Mahayana Buddhism Term Paper

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Mahayana Buddhism was one of the earliest schools of Buddhism to develop after the death of the Buddha, along with Theravada Buddhism. One of the leaders in this new movement was Nagarjuna, who lived between the first and second centuries and who founded what is known as the Madhyamaka philosophy, or the philosophy of the Middle Way. The Mahayana was divided into two schools as well, and the Madhyamaka was one of these philosophical traditions. Nagarjuna was a monk who was likely associated with one of the four ordination lineages of the Mahsurpghika, Theravada, Sarvastivada, or Sammatiya, though which was his is not known. His philosophical tradition was a way of viewing the world and "would have crossed the boundaries of the various ordination lineages of the Sangha" (Gethin, 238). Some have seen the doctrines of Nagarjuna as subverting the original teachings of the Buddha, but this is not so. Instead, the Madhyamaka attempts to analyze the concept of dharma and to show that a dharma can have no independent existence of its own, and he did this by introducing the concept of Sunyata, or emptiness.

Nagarjuna stated that a dharma "certainly cannot be defined as that which possesses its own inherent existence" (Gethin, 242). In so dong, Nagarjuna was following Buddhist principles, finding that "such ultimate divisions of analysis are always arbitrary and cannot be taken as referring to ultimate realities in themselves" (Gethin, 242). Nagarjuna is therefore not denying the value of the Abhidharma vision of the world, only finding that it is conventional and "taught for the purpose of the abandoning of greed, hatred, and delusion" (Gethin, 242).

For the Mahayana Buddhist, the ideal is that of the Boddhisattva, or Being of Enlightenment, an individual who defers his own final deliverance from the world in order to save other people.

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This differs from those with the self-centered desire for personal salvation and instead leads to the idea of the salvation of every living thing. This ideal is seen in the Buddha himself. The Boddhisattva concept implies that merit can be transferred from one person to another, though this is opposed to the old conception of karma. In the Middle Way, there is a vision of the entire world as a grand system where all specific entities are inter-related, and where also it is possible to be aware of being on one's ultimate nature not divided from the Undivided. This is what was described in the First Sermon. The First Sermon discusses avoiding the two extremes and states that he who manages thus has won the Truth and that the Buddha has gained the Middle Path which gives vision, knowledge, calm, insight, enlightenment, and Nibbana.

In Nagarjuna's teachings, the idea of emptiness as he describes it follows the Buddha's teachings concerning finding a Middle Way between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism, which is one reason why dharmas cannot….....

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