Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s1.1

c6.s1.1

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