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MAHAYANA SUTRAS

Kirk Sandvig, PH.D.

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Mahayana and� the Middle Way

Nagarjuna (150-250 C.E)

Emptiness
Mental defilements

Abhidharma schools were concerned with two major philosophical issues: 1) the nature of things of this world 2) the nature of consciousness and knowledge of this world.

Mahayana schools teach that the elements of this world are ‘empty’ of any ‘own being’. They only exits in the dependent arising of existence.

Also teaches that there is a ‘base’ consciousness that contains the ‘seeds’ of good and bad, that condition one’s experience of life.

School of Mahayana was founded Nagarjuna. (picture from Samye Ling Buddhist Centre, Eskdalemuir, Scotland)

People are caught in suffering and samsaric chain of rebirth because of the power of karma that arises from unwholesome thoughts, words, and deeds that are motivated by mental dispositions

People miconceive the world, and their ‘wrong views’ lead them to misbehave in ways that bind them to the life of suffering.

Existence, movement, action and perception take place because of a relational matrix of dependent arising.

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Wisdom and Emptiness

“We declare that whatever is dependent arising is emptiness” (Mulamadhyamaka-karika, XXIV, 18).

“The ignorant person creates mental formation which are the source of samasara. While the ignorant person does so, the wise person does not because of his or her seeing the truth” (Mulamadhyamaka-karika, XXIV, 10).

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What is Emptiness?

Emptiness does not refer to a thing, it refers to the way all things are.

Empty of the independent way they naturally seem to exist.

“Nothing distinguishes samsara from Nirvana; and nothing distinguishes Nirvana from samsara. Between even the extremities of samsara and Nirvana, one cannot find even a subtle difference”

(Mulamadhyamaka-karika, XXIV, 19-20).

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Conventional Truth and Ultimate Truth

Conventional truth

Experienced by ordinary perception and conception.

Fire is hot
Something moves
Who a person is

Ultimate truth

All things are empty of own being, or are dependently arisen.

“Without relying on convention, the ultimate truth cannot be expressed. Without understanding the ultimate truth, Nirvana cannot be attained” (Mulamadhyamaka-karika, XXIV, 10).

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The Womb of the Buddha

Tathagata-garbha (womb or embrio)

All living beings have potential to become a Buddha.
Unwholesome mental formations conceal this truth

Like a rag covering a Buddha statue

“If it did not exist in all beings, there would be no disgust with dukkha, no wish for Nirvana, no striving for Buddhahood, no resolve to gain it for the benefit of all beings” (Ratnagotra-vibhaga, I, 96)

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Storehouse Consciousness

Storehouse-consciousness contains karmic ‘seeds’ cultivated from process of conscious experience.

Negative dispositions (hatred, greed, ignorance) condition future experiences within storehouse
Should cultivate ‘pure seeds’ within the depth of the storehouse conscious itself.

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The mode and nature of this Nirvana is emptiness, which is the status of reality...[This is because the storehouse-consciousness] is like a great ocean in which the waves roll on constantly, but the [depths] subsist unaffected, free from the faults of impermanence...thoroughly pure in its essence...The storehouse-consciousness is [thus] known by the name of the Tathagata-garbha (Lankavatara Sutra, 220-221).

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Heart Sutra

Om! Praise to the blessed and noble perfection of wisdom! The noble Avalokesvara Bodhisattva was moving in the deep journey of the perfection of wisdom. When he looked down at the Five Aggregates, he saw that they are empty of own-being.

Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form. What if form is emptiness, what is emptiness is form. The same is true for sensations, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.

…All dharmas are characterized by emptiness; they are neither produced nor cease, they are neither defiled nor pure, they are neither deficient nor complete.

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A Layperson’s Sutra

Sutra presents doctrine of emptiness.

Emptiness is not imperceptible causal force – like a God
Emptiness is the hidden ‘suchness’ of all the things one ordinarily experiences with a discriminating mind.

Tells story of a rich laymen whose understanding of the Buddha’s teaching was so deep that even the bodhisattvas had come down to visit.

The dualities of self and other, object and perception, purity and defilement, samsara and nirvana do not exist.

The discriminating mind cannot see the reality that lies beyond its discriminations.

Story of Buddha meditating – flowers on Buddha fall of, while for disciples, they would not come off despite their effors.

Goddess asked disciple why he tried shaking them off. He said because they are not of the status of ‘suchness’

Goddess replied “Do not say that these flowers are not of the status of suchness…because it is you who gives rise to such discrimination...But if you no longer make such discrimiations, this all will be of the status of suchness. Look at the bodhisattvas whose bodies do no hold the flowers. That is because they have put an end to such discrimination.” (Vimalakirti-Nirdesa-Sutra, VIII)

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Sariputra asked, “Why do not you change your female form? The goddess replied, “For the last twelve years, I have been looking in vain for a female form. So, what is it that you want me to change?”

Thereupon, she used her supernatural powers to change Sariputra into a celestial goddess, and the change herself into a man similar to Sariputra. She then asked him, “Why do you not change your female form?”

The goddess said, “Like Sariputra, who is not a woman but only appears in female form, all women are the same. Though they appear in female form, they are ultimately not women. Hence the Buddha said, ‘All things [ultimately] are neither male or femaile.’” (Vimalakirti-Nirdesa-Sutra, VIII)

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The Lotus Sutra

Lotus sutra explains that there are different methods of teaching the message to people in various states of openness.
Parable of the burning house

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The Land of Bliss

Amitabha Buddha/Dharmakara

Creation of a Buddha realm
Saving grace of Amitabha for birth in the Land of Bliss

Requires: faith and sincere desire to be born in Buddha realm

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This land of Bliss, Ananda, which is the realm of Lord Amitabha, is rich and prosperous, comfortable, fertile, delightful and full of many gods and people. In this realm, Ananda, there are no hells, no animals, no ghosts or asuras – no inauspicious place to be reborn. That realm of the Land of Bliss, Ananda, produced many fragrant odors, is rich in the variety of flowers and fruits, adorned with jewel trees, which are visited by flocks of different kinds of birds conjured up by the Buddha’s miraculous power…On all sides it is surrounded by golden nets, and covered by lotus flowers make of precious things...

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If any beings, Ananda, over and over reverently devotes themselves to this Buddha, if they plant a large…root of goodness, having raised their thoughts to Awakening, if they vow to be born in that realm, then, when the hour of their death approaches, Amitabha Buddha...will stand before them, surrounded by hosts of monks. Then having seen that lord, and having died with serene hearts, they will be born in precisely that realm of the Land of Bliss (Sukhavati-Vyuha-Sutra, 27)