Difference Between Mahayana and Hinayana in Buddhism.com

Although from the standpoint of Mahayana Buddhism, Hinayana is not the ultimate Dharma, but to learn Mahayana, it is still necessary to take the Hinayana precepts, concentration, and wisdom as the basis, not only that, but in terms of the Tao, Chinese Buddhism is equivalent to the ladder of the five vehicles: the first human vehicle, the study of Buddhism must first start from being a human being, mortal ethics, things that should be paid attention to, must be done one by one, in order to achieve the state of good and evil, and stop at the state of the highest good. By the sublimation of human beings, one can achieve the next vehicle's advanced training, and heavenly beings are born from the supreme perfection of being human beings.

The third is the Hinayana shravakayana, which includes Hinayana practitioners who are tired of being detached from the world and practicing the Four Noble Truths—suffering, concentration, extinction, and path. Beyond this, it is the fourth Dependent Enlightenment vehicle, and from the principle of the 12 causes and conditions, we observe that the world's causes gather and disperse, and the causes arise and perish, and then the Hinayana practitioner who is independent and transcendent outside the world. The fifth is the Mahayana bodhisattva path, the so-called "bodhisattva", is the Sanskrit "bodhisattva sleep" (enlightenment and sentient beings), it includes self-interest, altruism and the meaning of the Buddha's self-realization, enlightenment, enlightenment, and perfection, such as in the meaning of Chinese literal translation, bodhisattva is "enlightenment", also known as "dashi" or "kaishi", in modern terms, is the amorous compassion to save the world, and later in Chinese literature there is a sentence "good is immortal bones, amorous is the heart of the Buddha", which is really an appropriate portrayal of beautiful rhetoric.

There are three kinds of Mahayana bodhisattva paths: (1) Seeking self-interest first, such as starting with the practice of Hinayana birth. Wait until self-interest is achieved, and then come to altruism.

2) First for altruism, then for self-interest. (3) Self-interest and altruism go hand in hand. In short, Mahayana behavior is born from the body and mind, is based on helping the world and saving sentient beings, and can sacrifice oneself to save the world and save others.

All sentient beings in Mahayana are the same body as me and the desire to have compassion, Mahayana's compassion is unconditional, undemanding, absolute spontaneous and conscious salvation heart, combined with the above two concepts, it is called "the same body of compassion, the compassion of no cause".

The system of Mahayana thought is the method of expanding the Hinayana vows, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and liberation perceptions to form the levels of the six paramitas or the ten paramitas. I have taken a small part of what Mr. Nan Huaijin said, which you can refer to.

Mahayana teachings believe that all living beings are Buddhas by nature, and that by seeing nature they can become Buddhas. According to the Hinayana teachings, sentient beings can only attain the attainment of the status of an arhat, and only after attaining the attainment of the attainment of the status of an arhat can they practice to become a Buddha or a bodhisattva.

The Buddha described the difference between Mahayana and Hinayana in the Lengyan Sutra. In the long process of practicing the Dharma, Hinayana is like a post station where you can take a break along this journey, called the city of transformation. Let some people who are physically exhausted take a break, and then move on, towards Mahayana, and finally become a Buddha.