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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.s1: The Literature on the Topic

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c8.s1

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English

The Literature on the Topic

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Regarding the literature on the subject, we may state that in Pāli there are no works dealing exclusively with the stages of sanctification. The accounts are found scattered in almost all the Pāli canonical works as well as in the few available Sanskrit works of the Sarvāstivādins. Buddhaghosa follows the scheme of spiritual progress in his Visuddhimagga. He divides it into three sections, of which the first deals with Sila (moral precepts), the full observance of which results in the attainment of the first two stages, sotāpatti and sakadāgāmi; the second deals with Citta or Samādhi, which results in the attainment of the third stage Anāgāmi; and the third treats of Paññā (knowledge), perfection in which leads the adept to the final stage, Arahatta or complete emancipation.³ Vasubandhu has dealt with the ‘stages’ in various places in his Abhidharmakośa,⁴ supporting mostly, as we shall see later on, the accounts in the Pāli works.

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³ Vis. M., p. 6.

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⁴ Kośa, VI. 34 ff.

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In the Mahāyāna literature, there are a few treatises dwelling exclusively on the stages of progress while there are many which deal with them incidentally. Of the works treating mainly of the Bhūmis, the most important and at the same time comprehensive is the Daśabhūmikasūtra,¹ one of the nine recognised scriptural texts of the Nepalese Buddhists. The next in importance are the Bodhisattvabhūmi² and the Madhyamakāvatāra,³ both following the Daśabhūmikasūtra with minor variations. For works containing an incidental treatment of the Bhūmis, we may refer to the Laṅkāvatāra, Sūtrālaṅkāra and other similar works. The Prajñāpāramitās (Śatasāhasrikā and Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā) devote a chapter exclusively to the treatment of the Bhūmis, though they do not omit to state that from the standpoint of the highest truth, they are devoid of any reality and are mere matters of convention.⁴ The Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā again has a peculiar feature of its own. While speaking of the various practices followed by the Bodhisattvas in connection with their progress in the Prajñāpāramitā, it indicates many of the attainments by using expressions which are current among the Hīnayānists, e.g, Kulaṅkula, Ekavīcika, Sotāpanna.⁵ The Śatasāhasrikā⁶ also gives us a list of ten Hīnayānic bhūmis, which are not in use in the Pāli texts. They are Śuklavipaśyanā (or vidarśanā) bhūmi, Gotrabhūmi, Aṣṭamakabhūmi, Darśanabhūmi, Tanubhūmi, Vitarāgabhūmi, Kṛtāvibhūmi, Pratyekabuddhabhūmi, Bodhisattvabhūmi and Buddhabhūmi. The names clearly indicate the stages which they are intended to signify. The first two refer to the pre-sotāpanna stages, the third and the fourth to the sotāpattimagga and sotāpanna stages, i.e., so long as the adept is in the darśanamārga, the fifth to sakadāgāmi, in which stage rāga, dveṣa and moha reach their minimum (tanutva), the sixth to the anāgāmi stage when the above three are completely eradicated, the seventh to the arahatta stage, when the adept completes all that is to be done, for which reason an Arahat is often called kṛtakṛtya (having done what is to be done). The eighth, ninth and tenth are self-explanatory and need no comment. It should be noted that the treatment of the Bhūmis in the Prajñāpāramitās is much simpler than that of the Daśabhūmikasūtra, and very likely it represents a stage in the evolution of the Bhūmi conception, standing midway between the Mahāvastu¹ and the Daśabhūmikasūtra. The account of Bhūmis in the Mahāvastu appears to be the earliest. The names used are not the standard ones. From the name used in the Bodhisattvabhūmi, it seems that the writers on Bhūmis considered it a piece of literary skill to devise names indicative of the qualities attained by a Bodhisattva in a particular stage.² The description of the bhūmis in the *Mahāvastu* is very scanty and does not contain the details which are important and even essential from the Mahāyānic standpoint. On the other hand, it mentions some disciplinary (vinaya) rules which, a Bodhisattva is expected to observe, and the non-observance of which not only impeded his progress but brought about his fall to the next lower stage. In the accounts of the first three bhūmis, some traces of the description contained in the *Daśabhūmikasūtra* are found, but in the next seven, and specially in the last four, there is hardly anything more than a mere mention of the names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who attained them. It is apparent that the conception of bhūmis was very hazy to the author of the *Mahāvastu*, who tried to supply the gaps by recounting some legendary lives of Bodhisattvas and fictitious names of Buddhas.

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¹ Edited by Dr. J. Rahder, 1926.

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² A portion of the Bodhisattvabhūmi [Cambridge ms.—Vihāra-Paṭala] has been published by Dr. Rahder as an Appendix to his Daśa. Dr. Rahder has very recently published an article ‘La Carrière du Saint Bouddhique’ in the Bulletin de la Maison Franco-Japonaise, Tome II, no. 1—Tokyo 1929. In it he has presented us with some new materials from the Chinese sources.

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³ The Tibetan version of this work has been edited by Prof. Poussin in the Bibl. Bud. Series, and a French translation of the first six chapters of the same has also been published by him in Le Muséon, vols. VIII, XI, and XII. A reconstruction of its Sanskrit text is now being published in the Journal of Oriental Research, 1929, 1930, Madras.

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⁴ Śata., ch. X; Pañca., Paris ms. fol. 122-8.

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⁵ This is the peculiar feature of the Pañca., the Sanskrit original of which is available at present. It is a recast of the original Pañca. of which the Sanskrit original is lost. See Appendix and my Intro. to Pañca. for details.

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⁶ Śata., pp. 1476, 1520=Mvyut. 50=Das's Tib. Dict., p. 475.

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¹ The names in the Mtu. are: (i) Durārohā, (ii) Baddhamānā, (iii) Puṣpamaṇḍitā, (iv) Rucirā, (v) Cittavistara, (vi) Rūpavatī, (vii) Durjayā, (viii) Janmanideśa, (ix) Yauvarājya and (x) Abhiṣeka.

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² Dr. Rahder says in his paper on La Carrière du Saint Bouddhique that the Chinese Avataṃsaka-sūtra devotes a large section to the discussion of the career of a bodhisattva. He says that it speaks of 52 stages (or degrees), viz., "10 especes de Foi + 10 Résidences (adhimukti) + 10 Conduites (ācāra) + 10 Déflexions + 10 Terres (Bhūmi) + Eveil égal + Eveil merveilleux." These, it seems from their details, are only a form of classification of the bodhisattvas according to their qualities and do not indicate the gradual stages of spiritual progress. It is in the fifth item that we find mention of the Bhūmis (stages of progress). They are as given by Dr. Rahder in French, (i) Joyeuse; (ii) Immaculée; (iii) Clarifiante; (iv) Radieuse; (v) Dure-à-gagner; (vi) Droit-en-face; (vii) Va-loin; (viii) Immobile; (ix) Bon-Esprit; (x) Nuage d'Essence. These are exactly the same bhūmis as mentioned in the Daśa. and other works.

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For our present purpose of comparison between the Hīnayānic and Mahāyānic stages, we shall follow the account of the *Daśabhūmikasūtra*, indicating at places its agreements and disagreements with the *Bodhisattvabhūmi* and the *Madhyamakāvatāra*, and referring in the footnotes to the accounts of the *Mahāvastu* and the *Prajñāpāramitās*; while for the Hīnayānic stages, we shall depend mainly on the Pāli works, supplementing them where necessary by the information supplied by the *Kośa*.

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