[Buddha-l] Re: Mahayana taught by the Buddha?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-06-21 at 08:12 +1200, Andrew Ward wrote:

> Was the Mahayana taught by the Buddha, or was it invented after his 
> death?

A huge furor was created in Japan in the mid-19th century when a
celebrated scholar claimed that Mahayana sutras were composed many
centuries after the Buddha's death. This scholar, as I recall, felt
compelled to resign from his academic post for creating such a stir.
Apparently textual and historical criticism of Buddhist texts was no
better received in Japan than textual and historical criticism of
biblical texts was received in Europe. It was perceived by many as a
hostile attack on believers by people who had gone over to the dark
side.

Although making such a claim would not create as big a panic today as it
did in the mid-1800s, one can still sense a certain amount of tension
between some historians and some Buddhists. 

>  The Dalai Lama asserts in one of his books that it was in fact 
> taught by the Buddha, but he does not go into any more detail than that. 

That is the official position of traditional Mahayana teachers.

> Other books I have looked at say the Mahayana emerged 500 or so years 
> after the Buddha's death.

That is what most textual historians (including Mahayana Buddhist
scholars in both Asia and the West) would say.

Perhaps your question merits a counter-question: what difference does it
make to you personally what the answer to your question turns out to be?

-- 
Richard Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes