Mahayana Buddhism

Popular mythologist Joseph Campbell gives an interesting account of Mahayana Buddhism in “Sukavati:  A Mythic Journey”.  He begins with Hinayana Buddhism:

Hinayana Buddhism
Hinayana Buddhism translates to “Little Ferry Boat” Buddhism. It was an early form of Buddhism in where escape from life was taken seriously.  You give up the world and get on the little monk ferry boat to carry you to the other shore.

Mahayana Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism translates to “Big Ferry Boat” Buddhism.  Its origins date back to 100 A.D which ushered in a new order of Buddhism in northwest India.

To explain the Mahayana worldview Mr. Campbell uses an enjoyable analogy of two cities, that of San Francisco and Berkeley.  San Francisco represents the city of hustle and bustle and Berkeley is Nirvana, a peaceful, wonderful spiritual place. The desire is looking at Berkeley and wanting to go.  The desire to experience the nirvana. 

So the ‘Mahayana’ ferry boat comes to the docks of San Francisco to take you to Berkeley. The catch is that it is a one-way trip and others warn you it is a very difficult trip. 

So you’re on the boat and you think it’s going to be a short trip, but it might take six or so incarnations.  It’s a real pleasure in counting the prayer beads and putting flowers on the altar. Life had been reduced to such simplicities – no problems. The last thing you want is to arrive on the other shore only to find that something else might happen.  After another incarnation the boat finally arrives at the shore of Berkeley.  The moment of rapture. 

Then you think, “I wonder how San Francisco looks from here?”  (Campbell smiles). 

Only those willing to give up everything – the monks and nuns who play games with rosary beads and flowers – can get on the trip.  The problems of saying, “I wonder how San Francisco looks like from here?”, it that they have forgot they’re in the realm beyond the pairs of opposites. You turn around and there’s no San Francisco, there’s no bay between San Francisco and Berkeley, there’s no ferry boat, no Buddha.  This is it.  Who is there?  The first doctrine of Buddhism is Anatman – all things without yourself.  So who’s on the boat?

In ‘Brief History of Everything’, integral philosopher Ken Wilber discusses the ‘Realms of the Superconscious’:

“You cannot engineer a way to get closer to god, for there is only God — the radical secret of the Nondual school.”

“At the same time, all of this occurs within some very strong ethical frameworks, and you are not simply allowed to play Dharma Bums and call that being Nondual.  In most of the traditions, in fact, you have to master the first stages of transpersonal development (psychic, subtle, causal) before you will even be allowed to talk about the fourth or Nondual state.  “Crazy wisdom” occurs in a very strict ethical atmosphere.”

“But the important point is that in the Nondual traditions, you take a vow, a very sacred vow, which is the foundation of all of your training, and the vow is that you will not disappear into cessation — you will not hide out in nirvana, you will not evaporate in nirodh, you will not abandon the world by tucking yourself into nirvikalpa.”

“Rather, you promise to ride the surf of samsara until all beings caught in that surf can see that it is just a manifestation of Emptiness.  Your vow is to pass through cessation and into Nonduality as quickly as possible, so you can help all beings recognize the Unborn in the very midst of their born existence.”

“So the call of the Nondual traditions is:  Abide as Emptiness, embrace all Form.  The liberation is the Emptiness, never in the form, but Emptiness embraces all forms as the mirror of all objects.”

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