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
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	Mahayana. 'Greater vehicle.' When using the term 'greater and lesser vehicles,' Mahayana and Hinayana, Mahayana includes the tantric vehicles while Hinayana is comprised of the teachings for shravakas and pratyekabuddhas. The connotation of 'greater' or 'lesser' refers to the scope of aspiration, the methods applied and the depth of insight. Central to Mahayana practice is the bodhisattva vow to liberate all sentient beings through means and knowledge, compassion and insight into emptiness. Mahayana's two divisions are known as Mind Only and Middle Way. The sevenfold greatness of Mahayana mentioned in Maitreya's Ornament of the Sutras are explained by Jamgön Kongtrül in his All-encompassing Knowledge: "The greatness of focus on the immense collection of Mahayana teachings, the greatness of the means of accomplishing the welfare of both self and others, the greatness of wisdom that realizes the twofold egolessness, the greatness of diligent endeavor for three incalculable aeons, the greatness of skillful means such as not abandoning samsaric existence and enacting the seven unvirtuous actions of body and speech without disturbing emotions, the greatness of true accomplishment of the ten strengths, the fourfold fearlessness, and the unique qualities of the awakened ones, and the greatness of activity that is spontaneous and unceasing." Mahayana, the Greater Vehicle, [Mahayana]; greater approach/ Mahayana; [Mahayana] supreme, comprehensive approach, universal / great vehicle
Tshig mdzod Chen mo	བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཐེག་པ་སྟེ།་ཐེག་དམན་ཉན་རང་ལས་ཆེན་པོ་བདུན་གྱིས་འཕགས་པས་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱའོ།།
Wikipedia	wikipedia:Mahayana
Other Definitions	84000 Glossary Definition The same as the Bodhisattva Vehicle, whose practitioners aim at complete buddhahood. When the Buddhist teachings are classified according to their power to lead beings to an enlightened state, a distinction is made between the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, which emphasizes the individual's own freedom from cyclic existence as the primary motivation and goal, and those of the Great Vehicle, which emphasizes altruism and has the liberation of all sentient beings as the principal objective. As the term “Great Vehicle” implies, the path followed by bodhisattvas is analogous to a large carriage which can transport a vast number of people to liberation, as compared to a smaller vehicle for the individual practitioner. The “Great Vehicle” of Buddhism, called “great” because it carries all living beings to enlightenment of Buddhahood. It is distinguished from the Hinayāna, including the Śrāvāka­yāna (Śrāvaka Vehicle) and Pratyeka­buddha­yāna (Solitary Sage Vehicle), which only carries each person who rides on it to their own personal liberation. Great Vehicle. Literally the Sanskrit means “great way,” but in Buddhism this has developed the meaning of great vehicle, and so is translated literally into Tibetan as “great carrier.”

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.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind.

A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.

The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.