О древности Махаяны

В позднейшем буддизме развилась теория о том, что вся жизнь Будды, само его рождение и смерть были "явлены" Вселенским Буддой как урок его Дхармы. Позднее эта темой стала одной из отличительных черт махаяны.

The later Mahayana schools may have preserved ideas which were abandoned by the "orthodox" Theravada,[26] such as the Three Bodies doctrine, the idea of consciousness (vijñāna) as a continuum, and devotional elements such as the worship of saints.[11][17][note 5]
According to Schayer, contrary to popular opinion, the Theravada and Mahayana traditions may be "divergent, but equally reliable records of a pre-canonical Buddhism which is now lost forever."[90]
The Mahayana tradition may have preserved a very old, "pre-Canonical" tradition, which was largely, but not completely, left out of the Theravada-canon.[91]
Elements of this precanonical Buddhism may have survived the canonisation, and its subsequent filtering out of ideas, and re-appeared in Mahayana Buddhism.[11][88]