Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism

Two Schools of Buddhism – 13
remained for us as an object of veneration after his passing away is
only his doctrine or at any rate his relics. The school of the
Lokottaravādis, which are a special sect of that Hīnayāna, go further
and decline to see in the Buddha an ordinary man. For the Buddha is
a superhuman being (lokottara) who comes down for a limited
period of time for the succour of all mankind. [5]
Essence of Mahāyāna
In the Mahāyāna, on the other hand, the Buddhas from the first are
nothing but divine beings and their peregrinations on the earth and
their entry into Nirvāṇa no more than a freak or thoughtless play.
And if in the Hīnayāna there is the mention of a number of Buddhas,
predecessors of Śākyamuni in earlier aeons, the Mahāyāna counts its
Buddhas by the thousand, nay, by the million. Moreover,
innumerable millions of Bodhisattvas are worshipped as divine
beings by the Mahāyāna Buddhists. These Bodhisattvas who are
provided with perfections (pāramitās) and with illumination, out of
compassion for the world renounce their claim to Nirvāṇa.
Furthermore, there are the Hindu gods and goddesses especially
from the Śiva cycle who are placed on a par with the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas who contribute to the amplification of the Buddhist
pantheon. This newly formed mythology, this new Bodhisattva ideal
and the much more vigorously prominent worship of the Buddha or
Buddha-bhakti together form the popular phase of Mahāyāna. So far
this process was already extant in the Hīnayāna, it developed itself
under the influence of Hinduism; and similarly the philosophical
side of Mahāyāna is only a further evolution of the doctrine of
Hīnayāna under the influence of Hinduism.