Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c3.5

c3.5

The THIRD chapter is divided into four sections. It will be found from the first section that according to the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and other Mahāyāna texts, the Hinayāna teaching was only an expedient adopted by Buddha to suit the mental calibre of his early disciples, and that the Hinayānists were taught only Pudgalaśūnyatā and not Dharmaśūnyatā. It has been shown in the second section that the Buddha of the Hinayānists was really, according to the Mahāyāna view, one of his Nirmāṇakāyas, his two other kāyas being Sambhoga and Dharma. A review of the speculations of Trikāya in the various texts has been given in the section. The third section treats of the interpretations of Nirvāṇa. In it the conclusions drawn by scholars from the Piṭaka passages have been reviewed and the expositions of Buddhaghosa, Vasubandhu, Nāgārjuna and others have been summarised and compared. The fourth section deals with the four Truths and the Causal Law, the Paramārthasatyas of the Hinayānists. They are, however, Saṃvṛtisatyas to the Mahāyānists, whose Paramārtha or Pariniṣpanna-satya is Dharmaśūnyatā or Tathatā.