Ultimate Reality of Mahayana Buddhism Research Paper

Ultimate Reality of Mahayana Buddhism - Research Paper Example In Buddhism, there is a common teaching known as Shunyata. Shunyata was closely related with the works of Nagarjuna. This word implies emptiness or being void or even being open. Buddhism is one of the dominant religions in the Eastern religion which extends to most parts of India. The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha who lived in the Sixth century BC (Valea 6). In the contemporary world, there are two branches of Buddhism. There is the conservative branch on one hand and the liberal branch on the other. The conservative branch is represented by the Thevada School which spreads in Southeast of Asia and Sri-Lanka. On the other hand, the liberal branch involves Mahayana which spread in China, Korea, Tibet, and Japan. The emergence of the Mahayana Buddhism took place between the first century BC and the first century AD. After the death of their masters, the Mahayana sutras were just revealed a long time after. This is because they were not understood by the majority of the people. Th eir teachings were too complex to the people and therefore attracted little attention. However, people began to understand their teachings with time which cultivated their interests in the teachings. On realizing the benefits of the teachings, more people became interested and the teachings were received by a greater number of people. According to Theravada school, in Ultimate Reality, none of the personal god, material or spiritual substance exists by itself (Valea 8). This school further argues that the world’s origin is not as Brahman rather or primordial being. According to this school, things which are manifested are the transitory factors of existence. These factors are not independent, they depend on each other. Therefore, when one factor experiences some problems, the entire system is affected. Buddha commented that â€Å"The world exists because of causal actions, all things are produced by causal actions and all beings are governed and bound by causal actions.