Later formal Buddhism {Mahayana Buddhism} is less strict than Hinayana Buddhism.
physical world
The physical world is an illusion or magic show. The physical world always changes and is endless. All physical-world things depend on all others. Physical world is unreal Void.
essence of reality
The quintessence or real in things has attributes and activities. Attributes and activities can change, but quintessence does not change. All things are only such as they are in essence: "thus being thus". Essence has no description, because nothing else can describe it. Essence only describes itself. To people, the essence is the Void, because people cannot know fundamental reality.
knowledge
Real knowledge is not about language, concepts, perceptions, thinking, or world. True reality has no description. People can only experience it or have awareness of it.
schools
Madhyamika School is about the void. Sautrantika School is about realism through representation and causation. Vaibhasika School is about realism by direct experience. Yogacara School is about idealism and subjectivity.
behavior
All things in reality are Buddha things, so all people have Buddha nature in them and should try for Buddhahood. Bodhisattva worship is good.
behavior: method
People must strip away world from one's nature, to reveal Self. The first step toward true reality is to realize the unreality of all that one sees or knows and to resolutely set out to reach true reality. The next steps involve removing these influences from one's life: ending desire, building concentration, and quieting mind's active criticism and attention to detail. Finally, one can enter various states of insight {cosmic consciousness, Buddhism}, in which one feels at one with the universe in mystical state. Mahayana Buddhism allows yoga, Buddhism, Hindu rituals, and asceticism.
Buddha bodies
Buddha has three bodies. Gautama's historical body {nirmanakaya} existed on Earth. Transfigured body {sambhogakaya} exists in paradise. Transcendent cosmic-buddha body {dharmakaya} is identical with ultimate reality.
People have inner being or Self {atman, Buddhism}, which is independent, is imperishable, is unchanging, is not part of physical world, is not a created thing, cannot appear to senses, and cannot appear to will or by willing. Knowledge of this self must guide life.
Obtaining true awareness of inner self completely changes one's life and is the way to transcend the physical world. Such awareness is realizing that the physical world is an illusion, is purely material, and is fleeting and contradictory. People should show no interest but strive for true reality. Even mind, personality, and subconscious are part of physical world.
In Mahayana Buddhism, people who are about to enter nirvana can stay at pre-nirvana stage {bodhisattva}, out of compassion, to comfort and save other beings. They are completely indifferent and without ego but lead others to Buddhahood. They can resolve time as samsara and eternity as nirvana into one Void or suchness. Virtue causes power. Their potential perfection is still in world and yet is inexhaustible. They take delight, because suffering has ended. They can never relapse to ego state, because they have reached perfection. They value nothing of world and so give away all, without holding back or thought of consequences. They completely devote themselves to others' benefit.
They stay in world to represent compassion of the Void and universe. They are part of the Void and yet themselves. They can move about in the Void timelessly. They have boundless energy and are able to play as the Void does.
Bodhisattva shows the idea that the Buddha has renounced nirvana until all creatures have also attained it. Bodhisattvas embody compassion of all Buddhas.
famous ones
Buddhism has Four Great Bodhisattva. In Mahayana Buddhism, Lotus Sutra and Heart Sutra are about Avalokitesvara, Avalokiteshvara, Guan Yin, or Kannon. Vajrayana Buddhism has Padmapani, Holder of the Lotus. Theravada Buddhism has Lokesvara. Tibetan Buddhism has Chenrezig, Shadakshari, or Lord of the Six Syllables. The Dalai Lama manifests Avalokitesvara.
Ksitigarbha in India, Ti-tsang in China, Jizo Bosatsu in Japan, Earth Store Bodhisattva, or Di Zang in China founded everything. In Ksitigarbha Sutra or Earth Store Sutra, Buddha named Earth Store Bodhisattva the leading Buddhist until time of the next Buddha {Maitreya}. Enma or Yama, King of Hell, is an incarnation and is master of the Six Paths of Hell, Ghost, Animal, Man, Asura, and Deva.
method
Destined bodhisattva gains knowledge by action, to see consequences. He gains knowledge by role-playing. He sacrifices himself. He performs virtuous deeds. He suppresses display and pride. He performs acts that attract good karma and leave no room for bad karma. He acts as if he were bodhisattva already. He transcends and thereafter behaves perfectly by instinct alone. He sees the potential Buddhahood of all things clearly.
The physical world is an illusion {maya, Buddhism}, is purely material, and is fleeting and contradictory.
Bases of both true reality and physical world are unknowable and are void itself {sunya} {sunyata, Buddhism}.
Buddha has Three Bodies {Trikaya Doctrine}. The nirmana-kaya, apparent body, or created body is in time and space. The body {sambhoga-kaya} of mutual bliss or enjoyment is an archetype. Dharma-kaya or Reality body is enlightenment.
A Mahayana-Buddhism school {Avatamsaka}, based on Avatamsaka Sutra, stresses unity and interrelations [1 to 100]. It affected Zen.
Sukhavati {Pure Land School} of Mahayana Buddhism states that faith in the Buddha of Boundless Light or Amitabha can achieve nirvana [1 to 100]. The Buddha of Limitless Light or Life developed and spread in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan and is largest sect in Buddhism. The Five Wisdom Buddhas are Amitabha, Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, and Amogasiddhi.
Schools {School of the Great Delight} can emphasize love and compassion [800]. School of the Great Delight uses sexual symbolism to show opposing universe properties, such as male and female and Void and Universe. Yab-Yum is the united couple.
People know things either through senses or by inference. Both ways have causal sequences {Vaibhasika} {everything exists school}. Suffering comes from outside world, but it is not enduring, because all events and objects are momentary. Some reality, such as space and nirvana, is permanent. Past, present, and future are real.
Mahayana-Buddhism schools {Yogacara School} {mind-only school} can be monistic.
reality
All things are mental, with no external objects. Things do not grow, extend, have duration, or have succession. Such properties are thought-manifestations. Experience cannot separate from awareness content. The world's creating principle is thought or ideation {vijnana, Yogacara}, not material substance. Thoughts and ego depend on vijnana. Mind contains the potential and the material for all possible thoughts. Thought material is not a thing and has no attributes but is sunya void itself and has suchness.
consciousness
The Void is pure consciousness, thought, reason, and prajna wisdom, as stated in Vedanta.
The eight consciousness types are the five senses, sense consciousness, classifier/discriminator, and stored consciousness of potential forms.
compassion
Compassion is pure reflex of Void. Universe itself is compassion, because its parts manifest the Void.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225