I thought it will be great to add what other said about Sthavira. For example Vasubandhu has a lot and sometimes even untraced suttas that is now lost. In the Chinese collection of 3 books by him of consciousness only. I found the following.
[The Sthaviras say that] although past and future do not exist, still, there are causes and effects that continue in a series.
Though the present stream of dharmas is extremely rapid, still
each dharma in the series has two phases of existence, a former state
and a subsequent one, a period of birth and a period of extinction.
When it is born, it repays its cause; when it perishes, it attracts a
result. Although there are these two phases or times, the substance of the dharma is unitary. Just as the prior cause perishes,
the subsequent result is born, and although substance and characteristics are distinct, both occur simultaneously. Thus cause and effect are not metaphors. However, there are no errors of cessation and permanence, nor any of the problems cited earlier. Who
of the wise would reject this and believe the other?
Of course there is response but we don’t those. Our intention must be to understand our Elders more because we have in later times become part of new sect. Also this I share as an example. We probably have enough to explain this. But a collection of others cited of sthaviras might give us more a background of the Elders in India.
Scriptures of both the Sthaviras and the Vibhajyavadins, using a hidden meaning, call this consciousness bhavananga (bhava
anga) consciousness.
Which removes the idea that According to the Sammatīya sect, the Vibhajyavādins developed from the Sarvāstivāda school.[16]
Its kinda understandable then that if Sthaviras and Vibhajyavādins had some teaching the latter was a sub branch of sthaviras by read that they had their own scriptures it’s understandable each was different school.
according as the Blessed One said Bhikkhus, I say that, relatively speaking,
all creatures, all breathing things, all beings, have one hindrance only, that is to say, ignorance; for all creatures have ignorance as hindrance. And bhikkhus, it is with the entire cessation of ignorance, with giving it up and relinquishing it, that creatures have no more hindrance, I say> ( …)
Actually until now the Vasubandhu book itself has not much to say about Sthavira. Maybe we might get some lost agamas suttas. For some traditions. Especially Sarvāstivāda.
