HISTORY OF MAHAYANA BUDDHISM

MAHAYANA BUDDHISM

portable Buddhist shrine from China, open

Mahayana Buddhism encompasses a wide range of philosophical schools, metaphysical beliefs, and practical meditative disciplines. It is more widespread and has more followers than Theravada Buddhism and includes Zen and Soka-gakkai Buddhism. It is practiced primarily in northern half of the Buddhist world: in China, Tibet, Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Japan.

"Mahayana” means "the Great Vehicle." The word vehicle is used because Buddhist doctrine is often compared to a raft or ship that carries one across the world of suffering to better world. Greater is reference to the universality of its doctrines and beliefs as opposed to narrowness of other schools. Theravada Buddhism is sometimes referred to in a somewhat dismissing way as the Hinayana (“Lesser Vehicle”) sect. Mahayana Buddhism is not a single group but a collection of Buddhist traditions: Zen Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism are all forms of Mahayana Buddhism.

According to “Topics in Japanese Cultural History”: The embodiment of this Mahayana ideal was the bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is one who has eliminated all desires and is therefore eligible to pass into nirvana. Out of a feeling of compassion for the millions of other suffering creatures, however, the bodhisattva withholds his/her/its entry into nirvana to remain in this world and help others. The various bodhisattvas have taken vows to remain in this world until all creatures are ready to enter nirvana.” Mahayana Buddhism is not one, unified entity. “The division between Mahayana and Theravada is roughly comparable to the divisions like Catholic vs. Protestant or Roman Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox in Christianity. Just as there are many denominations of Protestant Christianity, so too are there many denominations of Mahayana Buddhism. [Source: “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org ~]

Mahayana Buddhism Websites: Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism cttbusa.org ;
; Zen Buddhism zen-buddhism.net ; The Zen Site thezensite.com ; Wikipedia article on Zen Buddhism Wikipedia ; Seon Zen Buddhism buddhism.org ; Readings in Zen Buddhism, Hakuin Ekaku (Ed: Monika Bincsik) terebess.hu/zen/hakuin ; How to do Zazen (Zen Buddhist Meditation) global.sotozen-net.or.jp ;
Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Comparison of Buddhist Traditions (Mahayana – Therevada – Tibetan) studybuddhism.com ; The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra: complete text and analysis nirvanasutra.net

portable Buddhist Shrine from China

Mahayana Buddhism developed later than Theravada Buddhism and recast many of the more traditional Buddhist positions. Some scholars date the beginning of Mahayana to around the second or first century B.C.. Mahayana Buddhism began to really take shape around the A.D. 1st century during the second phase of Buddhist development as a reinterpretation of the Theravada rules for monks. It teaches that there is only one path to enlightenment and it is open to all beings; holds Bodhisattvas in great reverence; and places an emphasis on ritualistic practices, sutras and meditation and discourages forming attachments on the basis they are impermanent.

At the time of the development of Mahayana, people were used to worshipping many gods. It was difficult for them to accept a belief system that did not have some gods. The Mahayana school responded by saying that the Buddha was both a human being and a godlike being who used his enlightenment to help others.

Mahayana spread to more distant lands than Theravada Buddhists because it allowed monks to travel more freely and was able to assimilate and accommodate local religions by using the concept of Bodhisattvas. Mahayana Buddhists have great reverence for Bodhisttavas, the future Buddha Maitreya and Amitabha, the Buddha of the Western Paradise and the Buddhist equivalent of a savior who helps followers get into "heaven.".

According to “Topics in Japanese Cultural History”: “Mahayana Buddhism developed a wide variety of instructional techniques intended to reach people at all walks of life. Indeed, with its many parables, symbols, diagrams, esoteric rites, meditation aids and so forth, Mahayana Buddhism may have been the most pedagogically sophisticated form of religion in the world. It was also highly flexible and adaptable and spread rapidly throughout Central and East Asia. The core doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism is Skillful Means.” [Source: “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org]

Mahayana’s Roots at Buddhism’s Second Council

Many major Mahayana principles have their roots in the issues raised at Buddhism’s Second Council in Vaishali in 383 B.C., which culminated in the schism of the Mahasarighika school. Peter A. Pardue wrote in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Its doctrines and those developed by other forerunners of the Mahayana represented liberalizing solutions to cumulative tensions which had been present within the Sangha almost from the very beginning. Particularly controversial were the hardened dichotomy between the laity and the monastic elite and disagreements regarding the right of lay access to the full religious goal. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

