MAHAYANA • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Mahayana

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/mˌɑhəjˈɑnə/ Listen

Mahayana

noun

A major school of Buddhism teaching social concern and universal salvation; China; Japan; Tibet; Nepal; Korea; Mongolia.

One of two great schools of Buddhist doctrine emphasizing a common search for universal salvation especially through faith alone; the dominant religion of China and Tibet and Japan. Synonym: Mahayana Buddhism.

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Etymology of 'Mahayana'

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"Mahayana" Quotes from Famous Books

... Taoism—and based on a concept of two classes of people: the monks who could achieve salvation and, secondly, the masses who fed the monks but could not achieve salvation. This religion did not gain a footing in China; only traces of it can be found in some Buddhistic sects in China. Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, developed into a true popular religion of salvation. It did not interfere with the indigenous deities and did not discountenance life in human society; it did not recommend Nirvana at once, but placed before it a here-after with all ...

— A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] • Wolfram Eberhard

... in the history of Buddhism is that which follows the reign of Asoka, but the enquirer cannot grope for long in these dark ages without stumbling upon the word Mahayana. This is the name given to a movement which in its various phases may be regarded as a philosophical school, a sect and a church, and though it is not always easy to define its relationship to other schools and sects it certainly became a prominent ...

— Hinduism And Buddhism, Volume II. (of 3) - An Historical Sketch • Charles Eliot

... divergent currents; the one impersonal, preaching the abnegation of self through discipline, and the other personal, preaching the cultivation of sympathy for all creatures, and devotion to the infinite truth of love; the other, which is called the Mahayana, had its origin in the positive element contained in Buddha's teachings, which is immeasurable love. It could never, by any logic, find its reality in the emptiness of the truthless abyss. And the object of Buddha's meditation and his teachings was to free humanity from sufferings. ...

— Creative Unity • Rabindranath Tagore

Words linked to "Mahayana" : Mahayana Buddhism, Buddhism, Yogacara, Mahayanist