In the books which form the literature called the “Great Vehicle,” the religious conception is radically transformed. It was realized that the selfish holiness of the Arhat, concerned only with his own salvation, presupposed a desire for non-existence as passionate as the desire for existence; doubts arose as to the efficacy of “ecstasies.” On the other hand, the character of the Buddha was perfected, and a compassionate saviour was recognized in the master of disdainful and icy pity: “It is for you to work for your salvation,” He said, “the Buddhas content themselves with showing the way.” Without radically denying the doctrines of deliverance of the Lesser Vehicle, and with perfect consistency in reasoning, while even defending themselves against the charge of disparaging the “Buddhas for themselves” and the Arhats, the doctors of the Great Vehicle are inclined to believe that the Buddhas alone have attained deliverance, or at least that the career of a future Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvacaryā) is, in practice, the only path to deliverance. It was inevitable that the faithful should take as their model their lord, made human and divine, compassionate and all-powerful.
The vow to become Buddha for the salvation of the world, or “thought of Bodhi,” is the “Great Vehicle” in which all creatures are called to take their place. The Buddhist believer, as soon as he has made this vow, becomes a “bodhisattva” or “candidate for supreme enlightenment.” By persevering effort, and solely for the benefit of creatures, he must accumulate the merits and knowledge which will one day ripen into “Bodhi.” The selfish sage, practitioner of ecstasies, of ancient Buddhism, gives way to a compassionate saint, eager for sufferings, charity, and knowledge.
The vow to become Buddha for the salvation of the world, or “thought of Bodhi,” is the “Great Vehicle” in which all creatures are called to take their place. The Buddhist believer, as soon as he has made this vow, becomes a “bodhisattva” or “candidate for supreme enlightenment.” By persevering effort, and solely for the benefit of creatures, he must accumulate the merits and knowledge which will one day ripen into “Bodhi.” The selfish sage, practitioner of ecstasies, of ancient Buddhism, gives way to a compassionate saint, eager for sufferings, charity, and knowledge.
This saint, or more exactly this future saint, has not only teachers and models; he also has protectors, gods at his service. Whereas the Buddha of the old books was, since nirvâna, a “dead god,” the Buddhas of the Great Vehicle tend to become as active, as compassionate as the “future Buddhas.” And if the “future Buddha,” at the beginning of his career, is but a mediocre being, in whom the good thought of saving creatures by becoming Buddha has arisen as if by miracle, it is all too evident that he will proceed by successive stages towards the high sanctity of which he has conceived the desire, and that his ontological dignity will grow in parallel. While, wretched sinner, burdened with the bond of ignorance, with the bond of past faults and future faults, I form the “good thought” through the grace of the Buddhas, through a sudden flash of clairvoyance in the dark night of my sin, while I am still incapable of putting into practice the vow (pranidhi) which the Buddhas have awakened in my thought, there are around me, witnesses at every moment, sublime beings, saints who could enter nirvâna if they wished, but who prefer to remain in the “world of becoming” (samsāra) solely for my salvation, for the salvation of all those who suffer. These sublime beings, these “advanced” Bodhisattvas (bhūmiprāpta), who possess the higher “lands” or “grades” of future Buddhas, are truly living gods: they are prayed to, and they hear the prayers.