Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c12.s3.48

v1.c12.s3.48

The art of proselytizing was highly developed by the Mahāyānists who led by their Bodhisattva ideal dedicated their lives to the propagation of the faith. There are in the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka*² and almost all other Mahāyāna texts, expressions revealing the earnestness which animated the disciples for propagating the religion. Towards the end of a treatise, the Bodhisattvas utter: “When the Tathāgata has become wholly extinct, we, O Lord, want to go in ten directions and persuade all beings to write, read, think over, and proclaim this *dharma-paryāya* by the power of the Lord." The history of Buddhist faith both in its earlier and later phases reveals the fact that the Buddhist monks gave their best energies to the propagation of the religion and thus acted up to the wishes of the founder of the religion. The despatch of missionaries to various countries both within and abroad during the reign of Aśoka, the successful attempt of the Buddhist monks to colonise Central Asia during the reign of Kaniṣka, and the perilous journey and voyages undertaken to China, Tibet, Cambodia, Java and the Malay Archipelago by the monks in the later history of Buddhism amply show to what a great extent the Master's bidding was carried out.