Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s2.t12.2

c7.s2.t12.2

It will be observed from the description of the appearance of Buddha and his manner of preaching the Sūtras that the Mahāyānists were not yet able to forget or rise above the human conception of the Hinayānists. They still gave Śākyamuni the rôle of the presiding Buddha of the universe, to whom flocked reverently with flowers, incense, etc., all the Bodhisattvas, Śrāvakas and Gṛhapatis of the various lokadhātus of the ten directions, to hear from him the Prajñā- pāramitā, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, or the Gaṇḍavyūha. These Bodhisattvas again had their own tutelary Buddhas, who, according to the Mahāyāna metaphysics, possessed the same Dharmakāya as Śākyamuni. They also came or were sometimes sent by their Buddhas, with messages of greetings and flowers as tokens of their regard, to Śākyamuni Buddha, whose Buddhakṣetra was then the Sahā lokadhātu. Sometimes the descriptions go so far as to say that the Buddhas themselves came to hear discourses from Śākyamuni Buddha, and the concourse of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas became so great that the Sahā lokadhātu had to be cleared of all oceans, mountains, seas, rivers, and cities, as well as gods, men and other beings. As we read in the Hīnayāna texts that monks used to come to meet Buddha, bringing with them one or two sāmaṇeras, so also we read in the Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka that on account of insufficiency of space the countless Buddhas could not bring with them more than one or two Bodhisattvas as attendants (upasthāpakas).¹