Mahayana Buddhism and the Prajnaparamita Sutra

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Summary

Zen is one of the practices within Mahayana Buddhism, which aims at a higher state of being in relation to the early Buddhist teachings preached by the Buddha, and has a deeper philosophical and practical background than any other branch of Buddhism.

The central teaching of Mahayana Buddhism is the Bodhisattva path. The Bodhisattva path is to cultivate a mind of compassion to save all sentient beings and to continue to practice it at the expense of oneself. This can be said to be the practice of “altruistic acts” that avoid self-centered thinking and behavior, treat others with good will, and act to help others. At the root of this idea of altruism is the basic Buddhist idea that the distinction between self and others is blurred, and to practice these ideas, teachings using various sutras and practices such as contemplative meditation and recitation of the Heart Sutra, etc. are offered.

This altruistic behavior has been proven to be the optimal strategy from the perspective of game theory, which is a theory of maximizing one’s own profit, as a model called “Prisoner’s Dilemma. The results of experiments have also confirmed that altruistic behavior creates social trust and brings long-term benefits. In other words, Buddhist thought and practice can be one of the measures (strategies) to make society happy (maximize profits).

The following overview of Mahayana Buddhism is based on “NHK 100 de Meitaku: Mahayana Buddhism: How Buddha’s Teachings Transformed“.

In this article, I will describe the beginnings of Buddhism, from the Buddhism of the Buddha (the Lesser Vehicle Buddhism) to the beginning teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, the Prajnaparamita Sutra.

Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism

Buddhism was originally created in India, and since various types of sutras were created in India, which were then introduced to China and then to Japan, various sutras have been created in China and Japan, and many sects have emerged that follow each of them.

It is said that there are two types of Buddhism, the Hinayana and Mahayana, with Hinayana Buddhism meaning “a small vehicle that can save only a limited number of people” and Mahayana Buddhism meaning “a large vehicle that can save all people. Hinayana Buddhism is still practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, etc. Mahayana Buddhism is a new form of Buddhism that emerged about 500 years after Hinayana Buddhism and is mainly practiced in East Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan. The major difference between the two is that while the Hinayana Buddhists believe that only those who have been ordained and have undergone special training can attain enlightenment, the Mahayana Buddhists believe that it is possible to approach enlightenment even if one remains a lay believer. The term “Hinayana Buddhism” is a condescending term from the Mahayana side, so it is now called Theravada Buddhism. Since there are many differences between Theravada Buddhism and the original Buddhism of long ago that originated from it, the original Buddhism is sometimes called “Shakyamuni’s Buddhism. Similarly, the Mahayana Buddhism now prevalent in Japan differs greatly from its roots, the Buddhism of Buddha.

Buddhism of the Buddha

In the Buddha’s Buddhism, ordained practice is of the utmost importance. This is because the Buddha himself believed that “only by becoming ordained and devoting oneself to ascetic practice, and by extinguishing vexations, which are the source of suffering, can one attain true peace.

The term “ordained” here means to renounce one’s possessions and family, to join a group of practitioners called a “sangha,” and to lead a life of rigorous asceticism centered on meditation from morning to night. In the Sangha, all productive activities are forbidden, not even working or cultivating the fields. They are dependent on the gifts of the general public for everything they need to survive.

True peace of mind” refers to the attainment of nirvana through enlightenment. Nirvana means to cut off all vexations in one’s mind, and at the same time, as a result of this, to never be reborn in this world again.

In Buddhism, the world consists of five realms: heaven, man, animal, beast, hungry ghost, and hell (six when “asura” was added in later times), and all living beings are thought to be endlessly reborn and die within these five or six realms. If one does good deeds, one is reborn in a better world, and if one does evil deeds, one is reborn in a worse world. Such endless repetition of birth and death is called “samsara,” and nirvana means to stop samsara through Buddhist practice and to “go to a world where one is never reborn again.

Since the Buddha believed that “to live is to suffer,” continued reincarnation meant eternal suffering, and entering the world of never being reborn again was considered to be the highest form of peace and tranquility. In order to stop samsara and attain nirvana, the practitioner must eliminate by his own power the afflictions that create the energy of “karma,” which is the cause of samsara. In order to do this, it is necessary to leave the worldly lifestyle and enter a life dedicated solely to ascetic practice, or ordained life, in order to correctly grasp the state of mind through training in mental concentration and to destroy vexations one by one.

In other words, the greatest characteristic of “Shakyamuni’s Buddhism” is not to seek salvation from some outside power, but rather to “make one’s own way by one’s own strength” in heaven.

Mahayana Buddhism, which considered external mysterious forces to be its foundation

Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand, has the same goal of nirvana, where one can never be reborn again, but the method of attaining it is different.

While “Sakyamuni’s Buddhism” thought of eliminating vexations through self-discipline, Mahayana Buddhism thought that there existed transcendent beings or mysterious powers outside of Buddhism that could help us, and considered “external powers” rather than one’s own power as the basis for salvation.

