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The image of the Buddha
An important innovation of the Mahayana Buddhism was to develop a new understanding of the appearance of the Buddha, as described in the Saddharmapundarika Sutra. Very soon the human image of the Buddha receded into the background in favour of a mystical one. If the Buddha had been a physical appearance, his teaching should have been finished with his death.
In the first centuries after its establishment, in the fifth century B.C., Buddhism was a doctrine of redemption only. The human being strove to leave the cycle of rebirths by himself. A path of meditative practice, as shown by the Buddha, should lead there.
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