I gave the first of a series of five talks introducing Mahayana Buddhism at the Manchester Buddhist Centre last night. If you are interested you can hear the talk by following this link:
I identified six distinctive feature of Mahayana Buddhism:
1 A distinctive literature - a 'literature of the fantastic'
2 A distinctive conception of the Buddha(s) - especially the notion of a 'transhistorical' Buddha
3 A distintive spiritual ideal embodied in the bodhisattva (awakening being)
4 Distinctive Soteriologies; e.g. Pure Land (Other-power) and Chan
5 Distinctive Philosophical Ideas; including Mdhyamika, Yogachara, and Buddha-nature
6 Distinctive Practices; including Buddha cults, koans, and sutra worship