Mahayana sutras

Mahayana sutras are Buddhist scriptures accepted by Mahayana traditions but absent from the Theravada Pali Canon. They include teachings attributed to the Buddha and texts that present distinct doctrines and paths.

Mahayana: A major Buddhist tradition emphasizing the bodhisattva path and the possibility of Buddhahood for all beings. The tradition that accepts these scriptures as authoritative.
Lotus Sutra: A Mahayana scripture teaching the One Vehicle and the eventual Buddhahood of all beings. It presents a sweeping account of the Buddha’s teaching as one path to awakening.
Buddhavacana: A Buddhist term meaning the word or authoritative teaching of the Buddha. Mahayana communities treated their sutras as Buddhavacana despite their later textual appearance.
Pali Canon: The scriptural collection preserved in the Theravada tradition, primarily in the Pali language. Mahayana sutras are not included in this canon.
Madhyamaka: A Mahayana philosophical tradition that analyzes phenomena through the doctrine of emptiness. Prajnaparamita sutras supplied central sources for its account of emptiness.
Bodhisattva: A being who seeks awakening and cultivates the means to help others attain it. Many sutras center on the bodhisattva path rather than individual liberation alone.
Heart Sutra: A short Mahayana scripture presenting the perfection of wisdom and the emptiness of phenomena. Its compact form became one of the tradition’s most widely recited texts.
Gandharan Buddhist texts: Buddhist manuscripts from ancient Gandhara, among the earliest surviving Buddhist writings. They provide evidence for early Buddhist textual cultures alongside the emergence of Mahayana.
Agamas (Buddhism): Early Buddhist discourse collections preserved mainly in Chinese translations and parallel to Pali Nikayas. They belong to early Buddhist textual collections rather than the distinct Mahayana sutra corpus.
Yogacara: A Mahayana philosophical tradition examining consciousness, experience, and the path to awakening. Mahayana sutras helped frame its theories of consciousness and buddhahood.

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