Mahayana Buddhism

Mahāyāna is written in Sanskrit: यायान which literally means Great vehicle, is one of the three main branches of Buddhism. Some of the areas practiced are China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. The Mahāyāna developed the esoteric Vajrayāna which claims to combine all previous schools.

ORIGINS:

Scholars believe that mahāyāna, as a separate movement, began around the 1st century AD. In the south of India.

The development of Mahāyāna was a slow and gradual process. Mahāyāna was not a rival school, and therefore was not the consequence of a schism (sanghabheda). Monks Mahāyāna could live without discord in the same monastery with monks of other schools, as long as they maintained the same code, although it is believed that non-Mahayana monks could have taken with some mockery the private beliefs and practices of their Mahayana brothers.

The idea of ​​a radical schism or rupture, with dramatic religious changes, simply does not accord with what we now know about Buddhist religious development, not in texts but in actual practice (Williams, 1989).

DIFFERENTIATION:

Although the Theravāda strictly adheres to the teachings most clearly attributed to the historical Buddha, the Mahayana recognizes in the Buddha's teaching more a method than a doctrine; A method similar to the scientific method, in the sense that it investigates to discover the truth, without prejudice and with total freedom to criticize or question the teachings or theories of the past. In other words, what the Mahayana teaches can be verified in a manner essentially identical to how the validity of scientific theories is confirmed. This has recently led to a mutual interest on the part of prominent Buddhist teachers and renowned scientists who have gathered in a series of meetings that have explored the relationship between Buddhism and science.

SCRIPTURES:

The Mahāyāna departs from the Nikaya tradition (sometimes known as the Theravāda school) in its acceptance of the Mahāyāna sutras. The Mahāyāna schools, however, do not reject the Nikaya sutras, such as those recorded in the Canon Pali; These are also seen as authoritative.

The Mahāyāna scriptures were written down in the first century of the Common Era. Some of them, such as the sutras of Perfection of Wisdom and the Lotus Sutra, are presented as actual sermons of the Buddha that would have been hidden. According to some sources, these sermons were passed by oral tradition like other sutras, but other sources affirm that they were hidden and later revealed several centuries later by a mythological way. In addition to sutras, some Mahāyāna texts are essentially comments.