In this way, it is more important to establish a solid relationship with a mysterious being than to engage in rigorous ordained practice. Also, if enlightenment is possible by relying on an external power, then naturally the sangha, an organization for self-discipline, loses its significance and weight. Therefore, in Mahayana Buddhism, the idea that it is possible for a lay believer to walk the path of enlightenment gradually came to the forefront.

The first Mahayana Buddhist scripture – the Prajnaparamita Sutra

The “Prajnaparamita Sutra” is believed to be the oldest of the Mahayana sutras. The well-known “Heart Sutra” is a compact compilation of the essence of the “Prajnaparamita Sutra. There are many varieties of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, including more than ten Sanskrit versions, more than twelve Tibetan translations, and more than forty-two Chinese translations.

The Prajnaparamita Sutra is widely chanted by various Mahayana Buddhist sects, but it is especially important in Zen Buddhism (Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku sects) and Esoteric Buddhism (Tendai and Shingon sects). Conversely, it is not recited in the Jodo Shinshu sect, and even in the Nichiren and Hokke sects, only the “Lotus Sutra” is used as the basic doctrine.

The major characteristic of the Prajnaparamita Sutra is the belief that all people have already met Buddha and made a vow in the past. In Mahayana Buddhism, if you want to become a Buddha, you must first meet Buddha and make a vow, “I will strive to become a Buddha like you. Only when the Buddha assures you that “you will surely become a Buddha in the future,” can you become an official candidate for Buddhahood and proceed on the path of Buddhist practice.

In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, such a candidate is called a “bodhisattva,” which means “we are bodhisattvas because we have already met Buddha and made a vow. If you feel a tremor in your heart and a sense of gratitude when you read the Prajnaparamita Sutra, it is proof that you have met Buddha in the past and have made a vow. If you feel nothing, you have not met Buddha.

The Prajnaparamita Sutra also incorporates an idea that had not been present in previous Buddhism: “We already exist in this world as bodhisattvas, and if we accumulate good deeds in our daily lives, they will become energy for enlightenment, and eventually we will become Buddhas. In the Buddha’s Buddhism, it was believed that the only way to attain enlightenment was to cut off vexations in ordained practice, but in the Prajnaparamita Sutra, it can be said that this has changed to saying that if we accumulate good deeds in our daily lives, we can approach enlightenment.

It is important to note here that cutting off vexations (samsara) through practice and accumulating good deeds in the secular world are completely different acts, and although one may be reborn in “heaven,” a world without suffering, in the next life by accumulating good deeds, that heaven is only one realm of samsara, and even if one is reborn as a dot, one’s life span will be limited to a few years. Even if one is reborn in heaven, after one’s life as a hair ends, one will be reborn again in one of the six realms, but never in the world of “nirvana,” where reincarnation has been cut off.

Seeing good deeds and bad deeds as the same karma, the Buddha said, “In order to break samsara and attain nirvana, one must not do good or bad things in this life. This can be interpreted as saying that one should not engage in karma-creating, self-conscious actions, but should instead engage in meditation practice to extinguish the power of karma and stop samsara.

In contrast, the Prajnaparamita Sutra differs from the Buddha’s teaching in that it reinterprets karmic energy, which is supposed to be useful only for repeated reincarnation, as being able to be diverted to attain enlightenment, become a Buddha, and realize nirvana.

Emptiness” as taught by the Buddha and in the Prajnaparamita Sutra (Mahayana Buddhism)

In Mahayana Buddhism, “turning the energy of karma in a different direction from samsara” is called “eko. The Prajnaparamita Sutra makes it possible to turn in the direction of karma, which would normally be impossible. This is because the ancient sutra called the “Buddha’s Buddhism,” or the Agon Sutra, believed that karmic energy had no other function than to promote samsara, because it was unaware of the higher system hidden behind the causal law called engi-ki, and in fact, behind that causal law, there is the power of energy obtained through good deeds to become the Buddha. This is because the Prajna-sutra believed that only those who learned and understood the theory of emptiness could channel all the energy of their daily good deeds into the Law of Enlightenment. The concept of “emptiness” is based on the “Shakyamuni Buddha’s” concept of “emptiness.

The concept of “emptiness” was present in the Buddha’s Buddhism, but the Prajnaparamita Sutra gave birth to a new Buddhism by replacing the same word “emptiness” with a completely different concept.

The concept of “emptiness” was not a concept that was given much importance by the Buddha, but the oldest sutra, the “Sthanipata,” contains an expression of “emptiness” in the form of “remove the thought that <here I am> and see that everything in the world is empty.

