Mahayana study deck Flashcards
What does Mahayana mean?
The great vehicle
What is a boddhisatva?
a being who is to become Awakened” and follows the path to full Buddhahood rather than aiming for personal Nirvana
Key difference between Theravada and Mahayana?
Mahayana focus on the enlightenment of all sentient beings rather than personal nirvana
What does the Boddhisatva path entail cultivating_____
Perfections- Paramitas
Why is the Mahayana path considered elite?
because “a Buddha, rather than an arhat, is the person who can be of most help to people who are suffering and in need of liberation.”
What is the two key fundamental teachings of Mahayana buddhism?
Emptiness (Sunyata) and Higher Wisdom (Prajnaparamita)
What is the key teaching on Emptiness?
- “All the ‘factors of existence’ (dharmas)… are ‘empty’ (śūnya) of existing independently, or ‘on their own.’”
- This means that nothing has “own-being” (svabhava-śūnya)—all things arise dependently and lack intrinsic existence.
- “The things one sees as so separate from oneself and other beings have ‘not arisen’ in such an independent manner.”
- This insight leads to liberation: “With wisdom insight into suchness, into the empty nature of all beings, there is a liberating effect on the person of wisdom
What are the three wheel bodies?
Buddha
Bodhisattva
Vidya Rajas
What are the four key innovations of Mahayana Buddhism?
- The Boddhisatva Path
- Emptiness
- Luminous consciousness
- Celestial Buddhas
How do Mahayanas see consciousness?
As luminous and pure but stained by defilements- all beings have the potential for buddhahood
How do they view the nature of buddha and buddha realms
- The cosmos is filled with “countless Buddhas residing in Buddha realms”, such as Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land (Sukhavati).
- “In following the Bodhisattva Path, one can be reborn in one of these realms, where one can progress toward Buddhahood under the guidance and with the blessings of the Buddha of that realm.”
- Buddhas and celestial bodhisattvas develop special “skillful means” (upāya) to appear in many world systems to help sentient beings.
What is the mahayana teaching on wisdom
Wisdom brings one to the realization that the things of the world are not independent; they lack their seeming inherent existence.”
What does storehouse consciousness suggest?
It suggests that all beings have the potential for buddhahood, they just have to experience a reversion of the mind whereby illusion is disolved and awakening happens
What does the lotus sutra teach?
That buddhas use upaya (skillfull means) in order to teach the dharma.
What are the three bodies? Trikaya
- Manifestation bodies: the meat bodies, the human beings, and when one follows the dharma teachings and becomes enlightened, they generate merit and produce a reward body
- Reward body: the body generated by merit, they manifested a spiritual body in another realm
- The dharma body: everything is the dharma body, reality itself is the dharma body, the dharma body is the teachings themselves and it lives on forever.
