Mahayana is as old and as valid as Theravada
// lots of as's in that sentence
// i know it is long, but it's in verse form
Buddha set the example to walk far and wide and teach everyone.
In the Buddha's time each practice center had a few realized teachers who led dozens of students.
At the beginning, the prophesied decline of the Dharma did happen!
These realized beings spread out further to reach more sentient beings who may have the karma for realizations.
This is old times, so they become too distant to communicate easily.
Absorbed in the moment, they exist.
Walking towards whatever students may have the karma to hear the Dharma.
Eventually, the amount of students with the karma to hear the Dharma became frighteningly low.
Foreseeing this crisis, the Council of Arhats meeting gathered as many as could be reached.
At once, they systemized the transmission of Buddha Dharma before the living Arya transmission died completely in the region.
Not everyone got the message.
Some were too far north past the Himalayas. Dangerous treks and bitter resolve to spread the Buddhadharma got them there.
With hope and students, they migrated because of the Buddha's mention that the Dharma would do well in the North in the future.
Years passed. The student-teacher tradition continued separately of the mechanized formatting.
As teacher's thinned and beings karma diminished in the North, the low faculty bodhisattva path opened wider and wider as a source of hope.
Eventually, the students of the more distant sects became communicable again.
The success of the mechanization was so inspiring for the remaining Northern gurus (who each took on hundreds of students out of compassion)
The Mahayana sutras were born. Borrowing and adding their own stories and renditions, they also mechanized the transmission of Dharma.
Another period of time later - hundreds of years after the last Arya died - hope reemerged.
Nagarjuna was born.
He tended to the doctrine's wounds using the currently established tradition of mechanization and logic.
He inspired practitioners and householders far and wide with his vast realization, accomplishment, and earned influence in the kingdom.
The doctrine was reborn.
We must make it last until Maitreya can reinvigorate it.
Practice ardently.
You will gain the realizations you aim for.
Set your hopes high to keep the Dharma alive.
A point for another day:
From Nagarjuna, some of the tantras are healed and transmitted with mechanized 'secret' transmission.
Future practitioners are gifted with buried treasures full of Arya authored texts that didn't survive the living transmission.
These collections are added to the mechanized teachings if the finder's story is believable.
Regardless, these collections are brought back into the light and spread.
After several more generations, people began to understand the 'hidden' meaning of the mechanized teachings again.
Dozens of practitioners realized full Enlightenment and restarted the living Arya transmission.
Hope is important for practice.
True or not, the living Arya transmission continues today.
// i know mechanised isn't the best word. i just mean wrote down, relax
// this is a good time to do HHDLs long life prayer
// this is a story, to learn more about early Buddhism from an academic point of view, see Bhikku Analayo's work.
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