Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t3.9

c7.s3.t3.9

The Hīnayānists, however, do not admit that they shake off only the kleśāvaraṇa and not jñeyāvaraṇa as stated by the Mahāyānists. They contend that by the removal of the screen of actions (karmāvaraṇa), of the effects of karma (vipākāvaraṇa) and of afflictions (kilesāvaraṇa),¹ the Arhats attain full knowledge without any veil (anāvaraṇa).² They completely eradicate from their minds the āsavas including the avijjāsava. Of the three branches of their spiritual culture, viz., sīla, samādhi and paññā, the last, according to them, brings home to an Arhat the Truth,³ which is the same for Arhats and Buddhas. The function of Paññā consists in destroying Avijjā, the veil of ignorance, the source of worldly existences, and therefore, of all miseries (dukkha). It is Avijjā, which (i) causes experience of things which ought not to be experienced, e.g., evils through thoughts, words and deeds; (ii) veils things which ought to be known, e.g., the merit of observance of good conduct and so forth; (iii) acts as a hindrance to the realisation of the fact that the five khandhas are in reality an undifferentiated heap (rasatthaṃ), and that the perceptions of the organs of sense are essenceless and that the truths are the same tathatthaṃ;⁴ (iv) drives (javāpeti) beings into the various forms of existence in the Kāma, Rūpa, and Arūpa worlds without cessation; (v) causes one to discriminate between things which in the ultimate analysis have no real difference and clouds one’s vision from the real nature of the khandhas; and (vi) blinds one to the relative nature of the world, *i.e.*, its dependence on causes and conditions (paṭicca-samuppana).¹ By the complete removal of this Avijjā through paññā, a person becomes Arhat and reaches the state which is beyond change, beyond destruction—the state of immortality. There can be no state higher than this. The Hinayānists acknowledge that the Buddhas by their extraordinary merits accumulated in the past acquire omniscience (sabbaññutañāṇa)² and many other powers unattainable by Arhats,³ but they do not admit that the Nibbāna of Buddha is different from that of an Arhat. The knowledge (ñāṇa) acquired by Arhats and Buddhas is *anāvaraṇa* (without any veil) with this difference in the case of a Buddha that his knowledge is detailed and superior in some respects to that of the Arhats.⁴