Buddhism was divided into two sects that are Hinayana and Mahayana. Hinayana was the form of Buddhism that The Buddha introduced. Mahayana was the new form with many rituals and ceremonies. If The Buddha opposed rituals and ceremonies, then why was Mahayana practised?
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Answer:
It didn’t. During his lifetime Buddha Shakya Muni was giving different teachings for different types of people, depending on their ability to understand and apply them. Hinayana (also called Theravada) core teachings are about cause and effect, these are basics of Buddhism, they are intended for people mainly interested in helping themselves, and it is achieved through understanding illusory nature of ego. However, after this first step, you can develop compassion to all sentient beings and wisdom of understanding illusory nature of all outer phenomena, and these are core teachings of Mahayana. It is quite natural that Hinayana teachings were more popular in the first 500 years, because there were more people who needed to help themselves before being able to start developing aspiration to help others. But Mahayana and Hinayana teachings complement, not contradict each other, and they both have existed from the beginning of Buddhism, although Mahayana teachings were not practiced as widely.
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