Was Gandhāra Art a Product of Mahāyāna Buddhism?

1964 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-119
Author(s):  
Y. Krishan
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Human Form ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
The Buddha

I. The Gandhāra and Mathurā Schools of Art made a revolutionary contribution to the traditions and history of Buddhist art. Early Buddhist art was aniconic. At Bhārhut, Sānchi and Amaravātī before the 1st century a.d., the Buddha was represented only in symbols; a riderless horse, the tree or wheel, stūpa, and the rest indicated the great renunciation, enlightenment, preaching of the doctrine and the nirvāṇa. In Gandhāra and Mathurā art, however, the Buddha was represented in human form, and many sculptures representing bodhisattvas have been found in Gandhāra.

scholarly journals The Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā and the Sky as a Symbol of Mahāyāna Doctrines and Aspirations

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 849
Author(s):  
Jaehee Han
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Comprehensive Introduction ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā is a Mahāyāna dharmaparyāya and is the eighth chapter of the great canonical collection of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Mahāsaṃnipāta. The text is lost in the original Indic, but survives in Chinese and Tibetan translations, with several passages of the Sanskrit version preserved as quotations in later commentaries. It has been regarded as an authoritative canonical source throughout the intellectual history of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but scant scholarly attention has been paid to this important text. Thus, this paper aims to provide a concise yet comprehensive introduction of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā, including its textual history, its basic structure, and its reception in Indian, Tibetan, and East Asian Buddhist traditions. It also examines how the fundamental concepts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, such as emptiness, endlessness, and imperishability, are signified in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā by the image of the sky (Skt. gagana), the central metaphor of the text.

Avalokiteśvara: The Bodhisattva of Compassion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chün-fang Yü
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Buddha

Avalokiteśvara is one of the most famous bodhisattvas in Buddhism. The worship of bodhisattvas (beings of enlightenment) is one of the most distinctive features of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Whereas early or mainstream Buddhism recognizes only two bodhisattvas—the Buddha in his previous lives and Maitreya, the future Buddha—there are a number of bodhisattvas in Mahāyāna to whom one can appeal for help and guidance. Of the many bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara is identified specifically as the embodiment of compassion and as such has been worshipped throughout Buddhist Asia.

The Meanings of the Term Gotra and the Textual History of the Ratnagotravibhāga

1976 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Seyfort Ruegg
Keyword(s):  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
The Individual

The word gotra is frequently used in the literature of Mahāyāna Buddhism to denote categories of persons classified according to their psychological, intellectual, and spiritual types. The chief types usually mentioned in this kind of classification are the Auditors making up the śrāvaka-gotra, the Individual Buddhas making up the pratyehabuddha-gotra, and the Bodhisattvas making up the bodhisattva-gotra. In the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra these three types constitute altogether different gotras, which thus coincide with the three separate Vehicles (yāna) as recognized by the Yogācārin/Vijñaptimātratā, school. To these three some sources add the further category of the undetermined (aniyatagotra), which is made up of persons not yet definitively attached to one of the three preceding classes; and the non-gotra (agotra), that is the category made up of persons who cannot be assigned to any spiritual class. Each of the first three categories is thus comprised of persons capable of achieving a particular kind of maturity and spiritual perfection in accordance with their specific type or class, the Auditor then attaining the Awakening (bodhi) characteristic of the Śrāvaka and so on. Especially remarkable in this connexion, and somewhat anomalous as a gotra, is the non-gotra, i.e. that category of persons who seem to have been considered, at least by certain Yogācārin authorities, as spiritual ‘outcastes’ lacking the capacity for attaining spiritual perfection or Awakening of any kind; since they therefore achieve neither bodhi nor nirvāṇa, they represent the same type as the icchantikas to the extent that the latter also are considered to lack this capacity.

A Brief History of Buddhist Transnational Connections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Lee Ooi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
Rubber Plantations ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Buddhists ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism

This chapter elaborates on the historical connection between Malaya and the larger Buddhist world. Chinese Buddhism’s roots in Malaya started when the immigrant communities that arrived as laborers in tin mining and rubber plantations brought their religious beliefs. Burmese and Sinhalese brought the Theravada traditions that influenced Chinese Buddhists, while the Chinese inherited a loosely defined Mahayana Buddhism mixed with Chinese customs and popular religions. The idea of modern religion was brought by religious leaders of various traditions to revitalize Buddhism.

scholarly journals A Comparative Study of Bhavacakra Painting

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-96
Author(s):  
Deepak Dong Tamang
Keyword(s):  
High Education ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Symbolic Representation ◽  
Wall Painting ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
The Buddha

The Bhavacakra is a symbolic representation of Samsara, a powerful mirror for spiritual aspirants and it is often painted to the left of Tibetan monastery doors. Bhavacakra, ‘wheel of life’ consists of two Sanskrit words ‘Bhava’ and ‘Cakra’. The word bhava means birth, origin, existing etc and cakra means wheel, circle, round, etc. There are some textual materials which suggest that the Bhavacakra painting began during the Buddha lifetime. Bhavacakra is very famous for wall and cloth painting. It is believed to represent the knowledge of release from suffering gained by Gautama Buddha in the course of his meditation. This symbolic representation of Bhavacakra serves as a wonderful summary of what Buddhism is, and also reminds that every action has consequences. It can be also understood by the illiterate persons not needing high education and it shows the path of enlightenment out of suffering in samsara.  Mahayana Buddhism is very popular in Asian countries like northern Nepal, India, Bhutan, China, Korean, Japan and Mongolia. So in these countries every Mahayana monastery there is wall painting and Thānkā painting of Bhavacakra. But in these countries there are various designs of Bhavacakra due to artist, culture and nation.

scholarly journals Peculiarity of the Concept of Liberation in Vietnamese Buddhism

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Sergei Nizhnikov ◽  
Le Phuong
Keyword(s):  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Mahayana Buddhism ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The People ◽  
Vietnamese Buddhism ◽  
Mahāyāna Buddhism ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
The Buddha

One of the most important concepts of Buddhism is the idea of liberation, on the basis of which Buddhist ethical thought was built. Vietnamese monks defined the concept of liberation in their works and strove to put it into practice during a long historical time. Along with taking the "Noble Eightfold Path" of Mahayana Buddhism as the basis, the unique feature of the idea of liberation of Vietnamese Buddhism is that it is simultaneously influenced by both Chinese Buddhism and the ideas of Confucianism and Taoism. The authors analyze the concept of liberation in Vietnamese Buddhism by three main ideas: liberation as a revelation of the Buddha in self-awareness; liberation as self-reflection; release, requiring a positive incarnation in life. Peculiarity of the liberation concept in Vietnamese Buddhism is the spirit of "unconcern" (absence of the fear before samsara), unconditional (independence from writings, dogmas, words), embodiments (harmony with life, making people free from sufferings caused by war and acts of nature), "turn inside" (looking into the heart in searches of liberation) and "a direction outside" (liberation of the people, the country). The Vietnamese Zen-Buddhism asserts, that the way of liberation is an experience of acceptance by each person of absolute truth in the consciousness. The purpose of liberation is the nirvana surpassing all dualistic contradictions. Liberation is the returning to Buddha in the heart. Paying attention to a social origin of suffering, heart of the monk really released only then when people and the country do not suffer any more, do not live in misery. The unique features of the Vietnamese Buddhism in many respects define by synthesizing of three religions values: an idea on renunciation - from Taoism, spiritual practice - from Mahayana Buddhism and spirit of an embodiment through sociopolitical activity - from Confucianism. Whereupon Mahayana Zen-Buddhism keeps the forming role.

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