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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s1: (a) Preliminary

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c7.s1

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English

Contents

(a) Preliminary

Hinayāna Doctrines Evaluated in the Early Mahāyāna Scriptures

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In the course of our examination of the attitude of the Mahāyānists towards the Hinayānists we have found that the former have utilized the doctrines of the latter but have shown that these in their opinion are only an imperfect exposition of the Truth which Buddha had in his mind. The Prajñāpāramitās mention the doctrines, which loom large in the eyes of the Hinayānists, e.g., the Caturāryasatyas, the Pratītya-samutpāda, the Bodhipakṣika-dharmas, the four phalas, the minute divisions and sub-divisions of dhātus, citta and caittas, in order to show from the standpoint of śūnyatā, that the doctrines, which engaged the attention of the Hinayānists so seriously and for the analysis of which they had taken so much pains, were of little consequence, as the view taken by them of the Truth was only a partial one (sāmvṛta) and would not carry them to the goal, or help them in realising the ultimate (paramārtha) truth. The Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, which regarded Hinayāna as a stepping stone to Mahāyāna, did not reject the Hinayāna doctrines as altogether useless. It showed that the Hinayāna doctrines had a value of their own. Though they might not have helped the realisation of the ultimate truth, yet they could carry their followers to a stage from which it would not be difficult for them to reach the state of perfection the Mahāyānists had in view. It also claimed that the Hinayāna doctrines were preached by Buddha as much as the Mahāyāna doctrines but that the former were only an upāya (expedient) adopted by him to meet the weak intelligence of his early disciples. The Puṇḍarīka¹ cites in this connection a remark attributed to Buddha: "I am the great ascetic (ṛṣi) and father of all beings who are born in the three dhātus (i.e., Kāma, Rūpa and Arūpa) and cling to desires (kāma). The three dhātus are dreadful, full of hundreds of sufferings; there are burning in them incessantly the fires of birth, old age, and disease. I have come out of these three dhātus and am living alone peacefully in open air, but as these fires are burning my ignorant sons, they are affecting me as well. I know the dangers (ādīnava) and I know the way out, but these ignorant persons will not hear my excellent admonitions. So I have to take recourse to the expedient of showing them only the path of escaping from the miseries of the three dhātus. To those of them, who have taken refuge in me and have acquired the six abhijñās (higher knowledge) and the three vidyās,¹ or to those, who have become Pratyekabuddhas or never-to-turn-back (avaivartika) Bodhisattvas, I now say that they should take to the Buddhayāna and become Jinas. I tell them of the excellent knowledge of the Buddhas, their powers (bala), trances (dhyāna), higher trances (vimokṣa) and contemplations (samādhi). To the Śrāvakas who have attained what they call Nirvāṇa, I say that they are all my sons and I am their father. I have brought them out of their sufferings (duḥkha) which were consuming them for innumerable kalpas. I call this state of theirs also Nirvṛti but they have not yet attained the Nirvṛti in its fullness. They have freed themselves from the sufferings of transmigration; now they should seek for the yāna leading to Buddhahood."

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¹ Sad. P., pp. 89-92.

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¹ The three Vidyās, in the enumeration, refer to three of the six Abhijñās, viz., Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇam, Sattānam cutūpapāte ñāṇam, and Āsavānam khaye ñāṇam. See Dīgha, III, p. 220. The remaining three Abhijñās are Dibbasota, Dibbacakkhu and Paracitta-vijānanam.

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The Bodhisattvas are asked by the Teacher to observe the rules of conduct leading to Buddhahood while those who have low desires are asked by him to realise the four āryasatyas. Those who are not conscious of the sufferings (duḥkha) or their causes are apprised of the fact that tṛṣṇā (desire) is the cause of all sufferings (duḥkha-samudaya). To get rid of tṛṣṇā, the third and fourth truths, nirodha-satya and mārga are explained to them. But in fact those who have reached the end of the mārga are not completely liberated (anirvṛta), and so they cannot be considered to have attained emancipation (mokṣa), which one cannot reach unless and until he possesses agrabodhi.

