Mahāyāna (Sanskrit: महायान, /ˌməhɑːˈjɑːnə/ Mə-hAH-YAH-nə; lit. 'Great Vehicle') is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies...

The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scripture (sūtra) that are accepted as canonical and as buddhavacana ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism...

confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha that this will be so. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva refers to anyone who has generated bodhicitta,...

virtuous to non-Mahāyāna sutras. The Mahāyāna sūtras are traditionally considered by Mahāyāna Buddhists to be the word of the Buddha. Mahāyāna Buddhists explained...

India indicate that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks could be found in the same monasteries, with the difference that Mahāyāna monks worshipped figures...

Teaching'), and Mahāyāna (lit. 'the Great Vehicle'). The most common classification among scholars is threefold: Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna. In...

Look up Mahayana in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Mahayana canon is the canon of scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana canon may specifically refer...

rebirth as well as the dissolution of the skandhas. In some Mahāyāna scriptures, notably the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, parinirvāṇa is described as the...

enlightenment before Gautama, the five celestial Buddhas worshiped primarily in Mahayana (such as Amitabha), and the bodhisattva Maitreya (known as the Buddha of...

vegetarianism is the practice of vegetarianism by significant portions of Mahayana Buddhist monastics and laypersons as well as some Buddhists of other sects...

terms in Pali but Pali literature makes greater reference to pāramī, while Mahayana texts generally use the Sanskrit pāramitā. Donald S. Lopez Jr. describes...

regarded arhats as imperfect in their attainments compared to buddhas. Mahayana Buddhist teachings urge followers to take up the path of a bodhisattva...

Chinese "Chán"; in Korean: Sŏn, and Vietnamese: Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as the Chan School...

of Mahayana Buddhism which draws on the Chinese Buddhist canon as well as numerous Chinese traditions. Chinese Buddhism focuses on studying Mahayana sutras...

around the first or second century. Hīnayāna was often contrasted with Mahāyāna, which means the "great vehicle". Early Western scholars fell into using...

In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhicitta, ("enlightenment-mind" or "the thought of awakening"), is the mind (citta) that is aimed at awakening (bodhi), with wisdom...

accepted the authority of these Mahāyāna texts. Paramārtha states that the Kukkuṭika sect did not accept the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana ("words of...

session. Since the period of Early Buddhism all Theravada and mainstream Mahayana schools only take refuge in the Three Jewels (also known as the Triple...

anupadhishesa-nirvana, meaning "nirvana without remainder" or final nirvana. In Mahayana these are called "abiding" and "non-abiding nirvana." Nirvana, as the quenching...

Vietnamese: Tịnh độ tông; also known as Amidism) is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism focused on achieving rebirth in a Pure Land. It is one of the...

("impermanence"), dukkha ("dissatisfaction" or "suffering"), and anattā ("non-self"). Mahāyāna texts describe it as the understanding of śūnyatā ("emptiness"). It is...

the subject–object distinction. Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha referred...

movements, schisms, and philosophical schools, among them the Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions, with contrasting periods of expansion and retreat...

The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Sanskrit; traditional Chinese: 大般涅槃經; pinyin: Dàbānnièpán-jīng; Japanese: Daihatsunehan-gyō, Tibetan: mya ngan las...

Suññatā is also often used to refer to a meditative state or experience. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, śūnyatā refers to the tenet that "all things are empty of intrinsic...

rules known as the Pātimokkha (Theravada) or Prātimokṣa (Mahayana and Vajrayana). In the Mahayana monasticism is part of the system of "vows of individual...

tradition as an early source for some ideas that were later adopted by Mahāyāna Buddhism. Some of these ideas include the view that the Buddha was a fully...

bodhisattva who represents prajñā (transcendent wisdom) of the Buddhas in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The name "Mañjuśrī" is a combination of Sanskrit word "mañju"...

compassion). The name Avalokiteśvara first appeared in the Avatamsaka Sutra, a Mahayana scripture that precedes the Lotus Sutra. On account of its popularity in...

two being the Śrāvakayāna (also known pejoratively as the Hīnayāna) and Mahāyāna (a.k.a. Pāramitāyāna). There are several Buddhist tantric traditions that...