1 / 6

Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana probably emerged in between the first century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., but we may find that it’s roots go back to approximately 300 B.C.E. The two main schools of thought in Mahayana are the Madhyamaka and the Yogacara schools.

jeromer
Download Presentation

Mahayana Buddhism

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Mahayana Buddhism Mahayana probably emerged in between the first century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., but we may find that it’s roots go back to approximately 300 B.C.E. The two main schools of thought in Mahayana are the Madhyamaka and the Yogacara schools

  2. What are the causes of Mahayana? • 1. Rigidity of Theravada • 2. Hindu gods influence • 3. The influence of Hindu bhakti – devotion • 4. The seeds of Mahayana were in Theravada anyway • 5. Others?

  3. What are the causes of Mahayana? • 1. The Indian mind was developing and a ‘cultural spread’ was needed. • 2. There was pressure from Christianity and the Greek Orthodox Church. • 3. No religion can be neatly bound up and Buddhism is no exception. (Buddhism is more of a Western word anyway – Sasana means ‘The Buddha’s way) • 4. The arrival of Mahayana is not a bad thing but we have to ask how it arose. Many Lay Buddhists were setting a better example than the Monks, therefore, they needed a suitable Buddhism for them. Mahayana claims to be a Buddhism for the Lay people

  4. What are the causes of Mahayana? • 5. Externally, the Greek influence into North West India was important enough for Buddhists to write about the Buddhist Monk, Nagasena meeting with the Greek King Milinda. • 6. There was a great deal of cultural interchange. Some Mahayanins said to worship the Buddha as Christians worship Christ. • 7. Mahayana believes in lots of parallel universes all with a Buddha and Bodhisattvas within numerous numbers of heavens. • 8. As Buddhism began to flower about 0 B.C.E. scriptures were written down………so…… • Was Mahayana an esoteric doctrine of the Buddha or a collection of deplorable heresies by which the pure teaching of the Buddha was all too soon defiled?

  5. What are the causes of Mahayana? • Mahasanghikas (383 B.C.E. ) took a liberal break away from traditional Buddhism and taught of the Buddha as a supramundane, transcendental body. • Was it the ‘Buddhist religion for all’? • Many tend to see Theravada as pure and Mahayana as syncretistic – is this correct? • Should we see Theravada as ‘the head’ and Mahayana as ‘the heart’?

  6. What makes Mahayana distinctive from Hinayana (Theravada)? • 1. The writings or ‘sutras’ that were written about 500 years after the Buddha are not part of Theravada scriptures • 2. The ideal for a Buddhist now becomes the Bodhisattva and not the Arhat • 3. There is an equal emphasis on compassion (karuna) and wisdom (prajna) • 4. Faith in the Bodhisattvas or Buddha is now possible to help a person towards Nirvana • 5. In Mahayana Buddhism there is an emphasis on ‘skill in means’ or upaya • 6. The fully worked out views of Madhyamaka and Yogacara go further than Theravada in their philosophical treatment of reality and the Buddha nature

More Related