Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t3.1

c7.s3.t3.1

The Laṅkāvatāra⁴ while explaining the position of the Hinayānists says that they believe in the reality of saṃsāra (worldly existence) and are frightened by its attendant miseries from which they seek release; this is only due to their ignorance of the non-existence of any difference between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. The standpoint of the Hinayānists is that the world or things around us are produced out of the five skandhas or seventy-two elements having real existence. The constituted things which originate through some causes and conditions (pratītyasamutpanna) are in a constant state of flux and devoid of any substance.⁵ The mental and physical constituents undergo momentary (kṣaṇika) changes and there is no permanent entity apart from them. It is by the removal of the notion of the existence of an ātman as identical with one of the skandhas or something apart from them that a person attains Nirvāṇa.