Mahāyāna Skt., lit., “Great Vehicle”; one of the two great schools of Buddhism, the other being the Hīnayāna, “Small Vehicle.” The Mahāyāna, which arose in the first century CE, is called Great Vehicle because, thanks to its many-sided approach, it opens the way of lib­eration to a great number of people and expresses the intention to liberate all beings.

Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna are both rooted in the basic teachings of the historical Buddha Shākyamuni, but stress different aspects of those teachings. While Hīnayāna seeks the liber­ation of the individual, the follower of the Mahāyāna seeks to attain enlightenment for the sake of the welfare of all beings. This attitude is embodied in the Mahāyāna ideal of the bo­dhisattva, whose outstanding quality is compas­sion (karunā).

The Mahāyāna developed from the Hīnayāna schools of the Mahāsānghikas and Sarvāstivādins (Sarvāstivāda), which formu­lated important aspects of its teaching. From the Mahāsānghikas came the teaching, characteris­tic of the Mahāyāna, of the transcendent nature of a buddha, as well as the bodhisattva ideal and the notion of emptiness (shūnyatā ). Seeds of the trikāya teaching can be recognized in the doctrine of the Sarvāstivādins.

The Mahāyāna divided into a series of further schools, which spread from India to Tibet, Chi­na, Korea, and Japan. In India arose the Mādhyamika school, founded by Nāgārju­na, and the Yogāchāra school, founded by Asanga. Parallel to the development of Tan­tra in Hinduism, in Buddhism also a magic-oriented school appeared, the Vajrayāna, which today flourishes primarily in Tibetan Buddhism.

The most important Mahāyāna schools in China were Ch’an, Hua-yen, T’ien-t’ai, and the Pure Land school. These schools were fur­ther developed in Japan as Zen, Kegon, Tendai, and Amidism, respectively.

The teachings of the Mahāyāna are contained in the Mahāyāna sūtras and shāstras, among which are some of the most pro­found writings of Buddhism.

Maitreya Skt. (Jap., Miroku), lit., “Loving One”; in the teaching of the five earthly bud­dhas, already present in the Hīnayāna but first fully developed by the Mahāyāna, the embodi­ment of all-encompassing love. He is expected to come in the future as the fifth and last of the earthly buddhas. The cult of Maitreya is very widespread in Tibetan Buddhism. His Heaven is tushita (“the joyful”), after which the Tibetan saint Tsongkhapa named the first monastery he founded. As the world teacher to come, Maitreya is expected to appear in around thirty thousand years.

Mālā Skt., lit., “garland, rose”; also called japamālā. A string of beads that is used to count repetitions in the recitation of mantras and the name of Buddha. The number of beads in a Buddhist mālā is 108.

Mañjushrī Skt. (Jap., Monju), lit., “He Who Is Noble and Gentle”; the bodhisattva of wis­dom, one of the most important figures of the Buddhist pantheon. He first appears in the Ārya-mañjushrī-mūlakalpa, a work dating from before the 4th century. Usually Mañjushrī is iconographically depicted with two lotus blossoms at the level of his head, on which his attributes—a sword and a book of the prajñāpāramitā literature—are placed. These attributes stand for the wisdom embodied by Mañjushrī, which dispels the darkness of ignorance.

Mantra also mantram, Skt.; a power-laden syllable or series of syllables that manifests cer­tain cosmic forces and aspects of the buddhas, sometimes also the name of a buddha. Continu­ous repetition of mantras is practiced as a form of meditation in many Buddhist schools; it also plays a considerable role in the Vajrayāna. Here mantra is defined as a means of protecting the mind. In the trans­formation of “body, speech, and mind” that is brought about by spiritual practice, mantra is associated with speech, and its task is the subli­mation of the vibrations developed in the act of speaking. Recitation of mantras is always done in connection with detailed visualizations and certain bodily postures (mudrā) .

