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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s9: Two Hīnayāna Statements Utilised to Prove that Mahāyāna is the Genuine Teaching of Buddha

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c6.s9

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Two Hīnayāna Statements Utilised to Prove that Mahāyāna is the Genuine Teaching of Buddha

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The Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka utilises two statements found in the Hinayāna literature for proving that Mahāyāna is genuine, and contains the most important teachings of Buddha:

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(i) The first is that Buddha, just after attaining bodhi, was hesitating as to whether he should preach the truth, or proceed to attain Nirvāṇa. In the Ariyapariyesana-sutta³ it is stated that the Truth (dharma) is deep and abstruse; it is excellent and beyond the range of dialectics; it can be understood by the wise only. People are addicted to desires and will hardly be able to understand the Paṭiccasamuppāda or Nirodha; so the preaching of the truth would be of no avail, as nobody would understand him, and his labours would be thrown away. Cognizant of these thoughts passing through Buddha's mind, Brahmā appears and requests him to preach the truth, saying that though Magadha is full of impure religions, still there are beings with higher faculties and powers of vision, and the preaching of the Truth would save them from the miseries of the world, leading them to the haven of quietude. Buddha realised the value of Brahmā's words and decided to preach the Truth.

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³ Majjhima, I, pp. 160-175; Dīgha, II. p. 36; Atthasālini, p. 35; Mvu., III, pp. 314 f., Lal. Vis., pp. 395-396; Divyā., p. 492; M.Vr., p. 498.

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(ii) The second statement is that Buddha does not preach the Truth in a uniform manner.¹ After observing the mental proclivities and capabilities of the persons to whom he desired to impart religious lessons he selected discourses appealing to their minds, and thus initiated them into the Truth. To a householder, he would first preach the dānakathā, sīlakathā, saggakathā, kāmānam ādīnavam okāram saṃkilesam, nekkhamme ānisaṃsam (discourses on almsgiving, moral precepts, heavens, perils, corruptions, impurities of desires and the blessings of retirement). He would prepare the mind of a brahmin student by holding conversation with him on topics relating to sacrifice, caste-system and the like, and would deliver the Truth in a form suited to the mentality of the brahmin. To a husbandman he would preach the Truth through similes or topics relating to the tilling of lands, and so forth.² It was only when he perceived that the minds of his hearers were sufficiently prepared that he would deliver the higher teachings, viz., dukkha, samudaya, nirodha, magga (misery of beings; how it originates, *i.e.*, the theory of causation; how it can be destroyed; and the various practices to which one must resort for achieving the goal), which, according to the Hinayānists, were the highest and the most profound (sāmukkamsikā dhammadesanā) teachings of Buddha.¹

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¹ See Ch. III (d), for the conventional and real teachings.

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² Majjhima, Āsayānusayam viditvā dhammam deseti; Divyā., p. 97: Atha Bhagavā teṣām āśayānusayam viditvā dhātuṃ prakṛtim ca jñātvā tādṛśī dharmadeśanā karoti; p. 463: Bhagavatā teṣām karṣakāṇām āśayānusayam dhātuṃ prakṛtim ca jñātvā dharmadeśanā kṛtā. See also pp. 124, 550-1, 554. Sutta Nipāta, Dhaniya Sutta; Dīgha, Ambaṭṭha Sutta; Vinaya, I, pp. 15f.-Yasapabbajjā; Mtu., III, pp. 408, 413; Ava. S., II, p. 26.

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¹ *Dīgha*, I, p. 148; *Vinaya*, I, pp. 15 ff; VI, p. 248; *Majjhima*, I, p. 380.

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The first statement cited above that Buddha was wavering just after attaining Bodhi as to whether he should live in peace in a solitary place, or go out to preach the abstruse doctrines found out by him, has been taken by the *Puṇḍarīka* as an admission on the part of the Hinayānists that their intellect is of a lower order. The story woven around it is that Śākyamuni came into existence when one of the five kaṣāyas² (evils) or the sixty-two wrong views like ‘nityam astīti nāstīti tathāsti nāsti’³ prevailed, when men were overwhelmed by tṛṣṇā (desire), moha (delusion) and kāma (passion) and did not possess the merits usually acquired by Bodhisattvas in their previous lives (cīrṇacaryā purimajātiṣu). When the evils were raging over the land, Buddha at Brahmā’s request came out to preach the religion, but found the vision of his audience too dim to get an insight into his abstruse doctrines. There was even the likelihood of their incurring sin by scoffing at these doctrines. Hence he thought it wiser to follow the previous Buddhas by devising some means to impart the Truth robed in different forms. The people inspired as they were by lower aims (hīnādhimukta) would not strive heartily if they were asked to aspire to Buddhahood. He therefore proceeded to Benares and preached to the five monks the dharma of quietude (dharmam praśāntabhūmim)⁴ and of which, the Nirvāṇa, as conceived by the Hinayānists, was the highest goal. Later on (paścime ca kāle), when he found some excellent men (putrān dvipadottamān), who had already been working through many rebirths to attain the highest Bodhi, he thought it fit to preach his excellent religion (sāmutkarṣiki dharmadeśanā) relating to the attainment of Buddhajñāna.¹ This was, however, preached in such a language that it could not be understood by the untrained.² The Puṇḍarīka goes to the length of saying that it was beyond the comprehension of Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas.³ The Prajñāpāramitā proceeds so far as to state that the collective prajñā of countless Maudgalyāyanas and Śāriputras would not be an infinite part of the prajñā of a Bodhisattva who has practised the prajñāpāramitā.⁴

