paragraph_text: According to Mahayana tradition, the Mahayana sutras were transmitted in secret, came from other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, or were preserved in non-human worlds because human beings at the time could not understand them:

paragraph_text: The Mahayana sutras often claim to articulate the Buddha's deeper, more advanced doctrines, reserved for those who follow the bodhisattva path. That path is explained as being built upon the motivation to liberate all living beings from unhappiness. Hence the name Mahāyāna (lit., the Great Vehicle).

paragraph_text: In Theravada Buddhism there can be no divine salvation or forgiveness for one's karma, since it is a purely impersonal process that is a part of the makeup of the universe.[citation needed] In Mahayana Buddhism, the texts of certain Mahayana sutras (such as the Lotus Sutra, the Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra and the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra) claim that the recitation or merely the hearing of their texts can expunge great swathes of negative karma. Some forms of Buddhism (for example, Vajrayana) regard the recitation of mantras as a means for cutting off of previous negative karma. The Japanese Pure Land teacher Genshin taught that Amitābha has the power to destroy the karma that would otherwise bind one in saṃsāra.

paragraph_text: The Vedānta school built upon the teachings of the Upanishads and Brahma Sutras from the first millennium BCE and is the most developed and well-known of the Hindu schools. The epistemology of the Vedantins included, depending on the sub-school, five or six methods as proper and reliable means of gaining any form of knowledge: pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference), upamāṇa (comparison and analogy), arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), anupalabdi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) and śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). Each of these have been further categorized in terms of conditionality, completeness, confidence and possibility of error, by each sub-school of Vedanta.

paragraph_text: Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures were composed from the 1st century CE onwards: "Large numbers of Mahayana sutras were being composed in the period between the beginning of the common era and the fifth century", five centuries after the historical Gautama Buddha. Some of these had their roots in other scriptures composed in the 1st century BCE. It was not until after the 5th century CE that the Mahayana sutras started to influence the behavior of mainstream Buddhists in India: "But outside of texts, at least in India, at exactly the same period, very different—in fact seemingly older—ideas and aspirations appear to be motivating actual behavior, and old and established Hinnayana groups appear to be the only ones that are patronized and supported." These texts were apparently not universally accepted among Indian Buddhists when they appeared; the pejorative label Hinayana was applied by Mahayana supporters to those who rejected the Mahayana sutras.

paragraph_text: A River Sutra is a collection of stories written by Gita Mehta and published in 1993. The book's stories are interconnected by both a geographical reference (the Narmada River and the Narmada River Valley), and by the theme of diversity within Indian society, both present and past. Unlike some of Mehta's previous stories, the ones in "A River Sutra" feature only Indian characters.

paragraph_text: Around 420 BC, Empedocles stated that all matter is made up of four elemental substances: earth, fire, air and water. The early theory of atomism can be traced back to ancient Greece and ancient India. Greek atomism dates back to the Greek philosopher Democritus, who declared that matter is composed of indivisible and indestructible particles called "atomos" around 380 BC. Leucippus also declared that atoms were the most indivisible part of matter. This coincided with a similar declaration by Indian philosopher Kanada in his Vaisheshika sutras around the same time period. In much the same fashion he discussed the existence of gases. What Kanada declared by sutra, Democritus declared by philosophical musing. Both suffered from a lack of empirical data. Without scientific proof, the existence of atoms was easy to deny. Aristotle opposed the existence of atoms in 330 BC. Earlier, in 380 BC, a Greek text attributed to Polybus argued that the human body is composed of four humours. Around 300 BC, Epicurus postulated a universe of indestructible atoms in which man himself is responsible for achieving a balanced life.

paragraph_text: Later Indian materialist Jayaraashi Bhatta (6th century) in his work Tattvopaplavasimha ("The upsetting of all principles") refuted the Nyaya Sutra epistemology. The materialistic Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400. When Madhavacharya compiled Sarva-darśana-samgraha (a digest of all philosophies) in the 14th century, he had no Cārvāka/Lokāyata text to quote from, or even refer to.

paragraph_text: Conventional Buddhist tradition counts the beads at 108, signifying the mortal desires of mankind. The number is attributed to the Mokugenji Sutra wherein Shakyamuni Buddha instructed King Virudhaka to make such beads and recite the Three Jewels of Buddhism. In later years, various Buddhist sects would either retain the number of beads, or divide them into consecutive twos, fours, for brevity or informality. A decorative tassel is sometimes attached to the beads, flanked by talismans or amulets depending on one's local tradition. Because prayer beads are often painted in pigment, various traditional schools attribute a consecration ritual by the Sangha to the beads, to ``open the eyes ''for the purpose of achieving Enlightenment unique to the Karma of each believer.

