Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.5

c8.5

Though this is essentially the relative position of the Hinayānists and the Mahāyānists with regard to the stages of spiritual progress, one must, however, add to it the various other features, which are so often repeated by the Mahāyānists about their chief aim being not so much to attain happiness and emancipation for their own selves as to enable the suffering millions of the world to attain happiness and escape from the misery of the world, even at the cost of the adepts' lives and religious merits. So while detailing the attainments necessary for each bhūmi, the texts point out the progress made by a Bodhisattva in regard to the Āśaya, Upadeśa, Prayoga, Upastambha and Kāla,¹ as also the Ākāra, Liṅga and Nimitta.² If these additional features of the Mahāyānic account of the first six bhūmis be left out, one may reasonably say that the description of the six bhūmis is simply a Sanskritised form of the Pāli passages, which deal with the stages of sanctification. Hence, the real addition of the Mahāyānists is the last four bhūmis, viz., Dūraṅgamā, Acalā, Sādhumatī, and Dharmameghā.