This book brings together six essays on the origin and history of the bodhisattva ideal and the emergence of the Mahayana. The essays approach the subject from different perspectives from scholarly examinations of the terms in the Nikayas and Agamas to the relationship of the bodhisattva ideal and the arahant ideal within the broader context of the social environment in which Mahayana formed and further developments that lead to the formulation of the fully fledged bodhisattva path. As such, the collection provides a good overview for a wider Buddhist readership of the history of changes that eventually led to the emergence of the Mahayana.
The Bodhisattva Ideal Essays on the Emergence of Mahayana, Various Authors, Buddhist Publication Society, Paperback, 240 pages, $24.00
* Arahants, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, by Bhikkhu Bodhi
* The Bodhisattva Ideal in Theravada Theory and Practice, by Jeffrey Samuels
* Bodhi and Arahattaphala From Early Buddhism to Early Mahayana, by Karel Werner
* Vaidalya, Mahayana, and Bodhisatva in India: An Essay Towards Historical Understanding, by Peter Skilling
* The Evolution of the Bodhisattva concept in Early Buddhist Canonical Literature, by Bhikkhu Analayo
* Orality, writing and authority in South Asian Buddhism: Visionary Literature and the Struggle for Legitimacy in the Mahayana, by David McMahan