Theraveda & Mahayana: If you prefer one, why?

jessie70

I think I get the basic differences between Theraveda & Mahayana- so I don't really need a primer or any more explanation - "It's all out there" & already been answered here & elsewhere...

But I am curious, to the extent you have identified yourself as being more identified or aligned with one or the other, what made you choose or feel this way?

Thank you!

federica

MODERATOR NOTE:
Please keep comments on topic and do not meander into criticisms or condemnations.
We've had threads like that before, and I'm asking people to maintain respect and not "diss" that which you do not practice.


Thanks guys.

jessie70

Ohmygoodness. I didn't mean for that! Just curious about what attracts people to one or the other.

federica

don't worry.
Your asking the question, isn't the problem.....

caz

Im a Mahayana practitioner But Mahayana includes the first turning teachings to so I have great respect for all Buddha's advise and try to apply it to my daily life.

jessie70

@caz: what attracts you to Mahayana?

person

The city I live in hosts the second largest population of Tibetans in the west, so if I'm honest I probably follow Tibetan Buddhism simply because thats what is available here. Joining this site a year and a half ago was the first real exposure I've had to Theravada and I feel it has helped increase my overall understanding of Buddhism a lot. Tibetan Buddhism still feels closest to my heart and I really appreciate the thoroughness of its philosophy and the quality of its teachers.

jessie70

Thank you @person.

Jeffrey

I am Mahayana because my teacher is Mahayana and as I studied the teachings my interest caught fire. It has been a refuge the past six years, thus I would like to keep learning. I honestly go through periods where I don't practice much at all meditation, but then some when I'm meditating over two hours a day. But mostly my practice is devotional mindfulness to the lineage. Dedicating merit of practice and remembering the Buddha, dharma, and sangha by looking at my alter for example.

My teacher said to study one teaching deeply and then you can see what the others are doing.

There is also a big split between rangtong and shentong, and to a TB buddhists view there are rangongpas and shentongpas in Theravada and Zen also as conveyed in teachers differing approaches. My teachers main mission is to share the dharma of shentong.

I also like the idea of liberation from peaceful nirvana and taking on some suffering in order to help someone else. (easier said than done)

jessie70

Thank you @Jeffrey

caz

jessie70 said:

@caz: what attracts you to Mahayana?

The Bodhisattva's way of life it is a good way of helping sentient beings.

Jason

jessie70 said:

I think I get the basic differences between Theraveda & Mahayana- so I don't really need a primer or any more explanation - "It's all out there" & already been answered here & elsewhere...

But I am curious, to the extent you have identified yourself as being more identified or aligned with one or the other, what made you choose or feel this way?

Thank you!

Just personal preference, I suppose. I stumbled onto Theravada after discovering a Thai Theravada temple near by house, which I started going to regularly to learn meditation and more about Buddhism. And even after exploring other traditions, I've stuck with it, primarily because nothing I've seen or heard matches the profound simplicity that's contained within the teachings of the Pali Canon and most of my favourite teachers are from the Theravada tradition (e.g., Ajahn Chah, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Ajahn Sudanto, etc.).

taiyaki

Lately more and more Theravada.

I really enjoy the practicality of the teachings.

vinlyn

Somewhat similar thoughts as Jason, although in my case it was because I fell in love with the culture of Thailand, which is a Theravadan country.

BonsaiDoug

I too love the simple, down-to-earth straightforwardness of Theravada. A very to-the-point approach, IMHO, to the Buddhist path, contained in what many (most?) consider as direct a connection to The Buddha's words as we'll probably ever see; the Pali Canon.

PrairieGhost

Sutra inspires me, Sutta instructs me.

karasti

I enjoy reading from all the areas of teaching, but Tibetan speaks the most to me. I saw the Dalai Lama in Minneapolis a couple of years ago, and that solidified it for me. I enjoy the matras and the rituals and the vast amount of information available on dying and the death process beliefs. My more serious undertaking of Buddhism came shortly before my grandmother became very ill and spent many months in and out of the hospital and surgeries. I didn't have much of a grasp on illness, death and dying and I found Tibetan Buddhism to have the most information that I could use in navigating what was a new area of life for me. I have dealt with the sudden death of accidents, suicides, overdoses but never the severe illness and slow death of someone very close to me.

Also, what @person said. Because of where I live, Buddhism isn't that wide-spread, and my particular location within my state makes it even harder. Most of my exposure comes with Tibetan Buddhism, my teacher and my Sangha (there are only 2 of them closer than 280 miles away) are Tibetan, and it's where I feel most at home, I guess. I find it quite useful to have people to go to with discussion and questions and I find having an actual teacher invaluable to understanding the teachings. If I don't quite get something, he always knows exactly how to put it in a way that I will grasp it.

I do enjoy the simplicity of Therevada, but at this time I still have difficulty grasping some of the topics, probably in large part because I do not know anyone personally who follows that branch, other than in this group, and of course information comes in bits and pieces on here, depending on the topic. I enjoy learning about it, though.

Songhill

To start off, the following might be helpful.

The historical source of the name Mahayana is polemical, having its origin in a debate about what the real teachings of the Buddha are. As such, its use in any context except as that pertaining to a living tradition is controversial amongst Theravadin practitioners and some scholars. The earliest known mention of "Mahayana" occurs in the Lotus Sutra between the first century BCE and the first century CE. However, some scholars such as Seishi Karashima suggest the term first used in an earlier Gandhari Prakrit version of the Lotus Sutra was not "mahāyāna" but the Prakrit word "mahājāna" in the sense of "mahājñāna" (great knowing). At a later stage when the early Prakrit word was converted into Sanskrit, this "mahājāna", being phonetically ambivalent, was mistakenly converted into "mahāyāna", possibly by contamination arising through proximity to the famous Parable of the Burning House which talks of carts (Skt: yāna).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana

DairyLama

PrairieGhost said:

Sutra inspires me, Sutta instructs me.

Yes, I think of suttas as prose and sutras as poetry - both are helpful at different times.

friendlynobody

I identify myself as Mahayana but like several of the others here, I keep returning to the Theravedan teachings when I lose my way amongst the complicated ways of the later turnings. Bodhicitta, Maitri, and devotion are much easier states to reach when one is happy. Happiness is the ideal jumping off point for sublime pathways. Hard times, bad moods and sorrow are best dealt with using the older tools of the Dharma, at least in my opinion.
The word Tantra originally meant "weaving" or something close to that, and the idea was to incorporate (weave) the teachings into everyday life, rather than renounce worldly life entirely, which is the way the Theravedan path was originally taught.

When I first started to seriously study Buddhism twenty five years ago I imagined myself to be right for Tantra, Vajrayana, and the later Mahayana teachings in general.

However, I see how very useful the Theravedan teachings can be,
now that I find myself ten years older than Dante was when he wrote:

Midway through the journey of our life, I found
myself in a dark wood, for I had strayed
from the straight pathway to this tangled ground.
(Palma translation)

The Theravedan way of questioning the value of all the things that used to seem important has been a help to me on days when the joyful effulgence of Mahayana begins to taste of ashes in my mouth. Certainly, when I can remember my Lama with gratitude and devotion, Mahayana feels right. But when I am stuck in a dark small place in my own mind, Theraveda is the right tool for the job.