Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c6.s9.16.1

c6.s9.16.1

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.