Vancouver Buddhist Temple

 Around 500 years after the death of Shakyamuni, Buddha in the 1^st and 2^nd AD, a major revolution in Buddhist thought took place.  The movement arose out of ideas that had been evolving over a long period in a number of sects in Southern and Northwestern India.  The new Buddhist thinkers called their system Mahayana (“great vehicle” or “ferryboat”).

   Mahayana thought developed partly in response to interest shown by Indian lay Buddhists.  Buddhism up to this point had been largely the preserve of monks.  Lay people were excluded from full participation in religious activity, and the monkish arhat (enlightened person) was seen  as a spiritual aristocrat on the path toward attaining a purely personal salvation.  The doctrine of “non-self” was thought to be irrelevant because it was  used for one’s own benefit.  According to Buddhist thought, no one could truly become an arhat with insight and compassion if they had not, burned away the notion of self.  Nonetheless, 500 years of monastic endeavor seemed to have left Buddhist culture somewhat wary, and true arhats were hard to identify.

   Central to the “great vehicle” idealism was a shift of focus from arhat to bodhisattva (enlightenment being).  In earlier Buddhism, bodhisattva denoted a previous incarnation of the Buddha.  The term was taken up by Mahayanists in its literal sense, a person made of or for enlightenment.  Bodhisattvas were those who vowed they would be enlightened.  However, this pursuit for enlightenment was not for themselves alone, but for the salvation of others as well.  The bodhisattva’s vow went even further in that they themselves would refuse entry into Nirvana until they had led all other beings  there .

   The high altruism of such a position had its fruition in the realm of faith and belief.  To achieve their goal, bodhisattvas would suffer rebirth millions of times, over countless aeons.  However, an ordinary mortal could make the Vow, thus making the principle of universal Compassion the focus of Buddhist practice.

  Mahayana Buddhism brought forth a change of emphasis.  Salvation without Nirvana was presented as possible not just for the dharmic elite, but for the masses who were prepared to put their faith in a somewhat defiled Buddha.  In  China during the 3^rd century AD, a Pure Land Buddhist  movement  offering salvation in Amida’s Western Paradise (in Japanese, Saihou Jodo), evolved, partly in reaction to the miserable times, following the collapse of the great Han empire.  A millennium later, the same Buddhist movement took root in Japan, where the Kamakura shoguns wrestled power away from the Kyoto imperialists and initiated a long period of feudalism.
I will continue introducing the beginning of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan at next issue of Bodhi Mind.
Namo Amida Butsu,
Tatsuya Aoki