What does "Mahayana" mean to you?

[Ed]

The Mahayana.
Saving all sentient beings.
The bodhisattva path, in awareness of interdependent coarising, realizing we are not many, not two and not one. This Is Thusness, beyond happy and beyond sad.
It all comes from letting go, from zazen.
It comes from the end of my skin that can't be found.

[Myosha]

What does "Mahayana" mean to you?

Hello,

'An unsinkable raft.'


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[seeker242]

Mahayana = For all beings.

Thank you Daizan and everyone for such great answers ... I feel the same, that Mahayana means, "everything". It means you, me, the birds, flowers, sunny days, storming winters ... including everything and lacking nothing. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#satoday

[Ongen]

A wonderful question, Daizan.

The great way that leads to nowhere (or actually doesn't lead at all)... To me it's like standing small on the top of a mountain with unlimited view all around, taking deep breaths, breathe in - everything, breathe out - everything. All beings already liberated.

Gassho,


Ongen
Sat Today

[Rich]

The great open way is very personal. As Kokuu said it's from the heart. As Kyonin said it embraces all. With awareness and being present you are actually open to everyone and everything. This openness is itself love and compassion so that's how you respond.

SAT today

[Kyonin]

Hi Daizan

For me, Mayahana is a great universal kesa that embraces all of that exists. Within it, everything has it's place and purpose and is interconnected.

Sure, there are sutras, rules and millennia of history. But deep inside me, that's what it means.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Kokuu]

Hi Daizan

Ryōkan says it better than me:

"When I think about the sadness of the people in this world, their sadness becomes mine.
O that my priest's robe were wide enough to gather up all the suffering people in this floating world."

Historically, Mahayana obviously refers to a branch of Buddhism that arose in early first millennium India with sutras that focussed on Bodhisattva motivation, emptiness of all dharmas and a more wide-ranging Buddhist cosmology in which enlightened beings were not subject to usual physical laws. The schools that arose from these sutras were collectively known as Mahayana and the single most important theme, for me, is the Bodhisattva vow of not leaving any being behind.

However, as several teachers have said to me, this bodhisattva motivation is not dependent on the tradition you practice and you can be a Theravadin practitioner with Mahayana motivation or Mahayana practitioner only motivated to free yourself from suffering. What is important is what is in your heart rather than your sutra texts.

Gassho
Kokuu

[Jishin]

Hi Daizan,

I am not good with words. Having said that, it's only a word just like any other.

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[RichardH]

My understanding is this (speaking as a student)... The word MAHA can mean great, vast, or open, The word YANA means vehicle, way, or path. MAHAYANA is the great open way. This great way emerged from the heart of compassion, the realization that ending suffering means ending suffering for all beings, not just 'me'. I believe this was implicit in the earliest teachings and bound to unfold with time (according to tradition it was intended to, but that is another topic). The meaning of "saving all beings" has been finessed many ways over the centuries and can mean different things to different people.

My question is: What does Mahayana mean to you? I'm not looking for opinion on the reading of Sutra and so forth, but what it means in your own heart and mind. Thank you.

Gassho
Daizan

Sat today