The issues at stake centered on the traditional conservative conception of monastic perfection, ideally embodied in the Arhant, the fully perfected monk who attains complete enlightenment only at the end of the long and arduous pursuit of self-perfection demanded by the Yoga. This ideal was held by liberals to be a “selfish” distortion of the original teaching, violating the Buddha’s compassion for all men. In its place they introduced a new conception of spiritual perfection — the ideal of the Bodhisattva (being of enlightenment). The term, which was originally used chiefly to denote previous incarnations of the historical Buddha, was universalized. In its new configuration it means one who, although worthy of Nirvana, sacrifices this ultimate satisfaction in order to help all sentient creatures with acts of love and compassion. All men are inherently capable of filling this role. It is not necessarily a monastic category, and the Arhant is lower on the scale of perfection.

This innovation significantly undercut the rigidities of the class distinction between monk and layman. Although monasticism continued as a central institution, the Bodhisattva ideal opened the soteriology (doctrine of salvation) to new symbolic forms, beliefs, and practices. It facilitated popular diffusion and provided the basis for new theistic and philosophical developments, reflected in the principal Mahayana sutras and schools. Equally important was the doctrinal affirmation of the divinity of the Buddha. He is not only the historical teacher; he is an omnipresent deity, an eternal spiritual being and force. This allowed for further rationalizations of the popular theistic movements.

Development of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

Sanskrit scholar R.P. Hayes wrote: “Between 100 to 200 years after the passing away of the Buddha, the Sangha (the monastic community) split over the political question of 'Who runs the Sangha?' A controversy over some monastic rules was decided by a committee of Arahats (fully Enlightened monks or nuns) against the views of the majority of monks. The disgruntled majority resented what they saw as the excessive influence of the small number of Arahats in monastery affairs. From then on, over a period of several decades, the disaffected majority partially succeeded in lowering the exalted status of the Arahat and raising in its place the ideal of the Bodhisattva (an unenlightened being training to be a Buddha). [Source: R.P. Hayes, Buddhist Society of Western Australia, Buddha Sasana =|=]

“Previously unknown scriptures, supposedly spoken by the Buddha and hidden in the dragon world, then appeared giving a philosophical justification for the superiority of the Bodhisattva over the allegedly 'selfish' Arahat. This group of monks and nuns were first known as the 'Maha Sangha', meaning 'the great (part) of the monastic community'. Later, after impressive development, they called themselves the 'Mahayana', the 'Greater Vehicle' while quite disparagingly calling the older Theravada 'Hinayana', the 'Inferior Vehicle'. =|=

Mahayana still retains most of the original teachings of the Buddha (in the Chinese scriptures these are known as the 'Agama' and in the Tibetan version as the 'Kangyur') but these core teachings were mostly overwhelmed by layers of expansive interpretations and wholly new ideas. The Mahayana of China, still vibrant in Taiwan, reflects an earlier phase of this development, the Mahayana of Vietnam, Korea and Japan (mostly Zen) is a later development, and the Mahayana of Tibet and Mongolia is a much later development still. =|=

Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna (A.D. c. 150 – c. 250 CE) is regarded by many as the second greatest teacher in Buddhism. Some people even feel that Nagarjuna is the second Buddha who The Buddha prophesied would come sometime after to clarify things. Nagarjuna did much to clarify the nature of emptiness and is responsible for the Heart Sutra.

In the A.D. 2d century, Nagarjuna founded the School of the Mean (Madhyamika ) to develop the Great Vehicle and taught that individuals and their constitutive elements (dharma ) were unreal and that existence was but a screen of illusory phenomena whose continuity could be broken only by the knowledge of their basic unreality. Nirvana consisted in reaching the end of the chain of phenomena. [Source: A. S. Rosso,; Jones, C. B. New Catholic Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia.com]

Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna is widely considered the most important Mahayana philosophers. Along with his disciple Aryadeva, he is considered to be the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. Nagarjuna is also credited with developing the philosophy of the Prajñaparamita sutras and, in some sources, with having revealed these scriptures in the world, having recovered them from the nagas (water spirits often depicted in the form of serpent-like humans). Furthermore, he is traditionally supposed to have written several treatises on rasayana as well as serving a term as the head of Nalanda. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Very little is reliably known of the life of Nagarjuna, since the surviving accounts were written in Chinese and Tibetan centuries after his death. According to some accounts, Nagarjuna was originally from South India. Some scholars believe that he was an advisor to a king of the Satavahana dynasty. Archaeological evidence at Amaravati indicates that if this is true, the king may have been Yajña Sri Satakari, who ruled between A.D. 167 and 196. On the basis of this association, Nagarjuna is conventionally placed at around 150–250 CE. +

