IV.

Doctrine

Mahayana goes beyond the core doctrine contained in the Theravada Tipitaka in several important respects. It accepts as canonical other sutras not in the Tipitaka; this literature is known as the Buddhavacana (Revelation of the Buddha). The most notable Buddhavacana texts are the Saddharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus of the Good Law Sutra, or Lotus Sutra), the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra (Garland Sutra), and the Lankavatara Sutra (The Buddha's Descent to Sri Lanka Sutra), as well as a collection known as the Prajñaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom). The Lotus Sutra helps to explain the Mahayana view of Buddhist revelation through its rendition of one of the Buddha's sermons. In a parable, the Buddha shows how he grants provisional revelations appropriate to the limited faculties of particular beings, until finally they are ready to receive his full revelation. The sutra recounts how 5000 listeners depart in arrogance before the parable is preached, thus projecting the cause of schisms in the community of the faithful back to the days of the Buddha.

Mahayana attitudes toward Buddhist teachings are in part a consequence of the Mahayana view of the Buddha. Whereas Theravadins regarded the Buddha as a supremely enlightened man, most Mahayana thought treats him as a manifestation of a divine being. This view was formalized as the doctrine of the threefold nature, or triple body (trikaya), of the Buddha. The Buddha's three bodies are known as the body of essence (dharmakaya), the sum of the spiritual qualities that make him Buddha; the body of communal bliss, or enjoyment body (sambhoga-kaya), a godlike form revealed to the Mahayana initiate during contemplation; and the body of transformation (nirmana-kaya), a mortal body that appears in the transient world of death and rebirth to lead sentient beings (beings that possess senses) to enlightenment. The body of communal bliss appears in various manifestations, notably that of the five cosmic Buddhas, the eternal Buddhas that comprise and sustain the cosmos: Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha (or Amida), and Amoghasiddhi. The body of essence is seen as the universal ground of being, revealed for many Mahayana believers in the Lotus Sutra; other sects regard it as present within oneself and accessible through meditation. The historical Buddha is believed to be one transformation body emanated by the body of essence. Consequently, his teachings can be supplemented or superseded by further revelations.

Mahayana posits an infinite number of Buddhas, or transformation bodies and enjoyment bodies of the essential Buddha, appearing in innumerable worlds to help sentient beings reach enlightenment. These Buddhas are paralleled by bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who, through compassion, delay their final passage to the transcendent state of nirvana in order to labor on behalf of universal salvation. A bodhisattva can transfer his supreme merit to others, and is thus regarded in Mahayana as superior to the arhat, the ideal Theravadin who has achieved enlightenment but can do little else for other beings. A Mahayana worshiper can aspire to become a bodhisattva, rising through ten stages of perfection, and approaching ever closer to Buddha's body of essence, until finally bodhisattva and essential Buddha are one. Certain bodhisattvas are themselves worshiped as virtual deities. These include Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin in China, where he came to be regarded as the female protector of women, children, and sailors), the personification of compassion, and Maitreya (the only bodhisattva also recognized by Theravadins), the future Buddha who waits in the Tsuhita Heaven to be reborn and lead all beings to enlightenment. Even the Buddha Amitabha, creator of the Pure Land who leads mortals to his paradise, began as a monk who became a bodhisattva.

Another important Mahayana doctrine is the emptiness (sunyata) of all things. In the formulation of Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, the familiar world of experience is the product of thought forms imposed on the Absolute, which is entirely unconditioned (not subject to limitations of any kind). These thought forms are the categories that reason creates in its attempt to apprehend the nature of reality. Since all phenomena in the world of experience depend upon these constructs of reason, they are purely relative and therefore ultimately unreal. The Absolute, on the other hand, is empty in the sense that it is totally devoid of artificial conceptual distinctions. This teaching was variously interpreted, with the Vijñanavada school maintaining that nothing exists outside the mind. The teaching's most influential version holds that there is an eternal, mutually sustaining dialectic between the Absolute and relative reality: although phenomena are false and void in absolute terms, they are true and real in relative terms. The Mahayana goal was to transcend these opposites in ultimate enlightenment. This doctrine made Zen and other schools turn from the practice of renunciation and withdrawal to embrace the world in the belief that nirvana could be found within the transience (samsara) of ordinary life.

Within the Buddhist tradition, Mahayana has produced important innovations in three principal areas. The first area concerns the spiritual goal of Buddhism. The ideal of the arhat (taught by the historical Buddha to his immediate disciples) was replaced in Mahayana by the bodhisattva ideal, regarded as superior and open to all followers. Every person who professes Mahayana Buddhism can take the bodhisattva vow, which expresses the aspiration to attain enlightenment just as the Buddha did and to help all beings on their way to nirvana. The bodhisattva path can be undertaken in either a monastic or a secular context, depending on individual circumstances.

The second area of Mahayana innovation concerns the interpretation of the Buddha's nature. In addition to producing a systematic doctrine of the various Buddha bodies, Mahayana practitioners have accepted the existence of countless Buddhas who preside over countless universes. These divine beings are far different from the single supremely gifted yet mortal human sage whom Theravada Buddhists revere as the sole originator of their faith.

The third area of Mahayana innovation covers doctrine and philosophy. Early Buddhists rejected the existence of any permanent self or soul (atman) and taught the no-soul (anatman) theory. However, they also accepted the reality of the elements (dharmas) of existence. A famous example of this duality is the early Buddhist parable of the cart: the components of a cart exist, but the cart itself, being a mere concept, does not exist. Similarly, the components or aggregates of living beings exist, but the single permanent entity (atman) postulated as uniting them does not. The Mahayana sutras and their interpreters rejected this realistic and limited interpretation. They reaffirmed the nonexistence of the soul, but also denied the existence of the components. They argued that since there is no permanent foundation beneath or within all things, the things themselves do not and indeed cannot exist. This doctrinal position is encapsulated in Madhyamika school's doctrine of sunyata, discussed earlier. The concept of emptiness in its basic scope means that all things and their characteristics are deprived (empty) of reality and individual existence. In its mystic dimensions, emptiness is seen as a meditational process through which one purges one's mind. The Vijñanavada school of Mahayana also accepted this notion, but for the purposes of spiritual practices taught that the mind alone exists and that the whole external world is an illusion projected by the mind. The dispelling of that illusion through meditation was presented as the path to enlightenment. In order to retain the basic assumption of Buddhism, the Vijñanavada school taught that after a full realization of the nature of all things, the mind dissolves in emptiness.

A final important Mahayana teaching, never embodied in a formal school but nonetheless permeating all layers of the Mahayana approach, concerns the Buddha nature (tathagata-garbha) of all living beings and their capacity to become Buddhas. Although certain isolated texts taught that some living beings are barred from deliverance, Mahayana Buddhism maintains that any sentient thing can gain Buddhahood—that gods, humans, and animals alike have the seeds of Buddha nature within them.