Portal:Mahayana Buddhism/Intro

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Mahayana (Sanskrit: mahāyāna:महायान, "Great Vehicle", Chinese: 大乘, Dàshèng; Japanese: 大乗, Daijō; Korean: 대승, Dae-seung; Vietnamese: Đại Thừa; Tibetan: theg-pa chen-po; Mongolian: yeke kölgen) is a classification of Buddhism used in several different senses.

The most common, found in English dictionaries, is as one of two major branches of Buddhism existing today, the other being Theravada (上座部). However, the normal usage in the Mahayana in sense 1 is to refer to a level of spiritual motivation and practice, namely the Bodhisattvayana, the Bodhisattva's vehicle.. The term Mahayana is also often used in a sense exclusive of the Vajrayana, which is itself used in a variety of senses. The source of the name Mahayana is polemical, having its origin in a debate about what the real teachings of the Buddha are. Although the Mahayana movement claims that it was founded by the Buddha himself, the consensus of the evidence indicates that it originated in South India in the first century CE[5]. It was first propagated into China by Kushan Lokaksema (Ch: 支谶, Zhi Chen, full name 支樓迦讖 var. 支婁迦讖 Zhi Loujiachen, active ca. 164-186 C.E.), the first translator of Mahayana sutras into Chinese.