The Bodhisattva Ideal: Essays on the Emergence of Mahayana

This book brings together six essays on the origin and history of the bodhisattva ideal and the emergence of the Mah yana. The essays approach the subject from different perspectives from scholarly examinations of the terms in the Nikayas and Agamas to the relationship of the bodhisattva ideal and the arahant ideal within the broader context of the social environment in which Mahayana formed and further developments that lead to the formulation of the fully fledged bodhisattva path. As such, the collection provides a good overview for a wider Buddhist readership of the history of changes that eventually led to the emergence of the Mahayana. Arahants, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas , by Bhikkhu Bodhi The Bodhisattva Ideal in Therav da Theory and Practice , by Jeffrey Samuels Bodhi and Arahattaphala From Early Buddhism to Early Mah y na , by Karel Werner Vaidalya, Mah y na, and Bodhisatva in India: An Essay Towards Historical Understanding , by Peter Skilling The Evolution of the Bodhisattva concept in Early Buddhist Canonical Literature , by Bhikkhu An layo Orality, writing and authority in South Asian Buddhism: Visionary Literature and the Struggle for Legitimacy in the Mah y na , by David McMahan