The Buddha’s Buddhism classifies the world in several ways. One of these is the five skandhas (five skandhas), which analyze what we humans are made of and how we are, and divide them into five elements. These elements are “color,” “perception,” “thought,” “action,” and “awareness. Of these, “color” represents the outer elements that make up our being, in other words, the physical body. The remaining four represent the inner world (the world of the mind). “Receiving” is the function of sensing stimuli from the outside, “Sou” is the function of thinking about various things, “Action” is the function of the will to do something, and “Sense” is the function of cognition, the basis of all mental actions.

In addition to the above, there are various ways of categorizing the elements of existence, such as the “twelve places” and the “eighteen worlds,” and it is concluded that the world is formed by the intricate relationships among these elements, which come together and change from moment to moment according to predetermined rules of causality.

Based on this classification, for example, when a “pebble” is found on the ground, one would normally recognize that “will” is real and its color and shape are its attributes, but in the Buddha’s interpretation, what is real is the “color,” “shape,” and “touch” that are perceived by the eyes and hands, and a “pebble” is merely an imaginary set of such elements that are collected by the mind. The “stone” is nothing more than an imaginary collection of such elements captured by the mind.

Similarly, he says that human beings are created by the aggregation of various divine actions, such as “perception,” “thought,” “memory,” “emotion,” such as attachment and anger, and “sensitivity,” and that the reality of “I” is an imaginary image that does not exist. In other words, there is no written substance, and the “body” and the “workings of the mind” are connected by sense organs such as the eyes and ears, constantly changing and forming a temporary cohesion.

Emptiness in Prajnaparamita Sutra

The Prajnaparamita Sutra takes the Buddha’s concept of emptiness a step further and considers even the basic elements that make up the world, such as the five skandhas, which the Buddha believed existed, to be “non-existent.

In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, however, the Buddha also considered that “all basic elements of existence have no substance in the first place, so the fact that they are born, disappear, become dirty, become clean, increase, and decrease (or appear to decrease) is also an illusion. Therefore, even the “impermanence of all things” is denied.

In the Buddha’s Buddhism, the relationship between action and result, or the causal law of karma, existed, from which samsara was born, and special practice was necessary to attain “enlightenment” to break the cycle of samsara. The Prajnaparamita Sutra, on the other hand, holds that not even such “causality of karma” exists.

With the evolution of these interpretations, the path to Buddha (enlightenment), which until now had only been attainable by some practitioners, became a form that could be practiced by many sebans. This is the change from the Small Vehicle Buddhism to the Mahayana Buddhism.

Chant, write, spread the word.

In Mahayana Buddhism, only those who understand the logic of emptiness can direct all the energy of their daily good deeds toward enlightenment.

In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the six acts of fuse, jikai, ninnikumi, shoujin, zenjyō, and chie (wisdom) are called the “six paramitas,” and are defined as the important practices that lead toward enlightenment. The most important of these is called “hannya-haramitta,” or the “mastery of perfect wisdom” that comes from mastering the practice of wisdom. In other words, this is the acquisition of wisdom that enables one to understand emptiness.

The other five practices, fuse, jichiji, ninshin, shinjin, and zenjing, mean to treat others without seeking reward, to have an attitude of admonition and compassion for oneself, and to always look at oneself dispassionately from a third person’s perspective, which means, “It is enough if we live properly in our daily lives.

In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, in addition to the six practices of the Six Perfections, “praising the Prajnaparamita Sutra” is listed as one of the practices. In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the sutra itself (the teaching itself) is considered to be the Buddha and is called “hoshin,” which means the body of the Buddha, and the act of praising the sutra is interpreted as worshipping and making offerings to the Buddha himself. In addition to chanting, sutra copying (writing) is also defined as touching and coming close to the Buddha.

The Power of the Mysteries

Although the Buddha’s Buddhism includes concepts such as karma and samsara, which are unacceptable in modern society, there is little mystical element, making it a logical and rational, almost perfect religion for those who wish to erase their mental afflictions on their own.

However, there comes a hurdle that is not easily realized in the real world, namely, ordination and practice. In order to overcome these hurdles, Mahayana Buddhism and the Prajnaparamita Sutra added a new mystical power called “emptiness,” which transcended human knowledge, and offered “salvation” to ordinary people by allowing them to become Buddhas. In other words, it can be interpreted that by mixing the mystical power into the teachings of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the laws of cause and effect that were taught by the Buddha’s Buddhism were nullified, and everything became rambling, which in turn led to new people being saved.

This mystical power cannot be explained in concrete terms because it is not logical to begin with. Also, by believing in the mystical power (the existence of a great power), we receive power, and by virtue of this power, we are able to save those who are unable to do anything on their own to escape suffering. The new addition of mystical power in the Prajna-sutra can be said to have introduced a new element of “salvation. We all sometimes think, “This is impossible, but I wish it were so,” or “It may not be possible, but I wish it would somehow happen,” but if we believe that some mysterious and transcendent power exists in this world, we can have hope for such an impossible dream.

In the next article, I will discuss the Lotus Sutra, which was created in northern India 50 to 150 years after the Prajnaparamita Sutra.