The History of Buddhist Thought c22.10

c22.10

As in the case of many other Mahāyāna sūtras there are peculiar problems connected with its composition. It consists largely of verse, but these passages are embedded in prose, which often repeats the matter of the verses. Evidently it does not now exist in its earliest form. Winternitz puts it in its primitive state at about A.D. 200. But the Mahāyāna movement was much earlier than this. The *Lotus*, however, is one of the earliest extant sūtras which deal with the bodhisattva doctrine and the new mythology of Buddha belief.