The rise of the Mahayana
New scriptures such as the Perfection of Wisdom and the Lotus Sutra call Buddhists to the "Great Vehicle", the path of the bodhisattva who seeks awakening for the sake of all beings.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- The Foundations of Buddhism — Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press (1998)
- The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism — Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press (2014)
Some four centuries after the Buddha, new scriptures began to circulate in India claiming to be his teaching. The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñaparamita) sutras taught that all things, even the elements of the Buddha’s own analysis, are “empty” (shunya) of fixed, independent existence. The Lotus Sutra taught that the Buddha’s earlier teachings were “skilful means” for people at different levels, that all beings can become Buddhas, and that the Buddha is not really gone but eternally present.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
The bodhisattva
The heart of the movement was a new ideal. Earlier Buddhism honoured the arahant, who reaches nirvana by following the Buddha’s teaching. Mahayana texts urged followers to aim higher: to take the vow of a bodhisattva, an “awakening being”, and become a fully enlightened Buddha in order to free all beings, however many lifetimes it takes. Compassion (karuna) and wisdom (prajña) became the two wings of the path.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- The Foundations of Buddhism — Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press (1998)
The movement called itself the Mahayana, the “Great Vehicle”, and sometimes called older paths the Hinayana, the “lesser vehicle”, a label Theravada Buddhists find insulting and scholars avoid.
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
Buddhas everywhere
Mahayana imagined a universe filled with Buddhas in other “Buddha-fields”. Amitabha (Amida) presides over the Pure Land of Sukhavati, where believers hope to be reborn; Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, hears the cries of the world; Manjushri embodies wisdom; Maitreya will be the next Buddha. Devotion to these figures gave lay believers a warm, accessible faith alongside the monastic path.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism — Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press (2014)
The philosophers
Around the second century CE, the monk Nagarjuna systematised the teaching of emptiness in his Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, founding the Madhyamaka school. Later, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu developed Yogacara, which analysed how the mind constructs experience. These schools became the intellectual foundations of Chinese, Japanese and especially Tibetan Buddhism.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
History
Scholars no longer see Mahayana as a sudden schism. It grew slowly within existing monasteries, and the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang in the seventh century still found Mahayana and non-Mahayana monks living together. From around the seventh century, a further development, tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism, added ritual, mantras and guru devotion; it would flourish above all in Tibet.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (rev. ed.) — John Powers, Snow Lion (2007)
- The Buddhist Conquest of China — Erik Zürcher, Brill (1959)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
The Mahayana sutras are the Buddha's own word, taught to those ready to hear them or preserved in other realms until the time was right. The earlier teachings are a valid but limited "lesser vehicle"; the bodhisattva path, aiming at full Buddhahood for all, is the Buddha's deepest intention.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
The Pali canon preserves the Buddha's teaching most faithfully, and the later Mahayana sutras are not his word. Theravada also honours the bodhisattva path, but sees the arahant, the fully liberated disciple, as a complete goal. Many Theravadins dislike the label "Hinayana" ("lesser vehicle"), which modern scholars also avoid.
- Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo — Richard Gombrich, Routledge (1988)
- The Foundations of Buddhism — Rupert Gethin, Oxford University Press (1998)
Mahayana was not a single breakaway sect but a gradual movement within existing monasteries, and for centuries Mahayana and non-Mahayana monks lived side by side under the same rules. Its texts were composed from roughly the first century BCE onward.
- Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed.) — Paul Williams, Routledge (2009)
- An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd ed.) — Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press (2013)
Why it matters today
Most Buddhists in the world today, in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Tibet and Mongolia, follow Mahayana traditions. The bodhisattva of compassion, Guanyin or Kannon, is perhaps the most loved figure in East Asian religion, and the Heart Sutra is chanted daily in temples from Kyoto to Lhasa.