Buddhism

[Rick Vosper]

At 08:02 PM 6/11/97 -0400, you wrote:
>"Are we not all one? Which is your choice," Fahringer now, buzzing and flat
>through the filters of memory, "the little cart, or the great one?" 
>
>This is probably old hat but I'll point it out since this thread is going.
>This is in part 3 episode episode 13, the one with the toiletship. I believe
>this refers to Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism. Hinayana loosely translates to
>"little boat" or "little ferry". Mahayana "big boat" or something similar, in
>any case transport of some kind. Hinayana Buddhism's approach was a slow
>difficult ascetic journey of the individual through many reincarnations.
>Mahayana on the other hand is distinguished by the Bodhisattvas who choose to
>remain in the world and help the rest of humanity to enlightenment. I
>apologize for the half-assed scholarship here. The amin point being the
>difference between the two is again the classic Pynchon argument of the elite
>vs. preterite, Hinayana and Mahayana respectively. Perhaps someone with more
>time can explain this further. 
>
>Dominguin Meuse

Well done. In fact, I'm not sure any ampliciation is really necessary,
except perhaps to those sticklers who would want it pointed out that it's
usually translated as "vehicle", leaving the exact type -- cart, bus, ship
or whatever-- unspecified.

--rick