Sects of Buddhism

Sunday, 15 March 2009 12:35
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Buddhism Chaos

After the Second Buddhist Council , Buddhism had split into two parts: one orthodox (Theravada) and the other unorthodox (Mahayana). Then in the Third Buddhist Council, there were 18 different unorthodox schools. Although the Elder Tissa in the Third Buddhist Council compiled a book called "Points of Controversy" to refute the wrong views of the unorthodox schools, these schools still persisted in their corrupted doctrines.

Today we have many different Buddhism schools, and the major ones are Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Pure Land, and Zen. Among these, Pure Land and Zen are sometimes considered Mahayana.

There are also new-born schools such as Japan's Nichiren Buddhism and Thailand's Dhammakaya Buddhism.

And the controversial thing about these Buddhism schools is that they all claim to be the true Buddha's Teaching, and they all claimed to have the "Direct Path to Enlightenment."

For example, Nichiren Buddhism claims that by chanting "Nam myoho renge kyo" alone can attain Enlightenment, and Dhammakaya Buddhism claims that by looking for the "Bright Crystal Ball," "Dhammakaya Buddha Form," or "Crystal Buddha Form" in one's own body, one can attain Enlightenment.

Therefore, the "Direct Path to Enlightenment" has become a cliché today, and people should be careful with it. The following is an example of what a false Buddha Dhamma is like.

New schools such as the Dhammakaya uses Pali Canon as its main scripture, but the method it teaches is nowhere to be found in the Canon. The Dhammakaya offers an explanation that its founder discovers it by himself:

"the scriptures did not describe what the Dhammakaya actually looked like. After his discovery, however, Luang Pu Wat Paknam described the Dhammakaya form as Buddha-like, clear as crystal, and perfect like an image of the great perfect man. "

However, one should wisely examine statements like the above and use one's own wisdom to tell between right and wrong.

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