Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s4.1

c6.s4.1

Some of the Mahāyānic texts have also attempted to prove the simultaneous origin and the essential unity of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna by bringing out the points of agreement existing between the two Yānas. The (Tibetan) Madhyamakāvatāra remarks on the basis of Nāgārjuna’s statement in his Mādhyamika-sūtras about the conception of Śūnyatā of the Hīnayānists and the Mahāyānists that “it is the same śūnyatā (vacuity) whether it be in the sense of destruction or of non-origin” and takes this fact as a proof of the simultaneous origin of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna.² The Sūtrālaṅkāra³ also attempts to prove that there is only one yāna, not two or three, and that Hīnayāna is not altogether different from Mahāyāna. Its object is to show that the only Yāna (Ekayāna) is really Mahāyāna, the other two Yānas being subservient to it. It points out that there are many things common to the Hīnayānists and the Mahāyānists, some of which are: