Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s4.1

c7.s4.1

The Āryasatyas, as commonly known, are *dukkha* (misery), *samudaya* (origin of misery), *nirodha* (cessation of misery) and *magga* (means of the cessation of misery). The underlying teaching of these four truths is that they are to be treated as formulæ for application to everything perceived. That these four truths constitute merely a formula and not a doctrine has been brought out very clearly in many Buddhist texts. In the *Majjhima Nikāya*¹ while giving an exposition of what the right view (*sammādiṭṭhi*) is according to the Buddhists, Sāriputta takes up, for instance, *āhāra* (food), *dukkha* (misery), *jarāmaraṇa* (old age and death), *taṇhā* (desire), *nāmarūpa* (name and form) and *avijjā* (ignorance) and applies to each of them the fourfold formula, examining it in this way: Take up for consideration a material or an immaterial thing. Ascertain its origin. Inquire how it decays. In pursuance of this method Sāriputta defines Sammādiṭṭhi through *āhāra* thus: One who knows *āhāra* (food), *āhārasamudaya* (how food originates), *āhāranirodha* (how food decays) and *āhāranirodhagāminipaṭipadā* (the way in which the decay of food happens) possesses Sammādiṭṭhi. The first truth relates to Āhāra which, in the Buddhist philosophy, is of four kinds.² The second truth is *āhārasamudaya*, *i.e.*, *āhāra* comes into existence on account of *taṇhā*. The third truth is *āhāranirodha*, *i.e.*, the ceasing of *āhāra* when the *taṇhā* is extinct. The fourth truth is the way in which *āhāra* ceases; it happens by the practice of the eightfold path, *viz.*, *sammā diṭṭhi*, *saṅkappa*, *vācā*, *etc.* One who knows correctly these truths gets rid of hatred and attachment, rises above the belief in a self, drives out ignorance, and attains freedom from misery. So, we see that in these four truths there is nothing particularly Buddhistic. They are found in the Brahmanical systems of philosophy as well.³ For instance, the *Yoga-sūtra* of Patañjali (II, 15)