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To show more clearly the relation between the Mahāyāna and the Hinayāna doctrines, the Puṇḍarīka introduces one of the frequently used similes of the Buddhist literature,¹ viz., that of the man born blind. A man born blind does not believe in the existence of the sun and the moon, or of such other objects, even if he is told of their existence. A physician, who can cure all kinds of diseases, finds out that the man's blindness is due to his past evil deeds. He knows that all diseases are due to the abnormal state of any of the three humours, viz., wind (vāta), bile (pitta), phlegm (śleṣman) or their complicated derangements (sāmnipātika). He thinks of the remedy and finds that the special medicines required for the malady are available only in the Himalayas. Out of compassion for the blind man he procures the medicines and by their application cures him of his blindness. The man now realises his foolishness for not having believed in the existence of the sun, moon, and stars, and is possessed by the idea that he can see all that is to be seen and all that others can see. He is told by some ṛṣis who are possessed of the five kinds of superior knowledge (abhijñā), that his pride is baseless, because he has no prajñā and is therefore not a wise man (paṇḍita), for he is not able to see what is behind the wall, or know the minds of others, or hear what is being said at a distance of five yojanas, and so forth. On enquiring how he is to attain them, he is advised to live in a forest or a cave, meditate on the dharma and get rid of passions (kleśas). He accordingly retires from the world, lives in a forest and attains those five abhijñās. In the light of his new acquirements, he realises how small in comparison were his previous powers.

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¹ Cf. Mil., pp. 134, 135.

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The simile is then explained as follows: the blind men represent the beings who are in one of the six forms of existence (saḍgatyupapanna) and ignorant of the true doctrines. They have been blinded by avidyā (ignorance of the Truth), from which have followed the saṃskāras (impressions), then nāmarūpa (name and form) and ultimately the duḥkhaskandha (sufferings). The Tathāgata who has escaped from the three dhātus reappears there out of fatherly love (maitrī) and compassion (karuṇā). He sees the beings passing through the cycles of existence unaware of the means of escape. Through his extraordinary power of perception he ascertains that there are beings, of whom some have little hatred but strong attachment (mandadveṣa tīprarāga), some little attachment but strong hatred (mandarāga tītradveṣa), while others are wise (paṇḍita) or unwise (alpaprajña), pure (paripākaśuddha), or have wrong views (mithyādṛṣṭi). He accordingly imparts his teaching in various ways suited to the mentality of each. The ṛṣis possessed of the five abhijñās are the Bodhisattvas who have developed Bodhicitta and who after attaining anutpattikadharmakṣānti (belief in the non-origination of things)¹ will become Buddhas. The physician is the Tathāgata. The humours wind (vāta), bile (pitta), and phlegm (śleṣman) are attachment (rāga), hatred (dveṣa), and delusion (moha), and the four medicines are the meditations of Śūnyatā (essencelessness), Animittatā (non-contamination by objects of perception), Apraṇihitatā (freedom from desire for perceived objects), and the attainment of nirvāṇadvāra. As by the application of medicines the diseases disappear, so by the meditations of Śūnyatā, Animitta, and Apraṇihita, the Avidyā and the sufferings gradually disappear and the mind no longer clings to any idea of good or evil actions.

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¹ See, for explanation, Śikṣā., p. 212; Kośa, I, 6, 39; II, 53, 250 266; Dh. S., p. 63.

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The Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas are compared to the blind men after the recovery of their eyesight. They have cut asunder the ties of saṃsāra (world), freed themselves from kleśas (passions, errors, etc.) and passed out of the three dhātus. They think that by reaching Nirvāṇa they have attained all there is to be attained. The Tathāgata then teaches them that it is by the realisation of the sameness (samatā) of all dharmas that they can truly attain Nirvāṇa. They are made to develop Bodhicitta and realise that they are neither in Saṃsāra nor in Nirvāṇa. They now comprehend that all the three dhātus of each of the ten directions are essenceless (śūnya) like images in dreams. They see all dharmas as having neither origin (anutpannā) nor destruction (aniruddhā), they are neither unfettered (abaddhā) nor fettered (amuktā), neither dark (anandhakārā) nor luminous (atamā). They, who thus realise the dharma which pervades all the three dhātus, can see what is not ordinarily visible.¹

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¹ Sad. P., pp. 133-7.

