Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s1.t2.7

c7.s1.t2.7

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.