According to a 4th/5th-century biography translated by Kumarajiva, Nagarjuna was born into a Brahmin family in Vidarbha (a region of Maharashtra) and later became a Buddhist. Some sources claim that in his later years, Nagarjuna lived on the mountain of Sriparvata near the city that would later be called Nagarjunakoa ("Hill of Nagarjuna"). The ruins of Nagarjunakoa are located in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. +

Nagarjuna Writing and Philosophy

A number of influential Buddhist texts have attributed to Nagarjuna though many of the claims have dubious evidence to back them up. A lively debate over which are his authentic works continues to this day. The only work that all scholars agree is Nagarjuna's is the Mulamadhyamakakarika (Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way), which contains the essentials of his thought in twenty-seven chapters. [Source: Wikipedia +]

According to Christian Lindtner, the works definitely written by Nagarjuna are: Mulamadhyamaka-karika (Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way); Sunyatasaptati (Seventy Verses on Emptiness); Vigrahavyavartani (The End of Disputes); Vaidalyaprakaraa (Pulverizing the Categories); Vyavaharasiddhi (Proof of Convention); Yuktiaika (Sixty Verses on Reasoning); Catustava (Hymn to the Absolute Reality); Ratnavali (Precious Garland); Pratityasamutpadahdayakarika (Constituents of Dependent Arising); Sutrasamuccaya; Bodhicittavivaraa (Exposition of the Enlightened Mind); Suhllekha (Letter to a Good Friend); Bodhisabhara (Requisites of Enlightenment). +

Nagarjuna and Aryadeva as Two Great Indian Buddhist Scholastics

“From studying his writings, it is clear that Nagarjuna was conversant with many of the Sravaka philosophies and with the Mahayana tradition. However, determining Nagarjuna's affiliation with a specific nikaya is difficult, considering much of this material has been lost. Nagarjuna assumes a knowledge of the definitions of the sixteen categories as given in the Nyaya Sutras, the chief text of the Hindu Nyaya school. +

Nagarjuna's major thematic focus is the concept of sunyata, or "emptiness," which brings together other key Buddhist doctrines, particularly anatman "not-self" and pratityasamutpada "dependent origination", to refute the metaphysics of some of his contemporaries. For Nagarjuna, as for the Buddha in the early texts, it is not merely sentient beings that are "selfless" or non-substantial; all phenomena (dhammas) are without any svabhava, literally "own-being", "self-nature", or "inherent existence" and thus without any underlying essence. They are empty of being independently existent; thus the heterodox theories of svabhava circulating at the time were refuted on the basis of the doctrines of early Buddhism. This is so because all things arise always dependently: not by their own power, but by depending on conditions leading to their coming into existence, as opposed to being. Chapter 24 verse 14 of the Mulamadhyamakakarika provides one of Nagarjuna's most famous quotations on emptiness: “All is possible when emptiness is possible. Nothing is possible when emptiness is impossible.” +

As part of his analysis of the emptiness of phenomena in the Mulamadhyamakakarika, Nagarjuna critiques svabhava in several different concepts. He discusses the problems of positing any sort of inherent essence to causation, movement, change and personal identity. Nagarjuna makes use of the Indian logical tool of the tetralemma to attack any essentialist conceptions. Nagarjuna’s logical analysis is based on four basic propositions: 1) All things (dharma) exist: affirmation of being, negation of non-being. 2) All things (dharma) do not exist: affirmation of non-being, negation of being. 3) All things (dharma) both exist and do not exist: both affirmation and negation. 4) All things (dharma) neither exist nor do not exist: neither affirmation nor negation.

