The Mahayana
is more of an umbrella body for a great variety of schools,
from the Tantra school (the secret teaching of Yoga) well
represented in Tibet and Nepal to the Pure Land sect, whose
essential teaching is that salvation can be attained only
through absolute trust in the saving power of Amitabha, longing
to be reborn in his paradise through his grace, which are
found in China, Korea and Japan. Ch'an and Zen Buddhism, of
China and Japan, are meditation schools.
It is
generally accepted, that what we know today as the Mahayana
arose from the Mahasanghikas sect who were the earliest seceders,
and the forerunners of the Mahayana. They took up the cause
of their new sect with zeal and enthusiasm and in a few decades
grew remarkably in power and popularity. They adapted the
existing monastic rules and thus revolutionised the Buddhist
Order of Monks. Moreover, they made alterations in the arrangements
and interpretation of the Sutra (Discourses) and the Vinaya
(Rules) texts. And they rejected certain portions of the canon,
which had been accepted in the First Council.
According
to it, the Buddhas are lokottara (supramundane) and
are connected only externally with the worldly life. This
conception of the Buddha contributed much to the growth of
the Mahayana philosophy. The ideal of the Mahayana school
is that of the Bodhisattva, a person who delays his or her
own enlightenment in order to compassionately assist all other
beings and ultimately attains to the highest Bodhi.
Mahayana Lineages Imported from India
Chinese
Buddhism
•
Madhyamika (San Lun, Ch.) Based on the Chinese translation
of Nagarjuna's (second century) Madhyamika Karika and
two other works of uncertain authorship, this lineage emphasized
the notion of shunyata (emptiness) and wu (nonbeing).
So rigorous was the teaching of this lineage, that it declared
that the elements constituting perceived objects, when examined,
are really no more than mental phenonena and have no true
existence.
•
Yogacara Founded in the third century by Maitreyanatha
and made famous by Asanga and Vasubandhu in the fourth or
fifth century, this school held that the source of all ideas
is vijñana ("consciousness"), which
is seen as the fundamental basis of existence. Ultimate Reality
is therefore only perceived but has not real existence.
Indigenous
Mahayana Lineages
•
T'ien T'ai Named after the mountains on which the founder
Zhi Yi (d. 597 C.E.) resided, this lineage is based on a scheme
of classification intended to integrate and harmonize the
vast array of Buddhist scriptures and doctrines. This scheme
of classification is based on the Buddhist doctrine of upaya
("skilful means"). The most important form of Buddhism
for this lineage is the Mahayana devotionalism found in the
Lotus Sutra.
•
Avatamsaka (Hua Yen, Ch.) This lineage takes its name
from the Avatamsaka Sutra, its central sacred text,
and like the T'ien T'ai school is oriented towards a classification
of sutras. Basic to this lineage is the assertion that all
particulars are merely manifestations of the absolute mind
and are therefore fundamentally the same.
•
Pure Land (Amitabha) Based on the Sukhavati Vyuha
("Pure Land Sutra"), this lineage was founded in
402 C.E. by Hui Yuan. The Pure Land lineage held that the
spiritual quality of the world has been in decline since its
height during the lifetime of the Buddha and taught followers
to cultivate through prayer and devotion a sincere intent
to be reborn in the heavenly paradise of the Buddha Amitabha.
•
Ch'an Its name is derived from the Sanskrit term dhyana
(meditation), this lineage emphasises meditation as the only
means to a spiritual awakening beyond words or thought, dispensing
almost entirely with the teachings and practices of traditional
Buddhism. Ch'an is thought to have been brought to China by
the enigmatic South Indian monk Bodhidharma in about the year
500 C.E.
•
Bodhidharma: the father
of Ch'an and Zen Buddhism
.
