| As any other religion in the world, Buddhism has | | | | its teaching were exceedingly abstruse, but in the |
| different sects with different beliefs and practices. | | | | sense of striving to invent or include doctrines |
| We'll start with the most popular branch of Buddhism | | | | agreeable to the masses. |
| known as Mahayana. "Mahayana" is the name given | | | | It was less monastic than the older Buddhism, and |
| to a movement which in its various phases may be | | | | more emotional; warmer in charity, more personal in |
| regarded as a philosophical school, a sect and a | | | | devotion, more ornate in art, literature and ritual, more |
| church, and though it is not always easy to define its | | | | disposed to evolution and development, whereas the |
| relationship to other schools and sects it certainly | | | | Hinayana was conservative and rigid, secluded in its |
| became a prominent aspect of Buddhism in India about | | | | cloisters and open to the plausible if unjust accusation |
| the beginning of our era besides achieving enduring | | | | of selfishness. |
| triumphs in the Far East. The word signifies Great | | | | Though European writers usually talk of two |
| Vehicle or Carriage, that is a means of conveyance to | | | | Yânas or Vehicles-the great and the little-and |
| salvation, and is contrasted with Hinayana, the Little | | | | though this is clearly the important distinction for |
| Vehicle, a name bestowed on the more conservative | | | | historical purposes, yet Indian and Chinese Buddhists |
| party though not willingly accepted by them. | | | | frequently enumerate three. These are the |
| The simplest description of the two Vehicles is that | | | | Zrâvakayâna, the vehicle of the ordinary |
| given by the Chinese traveller I-Ching (635-713 A.D.) | | | | Bhikshu who hopes to become an Arhat, the |
| who saw them both as living realities in India. He says, | | | | Pratyekabuddhayâna for the rare beings who |
| "Those who worship Bodhisattvas and read | | | | are able to become Buddhas but do not preach the |
| Mahayana Sutras are called Mahayanists, while those | | | | law to others, and in contrast to both of these the |
| who do not do this are called Hinayanists." In other | | | | Mahayana or vehicle of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. |
| words, the Mahayanists have scriptures of their own, | | | | As a rule these three Vehicles are not regarded as |
| not included in the Hinayanist Canon and adore | | | | hostile or even incompatible. Thus the Lotus sutra, |
| superhuman beings in the stage of existence | | | | maintains that there is really but one vehicle though by |
| immediately below Buddhahood and practically differing | | | | a wise concession to human weakness the Buddha |
| little from Indian deities. | | | | lets it appear that there are three to suit divers tastes. |
| Many characteristics could be added to I-Ching's | | | | And the Mahayana is not a single vehicle but rather a |
| description but they might not prove universally true of | | | | train comprising many carriages of different classes. It |
| the Mahayana nor entirely absent from the Hinayana, | | | | has a distinct later phase known in Sanskrit as |
| for however divergent the two Vehicles may have | | | | Mantrayâna and Vajrayâna but generally |
| become when separated geographically, for instance | | | | described by Europeans as Tantrism. This phase took |
| in Ceylon and Japan, it is clear that when they were in | | | | some of the features in Hinduism, such as spells, |
| contact, as in India and China, the distinction was not | | | | charms, and the worship of goddesses, and fitted |
| always sharp. But in general the Mahayana was more | | | | them into Buddhism. |
| popular, not in the sense of being simpler, for parts of | | | | |