The Rise of the Mahayana Council at Vaisali (383 BC)
Sthaviravada
Mahasamghika
Council at Pataliputta (247 BC)
Vibhajyavada
Sarvastivada
(c. 225 BC)
Theravada
Vatsiputriya
Golulika Ekavyavaharika
Sammatiya
Bhadrayamiya
Kasyapiya
*
Dharmaguptaka
(c. 100 BC)
Vaibheshika Sautrantika*
*Contributed to rise of Mahayana
*
Prajnaptivada
Sammagurika
Bahushrutiya
Dharmottariya
Mahisasaka (c. 125 BC)
(c. 200 BC)
Lokottaravada
(c. 180 BC)
Caitika
Uttarashaila
*
(c. 50 BC)
Aparashaila
The Mahasanghika
The Mahasanghika (great assembly)
Arose as a liberal movement
Provided a vehicle for the lay community
The ‘Three Classes of Disciple:
Sravaka, Pratyeka, Bodhisattva
Great Enlightenment
The goal of Mahayana is the Great
Enlightenment
The enlightenment of all beings
The Way is ‘Bodhichitta’ – the
compassionate wish to serve the
liberation of all beings.
The Mahayana: Three Cycles of Doctrine
1.
The Hinayana – the “Lesser Vehicle” in Mahayana
The doctrine of no individual
self.
conception.
2.
The Madhyamaka – the
external phenomena, no
“Middle Way School.”
3.
self-existence for subject/
object or consciousness.
The Yogacara/Cittamatra –
the “Yoga-praxis”/Mindonly school
The doctrine of no self for
The doctrine of the ultimate
nature of consciousness
The Mahayana Outlook
Philosophy:
The universe is infinitely vast in
space and time
Sunyata and Conditioned Arising
All dharmas are empty
The equation of samsara &
nirvana
The nature of the Buddha
Buddha Nature
Tr i k a y a
Buddhology: Trikaya
In the Mahayana the ‘Buddha’ signifies the
Supreme, Ultimate reality
I t i s u n d e rs t o o d t h a t u l t i m a t e re a l i t y
m a n i f e s t s i n a c c o rd a n c e t o t h e r e a l i s a t i o n
o f t h e Pe r c e i v e r .
This is called the doctrine of ‘trikaya’ or
‘Three bodies’
The ‘Three Bodies’
Dharmakaya – ‘Truth Body’ (ultimate reality underlying
the whole universe realised by the Buddha)
Sambhogakaya – ‘Enjoyment Body’ (The way that reality
appears to the bodhisattva. Manjushri is an example of
sambhogakaya)
Nirmanakaya – ‘Form Body’ (The way ordinary beings
experience ultimate reality – the appearance of sakyamuni
was in the nirmanakaya)
The Six Perfections
The Six Perfections are the practical expression
of selfless compassion - bodhicitta
Generosity
Morality
Patience
Effort
Meditation
Wisdom
•
Develop the compassionate motivation to
liberate all beings.
•
The very opposite of selfish craving.
• Therefore leads to both the happiness of
others as well as happiness for oneself
Conditioned Origination
No particular has own-being (svabhava)
Nothing either ‘is’ or ‘is not’
‘Is’ generates the eternalist view
‘Is not’ generates the nihilist view
Both of these are wrong views
Jivas do not understand the conditioned
nature of existence due to attachment
The Two Truths In Madhyamaka Tradition
Samvrti
The world of linguistic or
verbal expression
(Conventional Truth )
Paramartha
(Ultimate Truth )
The ‘inconceivable’ truth
known by Buddhas and
Arya bodhisattvas in
meditative equipoise
Cittamattra: Mind Only
• Karma and karmic fruition is all in Mind
• Mind/Cognition is real - material
objects not real in themselves
• Buddha-nature as inherently zestful,
creative, loving, wise… but… obscured
by hatred, ignorance and desire
Nagarjuna
Sometimes called the ‘Second Buddha’
Born to a Brahmin family in South or Central
India around 2nd Century C.E.
Joined the Sangha as a child
Introduction of the
Prajnaparamita Sutras
What is Mahāyāna?
