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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s3.t1: Semi-Mahāyāna

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c5.s3.t1

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Semi-Mahāyāna

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From what we have seen above in regard to the lines of development in the preceding period, it is evident that the Hīnayānists either to popularise Buddhism or to interest the laity more in it, incorporated in their doctrines the conception of the Bodhisattva and the practice of the pāramitās.¹ This was effected by the production of the new literature, the Jātakas and Avadānas. As the Jātakas confine themselves to the previous lives of Buddha, we must look to the Avadānas specially for the introduction of the Bodhisattva conception, and for its presentation as an ideal for the laity. The object of the Avadānas is to show how the devotees sacrifice every thing, even their lives, for the performance of the pāramitās, not for any earthly or heavenly pleasures, but for the attainment of bodhi and thus for the rescue of all beings from misery.²

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¹ For an interesting discussion on this point see Speyer, Ava. S., pp. v ff.

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² Divyā., p. 473 : Rūpavatī makes sacrifice for “na rājyārtham na bhogārtham na svargārtham na śakrārtham na rājñām cakravartinām viṣayārtham nānyatrāham anuttarām samyaksambodhim abhisambudhyādāntān damayeyam amuktān mocayeyam anāśvastān āśvāsayeyam aparinirvṛtān parinirvāpayeyam”.

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The Divyāvadāna, as we have seen, refers to the aspiration for the attainment of Buddhahood. So also, one reads in the Mahāvastu³ about devotees developing Bodhicitta and aspiring to Buddhahood by the simple act of worshipping a stūpa or making some presents to it. In connection with the Sarvāstivādins, the treatise of Vasumitra speaks (i) of the sameness of vimukti of Buddhas, Śrāvakas, and Pratyekabuddhas; (ii) of the three Yānas; and (iii) of Bodhisattvas continuing to be pṛthagjana till they step into the samyaktva-niyāma (the path leading to the right knowledge).⁴

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³ Mtu., pp. 364, 365, 367 : bodhāya cittam nametvā; pp. 375, 377 bodhim atulyam spṛśati.

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⁴ Masuda, op. cit., p. 49: “The Buddha and the two vehicles have no differences as to emancipation (vimukti): the Aryan paths (mārga) of the three vehicles (however) differ from one another. This is wanting in the Tibetan version.” Masuda contradicts Wassiljew's opinion (p. 275, n.4) that it is an interpolation of the later Mahāyānists.

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The *Mahāvastu* also speaks of the existence of the three Yānas¹ and of the paths and practices to be followed by a Bodhisattva. It mentions the four *caryās* of a Bodhisattva and the ten *bhūmis* but the conception of the *bhūmis*, as will be shown hereafter,² has very little in common with that of the ten *bhūmis* of the *Daśabhūmikasūtra* except the first two. Of course, it may be assumed that the Lokottaravāda conception of the *bhūmis* served as the seed for the later development of the Mahāyānic conception.

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¹ *Mtu.*, II, p. 362.

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² *See infra*, ch. IV; also Rahder's Intro. to *Daśa.*, pp. iii f.

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Thus the Avadānas, which are primarily the production of the Sarvāstivādins, clearly show a new phase of development within Hinayānic Bodhisattva-yāna. The Lokottaravādins of the Mahāsānghikas show a little more development than the Sarvāstivādins by defining the four *caryās*, viz., *prakṛti-caryā*, *praṇidhānacaryā*, *anulomacaryā*, and *anivartanacaryā*,³ the first referring to the preliminary practices of a Bodhisattva while he is a pṛthagjana, the second to the development of Bodhicitta, the third to the gradual progress made by a Bodhisattva up to the sixth *bhūmi*, and the fourth to the practice of the last four *bhūmis*⁴ from which a Bodhisattva can never retrocede but must ultimately attain Bodhi. The attainment of Bodhi, therefore, came to be regarded as one of the goals of Hinayāna. It is for this reason that we see the *Kośa* discussing the thirty-four moments required for the attainment of Bodhi,⁵ and other matters relating to

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³ *Mtu.*, I, p. 46; *Lal. Vis.*, p. 35.