Māra Skt., Pali, lit., “murder, destruction”; al­though actually the embodiment of death, Māra symbolizes in Buddhism the passions that overwhelm human beings as well as everything that hinders the arising of the wholesome roots and progress on the path of enlight­enment.

Māra is the lord of the sixth heaven of the de­sire realm and is often de­picted with a hundred arms, riding on an ele­phant.

Mettā-sutta Pali, lit., “Sūtra on Kindness”; Hīnayāna sūtra the theme of which is the devel­opment of kindness. It is one of the most popular texts of Theravāda Buddhism and is recited daily by the monks and laypeople of this school.

Middle Way (Skt., madhyamā-pratipad; Pali, majjhimapātipadā); generally, a term for the way of the historical Buddha Shākyamuni, which teaches avoidance of all extremes—like indulgence in the pleasures of the senses on one side and self-mortification and asceticism on the other. More specifically, it refers to the Mādhyamika school founded by Nāgārju­na, which refrains from choosing between op­posing positions, and in relation to the existence or nonexistence of all things, treads a middle way.

Nirmānakāya See Trikāya.

Nirvāna Skt., lit., “extinction” (Pali, nibbāna; Jap., nehan); the goal of spiritual practice in all branches of Buddhism. In the un­derstanding of early Buddhism, it is departure from the cycle of rebirths (samsāra) and entry into an entirely different mode of existence. It requires complete overcoming of the three un­wholesome roots—desire, hatred, and delusion, and the coming to rest of active volition. It means freedom from the determining effect of karma. Nirvāna is unconditioned (asamskrita); its characteris­tic mark is the absence of arising, subsisting, changing, and passing away.

In Hīnayāna two types of nirvāna are dis­tinguished: nirvāna with a remainder of condi­tionality, which can be attained before death; and nirvāna without conditionality, which is at­tained at death.

In Mahāyāna, the notion of nirvāna under­goes a change that may be attributed to the in­troduction of the bodhisattva ideal and an emphasis on the unified nature of the world. Nirvāna is conceived as oneness with the abso­lute, the unity of samsāra and transcendence. It is also described as dwelling in the experience of the absolute, bliss in cognizing one’s identity with the absolute, and as freedom from attach­ment to illusions, affects, and desires.

In the West nirvāna has often been misunder­stood as mere annihilation; even in early Bud­dhism it was not so conceived. In many texts, to explain what is described as nirvāna, the simi­le of extinguishing a flame is used. The fire that goes out does not pass away, but merely be­comes invisible by passing into space; thus the term nirvāna does not indicate annihilation but rather entry into another mode of existence. The fire comes forth from space and returns back into it; thus nirvāna is a spiri­tual event that takes place in time but is also, in an unmanifest and imperishable sphere, always already there. This is the “abode of immortali­ty,” which is not spatially localizable, but is rather transcendent, supramundane, and only accessible to mystical expe­rience. Thus in early Buddhism, nirvāna is not seen in a positive relation to the world but is only a place of salvation.

In some places in the sūtras an expression is used for nirvāna that means “bliss,” but far more often nirvāna is characterized merely as a process or state of cessation of suffering (duhkha). This should not, however, be regarded as proof of a nihilistic attitude; it is rather an in­dication of the inadequacy of words to represent the nature of nirvāna, which is beyond speech and thought, in a positive manner. As a positive statement concerning nirvāna, only an indica­tion concerning its not being nothing is possible. For Buddhism, which sees all of existence as rid­den with suffering, nirvāna interpreted as the cessation of suffering suffices as a goal for the spiritual effort; for spiritual practice it is irrele­vant whether nirvāna is a positive state or mere annihilation. For this reason the Buddha de­clined to make any statement concerning the na­ture of nirvāna.

