Arguments Denying that the Buddha
Expounded Mahayana Doctrine

Home  |  Basic of Buddhism

As Mahayana Buddhism grew, so did the argument that the Buddha did not expound Mahayana doctrine.

People who espoused this idea claimed that Mahayana doctrine was the invention of the Buddha’s disciples who compiled the scriptures after the Buddha’s passing. The same individuals claimed that the only sutras that the Buddha actually expounded and which were most closely related to Hinayana doctrine were the Hinayana Agama sutras.

Although the argument denying the Buddha’s exposition of Mahayana Buddhism had existed in India since ancient times, and mention is made of it in the Great Wisdom Sutra, the idea itself never gained much popularity.

While Buddhism itself came up against opposition in China because of established Taoist beliefs, the idea that Shakyamuni did not teach Mahayana doctrine never arose there.

In the middle of the Edo period in Japan, a Confucian scholar by the name of Nakamoto Tominaga wrote an ideological treatise entitled Shutsujo gogo, and a scholar of the Japanese classics named Atsutane Hirata wrote a pro-Shinto work entitled Shutsujo shogo. Both of these works spoke out in support of the argument denying that the Buddha expounded Mahayana Buddhism. During the Meiji period, anti-Mahayana sentiment continued, but without much support.

Nonetheless, the various arguments against the Buddha’s expounding of Mahayana doctrine seem to have developed during the series of gatherings of Shakyamuni’s own disciples after the Buddha’s death, which were held in order to compile the Buddha’s teachings. Even so, these arguments fail to consider Shakyamuni’s vow to relieve the sufferings of all humanity and the true intent of the scriptures that he expounded. Because Shakyamuni preached his doctrines to bring relief to all people, the mindset that caused practitioners of Hinayana doctrine to practice for their own perfection alone, and their assumption that this was what the Buddha truly intended, goes against Shakyamuni’s reason for expounding Buddhism in the first place. Had Shakyamuni not been a Buddha enlightened to every phenomenon in the universe, neither could he have made such accurate predictions as he did in the Mahayana scriptures, nor would he have been able to reveal the incomparably perfect and profound teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

For the above reasons, the fact that Shakyamuni’s soul and his teachings are correctly expounded in modern-day Mahayana Buddhism clearly demonstrates that Shakyamuni is indeed the author of Mahayana doctrine. The Spread of Buddhism Part Two

BUDDHASUNIVERSE.COM