[Footnote 1: Sanskrit, _Mahâyâna_; Chinese, _Ta Ch'êng_ (pronounced _Tai Shêng_ in many southern provinces); Japanese, _Dai-jō_; Tibetan, _Theg-pa-chen-po_; Mongolian, _Yäkä-külgän_; Sanskrit, _Hînayâna_; Chinese, _Hsiao-Ch'êng_; Japanese, _Shō-jō_; Tibetan, _Theg-dman_; Mongolian _Ütśükän-külgän_. In Sanskrit the synonyms agrayâna and uttama-yâna are also found.] [Footnote 2: Record of Buddhist practices. Transl. Takakusu, 1896, p. 14. Hsüan Chuang seems to have thought that acceptance of the Yogâcâryabhûmi (Nanjio, 1170) was essential for a Mahayanist. See his life, transl. by Beal, p. 39, transl. by Julien, p. 50.] [Footnote 3: Saddharma-Puṇḍarîka, chap. III. For brevity, I usually cite this work by the title of The Lotus.] [Footnote 4: The date 58 B.C. has probably few supporters among scholars now, especially after Marshall's discoveries.] CHAPTER XVII BODHISATTVAS Let us now consider these doctrines and take first the worship of Bodhisattvas. This word means one whose essence is knowledge but is used in the technical sense of a being who is in process of obtaining but has not yet obtained Buddhahood. The Pali Canon shows little interest in the personality of Bodhisattvas and regards them simply as the preliminary or larval form of a Buddha, either Śâkyamuni[5] or some of his predecessors. It was incredible that a being so superior to ordinary humanity as a Buddha should be suddenly produced in a human family nor could he be regarded as an incarnation in the strict sense. But it was both logical and edifying to suppose that he was the product of a long evolution of virtue, of good deeds and noble resolutions extending through countless ages and culminating in a being superior to the Devas. Such a being awaited in the Tushita heaven the time fixed for his appearance on earth as a Buddha and his birth was accompanied by marvels. But though the Pali Canon thus recognizes the Bodhisattva as a type which, if rare, yet makes its appearance at certain intervals, it leaves the matter there. It is not suggested that saints should try to become Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, or that Bodhisattvas can be helpers of mankind.[6] But both these trains of thought are natural developments of the older ideas and soon made themselves prominent. It is a characteristic doctrine of Mahayanism that men can try and should try to become Bodhisattvas.