Evolution of Mahayana Buddhism

Dr. Robert Eno of Indiana University wrote: “The earliest forms of Buddhist practice focused on the search for personal salvation through rigorous meditational practices. Early Buddhist texts, or “ sutras”, all of which were written as the direct preachings of the Buddha himself, elaborated a detailed series of meditational exercises, corresponding to various forms of trance states and various levels of enlightened wisdom. Ultimately, the practitioner would achieve release from “ samsara “and, upon the death of his or her physical body, extinction in “ nirvana”. End of story. [Source: Robert Eno, Indiana University indiana.edu /+/ ]

“But as Buddhism developed over its early centuries, this ideal of the individually perfected yogin, called an “ arhat”, was increasingly viewed as inconsistent with the implicit ethical message of the Buddha's own career as a teacher of his way. After all, the Buddha did not “ only “strive for his own personal release; clearly, by spending the remainder of his post-enlightened life attempting to awaken others by preaching the Dharma, Buddha demonstrated real concern for the suffering of others. Surely, the ultimate personal ideal should include some such teaching. In time, the religious understanding of some forms of Buddhism came to include a belief that the Buddha's calling in this life had, in fact, never ended. Rather, with the death of his physical body and his release into “ nirvana”, some followers claimed, Buddha had made a decision to remain partially bound to the wheel of “ samsara”, delaying his own final release so that he could move in and out of this life in order to “ferry” others towards release. /+/

Agulimāla, an important figure in Buddhism, depicted as a ruthless brigand, and even a mass murderes, who was completely transforms after his conversion to Buddhism; He is viewed as an example of the redemptive power of the dharma (Buddha's teaching) and the skill of Buddha as a teacher

“These ideas represented a key turning point for Buddhism. First, they made Buddhism far more ethically appealing than it had previously been by sanctioning one single form of “attachment” to the world..a concern for the salvation of others..where the first forms of Buddhism had encouraged a fully self-regarding form of practice (although mutual support among a community of practitioners had always been encouraged). A new and cuddlier version of the perfected person, who was called a “ bodhisattva”, superseded in many teachings the austere “ arhat “ideal. Second, the idea of a type of existence with one foot in “ samsara “and another beyond it created the fertile ground upon which grew notions of saints, multiple Buddhas, heavens, and devotional formulas. Increasingly, these forms of Buddhism became typified less by monks withdrawn from society, and more by temples filled with the images of Buddhas and saints, to whom worshipers offered incense, prayers, and cash contributions. /+/

“Proponents of this new type of Buddhism called their teaching “Mahayana,” or the teaching of the “big boat.” The teachings which clung to the narrower vision of the “ arhat”, which are properly termed “Therevada” teachings, were derisively labeled “Hinayana,” or “small boat” Buddhist schools. As Buddhism migrated from India towards the rest of Asia, a pattern developed. The Therevada schools spread through the countries of Southeast Asia and Indonesia, where they remain important today. The schools that spread effectively into East Asia, however, were the Mahayana schools, and it is these teachings, with their visions of the compassionate “bodhisattva” whose goal is the salvation of all sentient beings from paramecia to people, that continue to exert a major influence in Japan, Korea, non-communist regions of the Chinese cultural sphere, and increasingly once more today in China itself. /+/

Intellectual Development of Mahayana Buddhism

Peter A. Pardue wrote in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Philosophical schools that influenced Mahayana Buddhism “reached extraordinary heights of exaltation and subtlety. They liberated the mystical ideal and soteriology (doctrine of salvation) from their scholastic bondage, attracted many intellectuals, and provided new principles for theoretical development of Mahayana universalism. But the bulk of Mahayana practice found its popular social base through theistic means. The heavens were filled with saving Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, who transferred their own merit to the believer in response to prayer, provided richly differentiated objects for cultic worship, and satisfied a wide range of personal affective needs. Theistic piety inspired important artistic achievements, beginning perhaps as early as the second century B.C., in the friezes of the Bharhut and Sanchī topes, and culminating in the Buddha statuary produced by the Mathura and Gandhara schools — the latter clearly influenced by Greco–Roman art forms. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

Among many efforts to systematize this theistic profusion one of the most important was the formulation of the Trikaya (“three bodies”) Buddhology. Here the Buddha exists in his eternal essence as a supreme heavenly deity and in worldly manifestations. He is both the absolute ground of being and the actional agent of salvation. He interpenetrates all discrete phenomena, assuring the universal presence of the Buddha-nature among all creatures, without distinction. This theory provided an integral basis for formal and functional differentiation of symbolic resources, and it was at the same time a dynamic metaphysic which could be adjusted to new social and cultural pressures.

