{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/taf/taf16.htm","path":"bud/taf/taf16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/taf/taf16.htm","text":"FOR the purpose of awakening in all beings a pure faith in the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na, 1 of destroying their doubts and attachment to false doctrines, and of affording them an uninterrupted inheritance of Buddha-seeds, I write this Discourse.\nThere is a principle whereby the root of faith in the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na can be produced, and I shall explain it.\nThe explanation consists of five parts:\nI. Introductory.\nII. General Statement of Principles.\nIII. The Explanation Itself.\nIV. The Practice of Faith.\nV. Benefits [derived therefrom].\n48:1 The term Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na here seems not to have been used as it usually is in contrast to the H\u00eenay\u00e2na. A\u00e7vaghosha adopts it simply to denote the greatness of suchness (bh\u00fbtalathat\u00e2) as well as to prove its being the safest and surest means of salvation. It is therefore the name given to the first principle itself, and not to any philosophical system or religious dogmatics. But the term used in this wise by A\u00e7vaghosha and perhaps in earlier Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na texts gradually lost its original sense in the course of the development of this progressive religious view. It was then transferred to distinguish the system at large from that of the so-called \u00c7r\u00e2vakas, to which the followers of the former gave in contrast to their own the rather humiliating name H\u00eenay\u00e2na. At the time of A\u00e7vaghosha the controversy between them was probably not as vehement as it proved later on. And this fact may be seen from the tolerant spirit shown in the third convocation under the reign of King Kanishka. By the Mah\u00e2y\u00e2na followers A\u00e7vaghosha is unanimously recognised as the forerunner of N\u00e2g\u00e2rjuna by whose marvellous genius the system was brought to maturity.","title":"The Awakening of Faith: The Awakening of Faith: Discourse","type":"page"}