Yana shock | Vividness

Unlike Hinayana Buddhists, who see nirvana as the final goal of practice, Mahayana Buddhists see it as a higher form of delusion still involving the dualities of subject and object, existence and nonexistence.

The vast body of Mahayana doctrine arose not so much to satisfy intellectual curiosity as to deal with the practical psychological problems encountered in following the Buddha’s way. Certainly the treatment of these problems is highly scholastic, and the intellectual level of the Mahayana texts is very lofty. But the consistent aim is to bring abou

Mahayana philosophy proposes a drastic but effective answer which is the theme of a class of literature called Prajna-paramita, or “wisdom for crossing to the other shore,” a literature closely associated with the work of Nagarjuna (c. A.D. 200), who ranks with Shankara as one of the greatest minds of India.

Thus the great concern of the Mahayana is the provision of “skillful means” (upaya) for making nirvana accessible to every type of mentality.

may be attributed to laziness and loss of nerve, but it seems more plausible to suggest that those who remained in the path of self-deliverance were merely unconscious of the paradox involved. For wherever the Mahayana continues to teach the way of liberation by one’s own effort, it does so as an expedient for bringing the individual to a vivid awa

Mahayanists may be perfectly correct in assuming that the Buddha intended this emphasis as an upaya, a skillful means of enabling one to realize, concretely and vividly, the absurd vicious circle of desiring not to desire, or of trying to get rid of selfishness by oneself. For this is certainly the conclusion to which the practice of the Buddha’s d