Is Mahayana Buddhism a form of idealism?
Upvote:1
Can anyone think about train differently ? It is a means to commute. Someone can take liberty for example a kid and think of it as a means of entertainment. Some people can think of it as a means to earn money. Some people can think of it as a means to fill their stomach. Some people can think of it as a means to meet their lover or relatives... Train is same but people can think about it differently. There are no surprises here.
Now coming to the physicality. Same physical observations guide the design of the train.Train assumes people of some fixed height and weight will travel. Train assumes that no will sit on floor or in the bathrooms.Two person can have different views on its physical comfort and utility. But if you are saying that any person can think of it as aeroplane that will be absurdly wrong and no one can physically stretch a train in the minds to make it more spacious ... but yes it can happen that trains can meet accidents if mind desires... that is quite obvious how.
Do we co-create the world ? Sometimes but not always. Just as we can not identify I or self , we can not identify we or us. Sabbe sanskar annicca ... sometimes we co-destruct the world...
Upvote:4
Mahayana Buddhists do NOT believe that the whole world and all objects are literally created by the mind.
Yogacara and especially Mahayana is not a form of subjective idealism, that's a popular urban myth/misunderstanding.
"the people they see in front of them have consciousness and sensations (individual mindstreams)" - yes of course.
"but all of us and our whole world are dependent on all people and their minds, that is, we co-create our world together" - maybe but that's beside the point.
The way I would put the mainstream Mahayana view is: each person's subjective reality is a projection of their mind which in turn is a result of their background and choices. Different backgrounds&choices give rise to different minds which project different subjective realities. Subjective realities overlap to the extent the backgrounds/choices/minds are alike.
Your friend and you see similar trains to the extent your minds are alike. To the extent your backgrounds are different you will pay attention to different aspects of the train, your interpretations will differ etc. - to that extent your respective trains will be unique.
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