Mahayana
E59081
Mahayana is one of the two main branches of Buddhism, emphasizing the bodhisattva path and the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
All labels observed (9)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Mahayana Buddhism | 160 |
| Mahāyāna Buddhism | 21 |
| Mahayana canonical | 10 |
| Mahāyāna | 6 |
| Mahayana Buddhists | 4 |
| Buddhist Mahayana tradition | 1 |
| Mahayana Buddhist philosophy | 1 |
| Mahāyāna tradition | 1 |
| Yogācāra | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T466556 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mahayana Context triple: [Buddhism, majorBranch, Mahayana]
-
A.
Theravada
Theravada is the oldest surviving school of Buddhism, emphasizing the Pali Canon and the path of individual liberation through monastic discipline and meditation.
-
B.
Chan Buddhism
Chan Buddhism is a major school of Chinese Buddhism emphasizing meditation, direct insight into one’s true nature, and the transmission of enlightenment outside of scriptures.
-
C.
Buddhism
Buddhism is a major world religion and philosophical tradition founded on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), emphasizing the Four Noble Truths and the path to enlightenment.
-
D.
Jainism
Jainism is an ancient Indian religion that emphasizes non-violence, truth, and asceticism as the path to spiritual liberation.
-
E.
Maitreya
Maitreya is the future Buddha in Buddhist tradition, prophesied to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Mahayana Target entity description: Mahayana is one of the two main branches of Buddhism, emphasizing the bodhisattva path and the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
-
A.
Theravada
Theravada is the oldest surviving school of Buddhism, emphasizing the Pali Canon and the path of individual liberation through monastic discipline and meditation.
-
B.
Chan Buddhism
Chan Buddhism is a major school of Chinese Buddhism emphasizing meditation, direct insight into one’s true nature, and the transmission of enlightenment outside of scriptures.
-
C.
Buddhism
Buddhism is a major world religion and philosophical tradition founded on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), emphasizing the Four Noble Truths and the path to enlightenment.
-
D.
Jainism
Jainism is an ancient Indian religion that emphasizes non-violence, truth, and asceticism as the path to spiritual liberation.
-
E.
Maitreya
Maitreya is the future Buddha in Buddhist tradition, prophesied to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (53)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Buddhist tradition
ⓘ
branch of Buddhism ⓘ religious movement ⓘ |
| aimsAt | enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | Great Vehicle ⓘ |
| contrastedWith |
Hīnayāna (as a polemical term in Mahāyāna texts)
ⓘ
Theravāda Buddhism ⓘ
linked to:
Theravada
|
| coreIdeal | bodhisattva ideal ⓘ |
| cosmology | multiple Buddha-fields (Buddha-kṣetras) ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
bodhisattva path
ⓘ
compassion (karuṇā) ⓘ wisdom (prajñā) ⓘ |
| ethicalFocus | benefit of all sentient beings ⓘ |
| etymology | Sanskrit term meaning “Great Vehicle” ⓘ |
| goal | attainment of Buddhahood ⓘ |
| historicalOrigin | India ⓘ |
| includesSchool |
Huayan / Kegon
ⓘ
Madhyamaka tradition ⓘ
linked to:
Madhyamaka
Nichiren Buddhism ⓘ Pure Land Buddhism ⓘ Tiantai / Tendai ⓘ
linked to:
Tendai Buddhism
Yogācāra tradition ⓘ Zen (Chan) Buddhism ⓘ
linked to:
Chan Buddhism
|
| isPartOf | Buddhism ⓘ |
| majorDoctrine |
emptiness of all phenomena
ⓘ
two truths doctrine ⓘ universal Buddhahood potential ⓘ |
| originPeriod | around the 1st century BCE to 1st century CE ⓘ |
| practice |
devotional practices to Buddhas and bodhisattvas
ⓘ
meditation ⓘ recitation of sūtras ⓘ |
| recognizes |
bodhisattvas as central figures
ⓘ
multiple Buddhas in many world-systems ⓘ |
| religion | Buddhism ⓘ |
| scriptures |
Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Flower Garland Sūtra)
ⓘ
linked to:
Avataṃsaka Sutra (Flower Ornament Sutra)
Lotus Sūtra ⓘ Mahāyāna sūtras ⓘ
linked to:
Mahayana sutras
Prajñāpāramitā sūtras ⓘ
linked to:
Diamond Sutra
Pure Land sūtras ⓘ
linked to:
Pure Land sutras
Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sūtra ⓘ
linked to:
Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa Sutra
|
| spreadTo |
China
ⓘ
Japan ⓘ Korea ⓘ
linked to:
Korean Peninsula
Mongolia ⓘ Tibet ⓘ
linked to:
Tibet Autonomous Region
Vietnam ⓘ
linked to:
Viet Nam
|
| teaches |
Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha)
ⓘ
linked to:
Buddha-nature is inherent in all beings
bodhisattva vows ⓘ emptiness (śūnyatā) ⓘ perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) ⓘ skillful means (upāya) ⓘ |
| values |
altruistic motivation (bodhicitta)
ⓘ
six perfections (pāramitās) ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Mahayana Description of subject: Mahayana is one of the two main branches of Buddhism, emphasizing the bodhisattva path and the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Referenced by (205)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
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