Fundamental Points of Difference

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The Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, in this manner, clearly brings out the fundamental points of difference between the doctrines of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna. It shows :—

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(1) That Buddha resides aloof from the three dhātus, though he appears in them out of compassion for the innumerable beings who suffer on account of their ignorance of the Truth;

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(2) That the Nirvāṇa of Śrāvakas is only a place of rest where there is no misery, but it is not the real and final rest, and that Śrāvakas after attaining their Nirvāṇa have still to undergo a course of training to enable them to reach the only real and final state, Buddhahood; and

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(3) That the mental capacities of beings vary; so for a certain class of beings (i.e., Śrāvakas), the four Truths and the Law of Causation were preached in order to lead them out of the three dhātus, Kāma, Rūpa and Arūpa.

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These three points require separate treatment, for the first refers to the Trikāya conception of the Mahāyānists, the second to the conception of Nirvāṇa as held by Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas, and the third to the conventional and transcendental truths in Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna.

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(b) The Doctrine of Kāya

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The first point of difference between the Hinayāna and Mahāyāna schools noticed by the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, viz., that Buddha makes a show of his existence in the three dhātus leads us to an examination of the question of the Kāyas of Buddha as conceived by the Hinayānists and the Mahāyānists. Of the Hinayāna schools, the Sthaviravādins had very little to do with the kāya conceptions, as Buddha was to them an actual man living in this world like any other human being and subject to all the frailties of a mortal body. Metaphorically they sometimes spoke of Buddha as identical with Dhamma without any metaphysical implication but these remarks gave opportunity to the Sarvāstivādins and the Mahāyānists to put forth their theories of Dharmakāya.

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The Sarvāstivādins commenced speculating on the kāya of Buddha, but it was the school of the Mahāsāṅghikas that took up the question of kāya in right earnest and paved the way for the speculations of the Mahāyānists.

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The early Mahāyānists, whose doctrines are mostly to be found in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, along with the school of Nāgārjuna conceived of two kāyas: (i) Rūpa- (or Nirmāṇa-) kāya, which included bodies, gross and subtle, meant for beings in general, and (ii) Dharmakāya, which was used in two senses, one being the body of Dharma, (i.e., collection of practices) which makes a being a Buddha, and the other the metaphysical principle underlying the universe—the Reality (Tathatā).

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The Yogācāra school distinguished the gross rūpakāya from the subtle rūpakāya, calling the former Rūpa- or Nirmāṇa-kāya and the latter Sambhogakāya. The Laṅkāvatāra, representing the earliest stage of the Yogācāra conception, calls the Sambhoga-kāya Nisyanda-buddha or Dharmatā-nisyanda-buddha (the Buddha produced by the Dharmas). The Sūtrālaṅkāra¹ uses the term Sambhogakāya for Nisyandabuddha and Svābhāvikakāya for Dharmakāya. In the *Abhisamayālaṅkārakārikā* and the recast version of the *Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā*, Sambhogakāya denotes the subtle body which the Buddhas adopted for preaching their doctrines to Bodhisattvas, and Dharmakāya, the body purified by the practice of the bodhipaksika and other dharmas which constitute a Buddha. For the metaphysical Dharmakāya they use the term Svabhāva- or Svābhāvikakāya. The *Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi* retains the conception of the *Kārikā* but adopts a new term, Svasambhogakāya, to denote the Dharmakāya of the *Kārikā* and distinguishes the Sambhogakāya by calling it Parasambhoga-kāya.

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¹ Sūtrā., pp. 45, 188.

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