Bodhisattva

===Early Mahāyāna===
[[File:Standing Bodhisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future).jpg|thumb|right|[[Greco-Buddhist art|Greco-Buddhist]] standing Maitreya (3rd century), [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], [[New York City|New York]]]]
[[File:Buddha-Vajrapani-Herakles.JPG|thumb|right|Greco-Buddhist [[Vajrapani|Vajrapāni]] (the protector of the Buddha) resembling [[Heracles]], second-century]]
[[Mahayana|Mahāyāna]] Buddhism (often also called ''Bodhisattvayāna'', "Bodhisattva Vehicle") is based principally upon the path of a bodhisattva.<ref name="Nattier, Jan 2003 p. 174">Nattier, Jan (2003), ''A few good men: the Bodhisattva path according to the Inquiry of Ugra'': p. 174</ref> This path was seen as higher and nobler than becoming an [[arhat]] or a [[Pratyekabuddha|solitary Buddha]]. Hayal notes that Sanskrit sources generally depict the bodhisattva path as reaching a higher goal (i.e. ''anuttara-samyak-sambodhi'') than the goal of the path of the "disciples" ([[śrāvaka]]s), which is the [[Nirvana (Buddhism)|nirvana]] attained by arhats.<ref name=":2">Dayal 1970, p. 11.</ref> For example, the ''[[Lotus Sutra]]'' states:<blockquote>"To the sravakas, he preached the doctrine which is associated with the four Noble Truths and leads to Dependent Origination. It aims at transcending birth, old age, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress of mind and weariness; and it ends in nirvana. But, to the great being, the bodhisattva, he preached the doctrine, which is associated with the six perfections and which ends in the Knowledge of the Omniscient One after the attainment of the supreme and perfect bodhi."<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>According to Peter Skilling, the Mahayana movement began when "at an uncertain point, let us say in the first century BCE, groups of monks, nuns, and lay-followers began to devote themselves exclusively to the Bodhisatva vehicle."<ref name=":23"/> These Mahayanists universalized the bodhisattvayana as a path which was open to everyone and which was taught for all beings to follow. This was in contrast to the Nikaya schools, which held that the bodhisattva path was only for a rare set of individuals.<ref name=":23" /><ref name=":22" /><ref name=":9" /> Indian Mahayanists preserved and promoted a set of texts called Vaipulya ("Extensive") sutras (later called [[Mahayana sutras]]).<ref>Werner et al. 2013, p. 84.</ref>

Mahayana sources like the ''[[Lotus Sutra]]'' also claim that arhats that have reached nirvana have not truly finished their spiritual quest, for they still have not attained the superior goal of sambodhi ([[Buddhahood]]) and thus must continue to strive until they reach this goal.<ref>Dayal 1970, p. 14.</ref>

The ''{{IAST|[[Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra]]}}'', one of the earliest known Mahayana texts, contains a simple and brief definition for the term ''bodhisattva'', which is also the earliest known Mahāyāna definition.<ref>Mall, Linnart. ''Studies in the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita and Other Essays.'' Motilal Banarsidass. 2005. pp. 53–54.</ref><ref>Hirakawa, Akira (2007). ''[https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/23030 A history of Indian Buddhism: from Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna].'' Motilal Banarsidass. p. 297.</ref> This definition is given as the following: "Because he has [[bodhi]] as his aim, a bodhisattva-[[mahāsattva]] is so called."<ref>Conze, Edward. ''The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Summary.'' Grey Fox Press. 2001. p. 89.</ref>

Mahayana sutras also depict the bodhisattva as a being which, because they want to reach Buddhahood for the sake of all beings, is more loving and compassionate than the sravaka (who only wishes to end their own suffering). Thus, another major difference between the bodhisattva and the arhat is that the bodhisattva practices the path for the good of others (''par-ārtha''), due to their [[bodhicitta]], while the sravakas do so for their own good (''sv-ārtha'') and thus, do not have [[bodhicitta]] (which is compassionately focused on others).<ref>Dayal 1970, p. 17.</ref>

Mahayana bodhisattvas were not just abstract models for Buddhist practice, but also developed as distinct figures which were venerated by Indian Buddhists. These included figures like [[Manjushri]] and [[Avalokiteśvara|Avalokiteshvara]], which are personifications of the basic virtues of wisdom and compassion respectively and are the two most important bodhisattvas in Mahayana.<ref>Dayal 1970, pp. 33-37, 46.</ref> The development of bodhisattva devotion parallels the development of the Hindu [[bhakti movement]]. Indeed, Dayal sees the development of Indian bodhisattva cults as a Buddhist reaction to the growth of bhakti centered religion in India which helped to popularize and reinvigorate Indian Buddhism.<ref>Dayal 1970, pp. 33-37.</ref>

Some Mahayana sutras promoted another revolutionary doctrinal turn, claiming that the three vehicles of the ''[[Śrāvakayāna]], [[Pratyekabuddhayāna]]'' and the ''[[Bodhisattvayāna]]'' were really just one vehicle (''[[Ekayāna|ekayana]]''). This is most famously promoted in the ''[[Lotus Sūtra]]'' which claims that the very idea of three separate vehicles is just an ''[[upaya]]'', a skillful device invented by the Buddha to get beings of various abilities on the path. But ultimately, it will be revealed to them that there is only one vehicle, the ''[[Ekayāna|ekayana]]'', which ends in Buddhahood.<ref>Silk, Jonathan; Hinüber, Oskar von; Eltschinger, Vincent; eds. (2016). "Lotus Sutra", in Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Volume 1: Literature and Languages. Leiden: Brill. p.&nbsp;147</ref>