MAHAYANA ("The Great Vehicle"), the name of one of the principal divisions of Buddhism (q.v.). It originated in northern India about the beginning of the Christian era through a gradual synthesis of tendencies al ready manifest in earlier Buddhism, possibly with some admixture of ideas from the West.
In its philosophy the Mahayana goes beyond primitive Buddhism's denial of the real existence of a soul or ego, and maintains the doctrine of the utter unreality of all experience. This is expressed in the formula "everything is void,* which is interpreted by the Madhyamaka, or sceptical, school as meaning that it is impos sible either to affirm or to deny anything con cerning reality, whereas the Vijninavadins, or idealists, declare "the void" to be pure thought, without distinction of subject or object. Both schools admit that the illusion of the phenom enal world is invincible for even the wisest man, and that only the Buddhas are perfectly free from it, so that the practical validity of expe rience is not impaired.
The idea of the Buddha, or "Enlightened One," has received a great extension in the Mahayana, and the human traits of the historic Gautama have been lost in the radiance of di vinity. There are countless Buddhas through otit the worlds, and they manifest themselves through infinite periods of time in the various heavens, as well as by appearing on earth in the guise of human teachers. In their function of enlightening all creatures they are aided by the celestial Bodhisattvas, or Buddhas-to-be, who are more actively beneficent. Among the Buddhas the most worshiped is Amitabha, "He of Boundless Light," the ruler of the Western Paradise called Sukhavati, "Happy Land.* This deity, who is quite unknown in the earlier Buddhism, is presumably of solar origin. The merciful Avalokiteivara and Manjuiri, the fount of wisdom, are especially prominent Bodhisattvas. The belief in female Bodhisat tvas, such as Tara and the Chinese Kwan-yin, is a later development, as is also the notion of a "primordial Buddha," or First Cause. All this luxuriant polytheism is harmonized with the doctrine of "the void" through the belief that a Buddha has three "bodies" or modes of being, the "body of the Law," identical with the void, the "body of bliss," an appearance manifested to the celestial beings, and the "body of fabri cation," the illusory form of an earthly Buddha such as Gautama.
The Mahayanist belief in the powerful and merciful Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is accom panied by a new conception of the religious life.
Instead of the older self-centred system of mo nastic discipline, by which the individual was to obtain final deliverance, Nirvana, at the close of his present existence, the Mahayanists made it their goal to become Buddhas themselves, after practising all the virtues through number less existences, for the sake of the salvation of all beings. Everyone who consecrates himself to this aspiration is a Bodhisattva, or potential Buddha, although he will not attain the rank of a celestial Bodhisattva until toward the last of the 10 stages in his career. Self-sacrifice, rather than self-restraint, is therefore the keynote of the ethics of the Mahayana, and though the in stitution of monasticism is preserved, the dis cipline is relaxed, and laymen also may follow the career of a Bodhisattva. Prayer and con fession of sins to the Buddhas are commanded. and forgiveness is believed to he secured through their superabundant merits.
The broadly human quality of the Mahayana religion involved a certain sacrifice of the dis tinctive features of Buddhism, and its later de velopment, particularly in the form of the Tantra (q.v.) system, shows a gradual approxi mation to the contemporary Hinduism. Hence in India the Mahayana ultimately gave way to the Vedanta philosophy and the popular reli gions of Vishnu and Siva; but it still survives in the countries to the north and east, whither it had been carried by missionary activity. In Tibet and Mongolia it has assumed the form of Lamaism (q.v.), while in China and Japan it shows more of its primitive character, although in the latter country especially it has split into numerous sects, some of which hold a decidedly theistic belief.
The sacred books of the Mahayana are very numerous and are still im perfectly known. Among those accessible in translations are 'The Lotus of the True Law) (trans. by H. Kern in 'Sacred Books to the East,) Vol. XXI, 1884) ; various shorter texts in the same series (Vol. XLIX, part 2, 1894) ; Santideva's 'The Path of Light) (trans. by L. D. Barnett, 1909) ; 'The Awakening of sometimes ascribed to Aivaghosha (trans. by T. Suzuki, 1900). Consult also Poussin, L. de la Vallee, 'Bouddhisme: opinions stir l'histoire de la dogmatique) (1909) ; Suzuki, D. T., 'Out lines of Mahayana Buddhism) (1907).