Mahayana · Skt: mahāyāna

Mahayana is a family of traditions rather than a single school. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy renders the name “Great Way” and describes the tradition as one that “originated in India, but is now the principal form of Buddhism in the Chinese cultural sphere, which includes China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam”. The name is also translated Greater Vehicle, and it was the movement’s own name for itself. How it began is debated: Access to Insight says it grew out of one of the early Indian schools, while Jonathan Silk, in Britannica, says it arose around the beginning of the Common Era and “most likely took shape over time and in multiple places”.

What marks it out is the goal it recommends. Where most Theravada practitioners “aspire to become Saints”, that is arahants, “all serious Mahāyānists take the bodhisattva vow, promising to become Buddhas in order to help all beings”. That path is organised around the six perfections: generosity, moral discipline, patient endurance, perseverance, meditative stability and wisdom. Mature Mahayana traditions also hold that buddhas, even after death, “continue to manifest in various forms and in various parts of cyclic existence in order to carry on the work of benefiting beings”, staying until all beings are free.

The family is wide. Zen is an offshoot of the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana of the Himalayas and Central Asia “can be seen as a branch of the Mahāyāna, since it shares the same spiritual goal”, differing mainly in ritual, iconography and meditation technique. Mahayana texts have judged the arahant path harshly, as seeking nirvana for oneself alone, but the Stanford Encyclopedia cautions: “These criticisms may be unfair; it can be argued that they are directed at a straw man and not at the real Theravāda tradition.” We compare the two in Theravada vs Mahayana.