uddhhm In India

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pounds all the major doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism in

a fairly simple and good literary style with parables and poetic
illustrations. In translation it is the most popular Buddhist
scripture in China and Japan, the Japanese Buddhists of the
Nichiren sect making it their sole canonical text. An im
portant group of Mahayana texts is the Discourses on the
Perfection of W isdom (Prajhdparamitd Sutras), of which
several exist, generally known by the number of verses^ they
contain, ranging from 700 to 100,000. The primary purpose
of these is to explain and glorify the ten perfections {pdramitd) of the bodhisattva, and especially the perfection of
wisdom (prajna), but they contain much of importance on
other aspects of Buddhism. Other Mahayana sutras are too
numerous to mention.

THE B O D H I S A T T V A
The essential difference between Mah3y3na and TheravSda Bud
dhism is in the doctrine of the bodhisattva, who, in Mah3y3na,
becomes a divine savior, and whose example the believer is urged
to follow. It must be remembered that all good Buddhists, from
the Mah3y3na point of view, are bodhisattvas in the making, and
the many descriptions of bodhisattvas in Mahayana texts provide
ideals for the guidance of monk and layman alike. One of the chief
qualities of the bodhisattva is his immense compassion for the world
of mortals.

The bodhisattva is endowed with wisdom of a kind whereby

he looks on all beings as though victims going to the slaugh
ter. And immense compassion grips him. His divine eye sees
. . . innumerable beings, and he is filled with great distress
at what he sees, for many bear the burden of past deeds
which will be punished in purgatory, others will have un
fortunate rebirths which will divide them from the Buddha
and his teachings, others must soon be slain, others are caught
in the net of false doctrine, others cannot find the path [of
Or more correctly the number of verses of thirty-two syllables each
which they would contain if they had been versified. They are actu
ally in prose.