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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s1: Agreement re. the Four Truths and the Causal Law

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c6.s1

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Agreement re. the Four Truths and the Causal Law

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Though the Hinayānists and the Mahāyānists did not agree regarding the conception of Śūnyatā, there was no disagreement among them in regard to the fact that Buddha preached the four Truths (*Āryasatyas*) and the Causal Law (*Pratītyasamutpāda*).⁴ The four truths, Duḥkha, Samudaya, Buddhism, lost their value in the eyes of the later Buddhists, the Mahāyānists. But *Nirvāṇam śāntam*,¹ however, never lost its charm for any of the Buddhist thinkers. Almost all of them agree in holding that Nirvāṇa is *śānta* (peaceful i.e., unruffled by origination and destruction) and that it is something inexpressible, and without decay and origin. It has found expression in the well-known lines of the

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⁴ See *Laṅkā.*, p. 96.

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¹ Sogen in his *Systems of Buddhistic Thought* (pp. 7 ff) takes *Sarvam anityam* and *Sarvam anātmam* and *Nirvāṇam śāntam* as the threefold cornerstone upon which rest both Hīnayānism and Mahāyānism. Strictly speaking, Anitya and Anātma do not find place in the Mahāyānic conception of Śūnyatā or Tathatā, the ultimate truth. In fact, *Sarvam tathātvam* (all is such as it is) replaces the former two in Mahāyāna.

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*Mādhyamika Vṛtti*:² *aniruddham anutpannam etan nirvāṇam ucyate* (Nirvāṇa is....undecaying and unoriginating) and

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² *M. Vr.*, p. 521; Burnouf, *Intro.*, p. 519.

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*Itivuttaka*:³ *Atthi, bhikkhave, abhūtam akataṃ asaṅkhatam* (there is, o bhikkhus, the unborn, uncreated, and unconstituted).

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³ *Itiv.*, p. 37; *Ud.*, p. 80.

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