Mahayana New Year: An Invitation to Compassionate Awakening

A Time to Reflect

By Arnie Kozak

The occasion of the Mahayana Buddhist New Year is a good time to reflect on what Buddhism and the Buddha’s teachings have contributed to the world over the past 25 centuries. Buddhism is one of the world’s great contemplative traditions. Mahayana traditions such as Zen can be found all around the world and its practitioners are instruments of peace, compassion, and wisdom (or are aspiring to be, at least!).

Some Mahayana Buddhists also observe the traditional New Year, as I have written about previously. At the Shao Shan Soto Zen Center in East Calais, Vermont, participants use the occasion of the New Year to reflect on the previous year and to set intentions for the year to come. Of course, reflecting and intentioning are surrounded by meditation sessions. What better way to start the New Year than by meditating?

To read more from Beliefnet expert, Arnie Kozak, visit his column Minfullness Matters, today.

What is Mahayana Buddhism?

Buddhism wasn’t a term in use until mid-way through the 19th century. Scholars realized that various religions had a common origin in the teachings of the Buddha. Mahayana tradition arose around the first century in the common area, approximately five hundred years after the Buddha. It has proliferated in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam.

Mahayana means the “great vehicle” in contrast to the Hinayana (little vehicle). Hinayana would include Theravadan Buddhism, where the tradition of vipassana meditation is central. Theravadan traditions have been preserved in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Mahayana looks down on Hinayana. Why all this quibbling? It has something to do with bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattva or Bust

The Buddha’s goal was liberation from suffering. He wanted this goal for everyone and he couched it as an individual’s achievement. Individuals awaken. Now, of course, as the Buddha he helped countless people to reach enlightenment. Bodhisattvas are people who make a vow to work towards their own awakening (or enlightenment) as the best way to serve humanity. They want everyone, without exception, to awaken. They use the tools of wisdom, compassion, emptiness, and love to help others and themselves to move towards enlightenment.

The dispute between Mahayana and other forms of Buddhism hinges on the concept of rebirth. As long as beings are not liberated, they will be reborn upon death. This cycle will repeat itself over and over again. If they are lucky, they will get a human rebirth, but even this isn’t guaranteed. Once beings are liberated, they escape the cycle of life of death and never experience suffering, stress, anguish, or dissatisfaction again.

An Explicit Intent for Compassion

This is a day to celebrate the intention towards compassion, the dedication to helping everyone in need, everyone who suffers (which is every one of us). It is a time to adopt or to renew your bodhisattva vows. You can vow to work on your own awakening as the best means to alleviate the anguish of others. You don’t need to believe in rebirth to be a bodhisattva; you only need to want to help others.

I took the bodhisattva vows in 1985, and this Mahayana New Year is a good reminder of that commitment. I work on myself so I limit the amount of harm that I cause to others and myself. I teach and write about mindfulness as a way of introducing people to the dharma—the teachings of the Buddha and the truths his teachings point to. I will keep doing this for the rest of my life, one moment at a time.