Mahayana Buddhism - An Introduction
As an introduction toMahayana
Buddhism, the main distinguishing characteristic is the concept
of the Buddha bodhisattva, or one who combines compassion with wisdom.
In Mahayan Buddhism, rather than attaining individual enlightenment, the
bodhisattva vows to forgo the joy of nirvana until all beings have become
enlightened. In the Mahayana tradition, the concept of Buddha developed
into the idea that there is an eternal Buddha who embodies the absolute
Truth. True reality is held to be knowledge experienced before the perception
of duality, a pre-differentiated state of sunyata, or "emptiness,"
which underlies the fundamental nature of all reality. In Mahayana Buddhism,
achieving this awareness of nonduality is enlightenment, and each person
has the capacity to realize this true nature within himself or herself.
Thus each individual has the Buddha nature within, and the goal is to
reawaken this for the benefit of all mankind.
The principal difference between Mahayana and Theravada
Buddhism is that here it is believed that everyone possesses the Buddha
nature and is capable of becoming an enlightened one. This tradition is
likened to a broad river that accommodates all manner of craft, and the
religion has spread far and wide due to its willingness to assimilate
cultural elements that were new and foreign to it.
The Madhyamika school, founded by Nagarjuna in the second century A.D.,
contends that what is produced by causes does not in and of itself exist.
Moreover, their belief is that nothing comes into being, and nothing disappears,
nothing is eternal and nothing has an end, and nothing is identical or
differentiated. It is believed that with these precepts, no attachment
to thoughts can be created, and the inner awareness is freed. The best
source from which to learn of Nagarjuna's thought is the Madhyamikakarika
or "Stanzas on the Middle Path."
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