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The Mahayana Canon
& the “Bodhisattva” Ideal
Additional Buddhist practices and teachings began to appear in a wide range of scriptures from the early centuries CE.
These further developments in thought and practice beyond the Pali scriptures
gradually evolved into what is called Mahayana, the Great
Vehicle....An early Mahayana scripture, the Lotus Sutra,
defended its innovative ideas by claiming that
earlier teachings were skillful means for those with lower
capacities. The idea is that the Buddha geared his teaching to his
audience, and that his teachings were presented in different ways and at different levels of completeness in accordance with the readiness of his audience to understand them.  Some researchers explain this as a way to give credit to the earlier
teachings while going beyond them. Like other Mahayana texts, the Lotus
Sutra claimed that there was a higher
goal than the arhant’s achievement of liberation, namely, to aspire to become a bodhisattva (a being who is dedicated to liberating others from suffering) and work to achieve the perfect enlightenment of a Buddha. The Lotus
Sutra says
that all beings have the capacity for Buddhahood and are destined to
attain
it eventually. Both monastics and laity are urged to take the bodhisattva vow and work to become fully enlightened....
The concept of the selfless bodhisattva is not
just an ideal for
earthly conduct; numerous celestial bodhisattvas are believed to be
present and available to hear the followers’ petitions.... The most popular bodhisattva in East Asia is Guanyin (Japanese: Kannon),
who symbolizes compassion and extends blessings to all. Although this
being is depicted as male (Avalokiteshvara) in Indian images, the
Lotus Sutra says that Guanyin will take any form that is needed to
help others, and lists thirty-two examples. In East Asia, Guanyin
is typically represented as female.... [LR, 154-6]
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Self-Power
The Ch’an/Zen Tradition
The Ch’an/Zen Koan
D.T. Suzuki
What is a koan? A
koan, according to one
authority, means “a public document setting up a standard of
judgment,”
whereby one’s Zen understanding is tested as to its
correctness. A koan is generally some statement made by an old Zen
master, or some
answer of his given to
a questioner. The following are some that are commonly given to
the
uninitiated:
1. A monk asked Tung-shan, “Who is the
Buddha?” “Three chin of flax.”
2. Yun-men was once asked, “When not a thought
is
stirring in one’s mind, is there any error here?” “As much as
Mount
Sumeru.”
 3. Chao-chou answered, “Wu!” (mu in
Japanese) to a monk’s question, “Is there Buddha-nature in a
dog?” Wu literally means “not” or “none”, but when this
is ordinarily
given as a koan, it has no reference to its literal signification; it
is
“Wu” pure and simple.
4. When Ming the monk overtook the fugitive
Hui-neng, he wanted Hui-neng to give up the secret of Zen. Hui-neng replied,
“What are your original features which you have even prior to your
birth?”
5. A monk asked Chao-chou, “What is the meaning
of the First Patriarch’s visit to China?” “The cypress tree in
the front courtyard.”
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…The worst enemy of Zen experience, at least
in the beginning, is the intellect, which consists and insists in
discriminating subject from object. The discriminating intellect,
therefore, must be
cut short if Zen consciousness is to unfold itself, and the koan is
constructed eminently to serve this end. [ALR, 125-6] |
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Then the Blessed One spoke to the Venerable Sariputra:
“Sariputra, over
a
hundred thousand billion Buddha fields to the west of here, there is a
Buddha
field called the world of Sukhavati. And there dwells a
Tathagata,
an altogether enlightened Buddha named Amitayus [Amitabha]....Now what
do
you think, Sariputra, why do they call that world the land of
bliss? Because, Sariputra, in that world, Sukhavati, beings do
not experience suffering,
neither with their body nor with their mind, and the things causing
happiness
are innumerable....
“Sariputra, Sukhavati is adorned and enclosed
by
seven railings, seven rows of palm trees and strings of bells. And
it is beautiful and embellished with four kinds of precious
materials: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal....And,
Sariputra, there are lotus pools there made of seven precious
materials: gold, silver, lapis lazuli,
crystal, red pearls, diamonds, and coral. They are filled with
water
endowed with eight good qualities...and they are strewn with sand of
gold. And going down into those lotus pools, from all four sides, are four
flights
of steps, beautiful, and embellished with four precious
materials,...and
all around the lotus pools jewel-trees are growing, beautiful, and
embellished
with seven precious materials....And in those lotus pools, lotuses are
growing: various kinds of red ones, and various kinds of white ones, beautiful,
beautifully
colored, beautifully resplendent, beautiful to look at, and as big
around
as the wheel of a cart.... [John S. Strong, The Experience of
Buddhism:
Sources and Interpretations, Second Edition (Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth,
2002), 189-90.]
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Amitabha’s 48 Vows
11. I shall not attain supreme enlightenment if any sentient being in
my
land would not certainly achieve supreme enlightenment and realize
great
nirvana.
18. When I realize supreme enlightenment, there
will
be sentient beings in other Buddha-lands who, after hearing my name,
dedicate
their good roots to birth in my land in thought after thought. Even
if they have only ten such thoughts, they will be born in my land...
19. When I become a Buddha, I shall appear with an
assembly
of monks at the deathbeds of sentient beings of other Buddha-lands who
have
brought forth bodhicitta, who think of my land with a pure mind, and
who
dedicate their good roots to birth in the Land of Utmost Bliss. I
shall
not attain supreme enlightenment if I would fail to do so.
20. When I become a Buddha, all the sentient  beings
in countless Buddha-lands, who, having heard my name and dedicated
their
good roots to birth in the Land of Utmost Bliss, will be born
there.
Otherwise, I shall not attain supreme enlightenment. [C. C. Chang, A
Treasury
of Mahayana Sutras (University Park and London: The Pennsylvania
State
University Press, 1983), pp. 342-3.]
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“To the Land of Bliss”
Oesterle
Library: AV 294.3 T55q dvd
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