often expressed by the laity in ways not unlike those of their “vaidika”
counterparts, in that it incorporated elements from the local “folk” land-
scape, and could include offerings of food, incense, flowers, or water. Cultic
centers developed at places where the Buddha was believed to have been
present or where the relics of saints were buried. Devotion could be focused
toward tree spirits, fertility goddesses, reliquary mounds, and eventually
toward representations of the Buddha himself. The use of prayer flags,
prayer wheels, and other symbolic objects became commonplace. Important
events in the Buddha’s life were grafted onto the seasonal calendar and
became occasions for celebration – most notably, his birth and enlighten-
ment, said to have occurred at the full moon of the month of April–May.^54
Another school emerging by the third and fourth centuries CEwas that
known as yoga ̄ca ̄ra. As the name suggests, this school was characterized by
the adoption of yogato Buddhism: the cosmos was homologized to the
body and enlightenment could occur in and through the body. In this
school, the six perfections became ten and were personified concretely.
Hence, for example, the attribute of wisdom (prajña ̄) could be expressed
in concrete iconic form, not so much to be worshiped but as a focus for
meditation and a model for emulation. Some of these attributes were
expressed in feminine form, a foretaste of the later Vajraya ̄na school also
known as tantric Buddhism. (We will return to Vajraya ̄na in a later context.)
The Yoga ̄ca ̄ra school was also known for its doctrine of a ̄ laya-vijña ̄na, which
might be translated as “storehouse of consciousness.” The a ̄laya-vijña ̄na
was located within the body, yet seemed to store seeds of consciousness
that, because of the logic of karma, could be passed along to subsequent
generations. Intimated here was the possibility of reincarnation, which
became so common a part of Buddhism in Tibet, China, and Japan. Indeed,
Yoga ̄ca ̄ra was one of these schools that migrated to China.
Another conviction of the Yoga ̄ca ̄ra school was the doctrine of tatha ̄gata-
garbha(“essence of the thus-gone-one”). That is, the Buddha existed in
embryonic form as in a womb that existed within all human beings. That
“womb” was equatable to the “storehouse of consciousness.”^55 All human
beings therefore had the innate nature of buddhahood and need only be
enlightened to that truth. As one made one’s way toward buddhahood one
could become a bodhisattvawho vows to postpone ultimate enlightenment
until all beings can be enlightened as well. In the meanwhile, bodhisattvas
could share their merit with laypersons (thereby helping both petitioner and
bodhisattvato accrue additional merit); all persons were thereby helped along
the path.
It was during this age of empire that Buddhism spread out of India. As ́oka,
for example, sent Buddhist emissaries into the Greek world (more on this
in a later context). During the Kus.a ̄n.a period, monks of the Maha ̄ya ̄na
82 The Urban Period