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⁴ The writer of the *Mtu.* had very vague ideas about the last four *bhūmis*; so he dismissed them with mere enumerations of some names of Buddhas and recounting some stories.

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⁵ *Kośa*, II, 44; VI, 21a-b; cf. *Kvu.*, i. 5; xviii. 5; *Paṭis. M.*, I, pp. 121 ff. discusses the *ñāṇa* of Buddhas.

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For the *vimuktisāmānya* of the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabudhas, and Buddhas, *see infra*. Masuda, *op. cit.*, p. 50: The Haimavata school supports the Sarvāstivādins on this point, adding, however, that the Bodhisattvas are not subject to *rāga* and *kāma*. See Masuda, *op. cit.*, p. 52. The *Mtu.* calls a Bodhisattva in the first *bhūmi* a pṛthagjana who becomes an Ārya from the second *bhūmi*; *see infra* ch. IV.

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Buddhahood, and the Hinayānic works ¹ mentioning some of the Bodhisattva practices and philosophical expressions like śūnyatā, dharmadhātu, dharmakāya, tathātva, though they are devoid of their new Mahāyānic sense.

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¹ Mtu., II, p. 357: Śūnyatām śāntam bhāventi, see also Samyutta II, p. 267; III, p. 167.

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In view of these facts, we may hold that before Mahāyāna came into existence with its new interpretation of Buddha’s words, evolving a new sense of śūnyatā, there had already been a Hinayānic Bodhisattvayāna, which can be called semi-Mahāyāna, or Mahāyāna in the making. This semi-Mahāyāna concerned itself only with the six Pāramitā practices and the extraordinary powers and knowledge attained by Buddhas. It was as yet unaware of ‘Advaya Advaidhikāra’, Dharmaśūnyatā or Tathatā. That the six pāramitās belong to the domain of Hinayāna is also hinted at in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. ² In this sūtra as well as in other treatises dealing with the bhūmis, the ten bhūmis are divided into two sections, the first six carrying a Bodhisattva to the realisation of Pudgalaśūnyatā, or in other words, the Truth as conceived by the Hinayānists, and the last four leading to the realisation of Dharmaśūnyatā, the Truth as conceived by the Mahāyānists. So the actual Mahāyānic stages of progress commence from the seventh, but we learn from the Daśabhūmikasūtra that the six pāramitās are completed by a Bodhisattva in the first six bhūmis. Thus, it follows that the practice of Pāramitās alone does not make a person a follower of the Mahāyāna, though we must admit that the Mahāyāna takes its stand upon the pāramitās as far as the practices are concerned, for it is said in the Prajñāpāramitās that Buddhas deliver discourses connected with the six pāramitās, ³ and in the Madhyamakāvatāra that the Mahāyāna teaches not only śūnyatā but also the pāramitās, bhūmis, and so forth. ⁴

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² See infra, ch. IV.

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³ Pañca., p. 7: ṣaṭpāramitāpratisamyuktām dharmadeśanām karoti.

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⁴ M. Ava., (Le Muséon, VIII, p. 271): En effet, la doctrine du Grand Véhicule n’enseigne pas seulement le néant des éléments, mais encore les terres des Bodhisattvas, les vertus transcendantes (pāramitās),

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Lastly, the fact, that the conceptions of *nirnimitta* and *niḥsvabhāva* indicating the chief features of the attainments of a Bodhisattva in the last four *bhūmis* were yet unknown to the compiler of the *Mahāvastu*, is evident from his inability to mention the qualities attained in the last four *bhūmis*.¹ Hence it may be concluded that Buddhism entered into its semi-Mahāyānic stage very early, if not at the time of Asoka, at any rate, soon after him.

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¹ See ante p. 37, fn. 4.

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