MAHĀSĀNGHIKA (Mahāsāṅghika) Skt., adherent of the “Great Maha Community [sangha]”; one of the two Hīnayāna schools into which the original Buddhist community split at the third Buddhist council in Pātaliputra, at which this group declared itself in favor of the five theses concerning the nature of an arhat. In the course of further development the Mahāsānghikas further split into the Ekavyāvahārikas (which produced the Lokottaravādins) and the Gokulikas (which divided into the Bahushrutīyas, Prajñaptivādins and the Chaitikas).
The schools of the Mahāsānghikas are considered to have prepared the ground for the idealistic ontology and buddhology of the Mahāyāna. One already finds with them the theory that everything is only a projection of mind, the absolute as well as the conditioned, nirvāna as well as sāmsara, the mundane as well as the supramundane. According to this view, everything is only name and without real substance. This idealistic view opposes the realistic theories of the Sthaviras.
The Mahāsānghikas consider the Buddha to have a supramundane (lokottara), perfectly pure body and mind. As a further development, he was seen as inhering transcendentally, above the world. This became the basis for the Mahāyāna notion of a supernatural, transcendent buddha. The Mahāsānghikas ascribe to him a limitless body, limitless power, and perpetual life. He is omniscient (sarvajñatā) and abides in eternal samādhi.
The Mahāsānghikas also maintain the view that a bodhisattva can voluntarily be reborn in the lower modes of existence (gati) in order, for example, to soothe the torments of the hell beings (naraka), to expound the teachings, and to awaken the factors of wholesomeness in beings.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
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