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Classifying Schools

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:53 pm
by dakini_boi
Since DW is changing the structure of the site anyway, I wanted to make a further suggestion. It seems to me that classifying various schools based on recent geographical origin ("Tibetan Buddhism" and "East Asian Buddhism") is less relevant/accurate than classifying based on the type of school or lineage. I propose that the Mahayana forum contain the subforums of Zen, Pure Land, etc, and have a Vajrayana forum containing subforums of the Tibetan schools, plus Shingon and Tendai.

Re: Classifying Schools

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 2:13 am
by Luke
A long time ago in this forum, both Tibetan Buddhism and Shingon were subforums in the Vajrayana section, but then this was changed. I'm not sure why, but perhaps the Shingon practitioners prefer to have their subforum in the East Asian Buddhism section.

Re: Classifying Schools

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 3:08 am
by Son of Buddha
I wouldn't consider Tendai to be Vajrayana
Shingon sure.

Re: Classifying Schools

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:56 pm
by Astus
Would you exclude Vajrayana from Mahayana? Shingon was removed from the Tibetan area years ago because they are two different systems with different history, and it was suggested by some Shingon followers who found the unending comparisons and such with Tibetan Vajrayana tiresome (IIRC). Tibetan and East Asian exist separately because they are distinct historical developments of Mahayana with several significant differences between the two, while the two groups share a lot within their own area. If anyone wants to discuss this topic about the differences between major Mahayana groups please open a topic for it in the Mahayana forum.