RT Article
T1 Mahāyāna Sūtras in Recent Scholarship
JF Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies
VO 16
SP 36
OP 74
A1 Drewes, David
LA English
PB Simon Fraser University, David See Chai Lam Centre for International Communication
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1839438592
AB Mahāyāna sūtras are a large class of ancient Buddhist texts composed primarily during the first centuries CE. They take the literary form of more traditional sūtras, but are distinguished mainly in their claim to present special teachings intended for bodhisattvas. Although they were long considered the scriptural texts of "Mahāyāna Buddhism," their authors and users never split institutionally from so-called Hīnayāna Buddhists. Rather than the texts of a distinct form of Buddhism, it is better to regard them as a controversial class of text that spread within pre-existing Buddhist institutional structures. Although they were thought to have been composed and used chiefly in written form, they were mainly transmitted orally by figures known as dharmabhāṇakas, or "preachers of Dharma," who recited and taught them in public preaching rituals. Rather than advocating that they become bodhisattvas, the authors of these texts depict their followers as having already become advanced bodhisattvas in past lives. Some have argued that early sūtras show an orientation toward asceticm and meditation, but the texts rarely mention these practices. They mainly advocate practices oriented toward the supernatural and the afterlife, especially textual practices focused on Mahāyāna sūtras themselves.,