Mahāyāna

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Key Term	Mahāyāna
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
Basic Meaning	Mahāyāna or Great Vehicle refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era focussing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through realisation of the wisdom of emptiness and cultivation of compassion.
Has the Sense of	It is known as 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 being.
Related Topic Pages	https://www.bhutan.virginia.edu/subjects/8260/text-node/49751/nojs
Definitions

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.