paragraph_text: In the 2nd century CE, Mahayana Sutras spread to China, and then to Korea and Japan, and were translated into Chinese. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia.

paragraph_text: "Lotus Intro" is a song recorded by American singer Christina Aguilera for her seventh studio album, "Lotus" (2012). Written by Aguilera, Dwayne Abernathy, Candice Pillay and Alex da Kid, the song is about her rebirth as an artist, and is a representation of the symbolic nature of the Lotus Flower. "Lotus Intro" was created from Aguilera's passion for "chill-out" electronica music, and incorporates electronic and electronica styles. A sample of M83's "Midnight City" was originally included in the demo, but was ultimately not cleared.

paragraph_text: In the Mahayana, the Buddha tends not to be viewed as merely human, but as the earthly projection of a beginningless and endless, omnipresent being (see Dharmakaya) beyond the range and reach of thought. Moreover, in certain Mahayana sutras, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are viewed essentially as One: all three are seen as the eternal Buddha himself.

paragraph_text: The history of phonology may be traced back to the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar composed by Pāṇini in the 4th century BC. In particular the Shiva Sutras, an auxiliary text to the Ashtadhyayi, introduces what can be considered a list of the phonemes of the Sanskrit language, with a notational system for them that is used throughout the main text, which deals with matters of morphology, syntax and semantics.

paragraph_text: Approximately six hundred Mahayana sutras have survived in Sanskrit or in Chinese or Tibetan translations. In addition, East Asian Buddhism recognizes some sutras regarded by scholars as of Chinese rather than Indian origin.

paragraph_text: Pāṇini is known for his text Ashtadhyayi, a sutra - style treatise on Sanskrit grammar, 3,959 ``verses ''or rules on linguistics, syntax and semantics in`` eight chapters'' which is the foundational text of the Vyākaraṇa branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of the Vedic period. His aphoristic text attracted numerous bhashya (commentaries), of which Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya is the most famous in Hindu traditions. His ideas influenced and attracted commentaries from scholars of other Indian religions such as Buddhism.

paragraph_text: The Sanskrit grammatical tradition, Vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedangas, began in the late Vedic period and culminated in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, which consists of 3990 sutras (ca. fifth century BCE). About a century after Pāṇini (around 400 BCE), Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas on the Pāṇini sũtras. Patanjali, who lived three centuries after Pāṇini, wrote the Mahābhāṣya, the "Great Commentary" on the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient Vyākaraṇins (grammarians), this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana. To understand the meaning of the sutras, Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote a commentary, the Kāsikā, in 600 CE. Pāṇinian grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras (aphorisms), where the whole mātrika (alphabet) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called the Pratyāhara.

paragraph_text: From the Rigveda until the time of Pāṇini (fourth century BCE) the development of the early Vedic language can be observed in other Vedic texts: the Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. During this time, the prestige of the language, its use for sacred purposes, and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic change. However, there is a clear, five-level linguistic development of Vedic from the Rigveda to the language of the Upanishads and the earliest sutras such as the Baudhayana sutras.

paragraph_text: According to a demographic analysis reported by Peter Harvey (2013): Mahayana has 360 million adherents; Theravada has 150 million adherents; and Vajrayana has 18,2 million adherents. Seven million additional Buddhists are found outside of Asia.

paragraph_text: Bodhiruci () was a Buddhist monk from North India (6th century CE) active in the area of Luoyang, China. His 39 translated works include the "Ten Stages Sutra" () and commentary, and the "Amitabha Sutra" with commentary. Bodhiruci is regarded as the patriarch of the Dashabhumika () school, which used his "Ten Stages Sutra" as its chief object of study.

paragraph_text: "Sex and Zen II" is partially an adaptation of the Tsui Hark film "The Lovers", which is itself based on Butterfly Lovers and the lead actor Elvis Tsui's character Sai Moon-Kin (西門堅, pinyin: Xīmén Jiān) is related to the Water Margin character and Jin Ping Mei protagonist Ximen Qing. The film's Chinese title and the martial arts sequences are a reference to the "Jade Maiden Heart Sutra" (玉女心經, "Yùnǚxīnjīng"), a fictional scripture in Jin Yong's "The Return of the Condor Heroes".

Question: How many adherents belong to the branch of Buddhism which includes the Lotus Sutra?
Answer: 360 million