Second, one of the numerous ironies of the perjorative term “hinayana” – a term not used by the wise – is that people who call themselves Buddhists use it to demean and dismiss as irrelevant the actual teachings of the Buddha, themselves choosing instead to follow teachings thought up centuries after the Enlightened One’s passage out of this life…including “discourses of the Buddha” such as the Lotus and Diamond sutras, which were likewise composed centuries after the Buddha lived and are therefore in no way discourses of the Buddha, but are used instead to uphold the ideas not of the Buddha, but of the people who composed those works.

The Buddha taught a path to seeing things as they truly are, while many leaders and practitioners of Mahayana schools feel it’s a much better plan to teach and follow lies and misguidance. Such people may be considered Buddhists much like deceitful and opportunistic televangelists may be considered Christians: in name only.