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Mahāyāna

Also known as The Great Vehicle, Great Vehicle, Mahayana, Mahayana Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhism

thumb|260px|An illustration in a manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra from [[Nalanda, depicting the bodhisattva Maitreya, an important figure in Mahāyāna]]

AI overview

Mahāyāna is one of the major branches of Buddhism that developed later than early Buddhist traditions and emphasizes the role of bodhisattvas—enlightened beings who delay their own final liberation to help others achieve salvation. It matters as a major form of Buddhism that has shaped religious practice across East Asia and introduced different approaches to achieving enlightenment compared to earlier Buddhist schools.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 4,198 inbound references to Mahāyāna, and connects out to Vajrayana, Korean Buddhism and Samatha-vipassanā.

It is catalogued under topics including Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophical concepts and Culture of India.

Vinony links it to 100 Wikipedia language editions.

Wikidata facts

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Stack Exchange tag: buddhism.stackexchange.com/tags/mahayana
Commons category: Mahayana
P8248: Douglas Adams
member count: 263

Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~87 min read

Encyclopedic overview

44 sections

Contents

Etymology
Original Sanskrit
Chinese translation
History
Origin
Early Mahāyāna
Growth
Expansion outside of India
Later developments
Worldview
The Buddhas
The Bodhisattvas
The Bodhisattva Path
Bodhisattva levels
Skillful means and the One Vehicle
Prajñāpāramitā (Transcendent Knowledge)
Madhyamaka (Centrism)
Vijñānavāda (The Consciousness doctrine)
Buddha-nature
Arguments for authenticity
Claims of superiority
Practice
Devotion, ritual and meritorious practices
The bodhisattva perfections
Meditation
Scripture
Mahāyāna sutras
Other literature
Classifications
Relationship with the early texts
Contemporary forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism
Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Vietnamese
Tibetan
Relationship to the Theravada school
Role of the Bodhisattva
Theravāda and Hīnayāna
See also
Notes
References
Sources
External links

thumb|260px|An illustration in a manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra from [[Nalanda, depicting the bodhisattva Maitreya, an important figure in Mahāyāna]]

Mahayana is the largest branch of Buddhism, followed by Theravada. It is a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices that developed in the Amaravati region of ancient India ( onwards). Mahāyāna accepts the main scriptures and teachings of early Buddhism but also recognizes various doctrines and texts that are not accepted by Theravada Buddhism as original. These include the Mahāyāna sūtras and their emphasis on the bodhisattva path and Prajñāpāramitā. Vajrayana or Mantra traditions are a subset of Mahāyāna which makes use of numerous Tantric methods Vajrayānists consider to help achieve Buddhahood.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mahāyāna” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.