Tibetan tradition accepts the common Mahayana view that Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha) taught various kinds of teachings that do not seem to agree—hence the various discrepancies between nikaya Buddhism and the Mahayana scriptures—and following the Sandhinirmocana Sutra, hold that the Buddha taught three grand cycles called "Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma."
Etai Yamada, the 253rd head priest of the Japanese Tendai school of Mahayana Buddhism.
In some Mahayana texts, such a principle is occasionally presented as manifesting in a more personalised form as a primordial buddha, such as Samantabhadra, Vajradhara, Vairochana, and Adi-Buddha, among others.
Mahayana is an inclusive faith characterized by the adoption of new texts, in addition to the traditional Sūtra Piṭaka of the Early Buddhist schools, and a shift in the understanding of Buddhism.
He studied various traditions of Buddhist practice, from Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, and also Mahayana tradition, including Ch'an Buddhism under the guidance of Ven.
While the original Hindu concept was developed and explained in various Dharmic philosophical texts of ancient India, the Buddhist version of the metaphor was later developed by the Mahayana school in the 3rd century scriptures of the Avatamsaka Sutra and later by the Huayan school between the 6th and 8th centuries.
As with many modern Chinese Buddhist temples, the current temple draws from both the Pure Land and Chan traditions of Mahayana Buddhism.
Tibetan King Khri srong lde btsan (742–797) invited the Ch’an master Mo-ho-yen (whose name consists of the same Chinese characters used to transliterate "Mahayana") to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery.
Although he was a Buddhist and a renowned patron of Buddhism, he was also very sympathetic to Vaishnavite teachings (according to the two copperplates discovered at Mainamati).
There are three extant versions of the Mahāyāna-mahāparinirvāna-sūtra, each translated from various Sanskrit editions: the shortest and earliest is the translation into Chinese by Faxian and Buddhabhadra in six juan (418CE), the next in terms of development is the Tibetan version (c790CE) by Jinamitra, Jnanagarbha, and Devacandra, and the extended version in 40 juan by Dharmakshema (421-430) which was also translated into Tibetan from the Chinese.
It was funded by and constructed under the auspices of the Mahayana Buddhist sect known as Fo Guang Shan, and completed in 1995.