DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0303
Beginnings of the Mahayana
iconolatry and all the mystical theology of the Mahayana.
It is the element of worship which changed the monastic
system of Gautama into a world-religion.
In the earliest Buddhist literature the word ‘Buddha’ has
not yet come to be used in a technical sense: Gautama
never speaks of himself as “ the Buddha,” and when others
do so the term means simply the Enlightened One, the
Awakened. The Buddha is but the wisest and greatest
of the Arahats. In course of time the term became more
specialized to mean a particular kind of being; while
the term Bodhisatta, or Wisdom-Being, first used of
Gautama between the Going-forth and the attainment of
Nibbana, came to mean a Buddha-designate—any being
destined to become a Buddha in this or some future life.
This doctrine of the Bodhisatta is extensively developed
in the book of the 550 Jatakas, or Birth Stories, which
recount the edifying histories of Gautama’s previous
existence as man, animal, or fairy. When the Brahman
Sumedha rejects the thought of crossing alone the sea of
Becoming and registers the vow to attain omniscience, in
order that he may also convey other men, and gods, across
that sea, he speaks already in the sense of the Mahayana.
Associated with the doctrine of the Bodhisatta is that of
previous Buddhas, who are duly named in the Mahapadana
Szitta, and the details of their lives set forth according to
a set formula ; their number is three or seven or, according
to a later account, twenty-four. Of future Buddhas, only
the Bodhisatta Metteya, the personification of Loving-
kindness, is mentioned, and that in the Milinda Panka,
which is a little later than the canonical scriptures.
It is possible that the three former Buddhas who are said
to have appeared in the present age, but very long ago,
represent a memory of actual teachers before Buddha: in
p 225
iconolatry and all the mystical theology of the Mahayana.
It is the element of worship which changed the monastic
system of Gautama into a world-religion.
In the earliest Buddhist literature the word ‘Buddha’ has
not yet come to be used in a technical sense: Gautama
never speaks of himself as “ the Buddha,” and when others
do so the term means simply the Enlightened One, the
Awakened. The Buddha is but the wisest and greatest
of the Arahats. In course of time the term became more
specialized to mean a particular kind of being; while
the term Bodhisatta, or Wisdom-Being, first used of
Gautama between the Going-forth and the attainment of
Nibbana, came to mean a Buddha-designate—any being
destined to become a Buddha in this or some future life.
This doctrine of the Bodhisatta is extensively developed
in the book of the 550 Jatakas, or Birth Stories, which
recount the edifying histories of Gautama’s previous
existence as man, animal, or fairy. When the Brahman
Sumedha rejects the thought of crossing alone the sea of
Becoming and registers the vow to attain omniscience, in
order that he may also convey other men, and gods, across
that sea, he speaks already in the sense of the Mahayana.
Associated with the doctrine of the Bodhisatta is that of
previous Buddhas, who are duly named in the Mahapadana
Szitta, and the details of their lives set forth according to
a set formula ; their number is three or seven or, according
to a later account, twenty-four. Of future Buddhas, only
the Bodhisatta Metteya, the personification of Loving-
kindness, is mentioned, and that in the Milinda Panka,
which is a little later than the canonical scriptures.
It is possible that the three former Buddhas who are said
to have appeared in the present age, but very long ago,
represent a memory of actual teachers before Buddha: in
p 225