Mahayana Origins

Mahayana Sutras, largely composed in the first half of the first millennium CE, are situated within the normative gender hierarchies of the ancient cultures of South Asia. Therefore, for the most part, they do not espouse gender equity. is vast textual corpus has constituted and informed the teachings and praxis of Buddhism across Asia both historically and today, inclusive of the fairly recent entrance of Zen and Tibetan traditions in the West. Such texts include the highly revered Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra, which has itself long been personified as a goddess who continues to be honored in both Eastern and Western Buddhist traditions. As explored further below, Mahayana sutras made certain doctrinal concessions to female practitioners who aspired to take up the bodhisattva vow, particularly when we compare female access to the path toward buddhahood in Mahayana versus mainstream texts. Nonetheless, as numerous scholars have noted, Mahayana sutras appear to generally prohibit female devotees from advancing to the highest levels of bodhisattvahood until they have been reborn as male. The present article suggests that the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra puts female bodhisattvas on an equal footing with most of its advanced and enlightened male bodhisattvas. I also assert that there is an urgency to revisit this text as evidence of a shift in the attitudes of Mahayana Buddhist authors toward the representation of female bodhisattva enlightenment, particularly because issues of soteriological equity had—and continue to have—a gendered impact on Buddhist audiences.

RELS 323 Mahāyāna Buddhism examines, in a selected survey format, the classification, cultural formations, literature, and systematic thought of Mahāyāna doctrines and practices utilizing a range of interdisciplinary methods and approaches. The course focuses on the problems of classification and definition; the "new metaphysics" of emptiness; controversies in the conception of Buddhahood; the centrality of compassion; visualization and other meditation techniques; the role of faith and the practices of lay people; and the development of the bodhisattva ideal.