The development of Mahayana Buddhism

Overview

Recall questions on the emergence of Mahayana, upaya, the bodhisattva, bodhicitta and the six paramitas, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Maitreya, the parables of the burning house, the magic city and the hidden gem, the trikaya, and the bodhisattva compared with the arhat.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is Mahayana Buddhism, and when and where did it emerge?

   Model answer

   Mahayana means the great vehicle, and it is the broad movement within Buddhism that produced new sutras, the bodhisattva ideal and an expanded understanding of buddhahood. It appears in India from roughly the first century before the common era, developing over several centuries, and later became dominant in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Tibet. It did not begin as a formal split: for a long time Mahayana and non-Mahayana monks lived under the same monastic discipline in the same monasteries.

2. 2

   What reasons are suggested for the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism?

   Model answer

   Several, and they are not mutually exclusive. Dissatisfaction with the arhat as a goal that seemed individualistic; the appearance of new sutra literature claiming to record teachings the Buddha gave to those ready for them; the growth of devotion around stupas and relics, which encouraged thinking of the Buddha as still accessible; the interests of lay supporters who wanted a path open to them; and groups of forest meditators reporting visionary encounters with buddhas. Scholars disagree about which mattered most, and Buddhists differ over whether the movement is a development or a departure.

3. 3

   Why do Buddhists regard the label used by early Mahayana writers for other schools as problematic?

   Model answer

   Early Mahayana texts contrasted the great vehicle with a lesser one, and that second term is polemical. It was a rhetorical device used in argument, not a name any school chose for itself, and it lumps together many early schools of which Theravada is the one that survives. Modern usage generally avoids it and speaks of Theravada, of the early schools, or of non-Mahayana Buddhism, since Theravada Buddhists reasonably object to being defined by an opponent's insult.

4. 4

   What is upaya, and why does it matter?

   Model answer

   Upaya means skilful means: the principle that a teaching is a tool adapted to the capacity of the hearer rather than a final statement of truth. Mahayana Buddhists use it to explain why the Buddha taught differently to different audiences, and why teachings that appear to conflict can all be genuine. It shifts the test of a teaching from whether it is literally exact to whether it actually helps a being towards awakening.

5. 5

   How does upaya allow Mahayana Buddhists to accept the earlier teachings while going beyond them?

   Model answer

   They argue the Buddha adapted his message to what his first hearers could take. On this reading the earlier goal of individual liberation was a genuine but provisional teaching, given to people who would have been daunted by the full picture, while the bodhisattva path and the one vehicle represent the complete teaching disclosed later. Nothing earlier has to be called false, only preliminary. Theravada Buddhists object that this conveniently allows later texts to override earlier ones and to claim the Buddha's authority for teachings he is not recorded as giving.

6. 6

   What is a bodhisattva?

   Model answer

   In early Buddhism the term meant a being on the way to buddhahood, used above all of Siddhartha before his awakening and in his previous lives. Mahayana Buddhists make it the ideal for everyone: someone who resolves to become a fully awakened buddha in order to liberate all beings, rather than seeking only their own release. The path is described as taking innumerable lifetimes, and advanced bodhisattvas are regarded as figures of enormous compassion and power who can be appealed to for help.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.