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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s3: Ekayānatā

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c6.s3

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Ekayānatā

c6.s3.1

As the Hīnayānists were confident of having preserved the original teachings of the Master, and of existing anterior to the Mahāyānists, they did not think it worth while to show the agreements and disagreements between their own doctrines and those of the Mahāyānists. But the Mahāyānists, aware of their later origin and remoteness from the Founder of their religion in point of time, could not help devoting some thought to establishing their claim as the true representatives of the Founder. They attempted to prove that the real point of view of the Founder had been missed by the Hīnayānists to whom they usually referred as Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas. They did not deny the authenticity of the literature of the Hīnayānists and the doctrines propounded by them, but what they desired to prove was that Buddha knew the mediocre character of the intellect of most of his disciples and delivered some discourses in a modified form to suit their understanding while to the select few he gave out his real teachings, which became known as the Mahāyāna sūtras. They did not say that Buddha had different truths for people of different mental calibres. According to them, Buddha preached one and only one Truth and Path; but the Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas see and practise only a portion of same. They are not debarred from seeing the whole truth and the real path, for many of them do so by becoming Mahāyānists after the attainment of Arhathood or Pratyekabuddhahood. They do not state that there could be two kinds of knowledge (prajñā), one for the Hīnayānists and another for the Mahāyānists for the realisation of the Truth; so the Prajñāpāramitās say in their opening verses addressed to Prajñā:

c6.s3.2

Buddhaiḥ pratyekabuddhaiś ca śrāvakaiś ca niṣevitā,
Mārgas tvam ekā mokṣasya nāsty anya iti niścayaḥ.
(You are the only path leading to emancipation, there is no other. It is the path followed by Buddhas, Pratyekabuddhas and Śrāvakas alike).¹ The Prajñāpāramitā texts lay too much stress on the practice of prajñāpāramitā, identify-

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¹ Aṣṭa., p. 3; Pañca., p. 1; Bodhic., p. 430.

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ing it sometimes also with the absolute truth. The texts remark in many places that the three Yānas are embodied in the Prajñāpāramitā, and that the achievements of the Bodhisattvas, Śrāvakas, or Pratyekabuddhas depend on the Prajñāpāramitā. So, according to these texts, the Prajñāpāramitā is the only Yāna for arriving at the Truth,¹ and it includes all other Yānas.

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¹ See, e.g., Pañca., leaf 167a; Bodhic., p. 431. It should be noted that the perfection in prajñāpāramitā means the realisation of the Absolute through the comprehension of the non-existence of things altogether.

c6.s3.6

The Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka,² concerned as it is to prove that Hinayāna is a stepping stone to Mahāyāna, supports this idea in these verses:—

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² Sad. P., p. 46.

c6.s3.8

Ekam hi yānam dvitīyam na vidyate,
tṛtīyam hi naivāsti kadāci loke.
Anyatrupāyā puruṣottamānām,
yad yāna-nānātyupadarśayanti.
Bauddhasya jñānasya prakāśanārtham,
loke samutpadyati lokanāthaḥ.
Ekam hi kāryam dvitīyam na vidyate,
na hīnayānena nayanti Buddhāḥ.

c6.s3.9

(There is only one path, no second, never does a third exist in the world. The exhibition of the variety of Yānas is only a means adopted by the great sages. The Teacher appears in the world to give out the Buddha knowledge. He has only one object in view, and nothing else. Buddhas never lead men by an inferior path.) It states again elsewhere³:

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³ Ibid., p. 143.

c6.s3.11

Sa paśyati mahāprajño dharmakāyam aśeṣataḥ,
Nāsti yānatrayam kiñcid ekayānam ihāsti tu.

c6.s3.12

(For him, the highly wise, who has seen the Dharmakāya in its fullness, there is only one Yāna and not three). But as the avowed object of the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka is to show that the Śrāvakayāna was only a means (upāya) of uplift of the devotee as devised by the Teacher, it harps on the theme:

c6.s3.13

Ekam eva yānam ārabhya sattvānām dharmam deśitavanto yad idam Buddhayānam sarvajñatāparyavasānam, etc.¹ (it is concerning only one Yāna that the dharma has been preached, it is the Buddhayāna leading to the attainment of all-knowledge, etc.).

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¹ Sad. P., p. 41, see also Śiksā., pp. 95-6: “I have never preached the law in separate forms, one for Śrāvakas, one for Pratyekabuddhas and one for Bodhisattvas.”

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The object of these verses is to show that the real Truth and the real Path are one, and that which is followed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is ultimately followed by Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas; hence there are not, in fact, three yānas called Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Buddhayāna but only one Yāna and that is Buddhayāna or Mahāyāna.

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