From its source in India, the Mahayana version of Buddhism spread to China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and throughout Asia. Also known as the Northern School, it was considered more liberal and innovative than the traditional Southern School (Theravada). Mahayanists also call themselves the Northern School or “Bodhisattva-yana” (yana = vehicle). The bodhisattva replaced the arhat as the Mahayana ideal. It is with the Mahayana school that the theory of the Three Bodies (tri-kaya) enters into the salvation process and assumes central significance in the doctrine.
1) The phenomenal body (nirmana-kaya) is a manifestation of the Buddha among creatures to teach them the path to liberation -- a body that for some schools is nothing but an illusory appearance of eternal reality.
2) The enjoyment or bliss body (sambhoga-kaya) is the body to which contemplation can ascend. At the higher stages of supramundane contemplation that body manifests to the bodhisattva its splendor and reveals doctrines unintelligible to those who are unenlightened.
3) The unmanifested body of the Truth or Law (dharma-kaya) already appears in the Lotus Sutra, a transitional text that became central in many Mahayana devotional schools (such as Nichiren). In many Mahayana texts buddhas are infinite, and all partake of an identical nature -- the dharma-kaya. As anticipated in ancient schools, the Buddha is the Law (Dharma). "He who sees the law sees me; he who sees me sees the law."
There is identification of the Buddha with an eternal Dharma, with enlightenment (bodhi), and hence with nirvan. Later, real existence will be opposed to the mere appearance of existence. And voidness -- the "thingness of things," an undefinable condition, present and immutable within the buddhas -- will be stressed.
All is in the dharma-kaya. Nothing is outside of it, just as nothing is outside of space. Transcendence and immanence come together. Other schools posit a presence that is innate within all human beings, even if it is not perceived. It is like a gem hidden in dross, which shines in its purity as soon as the veil of mud (ignorance) is removed. In this aspect, the Buddha in Mahayana is taught to be intrinsically trans-human and even absolute. [All of these are Vedantic, Brahminical Hindu ideas reasserting themselves in Buddhist guise].
Since a Mahayana Buddhist can appeal for help to a god-like figure, who is a glorious redeemer, he can hope for salvation through his faith and devotion [just as Bhakti yoga points to salvation through devotion to Brahman, godhead, the "thingness behind things" or the ultimate reality].
For the average human being, this is not as hard as living up to the Theravada ideal [which is what the historical Buddha taught and which leads to arhatship]. In this sense, Mahayana has more appeal to ordinary people.
In reality, Mahayana and Theravada monastics joyfully coexist, particularly in the US.
New revelations
New revelations are made not only to human beings on Earth but also in the heavenly paradises by Shakyamuni and other buddhas. The Teaching (Dharma) is expounded uninterruptedly in the universe because worlds and paradises are infinite and all buddhas are consubstantiated with the essential body.
The assemblies to which they speak consist not only of disciples but also bodhisattvas, gods (brahmas and devas), and demons (asuras and yakkhas). The authors of the new doctrines were captivated by exaltations which often make their discourses logically implausible: phantasmagoria of celestial choruses, fabulous visions which shine with flashes of new speculations, and trains of thought under the influence, more or less conscious, of speculative and mystical Indian [i.e., Hindu] traditions.
The texts, from which new trends spring, overflow with repetitions and modulate the same arguments with a variety of readings. The task of Mahayana thinkers was very difficult because it was not easy to produce a completely logical arrangement from this prolix literature. The appearance of some of these books is surrounded by legend. The Prajñaparamita ("Perfection of Wisdom") and the Avatamsaka ("Flower Garland") sutras, for instance, are said to have been concealed by the nagas, [reptilian] demigods living at the bottom of lakes and rivers, in miraculous palaces.
There are various Prajñaparamita texts, ranging from 100,000 verses (Shatasahasrika) to only a few lines (the Prajñaparamitahrdaya, famous in English as the "Heart Sutra"). The Prajñaparamita sutras announce that
- the world as it appears to us does not exist
- reality is the indefinable "thingness of things" (tathata, dharmanam dharmata)
- voidness (shunyata) is an absolute "without signs or characteristics" (animitta)
The fundamental assumption of the Prajñaparamita is expounded in a famous verse: "like light, a mirage, a lamp, an illusion, a drop of water, a dream, a lightning flash -- thus must all compounded things be considered."
Not only is there no "self," but all things lack a real nature (svabhava) or identity of their own. There are two truths -- relative truth, which "applies to things as they appear," and absolute truth, the intuition of voidness (which can be of 10, 14, 18, or 20 kinds).
The Mahayana Schools and their Texts
Mahayana comprises the following main schools:
- The Madhyamika
- The Yogahara or Vijñanavada (Vijñaptamatrata)
- The Avatamsaka, the school of the identity (or oneness) of the paths to salvation (eka-yana) represented by the Saddharmapundarika ("Lotus of the Sublime Dharma")
- The various devotional (Pure Land) schools
- The Dhyana school (Ch'an in China, Zen in Japan)
References: 1) Encyclopedia Britannica 1991-1994 2) Wikipedia 3) Buddhism and Asian History: The Encyclopedia of Religion
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