RELG 253 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Svabhava, Upaya, Impermanence

• School: McGill University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELG 253
• Professor: G Hori

Document Summary

Mah y na buddhism is the second layer of. Buddhism; takes concepts from earlier buddhism (ther vada) and takes them to the extreme. 1st century bce, spreads to china, korea, japan. Indian buddhism comes to china and is transformed by chinese culture: rise of buddhist schools that did not exist in india: Re-conceptualizaion of the buddha igure himself: bodhisattva. Dedicates whole life to save other people and bring them to salvaion. Millions of rebirths; the bodhisatva career is billions of years long. Eventually gets close to buddhahood, such that one more rebirth will bring him to become a buddhist perfecion: arhat: a bodhisatva having reached buddha perfecion. The mah y na criicism of the arhat: elements of selishness: the arhat tries to get awakening/enlightenment for himself, new meaning to the bodhisatva: tries to get awakening/enlightenment for the sake of all senient beings; symbol of alterity. Vow to save all senient beings before he himself achieve buddhahood;