•
Re-interpretation of the Buddha’s original teaching that
emerged around the first century BCE in (in Gandhara?) in the
form of texts known as the Prajñāparamitā (‘Perfection of
Wisdom’)
•
Not really a schism as no disagreement over Vinaya
•
Monastics of Śravakāyāna and Mahāyāna orientation practice in
same monasteries
•
Questions often revolved around interpretation
What is Mahāyāna?
•
Greater emphasis on lay practitioners rather than monks and
scholastics.
•
e.g. Vamalikirta Sūtras present the ‘new’ teachings as being
expounded by layman to well educated monks who cannot
comprehend it as they are too attached to their status
•
Reworking of the main spiritual aspiration from the arhat
(individual realiser) to the bodhisattva and Buddhahood
Madhyamaka
Sunyavada vs. Realism of Abhidharma: ‘All Dharmas are Empty’
Language itself is ‘prapanca’ or ‘vikalpa’
If we must speak it is is to say that the real is ‘Tathata’ [suchness, just-so]
‘Silence of the Buddha’ is the key teaching
YES: Conventional Truth vs. Ultimate Truth
NAGARJUNA is a brave De-Constructivist
who reduced all asserted “truths” to ultimate falsity…depending on the “web of assumptions
and conventions”
UP vs. DOWN
INSIDE vs. OUTSIDE
….even vs. Buddhist formulations… SUCH AS NIRVANA vs SAMSARA
All Utterance is falsity; based on conceptual assumptions
Core Mahayana Sutras
1. Prajñā-paramita Sutra
2. Prajñā-paramita Heart Sutra
3. Vajrachedika Prajñā-paramita Sutra
4. 1008 Verse Prajñā-paramita Sutra
...and many others....
Diamond Sutra
•
The bodhisattva ideal as ‘no-self’: no one separate to be awakened
•
Ch.9: “Tell me, Subhuti. Does a Buddha say to himself,' I have obtained
Perfect Awakening
' ?”
"No, lord. There is no such thing as Perfect Awakening to obtain. If a
Perfectly Awakened Buddha were to say to himself, ‘I am awakened’ he
would be admitting there is an individual person, a separate self and
personality, and would therefore not be a Perfectly Awakened Buddha."
Diamond Sutra
•
Ch.17: “One must create this resolved attitude of mind:' I must
help to lead all beings to the shore of awakening, but, after
these beings have become liberated, in truth I know that not
even a single being has been liberated.' Why is this so? If a
disciple cherishes the idea of a self, a person, a living being or a
universal self, then that person is not an authentic disciple.
Why? Because in fact there is no independently existing object
of mind called the highest, most fulfilled, and awakened mind."
“Even the words ‘total Awakening’ are merely words, they are
used merely as a figure of speech.“
•
Therefore reinstatement of the conventional: ‘this worldly
focus’, as there is nowhere else to go.
Heart Sutra
Avalokitesvara, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva,
was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond.
He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps,
and He saw that in their own-being they were empty.
Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form ;
emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness;
whatever is emptiness, that is form,
all dharmas are marked with emptiness;
they are not produced or stopped, not defiled or immaculate,
not deficient or complete.
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind ; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables
or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to :
No mind-consciousness element ; There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance,
and so forth, until we come to : There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay
and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.
There is no cognition, no attainment and no non-attainment.
OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA
Emptiness of Emptiness
•
‘Ruthless deconstruction’ - even the Buddha’s path and
teaching must not be clung to - ‘emptiness of emptiness’
•
Change and dependent origination only takes place
because nothing is fixed or independent; there is no thing
which changes and dependently arises (note derivation of English
word ‘reality’ from ‘res’ = thing)
•
So, there can only be change and dependent arising at the
conventional level because, at the ultimate level, we can
find no thing which changes or is dependently arisen
•
Not only no permanence, but also no impermanence
(because no thing which changes)
Emptiness of Emptiness
•
Radical and challenging proclamation: saying that
ultimately there is no unsatisfactoriness and no
awakening.
•
No person who suffers and who is awakened; everyone is
always awakened and no-one is ever awakened (c.f. Diamond
Sutra.)
•
Positive and (apparently) negative implications:
•
Negative in the motif of ‘emptiness’ (śūnyatā) of things
•
Positive side in the motif of ‘suchness’ (tathatā) of
things: everything already alright the way it is
•
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