Search for Origins of Mahayana Buddhism

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

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

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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!

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!

It is a bit funny being taught the lesson of diversity here. LOL

mahfari bhai, one can have no problem accepting your understanding/memory of what Caliph Ali said (assuming you later don't turn out to be a man of sufi predilections), but please don't tell us that there were prophets like Prophet Muhammad in India.

Or, may be, there were, and we were just too stupid or too evil to notice.

Re: # 203

it is not question of persons , every civilization has its contribution to human civilization.

There were also Prophets peace be upon them in India also. it are the followers of those Prophets peace be upon them who changed theri message and for personal purpose change the religious edicts and message.

Human creativity is not heritage of any one person or area!

In the end all human beings are creted from Adam and Eve --- blessings be upon them.

There is saying of Caliph Ali ( God Bless him) that do,nt say who is saying, see what he is saying! Solet us try as a human beings to understand the realities and truths hidden deep beneath to strive for new horizons!

Things move and only change is constant in this universe!

Re: # 202

Dear Santani

Northern Pakistan is a new name for the area. It was never named as part of India , and who gave India its present name? Muslims... read Al-Beruni!

chinese called Gandhara area as Xi Tian Western Paradise and the remaining India in ancient times as Du Shen ( du is word for drugs and virus in Chinese and Shen is for Body... it was named due to sultry weather of India (See Travels of Xuan Zhuang)

This phobia for all being Hindus was the driving force which divided India , when congress failed to accept cabinet Mission Plan.

Alas desire for imaginary wolrds is a perpetual illusion in human history.

Re: # 202 Dear Santani
why do you want to prove always that diversity is not possible?

and why it is important to differ by naming your opponents?

Why India takes pride in Taj Mahal?


Why there is problem in accepting the reality of Indai being multi-lingual, multi religious, and multi-idea country?

Why to insist on imposing the Brahmanical interpretation of religion on India?

Pakistan is not a term denoting purity or for the followers of Islam only. Its name has been taken from geographical areas comprising the land where Muslims abound and fortunately or unfortuantely these are areas where Buddhism in originality flourished.


Why to amalgamaate South Indian and North Indian ideas of religion?

India was never a single religious entity! Was it?

sanatani, there must be something deeply wrong with Hindus and Hinduism if they have never been able to and still cannot produce a Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and/or a Pius the XI (no comparison between the two is intended or implied, directly or indirectly, lest different people be upset for different reasons).

IMHO, there is no schizo ism in writing mecca not mohenjodaro at one moment and claiming Bhagwan Budh the next. It's the two aspects of the same political domination.

Schizo ism resides in liberal Hinduism that insists that both Prophet Muhammad and Pius the XI (again no similarity is intended) be treated just like all other religious leaders, yet quickly and blindly denounces any effort to promote leaders like these two great men.

This is the unique aspect of the Buddhist religious pantheon in "Northern Pakistan".

Are trying to be a joker. How is it Norther Pak when Pak did not exist at that time. Even if we acept Pak came into being when the first Sindhi accepted Islam then also what happened in "Northern Pakistan" (which was actually Northern India at that point of time) predates your land of the pure by anywhere from 1200-2000 years so it is hardly Pakistan which had this wonderful civilization but India.

At best you could say This is the unique aspect of the Buddhist religious pantheon of India which now resides in Northern Pakistan. (And repeat that ad nauseaum in all your posts).

Also on what basis are you Schizos now claiming affinity with Bhagwan Budh esp your other compatriots have writtens gems like Mecca not Mohenjodaro and that clown Aitzaz Hasan talking about Indic and Gangetic Civilisations.

The Budh started in Bihar (firmly Gangetic) and then reached Trans Oxus that takes care of the Indus as also the same being part of India.

You know where we lost:

1) Hindu society could not give an apporpriate theological response to Islam (in the fact it did not bother to refute Islam's claim of being a religion when it actually is a murderous and schizophrenic political philosophy).

2) It stopped caring for its sons and daughters who had been forced to convert and became more inward looking.

3) No Shankracharya donned the role of Pius the XI and no Prince became Charles Martel

Sanatani