The Awakening of Faith
In the Mahayana Doctrine
The New Buddhism
by the Patriarch Ashvagosha
 

2: THE FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE OF THE MAHAYANA FAITH

HAVING explained the object of writing this book, we now proceed to consider the fundamental doctrine of the Mahayana Faith. The great school (Mahayana) speaks of the Eternal Soul of the universe, His nature and His attributes.

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A. By His nature is meant the Soul of all living beings. The soul embraces that of saved and of unsaved beings, and it is this universal Soul that characterizes the great school. For it is the Archetype's True Eternal Form which is the nature of the Mahayana Faith; and the Archetype's temporary form in life which is able to make manifest the nature, form, and use of the Mahayana Faith.

p. 45

B. As to the attributes of this Soul, they are three. The first is the vastness of its nature. All things are originally one and the same and an eternally fixed quantity in the True Model. The second covers its vast manifestations. In the person of the Tathagata, the True Model Form, there are infinite possibilities stored up as in a womb. The third is its vast power. It is able to produce all good among all classes of unsaved beings.

All the enlightened Buddhas follow this Mahayana Faith, and all the Bodhisattvas attain to the perfection of Tathagatahood by the methods of this Faith of the New Buddhism.





from: Mahayana Buddhism: The Awakening of Faith