From Theravada to Mahayana
The “Tradition of the Elders” & the “Greater Vehicle”
 
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]

 
Self Power & Other Power
 

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.”

…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]
 

The Principles
& Practices of Zen
AV 294.3927 P93f dvd
 
 
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.]
 
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), 342-3.]
 

“To the Land of Bliss”
Oesterle Library: AV 294.3 T55q dvd