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Mahayana Buddhism - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Avalokiteshvara
        
        Name means 'the Lord who looks down'
        
        Usually pictured as female, with thousands of arms ready to help everyone at once
        
        Said to be at the tenth stage of the bodhisattva's career and has unlimited amounts of merit to share, and supernatural abilities to work miracles
        
        Tibetan Buddhists believe he works through the Dalai Lama, who is his earthly instrument
        
        In the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha claims Avalokiteshvara will help anyone in trouble, specifying sailors in trouble on the sea and disasters like flood and storms
        
        Avalokiteshvara is seen as a perfect illustration of Mahayana Buddhism because he shows how people of all types are catered for in the religion - he is a saviour figure, a being that can be love and worshipped
        
        In one sense Avalokiteshvara is a teaching device or form of upaya which can attract and increase faith
      - Amitabha
        
        Primary buddha of Pure Land Buddhism
        
        Represents longevity, discernment, pure perception, purification of aggregates and deep awareness of emptiness
        
        He possesses infinite merit resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakara
        
        The buddha of comprehensive love
    - - Theravada and Mahayana offer different paths to liberation
        
        Those in the Theravada tradition follow the eightfold path to liberation - becoming nirvana'd and an arhat, an individual goal, rather than aiming to become a bodhisattva for the benefit of all beings
        
        For Theravadins, bodhisattvas are few and rare (eg Maitreya), whereas for Mahayanists, the goal of becoming a bodhisattva is open to all as all have the tathagatagarbha
        
        Bodhisattvas are different from arhats due to the two key virtues - karuna (compassion) and wisdom (prajna)
        
        The bodhisattva's career differs from that of an arhat - arising of the bodhicitta, public vow and six paramitas
        
        Mahayanists instead follow the ten stage path and aim for Buddhahood
        
        Theravadins do not accept ekayana (one vehicle) or Mahayana further teachings
        
        The Theravada tradition rejects the Sambhogakaya form of the Buddha
      - Theravada and Mahayana do not offer different paths to liberation
        
        Both paths focus on sila (morality), prajna (wisdom) and samadhi (meditation)
        
        Both paths' first six stages to enlightenment are the same - Mahayana believe in the principle of ekayana (parable of the burning house)
        
        Theravada teachings are a teaching device or form of upaya - the teachings are preliminary, the Buddha did not believe people were ready for the full message of the bodhisattva path
        
        Conze - lotus flower analogy - the Buddha realised people were like lotus flowers, some were still stuck in the mud of samsara, but others had broken free
        
        Becoming an arhat is a stage on the bodhisattva path (stage six)
        
        Atisa - individual motivations behind religious practice are more important than individual schools
        
        Only one goal in Buddhism - "All of you shall become Buddhas"
        
        Parable of the phantom city - nirvana of an arhat is only a resting place on the path to full Buddhahood as all beings have tathagatagarbha
        
        Shakyamuni Buddha: "The Tathagata demonstrates one vehicle, the great vehicle"
        
        Keown - "None of the Buddha's early teachings are rejected by the Mahayana, although they are sometimes reinterpreted in radical ways"
  - - - Parable of the burning house
        
        A father's house is burning down, he calls out to his sons for them to escape, but they ignore him. He decides to offer his sons a variety of carts if they leave the house, convincing them to escape. Once they have escaped, the father does not give them a variety of carts, but only the best type of cart for all of them
        
        The parable explains the Buddha's skilful means as a teaching device and reason for not initially explaining the Bodhisattva path
        
        The Buddha's teachings are at different levels for different sorts of people, but all will get to the same goal in the end
        
        "There is only one vehicle, the great vehicle"
      - Bodhisattva concept
        
        Beings are called not to be arhats but to be Buddhas
        
        Lotus Sutra: "The way in which you walk is the bodhisattva way. By gradually practising and learning all of you will become Buddhas"
        
        Mahayanists believe the Buddha previously taught the goal of Buddhists to become an arhat who achieves nirvana, who becomes independently enlightened but does not go on to teach (pratyekabuddha)
        
        Mahayanists believe the Buddha's teaching about the path leading to nirvana was given as a preliminary teaching to encourage people to begin on the spiritual path who were not ready for the final teaching
        
        Lotus Sutra: "This is really only a skilful device by which the Buddha wishes to prepare them for the day when he can awake them to the cognition of the Buddha"
        
        All are called to be Buddhas
        
        One image is that of the Buddha as a rain cloud, which rains upon all plants equally, whether large or small - similarly the Dharma is preached to all, according to their capacity
        
        Lotus Sutra: "When I rain down the rain of the Dharma, then all this world is well-refreshed, each one according to their power to take to heart"
      - Revealing upaya
        
        Lotus Sutra: "It is many hundreds of thousands of myriads of aeons ago that I have awoken to full enlightenment, "Even today my lifespan has not ended"
        
        The birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha was just a teaching device - the Buddha is still present and continues to work for liberation of all beings
        
        If the Buddha did not go through the motions of birth, enlightenment and nirvana, beings would not have realised the urgency of beginning on the spiritual path
        
        The Japanese tradition understand this very long life of the Buddha to mean eternity, whilst Paul Williams aligns with the Tibetan understanding and argues there is 'an enormously long but still finite length to the Buddha's life'
      - Parable of the phantom city
        
        A group of people are led by a guide to a place where they are told they will find treasure. The group become weary and the guide tells them there is a city where they can rest not far away. They enter the city, but once they feel better, the city vanishes. The guide explains he created the magic city to satisfy their needs, and now it has fulfilled its purpose, he has made it disappear
        
        The guide is the Buddha and the group of people are his disciples, the phantom city is the resting place of nirvana, while the treasure is the true buddha-nature which they must go further to find
      - Parable of the hidden gem
        
        A poor man visits a rich friend, gets drunk and passes out. The rich man gives the poor man a priceless gem, which he sews into his friend's clothes. The poor man continues his life as a beggar, unaware of the treasure he has received. Later, he meets the rich man again, who shows him where the gem is concealed, and the poor man realises his wealth
        
        The rich man is the Buddha, the poor man is a living being (sattva) drunk with passions, and the jewel is the truth about the Buddha nature
        
        The story explains how the truth is hidden and only when the Buddha shows us the truth do we understand