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² Kalpakaṣāya, Sattvakaṣāya, Kleśakaṣāya, Dṛṣṭikaṣāya, Ayukaṣāya—*Sad. P.*, pp. 31, 43, 58, 162, 167, 192; *Lal. Vis.*, p. 248; *Kośa*, III, 94, p. 193; *Samādhirājasūtra* (B.T.S.), p. 9; *Mtu.*, III, p. 317.

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³ *Sad. P.*, p. 48; *Dīgha*, Brahmajāla Sutta.

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⁴ According to the Hinayānists, dukkham, samudayam, nirodham, maggam were the sāmukkamsikā dhammadesanā (see *Majjhima*, I, p. 380), while according to the *Sad. P.* (p. 60), Buddhajñāna was the sāmutkarṣikī dharmadeśanā.

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¹ Sad. P., pp. 55-57, 60.

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² Ibid., p. 59: Bahūni samdhāvacanehi coktam durbodhyam etam hi aśikṣitehi.

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³ Ibid., p. 19, 31, 70: Gambhīram durdarśam duranubodham Buddhajñānam......... sarvaśrāvakapratyekabuddhaiḥ. Cf. Hinayāna passages: Ayam dhammo gambhīro duddaso duranubodho santo paṇīto atakkāvacaro nipuṇo paṇḍitavedaniyo (Dīgha, II, p. 36; Majjhima, I, p. 160; Mtu., III, p. 314; Divyā., p. 492; Lal. Vis., p. 395-6.) It will be observed that the Sad. P. retains the Hinayāna passage almost verbatim replacing ‘duranubodham paṇḍitavedaniyam’ by ‘duranubodham Buddhajñānam sarvaśrāvakapratyekabuddhaiḥ’.

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⁴ Śata., pp. 121-2.

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The second statement of the Hinayānists, that Buddha preaches his dharma in a way suited to the tendencies and capabilities of the hearers, has given opportunity to the Puṇḍarīka⁵ to parade the intellectual superiority of the Mahāyānists over the Hinayānists. It says that Buddha preached to people his dharma by adopting hundreds of expedients (upāyakauśalyaśatair anekaiḥ) after observing their mental tendencies (āśaya), their spiritual aspirations, their religious merits, and the variety of their actions (citrāṇi karmāṇi). To make his dharma universally attractive, he had recourse to various kinds of expressions, reasonings, and illustrations, and in fact, it was with this object that his teachings were imparted in nine forms, viz., sūtra, gāthā, itivṛttaka, jātaka, adbhuta, nidāna, aupamya, citra, and geyya.¹ It was for those who had lower aspirations, who had not performed the necessary duties under the previous Buddhas, and who were still attached to the world with its pleasures and sorrows that he had to preach how to attain Nirvāṇa only for their own selves. This was an expedient adopted by him to make them all ultimately realise the Buddhajñāna, but he never told them that they would become Buddhas, as the time was not ripe for it. Now that the time had arrived, the truth that the navāṅgas were only upāyakaśalyas for leading all men to the highest perfection was given out.

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As they were sons of Buddha, pure in conduct, wise and learned, and had performed duties under previous countless Buddhas, the Vaipulya Sūtras were preached to them.² Aware of the noble aspirations of these disciples, Buddha tells them that they will, in future, become Buddhas and benefactors of the world. If the Śrāvakas can retain in their memory one verse of this great śāsana, (i.e., the Puṇḍarīka),³ they will attain Bodhi. To show that the Teacher had only one form of teaching, understood differently by different persons according to their capabilities, the treatise uses some interesting analogies, one of which is that the clouds water the trees, plants, and shrubs of the countless lokadhātus but the trees, plants, and shrubs absorb the water in different ways according to their capabilities and grow according to their sizes and species; similarly Buddha showers the dharma possessing the same qualities (rasa), viz., vimuktirasa (emancipation), virāgarasa (absence of attachment) and nirodharasa (suppression of senses), etc.,⁴ and leading to omniscience (sarvajña-jñāna) but producing different results according to the capabilities of the disciples. The simile of the sun shedding the same kind of light over all beings has also been used to show Buddha imparting the same teachings. This could not convince some of the Śrāvakas who enquired as to why there existed distinctions as Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas.

