Mahāyāna Buddhism: Reasons for Diversity in the Buddha’s Teachings : หน้า 4/37

Here is the extracted text from the image: --- 178 ธรรมาธวก วัตรวรรณวรวิทยาการทางพระพุทธศาสนา ปีที่ 6 ฉบับที่ 2 (ฉบับสมบูรณ์ที่ 11) ปี 2563 **Mahāyāna Buddhism: Reasons for Diversity in the Buddha’s Teachings (2)** Sasaki SHIZUKA **Abstract** Despite the existence of various Buddhist schools during King Aśoka’s period, those schools were able to coexist under the same umbrella term “Buddhism.” This was the consequence of changing the definition of “sānghabheda.” As a result of this change, Buddhism accepted the diversity of any doctrines as long as monastic orders participated in the same group rituals. Once the world of Buddhism as a whole came to recognize and accept the diverse and innovative doctrines, it became possible to satisfactorily explain the phenomenon of the emergence of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Mahāyāna Buddhism expounded that Buddhahood could be attained by anyone, regardless of whether they were monks or laypeople. This idea was based on studying the previous