Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s2.t10.1

c5.s2.t10.1

Then there remains the other conception, *viz.*, the attainment of Buddhahood as a goal to be aspired to, and the consequent lowering of the position of the Arhats.³ The Theravādins do not definitely deny that Buddhahood is unattainable, for there is the instance of Sumedha brāhmaṇa becoming Śākyamuni and that of a certain being who will become Maitreya Buddha, but such instances are so few and far between that they do not think it reasonable to hold up the ideal for the generality of the human beings to follow. They assert that a Buddha is hardly expected to arise even in many kalpas,¹ and this is echoed in the *Lalitavistara*, *Mahāvastu*, and some of the Mahāyānic texts; but still one reads in the *Divyāvadāna* that after the delivery of a discourse, some aspired to Śrāvakabodhi, some to Pratyekabodhi, and some to Samyaksambodhi.² The fact mentioned last that some aspire to Samyaksambodhi leads us to infer that by the time of the *Divyāvadāna*, the Sarvāstivādins admitted the practicability of holding up Buddhahood as an ideal. So, clearly, the Sarvāstivādins encouraged the aspiration to Buddhahood and hence to the life of a Bodhisattva, and the goal of Buddhahood was not purely Mahāsānghika or Mahāyānic. The Sarvāstivādins like the Theravādins conceived Buddha as an actual human being, but they magnified his qualities and powers so much that one is led to regard their conception of Buddha as that of a supramundane being.