Mahayana

Collapse of Mauryan Empire: 186 B.C.E.

For the next two centuries, Buddhism remained active in northeastern India, central India, and further north in Indus, Afghanistan, and other regions of Central Asia.

By the beginning of the C.E., the Satavahan dynasty had established political control: kings supported Brahmanism, women of the court patronized Buddhism.

Northwestern India: 3rd/2nd ct. B.C.E. -- Greek political/cultural influences (from the time of Alexander) remained strong. Also, invasions from Central Asia -- succeeded in establishing the Kusana dynasty, "which ruled most of northwestern India and much of Central Asia from the first to the third centuries" C.E.

Greatest of Kasana rulers: Kaniska (78-120 C.E.) A Buddhist convert -- helped extend Buddhism into Central Asia to the Far East; also called the Fourth Council, which attempted to reconcile traditional Hinayana with newer Mahayana traditions.

Mahayana: retains from Hinayana:

much of the later accounts of the Buddha's historical life;

the vinaya tradition of monastic discipline.

What is new:

Hinayana faith in Buddha vs. emphasis on self-effort

sunyata (emptiness) --

the dharmas of the Hinayanists,

and therefore all reality, are

empty or lacking in self-nature

monks, nuns, and laity should

follow the path of the

bodhisattva.

These new ideas appear in Mahayana sutras which purport to be "the Buddha's own teaching that he had given to his most advanced disciples.

Dispute over where these new sutras emerged from. In any case, examples:

Prajnaparamita (perfection of wisdom)

Vimalakirti

Sadharmapundarika (Lotus)

Sukhavati (Pure Land)

Buddhology and the Pantheon

Early Mahayanist took over the late Hinayan teaching concerning the two bodies of the Buddha (dharmakaya and rupakaya or physical body). Later Yogacara (Practice of Yoga) expanded the number of Buddha bodies to three:

(trikaya -- three-body -- doctrine)

Buddha primarily associated with his dharmakaya - ineffable and indescribable, and often identified with those sutras in which this teaching was set down.

sambhogakaya -- enjoyment body, associated with specially adorned stupas and images: a kind of intermediate, almost divine body through which the Buddha became visible to the Mahayana faithful.

nirmanakaya -- magical appearance body; identified with his epiphany as a historic human being.

"This tendency to emphasize the transhistorical character of the Buddha was also reflected in the way in which the Mahayanists interpreted his various achievements and powers. Whereas the Hinayanists correlated the Buddha's highest meditational achievement with his attainment of nirvana, the Mahayanists focused on his special powers. They believed these powers had established a field of merit that transcended the laws of karmic retribution and remained available to those who recognized and took advantage of it. The Mahayanists thus moved beyond the traditional Hinayana gospel that placed primary emphasis on self-effort. In its stead they proclaimed a gospel in which the powers of the Buddha, the recognition of those powers, and the various forms of self-effort all served as interrelated components of the path that leads to release."

Emergence of a pantheon of celestial Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

[Hinayana: "Except for Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future, who was said to reside in the Tusita heaven, the Hinayana Buddhas were identified with the Buddhas of the past."] By contrast, the Mahayanists "recognized a plethora of celestial Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddha lands."

Groupings and individual figures assumed special doctrinal and salvational roles:

celestial Sakyamuni -- the celestial Buddha whose historical manifestation was the Gautama Buddha

Buddhas of the five and ten directions

Maitreya, Amitabha (the Buddha of the Western Paradise), and Avalokitesvara (the bodhisattva who personified the virtue of compassion) eventually became independent objects of Mahayan piety and practice.