Turning the Wheel...
Turnings of the Dharma Wheel Mahayana Buddhists speak of the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel . The first turning was the teaching of the Four Noble Truths by Shakyamuni Buddha , which was the beginning of Buddhism. The Second Turning was the doctrine of sunyata, or emptiness , which is a cornerstone of Mahayana. This doctrine was expounded in the Prajnaparamita sutras , the earliest of which may date to the 1st century BCE. Nagarjuna (ca. 2nd century CE) fully developed this doctrine in his philosophy of Madhyamika . The Third Turning was the Tathagatagarbha doctrine of Buddha Nature , which emerged in about the 3rd century CE. This is another cornerstone of Mahayana. Yogacara , a philosophy that originally developed in a Sthavira school called Sarvastivada, was another milestone in Mahayana history. The founders of Yogacara originally were Sarvastivada scholars who lived in the 4th century CE and ...