Mahayana Buddhism

Origins

Arising in the Indian Buddhist community in the first century CE as a reform movement, Mahayanaists sought to restore what they considered to be the original purpose of Buddhism—the enlightenment of all people—from an increasingly withdrawn monasticism where practitioners focused primarily on personal salvation through a monastic regimen based on precepts and doctrinal exegesis.

In contrast, these new Buddhists promoted the “bodhisattva ideal.” A bodhisattva is a “Buddha-to-be,” that is, one who renounces complete entry into the realm of nirvana (freedom from suffering) to save others enmeshed in samsara, or cyclical rebirth. For only bodhisattvas who have not abandoned the realm of imperfect living beings can be trusted to respond to their suffering. The bodhisattva path involves the cultivation of the virtues of wisdom and compassion; the former involves an understanding of the self as without “essence,” and the latter represents an active striving for the benefit of others. This attitude is expressed in the vow taken by all Mahayanists, lay and clergy alike, to seek enlightenment for the sake of all beings.

Another important innovation of the Mahayana movement was a new interpretation of the focal concept of “merit.” Whereas in earlier Buddhism, a person could generate merit only for himself or herself alone, Mahayanists argued that merit could be shared and transferred to others, thus expanding the meaning of ritual into an altruistic dimension. Because Mahayanaists valued a versatile approach that opened the way of liberation to many people, its adherents referred to the elitism of the earlier school of Buddhism as “Hinayana,” or the “Lesser Vehicle.” But those who adhered to the Buddha's original teachings considered the label Hinayana offensive. Instead, they referred to their own school as “Theravada,” or “the way of the elders.” They emphasized the liberation of the individual achieved through his or her own efforts.

As the older school began to close its canons, the Mahayanaists were composing a set of texts that would distinguish them from the older scholastic tradition. These works claimed antiquity for Mahayana, stating that the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni) convened a special assembly of bodhisattvas on Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha from which other Buddhists were excluded. Referred to as the “Second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma” (the first being the sermon the Buddha gave in the Deer Park in Sarnath after his awakening), they believed the sutras (canonical texts) produced from this event to have been concealed for several centuries until the world was ready to engage their wisdom.

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