Nyingma (rnying-ma), Tib., lit. “School of the Ancients”; one of the four princi­pal schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The school brings together the oldest Buddhist traditions of Tibet, which were brought to the country from India by Padmasambhava and the monks Vi­malamitra and Vairochana in the 8th century. Since the 15th century there has existed an inde­pendent collection of these teachings, which, however, is not included in the official Tibetan canon. The Nyingmapas consider dzogchen to be the supreme doc­trine; the systematization of the dzogchen teach­ing by Lonchenpa and his commentary on it are considered authoritative.

Padmasambhava Skt., lit., “the Lotus-born”; contemporary of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen (755–97) and one of the historically identifiable founders of Tibetan Buddhism. He left his imprint particularly on the Nying­ma school and is venerated by its followers as the “second Buddha.” His special task lay in taming the indigenous demons, or the forces of nature embodied in them. The methods of Pad­masambhava ranged from the use of ritual im­plements, such as the phurba, to the mastery of the meditation techniques of dzogchen. In the course of centuries, the figure of Padmasam­bhava, who continued the tradition of the mahāsiddhas, took on an increasingly legendary character. He is still venerated today in the Hi­malayan countries under the name Guru Rinpo­che (Precious Guru).

Pāramitā Skt., lit., “that which has reached the other shore,” the transcendental. The pāramitās, generally translated as “the perfections,” are the virtues perfected by a bodhisattva in the course of his or her development. There are six of these: (1) dāna-pāramitā (generosity), (2) shīla-pāramitā (discipline), (3) kshānti-pāramitā (patience), (4) vīrya-pāramitā (energy of exertion), (5) dhyāna-pāramitā (meditation), (6) prajñā-pāramitā (wisdom). Frequently four further virtues are added, which were accepted into the canon later: (7) upāya-kaushala-pāramitā (right method or means), (8) pranidhāna-pāramitā (vow), (9) bala-pāramitā (manifestation of the ten powers, dashabala), (10) jñāna-pāramitā (knowledge of the true definitions of all dharmas).

Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra also Mahāprajñāpā­ramitā-sūtra, Skt., lit., “[Great] Sūtra of the Wis­dom That Reaches the Other Shore [i.e., that is transcendental, or liberating]”; term for a series of about forty Mahāyāna sūtras, gathered together under this name because they all deal with the realization of prajñā. They rep­resent a part of the Vaipulya-sūtras of the Mahāyāna and probably were composed around the beginning of the Common Era. Some sūtras are preserved in Sanskrit, however most of them have come down only in Chinese or Ti­betan translation. Those best known in the West are the Diamond Sūtra (Vajrachchedikā) and the Heart Sutra (Mahāprajñāpā­ramitā-hri­daya-sūtra). Their most important interpreter was Nāgārjuna.

Pure Land (Chin., ching-t’u; Jap., jōdō); in Mahāyāna the “pure lands” (also buddha-realms or buddha-paradises), each ruled over by a buddha. Since according to the Mahāyāna there are countless buddhas, countless pure lands also exist. The most important is Su­khāvatī, the pure land of the west or the western paradise, ruled by Buddha Amitābha. An eastern paradise is the pure land of Bhaisha­jya-guru Buddha (“Medicine Guru Buddha”). The Abhirati paradise of Buddha Akshob­hya is also in the east. In the south is the paradise of Buddha Ratnaketu, in the north that of Bud­dha Dundubhīshvara. A further pure land will be brought forth by the future buddha Maitreya, who presently still dwells in the Tushita Heaven.

These pure lands are transcendent in nature. They are the hope of believers who wish to be reborn in them. The decisive factor here is not their good karma but rather the aid of a given buddha, who has taken the vow to help all those to rebirth in his pure land who turn to him in faith. In folk belief these paradises are geograph­ically localizable places of bliss; however, funda­mentally they stand for aspects of the awakened state of mind, and the directions (east, south, etc.) have iconographical meanings. The pure lands are not, however, the final stage on the way, but are the stage before nirvāna, which is to be realized in the ensuing rebirth. Nevertheless, in a pure land, retrogression is no longer possible.