Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c5.s3.t1.17

c5.s3.t1.17

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