Mahāyāna Buddhism

"The Great Vehicle" — compassion widened to the liberation of all beings.

c. 100 CE → · East Asia · Dharmic

Mahāyāna reoriented Buddhism around the bodhisattva, who vows to defer final liberation to help all beings awaken, and around the teaching that all things are empty of fixed essence. Spreading through China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, it flowered into schools such as Zen (Chan) and Pure Land, and became the seedbed for the later Vajrayana.

Key figures

• Bodhisattvas (Avalokiteśvara)
• Celestial Buddhas

Texts

• Mahayana sutras (Lotus, Heart)

Beliefs

• The bodhisattva vow to save all beings
• Emptiness (śūnyatā) of all things
• Buddha-nature latent in everyone

Rituals

• Devotion to bodhisattvas
• Chanting and meditation
• Pure Land and Zen practices

Grew from

• Buddhism

Connections in the atlas

• Bayon, Angkor Thom: equinox sunset
• Nāgārjuna
• Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage
• Faxian's journey to India
• The Gandhāran Buddhist scrolls
• Preta (hungry ghost)
• Hỏa Lò Prison
• ▶ One symbol, many meanings: the swastika
• Wheel of dharma
• The Koreans
• Retreat and monastic withdrawal (ritual)
• Pure Land Buddhism