Introduction to the Mahayana Historically, it is over 2500 years since Siddhartha Gautama’s enlightenment. Since then the spiritual culture that is now known as Buddhism has been reframed and its truths restated many times. Sometimes this was due to changes in the surrounding culture as peoples migrated, trade or agriculture changed, technologies altered and political and military events unfolded. An even more significant factor is the tendency for practitioners to (over time) become too literal in their understanding of ideas and symbols. This trend can also be accompanied by some aspects of method or teaching being over or under-‐ emphasised, and consequently the spiritual culture becoming unbalanced. Being a living tradition, significant individuals would restate and reinvigorate the tradition sometimes in minor ways and sometimes more substantially. The Three Vehicles Although rather crude, the following scheme of the three vehicles (yanas) is a useful overview. Each period of dominance lasted about 500 years. Today there are representatives of all of these phases in the traditional schools around the world. Hīnayāna
Little Vehicle renunciation, wisdom Mahāyāna
Great Vehicle universalism, compassion Vajrayāna
Diamond Thunderbolt Vehicle direct experience, ritual There are dangers with this approach. Any vibrant spiritual culture will have all elements of practice within it. For example the Theravada (the only surviving ‘Hinayana’ school) has examples of compassion, ritual and ‘pointing to direct’ experience woven into it. Each successive restatement tends to, at least in its literature, show the earlier forms of Buddhism in a critical light. For example the Theravadas would not consider themselves part of the ‘Little Vehicle’-‐ a rather condescending term. One could also incorrectly see the later teachings as higher teachings – this is often how they are presented. The first teachings were sufficient to lead beings (sometimes quite quickly) to enlightenment. Also as teachings got restated they sometimes became more complex or abstract which can actually make them less straightforward channels for transmitting the often simple but very subtle truths that the Buddha was drawing our attention towards. The rise of the Mahayana It seems likely that a major factor in the rise of the Mahayana was that some followers put more emphasis on the example of the life of the Buddha and felt that those who only emphasised the doctrinal teachings were missing a large portion of the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha’s kindness, compassion, patience, vigour, fearlessness, heroism and ability to communicate with a wide range of beings were apparent to his followers during his lifetime. Now that many years had passed, the personality of the Enlightened One needed to be communicated explicitly to those who had not met the Buddha or those who had lived with him. There was also the inner experience of practitioners. Visions of figures and localities that exemplified these qualities would be part of the imagination of people who dedicated their lives to the path and these would be passed on becoming formalised as texts or meditation visualisations. Mahayana Literature Early Buddhism had been purely an oral tradition, including Mahayana culture. As time passed on this began to change, contact with highly literate cultures like that of China probably accelerated this. Not only were sayings codified and recorded but even new literary forms began to appear. There were texts on wisdom (The Prajnaparimita Texts) which were often seemingly paradoxical in nature – an example of this you may know is the Heart Sutra. There were also texts that were written on an epic scale, depicting vast universes populated with fabulous beings in which dramas of cosmic significance unfold in rich poetic language. An example of this is the White Lotus Sutra. Key Terms Boddhisattva – this is a being who has dedicated themselves to gaining enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Bodhicitta-‐ the heart of enlightenment, the will to enlightenment. Bodhicitta-utpada – the arising of the Bodhicitta. The eruption of a supra-‐personal will towards enlightenment. Pāramitā-‐ a ‘perfection’ practised by a Bodhisattva, for example the perfection of generosity.