Theos-Talk Archives (October 2009 Message tt00086)

Morten, 
The demarcation that distinguishes between the Mahayana and the Southern Buddhism is that the Southern School is the "gradual " that clasps tightly to the proposition that we all are in invariable unalterable samsaric journey that we can do nothing about and that there is no solution for anyone who is not avatara or already Bodhisattva. The rest of us must travail in suffering until creation ends. However the Mahayana is the "sudden" School which holds that we are all buddha already and can have "sudden" transformation and illumination and liberation. It is the southern school that rejects this view and that is way it has remark on the Chinese Mahayana Ch'an which Madame Blavatsky called "The Sweet Singers of History" because she knew they were the Trustee's of the Mantra Science among other things. The characterization is only indicating the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Buddhism, Hinayana or Therevada Buddhism holds to only the 1st Turning. 


Regards, 
John 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Morten Nymann Olesen" <global-theosophy@stofanet.dk> 
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2009 5:38:03 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Theos-World Abhidharma the core of MahÃyÃna and HÃnayÃna? 






Dear friends 

My views are: 

HPB wrote: 
"Tripitaka (Sk.). Lit., "the three baskets"; the name of the Buddhist canon. It is composed of three divisions : (1) the doctrine; (2) the rules and laws for the priesthood and ascetics; (3) the philosophical dissertations and metaphysics: to wit, the Abhidharma, defined by Buddhaghosa as that law (dharma) which goes beyond (abhi) the law. The Abhidharma contains the most profoundly metaphysical and philosophical teachings, and is the store-house whence the MahÃyÃna and HÃnayÃna Schools got their fundamental doctrines. There is a fourth division-the Samyakta Pitaka. But as it is a later addition by the Chinese Buddhists, it is not accepted by the Southern Church of Siam and Ceylon." 
(The Theosophical Glossary, 1892, published posthumously by GRS Mead) 
http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/ATUVWXYZ.htm#t 

It seems that this Abhidharma teaching must have a very strong esoteric core and flavour attached to it since the fundemental Buddhistic doctrines was based on it. That is what HPB says, and scholars think different even today. 

- - - - - - - - 
Abhidharma 
"In the West, the Abhidhamma has generally been considered the core of what is referred to as 'Buddhist Psychology'." 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidharma 

The third category, the Abhidhamma Pitaka (literally "beyond the dhamma", "higher dhamma" or "special dhamma", Sanskrit: Abhidharma Pitaka), is a collection of texts which give a systematic philosophical description of the nature of mind, matter and time. There are seven books in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. 

M. Sufilight 

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