Mahāyāna
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| Key Term | Mahāyāna |
|---|---|
| Hover Popup Choices | Mahāyāna |
| Featured People | Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Śāntideva |
| In Tibetan Script | ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | theg pa chen po |
| Devanagari Sanskrit Script | महायान |
| Romanized Sanskrit | mahāyāna |
| Tibetan Phonetic Rendering | thekpa chenpo |
| Chinese Script | 大乘 |
| Chinese Pinyin | dasheng |
| English Standard | Great Vehicle |
| Richard Barron's English Term | greater approach |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | great vehicle |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. |
| Has the Sense of | It is known as the Great Vehicle in comparison to the earlier schools of Buddhism which aimed only to reach individual liberation. Thus, this system claims to be superior to the early Buddhist schools in terms of the philosophical understanding of reality and the moral scope of rescuing all sentient beings. |
| Related Topic Pages | https://www.bhutan.virginia.edu/subjects/8260/text-node/49751/nojs |
| Definitions | |