The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature c5.s2.41

c5.s2.41

Now a bodhisattva strives to become a Buddha by attaining perfect bodhi, while an arhat is content with mere nirvāṇa, the cessation of the āsravas. The pratyeka-buddhas are not mentioned very frequently in the principal treatises, probably because they are so rare. The discussion centres on the comparative merits of the two chief Ways, the Way of the śrāvakas and the Way of the bodhisattvas. The Sanskrit writers frequently compare and contrast the two ideals of nirvāṇa and anuttarā-samyak-sambodhi (supreme and perfect Enlightenment). “To the śrāvakas, he preached the doctrine which is associated with the four Noble Truths and leads to the (formula) of Dependent Origination. It aims at transcending birth, old age, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress of mind and weariness; and it ends in nirvāṇa. But, to the great Beings, the bodhisattvas, he preached the doctrine, which is associated with the six Perfections and which ends in the Knowledge of the Omniscient One after the attainment of the supreme and perfect bodhi” (Sad. Pu. 17, 13 ff.—376, 5 ff.). “Each of these, the Sūtra (Discourses), the Vinaya (the Rules of Discipline), and the Abhidharma (Theory of the Doctrine ; Philosophy and Psychology) have briefly a fourfold meaning. By knowing them, the bodhisattva acquires Omniscience. But the śrāvaka attains to the destruction of the āsravas by knowing the sense of even one verse” (M.S. Al. 54, 11 ff.). In the Sad. Pu., the disciples say to Gautama Buddha :—