History & overview · every faith gets one
The Great Vehicle — awakening, for everyone.
The broad northern current of Buddhism: the bodhisattva who defers final rest until all beings are free, emptiness as the deepest teaching, and skillful means that let the dharma take a thousand local forms.
The founding
No single founder — Mahāyāna accreted rather than began.
What it holds
Reality. Empty of self-nature — shunyata all the way down.
The divine. Cosmic buddhas and bodhisattvas venerated — not creator gods.
Death and after. Rebirth, until awakening — deferred by the compassionate.
The line
descent is public here — where it came from, what left itBranches:
Pure Land — When the path is too steep, call the Name. Zen — Direct pointing at the mind. Sudden awakening. Sitting. Nichiren Buddhism — The whole teaching, chanted: Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.