The missionary diffusion of Mahayana was greatly facilitated by a remarkable principle of rationalization which allowed for almost unlimited adaptability to given conditions. This was the idea of the Buddha’s upayakauśalya (“skill-in-means”) — the ability to adjust teachings and institutions to the needs of all sorts and conditions of men through any means available. It was identified with the Buddha’s universal love, and, combined with the conviction that all phenomenal forms are illusory and void, it allowed for expedient use of new techniques to further the message of salvation. It cut through traditional boundaries, textual literalism, orthodox formulations, and monastic regulations with remarkable innovatory power and carried the teaching forward, however adumbrated and transformed.

Development of Tantric Buddhism

Pardue wrote in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences: The assimilative diversity of popular Mahayana did not mark the end of the development of Buddhism in India but rather led almost imperceptibly to a metamorphosis. Beginning recognizably in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. there took place an upsurge of a vast new repertoire of magical, ritualistic, and erotic symbolism, which formed the basis for what is commonly called Tantric Buddhism. Its distinguishing institutional characteristic was the communication through an intimate master–disciple relationship of doctrines and practices contained in the Buddhist Tantras (esoteric texts) and held to be the Buddha’s most potent teachings, reserved for the initiate alone. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

In content, Tantric Buddhism is fused in many areas almost indistinguishably with Mahayana doctrines and archaic and magical Hinduism. Cryptic obscurities were deliberately imposed on the texts to make them inscrutable except to the gnostic elite. But it took a number of identifiable forms, the most dramatic of which was Vajrayana (“thunderbolt vehicle”)” — Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayana had its metaphysical roots in the supposition that the dynamic spiritual and natural powers of the universe are driven by interaction between male and female elements, of which man himself is a microcosm. Its mythological and symbolic base was in a pantheon of paired deities, male and female, whose sacred potency, already latent in the human body, was magically evoked through an actional Yoga of ritualistic meditations, formulas (mantra), and gestures (mudra) and frequently through sexual intercourse, which occasionally included radical antinomian behavior. The inward vitality of the sacred life force is realized most powerfully in sexual union, because there nonduality is experienced in full psychophysical perfection.

The philosophical justification for these developments was derived from adaptations of Yogacara and Madhyamika theory: since the objective phenomenal world is fundamentally identical with the spiritual universe of emptiness or is at most an illusory projection of the mind, the conclusion was drawn that all forms are not only devoid of real moral distinctions but, also, may serve as expedient means to an undifferentiated spiritual end: the overcoming of the illusory sense of duality between the phenomenal and spiritual world. For the adept it is not only necessary to say that there is no good or evil; it must be proved in an active way. The traditional morality is violated as behavior formerly regarded as reprehensible is found to speed the realization of nonduality.

Many Tantric sects practiced these rites only symbolically and in certain cases — most notably in the Sahajayana (“innate vehicle”) school — produced works of great ethical exaltation. The Mantrayana (“true-word vehicle”) school, which became influential in China and Japan, remained a rational paragon of restrained magico-religious esotericism. The social origins and class stratification of Tantric Buddhism are almost impossible to determine. Tantric Hinduism, also, was in vogue during this period, and its popularity suggests that a wide-ranging democracy of magical esotericism had broken through stereotyped pressures resulting from the development of state-controlled orthodox institutions during the Gupta era. In the sixth and seventh centuries there were sporadic persecutions of Buddhism, which may have promoted esoteric withdrawal.

Radicalization of Mahayana Buddhism

Pardue wrote Within the immensely rich theistic literature of Mahayana there are several important sutras which became the basis of the most popular cults and schools in China and Japan. [Source: Peter A. Pardue, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

The Lotus of the Good Law purports to reveal the ultimate teaching of the Buddha Śakyamuni, the transcendent father of all worlds, whose love bridges all finite limitations. The devotee is saved by faith in this sutra itself. There is a suggestion of sectarian exclusiveness in the dogma that this sutra alone embodies the ekayana (“one vehicle”) — the only efficacious means of salvation, which thus exhausts all other doctrines.

More radical are the Land of Bliss sutras. Here Amitabha Buddha presides over a heavenly paradise — the “pure land” — available to the faithful through the power of his grace. Eschatological and sectarian motifs appear, stressing the utter uselessness of all techniques of self-salvation in a world of utter degeneracy and emphasizing the need to rely absolutely on Amitabha.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Robert Eno, Indiana University; Asia for Educators, Columbia University, National Palace Museum, Taipei Library of Congress; New China National Tourist Office (CNTO); Xinhua; China.org; East Asia History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu , “Topics in Japanese Cultural History” by Gregory Smits, Penn State University figal-sensei.org; Asia Society Museum; “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World's Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); BBC, Wikipedia, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024