The goal of Buddhism is to attain awakening, and Buddhism began when the Buddha described his own experience of awakening, which was termed anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, or “unsurpassed perfect awakening.” In early Buddhism and so-called mainstream Buddhism, other kinds of bodhi were also mentioned, such as that of the arhat and the śrāvaka, and these came to be differentiated from the awakening of the Buddha. In early Buddhism, a clear distinction was made between the awakening of the Buddha and that of his disciples. Therefore, it is evident that, doctrinally speaking, there must have been a considerable leap from this position to the assertion in Mahāyāna Buddhism that ordinary people could engender the aspiration for awakening (bodhicitta) and attain awakening. A concept indicative of developments in observations about awakening during this time is the theory of three kinds of bodhi, propounded chiefly by the Sarvāstivādins, and this evolved into the idea of three vehicles, characteristic of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The three kinds of bodhi are the bodhi of the śrāvaka, the pratyekabuddha, and the Buddha. The last is the awakening of the Buddha and corresponds to anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi. On the basis of this theory of three kinds of bodhi, it was then asserted that the bodhisattva’s awakening was nothing other than that of the Buddha, with an attendant emphasis on the bodhisattva, and this corresponds to the theory of th
