HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The word Mahayana is usually translated as “the great vehicle.” The
word maha means “great,” but the yana bit is trickier. It can mean both
and “way,” hence the title of this book.
As far as we know, Mahayana Buddhism began to take shape in the first
BCE. This religious movement then rapidly developed in a number of
places in and around what is now India, the birthplace of Buddhism.
• Mahayana Buddhists strive to copy the life of the Buddha and to replicate it
infinitely. That effort was the origin of the bodhisattva ideal.
• A bodhisattva is a person who wants to become a Buddha by setting out on
the great way.
• Mahayana Buddhists were allegedly motivated by greater compassion than
the normal kind of Buddhists and aimed for a complete understanding of
reality and greater wisdom.