Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.s2.t2.1

c8.s2.t2.1

It is in the Madhyamakāvatāra that we find mention of a pre-Bodhisattva stage called the Adhimukticaryābhūmi. The Madhyamakāvatāra,⁶ quoting the Ratnamegha-sūtra, says that the bhūmi of the Bhaviṣyad (future) Bodhisattva is placed just before the first bhūmi and consists essentially of excessive (adhimātra-adhimātra) practices of the adhimukti (aspiration). He is a future Bodhisattva because he has not yet developed Bodhicitta. He is therefore said to be in the Adhimukticaryābhūmi, *i.e.*, he has been aspiring to become a Buddha by following the doctrines of Mahāyāna. After hearing a religious discourse, or praises and accounts of the powers of a Buddha, he has only passing thoughts that he would become a Buddha, but unless and until this thought stays permanently in his mind, he cannot be said to possess Bodhicitta and become an Ārya, a Bodhisattva.¹