Week 5: Mahayana thought and practice: the bodhisattva ideal

Question 1

Mahayana Buddhism

Answer 1

• “Greater vehicle” – Sanskrit
• Larger, more liberal, less homogenous tradition
• Arose within Indian Buddhism around the beginning of the common era – by 9th Century the dominant school
• Enlightenment is achievable in everyday life
• Ideal figure: the Bodhisattva -“being for enlightenment”
• Emphasis on compassion esp. universal compassion
• Found in Tibet; Mongolia; Korea; Japan; Vietnam; China

Question 2

Emptiness (Sunyata)

Answer 2

• The doctrine/view/philosophy of emptiness is at the core of Mahayana Buddhism.
• Emptiness becomes the central idea in a collection of Mahayana sutras called The Prajnaparamita (‘the
  perfection of wisdom’).
• emptiness is (perhaps something mystical) beyond language and logic; that the only way to communicate it is to disrupt those things.

Question 3

Metaphysical underpinnings

Answer 3

• Impermanence: all things are impermanent and subject to change
• Non- substantiality (emptiness): no fixed intrinsic essence or substantial qualities –self and reality more like process.
• dependent co-origination: -a stream of creative processes in which nothing persists or endures but is radically inter-dependent.

Question 4

Nagarjuna

Answer 4

In the Lankavatara Sutra, (a Mahayana scripture), the Buddha foretells of Nagarjuna’s life and teachings by announcing that a “Bhikkhu most illustrious and distinguished” by the name Nagahvaya will be born. He will be the “destroyer of the one sided views based on being and non-being” and “he will declare My Vehicle, the unsurpassed Mahayana to the world.”

Question 5

Nagarjuna (150 CE), emptiness and philosophy

Answer 5

• Most influential philosopher in Mahayana Buddhism, and arguably, in Indian Buddhist philosophy.
• His major text – the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way – offers a terse but systematic logical explanation of emptiness
• The logical method is called reductio ad absurdum which means: reduce your opponents to position to logical absurdity/contradiction
• The connection between reason, philosophy and emptiness is very subtle: reason/philosophy cannot simply express the view of emptiness systematically - It can take the mind to a point where that view can be experienced.
• An important distinction to be made between conceptual/philosophical view of emptiness and the actual experience.

Question 6

Emptiness and dependent co-origination

Answer 6

• For something to be empty, it can only exist inter-dependently because of its causes and conditions.
• Emptiness and dependent co-arising are two different ways of apprehending the same reality.
• To see something as empty is to see its lack of independence.
• To see something as dependent co-arising is to see its dependence on causes, conditions and
  imputations.
• The two sides are explained (by Nagarjuna and others) as ‘the two truths/realities.’ Emptiness = ultimate reality, dependent origination = relative reality.

Question 7

Dependent origination & no-self

Answer 7

• No-self doctrine does not simply state that things have no permanent, abiding essence, but also that no thing exists autonomously, in an independent, self-standing way: every thing that exists does so in dependence on causal conditions.

Question 8

The Mahayana motivation

Answer 8

• The selfless desire to achieve the awakened state of a Buddha for the benefit of all sentient beings and
  to keep returning until this goal is achieved.

This aspiration is predicated on two Mahayana philosophical mainstays: the pivotal virtue of compassion and the inter-dependent nature of all phenomena (dependent co-origination).

Question 9

Compassion (karuna)

Answer 9

• Compassion and wisdom/emptiness are often referred to as the two wings of the Mahayana bird.
• The Mahayana form of compassion implies: taking responsibility to liberate others from dukkha. The Sanskrit
  word for this is ‘bodhicitta’ – the mind of awakening.
• Practicing the six perfections (paramitas): giving/generosity, patience, moral restraint, joyus effort, concentration/meditation and wisdom/emptiness.

Question 10

Six perfections (paramitas)

Answer 10

• generosity, giving of oneself (dana)
• virtue, morality, discipline, proper conduct (sila)
• patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (ksanti)
• energy, diligence, vigour, effort, perseverance (virya)
• one-pointed concentration, contemplation (dhyana)
• wisdom, insight (prajna)