Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t13.3

c7.s3.t13.3

Prof. Poussin formed his impression mainly from the utterances of perfected saints in the *Udāna* and the *Thera-* and *Theri-gāthā*. His conception of Hinayānic Nirvāṇa appears to my mind to be the magnified form of the pleasant sensation felt by saints in the second and third trances. The *Nikāyas* often speak of the pleasant sensation in the second and third trance as similar to that of a person when his body is besmeared with fine powder by an expert bath attendant; but they do not speak about the sensation felt by a saint while in Nirvāṇa. Prof. Poussin is justified in regarding the highest meditation of Saṃjñāvedita- (or vedayita-) nirodha as a foretaste of Nirvāṇa in this world, but his view that the body of the saint is pervaded by blissful sensation is unwarranted.² The Pāli texts are quite clear about their definition of this highest meditation. In the *Mahāparinibbāna Sutta*,³ Buddha entered into meditation before attaining parinirvāṇa and rose from the lowest to the highest samādhi, the *Saññāveditanirodha*, when Ānanda, imperfect as he was, took him to be dead (parinibbuta). This is the highest meditation to which an adept can reach.⁴ The condition of a person in this meditation is almost the same as that of a dead man. The *Saṃyutta Nikāya*⁵ explains the differences thus: There is a complete cessation of the activities in a dead man as well as in a person in the highest samādhi,—*i.e.*, of the (i) physical activities (*kāyasaṅkhāro*) *e.g.*, inhalation and exhalation, (ii)