5
Soteriology and
Pantheon of the
Mahayana
5.1 THE BODHISATTVA PATHM
ahayana is synonymous with the course, yiina (vehicle), or caryii (ca-
reer) of the bodhisattva. In the early Mahayana Sutras (composed
before the second century C.E.), this is a simple Path that begins with
the arousal of the bodhicitta (mind-state; that is, aspiration) for supreme, perfect
Awakening, and moves on to the practice of the six piiramitii (perfections) for
the sake of all beings until the goal is reached. Between 100 and 300 c.E., the
doctrine of bhumi (the 10 bodhisattva stages) was introduced, and an elaborate
schema of paths and stages was devised.
The Mahayana Sutras address their teaching equally to the monastics and
laity, exhorting both to recite, copy, and explain the Sutras, an enterprise that
monastic Hinayana schools reserved for the monks and nuns. But although
the laity and monastics were regarded as equal in some respects, both courses
maintained that monastic life was superior to lay life, and the laity still had to
pay formal honor to monastics. Only the more libertarian Sutras authorized
the laity to preach Dharma to' monastics. The most famous of such Sutras, the
Vimalakirti-nirde.§a, depicts Vimalakirti, the householder-bodhisattva, encour-
aging a crowd of young patricians to leave the household life. When they
protest that they cannot do so without their parents' consent, Vimalakirti tells
them to arouse the bodhicitta and practice diligently, because that is equiva-
lent to "going forth." Far from diminishing the monastic vocation, this con-
cession is simply second-best for those unable to take the ochre robe.
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