What is "Mahayana Buddhism"?

　
    Buddhism is divided into Mahayana and Hinayana in our world now, but we should pay attention to it: The Buddha once said in the Lotus Sutra that there is only one kind of Buddhism, that is, "One Buddha Vehicle." To divide Buddhism into Mahayana and Hinayana is an expedient way of distinction for Buddhism according to the different capacities of sentient beings.
　
    As for why it is called Mahayana (Large Vehicle) and Hinayana (Small Vehicle)? The source is from "the Parables Chapter of the Lotus Sutra". The Buddha compared himself to a wealthy elder, compared the three Realms that sentient beings live to a house on fire, and compared the Sravaka Vehicle, the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, and the Bodhisattva Vehicle to the goat Vehicles, deer Vehicle, and ox Vehicle —— the reward gifts that the elder promised to give in order to persuade his children to leave the burning house; in other words: the so-called "Vehicle" is the cart, the Large Vehicle is the big cart, and the Small Vehicle is the small cart. This analogy has been inheritedly used until now.
　
    In fact, the point is not where the name of Mahayana Buddhism comes from, but the content of Mahayana Buddhism; Mahayana Buddhism refers to the way of both self-interest and others-interest (altruism) in Buddhism. In other words, In Buddhism, “the bodhisattva way of helping both oneself and others to practice and be enlightened to the truth” is called Mahayana Buddhism. But why should the practice of bodhisattva need to help others to practice? There are two reasons: One is that when the Bodhisattva is practicing, he sees the suffering of sentient beings and develops compassion for sentient beings, therefore he vows to make sentient beings realize the truth, free from suffering and enjoy happiness; secondly, the Buddha once said that vowing to make sentient beings be enlightened to the Truth, free from suffering and enjoy happiness is the necessary process of becoming a Buddha.
　
    And then, what is Mahayana Buddhism practicing? To put it simply, it is "cutting off the attachment to all methods." There is another way of saying that is to "personally prove that all things (including methods) do not really exist." We call this state "non-self of Dharma". Such a description may seem simple, but it is more difficult to practice and prove the state than flying in the sky. Why say so? Because the time and space in which we live is constructed on the basis of "methods (logic)", sentient beings believe that the existence of "methods" is absolutely true and are accustomed to it; if we want to break this custom, we must follow the doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism step by step, and practice upward to high level, and then we can achieve "non-self of Dharma". What is the doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism? In a nutshell, there are the following types:
　
‧Emptiness
　
The essence of everything does not appear as it appears on the outside; it does not have a real existence.
　
‧Hidden Buddahood
　
All things (including good and evil) are Reality (Buddha nature).
　
‧ Middle Way
　
Everything in the universe exists in a dualistic manner and contradicts each other. Only by observing everything with “Middle Way” can we avoid the error of biasing to either side.
　
‧ Mind-only
　
Everything is the manifestation of the mind, and the mind is undescribable and unreachable.

　
    Mahayana Buddhism is mainly based on these theories, but if we want to fully achieve the Buddhist path, we must abandon greed; and abandoning greed is the main content of Hinayana Buddhism. Therefore, people who practice Mahayana should not look down Hinayana practitioners, because we must practice both Mahayana and Hinayana if we want to become a Buddha, and they are different only because the order of practices are different.
　

 

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