Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t9.8

c7.s3.t9.8

On a certain occasion a bhikkhu was advised by Buddha to put his question thus:—" What is that place where (distinctions like) water and earth, fire and air have no footing, where long and short, fine and coarse, good and bad, or name and form cease absolutely?" instead of asking "Where do the four elements earth, water, fire and air disappear absolutely?". (The answer quoted above was given to it.) "It is viññāṇa (consciousness), which is signless, infinite⁵, radiant on all sides (sabbato pabham)¹ where all the distinctions mentioned above cease, and where the (constituted) viññāṇa, after cessation, disappears”. Buddhaghosa in commenting upon this passage says that the first viññāṇa is another name for Nibbāna ² while the second viññāṇa is one of the five khandhas. His interpretation, it seems, is based upon a few Nikāya passages. In the *Samyutta Nikāya*³, Buddha referring to the parinibbāna of Vakkali bhikkhu said that the wicked Māra was searching for the viññāṇa (consciousness) ⁴ of Vakkali, who had been just dead, and predicted that Māra’s attempt would not be successful because Vakkali had passed away (parinibbuto) with viññāṇa which cannot be localised (*apaṭiṭṭhita*). The sense of *apaṭiṭṭhita-viññāṇa* is given elsewhere in the *Samyutta Nikāya*⁵, where it is explained as consciousness which requires no support (patiṭṭhā or ārammaṇa) for its origin’. It arises only when the attachment (rāga) to rūpa (material elements of the body), and the other four khandhas is removed. It is unconstituted, devoid of growth and independent of any cause and condition and hence free. Being free it is steady; being steady it is happy; being happy it is without any fear of change for the worse; being fearless it attains parinibbāna.