Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.s2.t3.37

c8.s2.t3.37

We have in the Hinayānic works also an elaborate description of the qualities necessary for a person to pass from the puthujjana stage to the Ariya. Like the general statements in the *Prajñāpāramitās* about the previous *kuśalamūlas* of the bodhisattvas, we have also in the Pāli texts references to the previous merits (*upanissaya*) of a person seeking ordination or spiritual progress. It is often said in connection with the conversions made by Buddha that he delivered discourses after ascertaining the *kuśalamūlas* (merit-roots or previous merits) of persons whose conversion he had in view. The usual passage is “*satthā paccusakāle lokam volokento imassa kulaputtassa upanissayam addasa*”¹ [the teacher at dawn looked round the world and saw the previous merits (lit. bases) of the man]. This implies that the real benefits of discourses cannot be derived by every body. It is only those, whose previous actions have raised them to a certain height, that derive benefits from the discourses. There are many instances in the Pāli works showing that a person had to have to his credit sufficient merits entitling him to become a *sotāpanna* after hearing only one discourse; there are also cases of persons becoming *sakadāgāmi*, *anāgāmi*, *arahat* or *paccekabuddha* by virtue of their stores of previous merits. The implication in such cases is that the persons in their previous lives had died after attaining the stage of sanctification, or its corresponding qualities, just preceding the one obtained by them in this life. The Hinayānists hold that a *pṛthagjana* must have some *kuśalamūlas* before he can expect to be an *ārya*, *i.e.*, a *sotāpanna*.²