Mahayana: great vehicle, northern school of Buddhism

(See also: Mahayana, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

mahayana:

great vehicle, northern school of buddhism

(See also: mahayana, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Mahayana-Sutra (Sanskrit) [from Mahayana great vehicle + sutra textbook]

Writings which treat of the Buddhist teachings as they were promulgated originally by Nagarjuna.

(See also: Mahayana-Sutra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mahayana (Pal.). A school; lit., "the great vehicle". A mystical system founded by Nagarjuna. Its books were written in the second century B.C.

(See also: Mahayana, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Mahayana (Sanskrit) [from maha great + yana vehicle]

Great vehicle; a highly mystical system of Northern Buddhist philosophy and learning, in the main founded by Nagarjuna. Of the two schools of Buddhism, usually classed under the Mahayana and Hinayana or Theravada respectively, the Mahayana is usually called the esoteric and the Hinayana the exoteric. But due to human weakness, love of the eye doctrine, and misunderstanding of the rites and ceremonials enjoined, the exoteric teaching of the Mahayana in its popular aspects is stressed today; while its deeper, more mystical teaching has to a large extent been withdrawn into the charge of initiated adepts.

The Hinayana school is the oldest, while the Mahayana is of a later period, having originated after the death of Buddha. Yet the tenets of the latter are ancient indeed, and both schools in reality teach the same doctrine. The Mahayana system exists in different schools varying among themselves to a greater or less degree as regards interpretation of fundamental tenets which all these subordinate schools nevertheless accept.

(See also: Mahayana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mahayana

"Great Vehicle", Northern Buddhism of Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan stressing the Bodhisattva ideal

(See also: Mahayana, Body Mind and Soul)

Mahayana Sraddhotpada Sastra (Sanskrit) {FSO 45-6}

(See also: Mahayana Sraddhotpada Sastra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, The

(Jpn.: Daijo-kishin-ron; Chin.: Ta-ch'eng-ch'i-hsin-lun)

Abbreviated as Awakening of Faith. A work traditionally attributed to Ashvaghosha, a Mahayana scholar who lived from the first through the second century, though opinions on this differ. There are two Chinese translations of this work, the first done in 550 by Paramartha, who had gone from India to China, and the second around 700 by Shikshananda, a monk from Khotan in Central Asia. Paramartha's version has been the more popular. Awakening of Faith sets forth the fundamental doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism and attempts to awaken people to faith in it. It specifically takes up the concept of tathata, literally thusness or suchness, meaning the true aspect of reality. It was widely studied in China and Japan, and in China several commentaries on it were written.

(See also: Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Mahayana, Greater Vehicle Buddhism

A later, “heterodox” version of Buddhism which incorporates many Paleopagan deities from throughout Asia as Buddhas or Saints.

(See also: Mahayana, Greater Vehicle Buddhism, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Mahayana

Lit., great vehicle; the dominant Buddhist tradition of East Asia.

Special characteristics of Mahayana are

1. Emphasis on bodhisattva ideal,
2. The accession of the Buddha to a superhuman status,
3. The development of extensive philosophical inquiry to counter Brahmanical and other scholarly argument,
4. The development of elaborate devotional practice.

 (See also: Mahayana, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Mahayana: "Large raft" school of Buddhism which sees religion as a group effort, emphasizes the role of the Bodhisattva, sees nirvana as the same state as the ordinary realm of life and death, and describes ultimate reality as emptiness, suchness and Buddha-nature.

 (See also: Mahayana, Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Mahayana: The Greater Raft/Vehicle. One of the four main branches of Buddhism, emphasizing salvation for the regular people. The Mahayana school uses the vernacular language to convey its teachings. It was founded some time after Asoka, from his example of spreading Buddhism. It is practiced in China and Japan.

 (See also: Mahayana, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Prajna-paramita (Sanskrit) [from prajna wisdom + paramita transcendental virtue]

the wisdom transcendental virtue; one of the principal mystical works of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, supposedly written in the 2nd century BC. With the Saddharma-Pundarika (also written in Sanskrit), among the most important Mahayana works.

(See also: Prajna-paramita, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Awakening of Faith

(Jpn.: Kishin-ron)

See: Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, The

(See also: Awakening of Faith, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Hinayana (Sanskrit). The " Smaller Vehicle"; a Scripture and a School of the Northern Buddhists, opposed to the Mahayana, "the Greater Vehicle", in Tibet. Both schools are mystical. (See "Mahayana".) Also in exoteric superstition the lowest form of transmigration.

(See also: Hinayana, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Bodhisattva:

Bodhisattva ("enlightenment being"): in Mahayana Buddhist yoga, the individual who, motivated by compassion (karuna), is committed to achieving enlightenment for the sake of all other beings

(See also: Bodhisattva, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Prasanga-madhyamika (Sanskrit) "A Buddhist school of philosophy in Tibet. It follows, like the Yogacharya system, the Mahayana or 'Great Vehicle' of precepts; but, having been founded far later than the Yogacharya, it is not half so rigid and severe. It is a semi-exoteric and very popular system among the literati and laymen" (TG 260).

(See also: Prasanga-madhyamika, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Heart Doctrine In Mahayana Buddhism, the hidden or esoteric teachings as opposed to the eye doctrine, the public or exoteric teachings. In theosophy, the heart doctrine is considered to contain the more profound and compassionate teachings which go beyond the literal interpretation of the publicly given doctrines.

(See also: Heart Doctrine, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Heart Doctrine In Mahayana Buddhism, the hidden or esoteric teachings as opposed to the eye doctrine, the public or exoteric teachings. In theosophy, the heart doctrine is considered to contain the more profound and compassionate teachings which go beyond the literal interpretation of the publicly given doctrines.

(See also: Heart, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hinayana (hiinayaana): "Inferior Vehicle," originally a pejorative term - coined by a group who called themselves followers of the Mahayana, the "Great Vehicle" - to denote the path of practice of those who adhered only to the earliest discourses as the word of the Buddha.

Hinayanists refused to recognize the later discourses, composed by the Mahayanists, that claimed to contain teachings that the Buddha felt were too deep for his first generation of disciples, and which he thus secretly entrusted to underground serpents. The Theravada school of today is a descendent of the Hinayana.

 (See also: Hinayana, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)