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The two analogies cannot be applied with all their implications to Buddha, for the sun or the clouds remain unconcerned about the subjects of their benefactions, while Buddha always discriminates between them according to their lower, medium, or higher aspirations,¹ and degrees of religious merit and capabilities. Not only this. He, in fact, did not think it desirable to teach everybody the dharma which leads to sarvajña-jñāna (omniscience possessed by a Buddha), for it may not conduce to the welfare of disciples not yet fit to utilize same. The treatise, therefore, uses a parable to emphasize this point, viz., that of a potter. A potter turns out of the same clay earthen pots of various descriptions, such as, curd-jar, milk-jar, and so forth, just as the dharma of Buddha passing under three names has really the same substance. This refers to one yāna explained in three ways, the Buddhabodhi delivered in three forms (Buddhabodhim tridhā vibhāsye' ha prakāśayeyam).² The parable concludes by saying that Buddha cannot be regarded as having said that he would lead some of his disciples by Hīnayāna, for that would attribute to the Teacher niggardliness (mātsarya), envy (īrṣyā), whim (chandarāga) and ill-will (pāpacitta),—which is absurd. From all this it is apparent that according to the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, Hīnayānism was really a lower form of teaching, but it was only an upāyakauśalya adopted by the Teacher on account of the poverty of intellect of his early disciples.

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⁵ Sad. P., pp. 71; cf. the corresponding Hinayāna expressions, ante.

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¹ Sad. P., p. 45. The enumeration is a little different from the usual. The Pañcaviṃśati (A.S.B. ms.) leaf 165 remarks that only five Buddhas preached in the Navāṅga form. See ante, pp. 7 ff.

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² Note here the contradictions appearing in the text. The treatise, in fact, now attributes to the Śrāvakas all the qualities, lacking which they were in other places shown as inferior to the Bodhisattvas and unfit for hearing the Mahāyāna doctrines.

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³ Sad. P., p. 46.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 124.

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¹ Sad. P., p. 140: Anuttarāṃ Buddhabodhim deśayatyagrayānike. Prakāśayati madhyāṃ tu madhyaprajñāya nāyakaḥ, saṃsārabhīrave bodhim anyāṃ saṃvarṇayatyapi.

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² Ibid., p. 55.

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The treatise then proceeds to remove a suspicion that might be entertained by the opponents regarding the straightforwardness of the Teacher in the adoption of the upāyakauśalyas. It uses a parable to explain away the suspicion. A rich old man owns a very big house which can accommodate five hundred persons, but the house has only one door, and a roof of straw (tṛṇa). Suddenly, the house catches fire, the old man comes out, but his twenty sons remain within it unmindful of the fire. He thinks that he is strong enough to bring them out safely. The father apprises them of the fire and asks them to come out but they will not believe him. As the father knows the playthings coveted by his sons, he thinks of using the expedient (upāya-kauśalya) of tempting his sons out of the house by offering them the toys called Goratha, Ajaratha, and Mṛgaratha. He places them outside the house, and the boys run to reach them. When the father sees them all out of danger, he feels happy, and gives them not the ordinary toys placed by him outside the gate but toys of immeasurable value, as he is immensely rich.¹ Buddha is compared here to the rich father, and the three rathas to the three yānas. The means of exit from the fire is only one and the Teacher attracts his disciples out of the fire through the exit and gives them the invaluable ratha, the Buddhayāna.² This illustration is open to criticism, for the Hinayānists might say that Buddha promised one thing and gave another, and therefore, he was open to the charge of having spoken a falsehood. The treatise meets it by saying that though Buddha was speaking of three yānas, he had all along in his mind the excellent one. By all these it is sought to establish that Buddha had only one religion and it was Mahāyāna, but his first disciples were not intelligent enough to grasp it and what they gave out as Buddhism was really a superficial view of the religion.

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¹ This parable is also cited in the Laṅkā., p. 88 : Rājā śreṣṭhī yathā putrān vicitrair mṛṇmayair mṛgaiḥ, pralobhya krīḍayitvā ca bhūtān dadyāt tato mṛgān. tathāham lakṣaṇais citrair dharmāṇām pratibimbakaiḥ, pratyātmavedyām putrebhyo bhūtakoṭim vadāmy aham. (Just as kings or rich bankers first tempt their boys by various kinds of earthen deer and then give them the real deer, so also Buddha tempts his disciples first by various appearances of dharmas and their characteristics, ultimately enabling them to know the true existence, which is realisable within one's own self.).

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² Sad. P., pp. 71-76.

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