Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism

Re: # 207 In holy Quran it is mentioned that Allah did not spare any village and town of earth where he did not send His prophets peace be upon them. And fro Buddha the oldest reference available is Futuh- Al Baldan of Baladhuri 8th century which mentions that He was a monotheist , and later His followers turned Him into an idol! He never practiced or preached this ! The theme of this article as art and sculpture in Buddhism was practiced in Gandhara more than 400 years after Buddha's departure from this mortal world!


and as far as Muhammad peace be upon him is concerned HE peace be upon hm is unique, He was the Last of the Prophets peace be upon them and he perfected the message of Allah as now Human intellect is able enough to decide its own course , now no need for divine guidance after HIm peace eb upon.

Is there idolatory when we read portions of Bhegwat Gita?


and as far as Sufism is concerned , this path wil remain open till last day , and me being Sufi.... hanuz Delhi dur asat and it is not my prediliction till now as per future Allah knows better!

Re: # 208 Diversity was always here, we just needed to look for it! and all are students here and perhaps teachers also! So let us keep learning and teaching also!

Thank you very much author for this wonderful article and excellent historical photographs.

To me Buddhism is the most evolved and most mature of all the Philosophies, which human minds could create in the realms of religions and ideologies.

It talks about self analysis, self responsibility and self discovery rather than "pretending" to be doing good things in order to please God or "hypocritically" not hurting others due to fear of police or hell fire.

"And fro Buddha the oldest reference available is Futuh- Al Baldan of Baladhuri 8th century which mentions that He was a monotheist."

mahfari bhai, please remind me to commit suicide before I discuss religion with you. I might just take the plunge.


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mere baap, please understand. What is written or said in the Quran is no proof for a non-Muslim. Hope you understand that that statement is made most respectfully.

Very interesting article, particularly the summation of Hinayan and Mahayan. I wish the article had the analytical vs. descritive depth. This notwithstanding avery enjoyable snippet.

Inquirer bhai, let's not puff up the poor fellow. The pictures are good, and there may be some value in given descriptions of sculptures, but it is hard to imagine a person peddling worse trash everytime the author begins to speak of Buddhism itself.

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Buddha believed in monotheism.

Hinayan (spelled as nahayana - the boat of the author's ablutions) meant that the Buddha would personally take people to nirvana.

Can any sane person even read further?

Verily, people should NOT try to understand things that are so different from anything they have seen or heard. It's not the author's fault that he is talking nonsense.

Kaal bhai,

My understanding of Buddhism is that it is indifferent to the existence of Gods- essentially that Man's job is to get salvation (nirvana) it is immaterial whether God (one or many) exists or not. Is this right?

Regards

Re: # 212 Dear in India for more than 7 centuries Persian was official language and language of intellectuals, and whole literature of more than 100 years is in Persian, Arabic and Urdu . The present Hindi was developed by British in 1800 in Fort William college Calcutta.

And Futuh-Al Baldan is not Holy Quran ... it is a book of history written in 8th/9th Century please read the interact carefully.

And you are right Holy Quran is not a proof for non.Muslims, even Holy Quran does not claim it for muslims to blindly accept its facts, it asks to use mind and heart!

historical sources are correct till proven wrong or when all the evidences prove the facts contrary to the position stated ... so refute the evidence . Do,nt misunderstand it with sacred Text... sacredness is only fro followers not for others, but it does not mean that it can be totally ignored because we differ with the ideas of persons who believe in it.

As to His Monotheist , I remember late Ishfaque Ahmed one of great intellectuals of Pakistan had Buddha's statutes in his drawing room , the young people who went to meet him were amazed and asked why you being a Sufi ;have placed idols in your house?

Ishfaque Sahib smiled and said One person asked Buddha Do you believe in Allah , he was lost in thought and reamined silent... the questioner concluded Buddha did not believe in God ! why not His silence was taken as YES instead of NO? and where Buddha explicitly denies existance of ALLAH/GOD? Have you any evidence and text from his preachings?

I have quoted the oldest source to say he believd in ALLAH? So give evidence , do not resort to name calling and false superiority of knowledge (without its evidence)to refute the rational argument. USe rational, do not resort to bias!

Re: # 211 Thx fro appreciation , Buddha's messge has many diverse acets. I hope to cover thoe in any other article .
Regards.

Re: # 214 To Question of Monotheism of Buddha refer to interact 216.

As to Nihayana and Hinayana refer to my interact previously submitted.

As to difference of Mahayana and Hinayana/nihayana . the difference was that old school of Buddhism believed in only one Buddha who atatined nirvana and who will ensure the of his followers. As to origins of Mahayana it was aimed at atatining Buddhahood and Nirvana by any one who could follow the teachings of Buddha and it used idols of Buddha to attain thta ideal. If you have differnet undestanding please let us discuss, do not self praise yourself without sharing the information and knowledge(if any) you have !
Let us learn mutually and explore the ideas, come present ideas and then let us share them and KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS are not heritage of any single race, ethnicity or creed. Many people ,, rather majority do not belive in Brahmanism of thought and ideas!

come in open let us discuss, and do not hide ignorance under the garb of name calling!

Re: # 215 the followers of Buddha have this idea and some even deny its existance even, but as to Buddha;s ideas refer to interact 216.

differentiation of origination of ideas is neccassary to understand evolution of ideas... especially in the case of Leader and their followers to make things clear and of rigth perspective.

Re: # 214 Let us try to separate trash from reality1

majumdar, yes. The Buddha was concerned about the PROCESS of living, not what gods upstairs or devils below the earth were doing.

mahfari bhai, please ignore me. I just don't have the heart to discuss this with you.

If you would care, I would advise you stay with reading the Quran and understanding Islam. There is enough beauty and goodness within that tradition. Leave the rest. Particularly anything to do with ancient India. That's not for you.

Re: # 221Dear all the humanity is our heritage and do,nt be desperate! wisdom is not any one's personal property! There is saying of our Holy prophet ( peace be upon him) that wisdom is lost property of Muslims , so get it from where ever you can get it. and another saying Go to China for seach of knowledge. how can you restrict the beuty to one tradition only? TRUTH is not heritage of only one person!

His ideas were inspired by certain states of the process, it does not mean that he ignored all other things! If he did,nt bother about devils and gods ... may be fro the sake of discussion... but his followers did and they still do... I think that realy matters. does not it?

#221 Posted by Eklavya on December 11, 2007 5:31:16 am
majumdar, yes. The Buddha was concerned about the PROCESS of living, not what gods upstairs or devils below the earth were doing.

A quick question: once you understand the process, do you really need the devils(God) upstairs or Hades downstairs?

Once you understand the process of Rain Creation damendif you will believe in the rain_god (or that God created Rain)

(or maybe I am wrong)

Eklavya: "ancient India" was areas forming Pakistan - the term being derived from the river indus, these areas being settled for thousands of years before mankind moved further east to what is now india. but you can use the name - long before the name hollywood had been copied to become bollywood, the indus valley had been copied to become india. :-)