there are people who apply the H word to Theravada, both naive and knowingly, and as we all know this is neither correct nor applicable.

J
Author of Redneck Buddhism: or Will You Reincarnate as Your Own Cousin?
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