Dear Kåre, Rett and friends,

thanks. Kåre is right that 'hiina' can mean worse as opposite to best
(or bad...excellent). Mine would be in the superlative. I like to
look at things in the historical context. The rise of Mahayana is the
culminated result of the schism over Vinaya issues and the
reemergence of the Brahmin religion. Many history books are not clear
about this. In a vast land of India, where religious persecution
almost never existed (until very recent times), many religions co-
exist all the time. However, at any one time, only one is dominant.
There come a time, when the status of Buddhism reached a peak and
started to decline, a new generation of Buddhist philosophers
emerged. This group loosely called themselves Mahayana, which contain
at least three separate branches of thoughts. And then label those
not adopting the new thoughts as Hinayana. Besides philosophical
advancement, I see Mahayana taking over certain tasks which the
Buddha entrusted to lay people. So, it is also like a social reform
with Buddhism itself. That's why I say its a culmination of many
social, philosophical and historical factors. I am no history expert,
these are just my humble opinions.

However, nothing remains unchanged in the turbulent times India went
through the last few centuries. Buddhism was almost wiped out, lest a
group of untouchables who only converted to Buddhism following
Ambedkar, and a few standing ruins. Similarly, if we look at the
Theravada Buddhism today. Many of the description of Hinayana do not
fit at all. In fact, many of the Theravada monks are bodhisattas to
me.


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, rett wrote:

>Sorry, but I do not agree when you say that 'hiina' is opposite
to 'great'.

I agree. 'Hiina' is bad. It's like low, vile, despicable.