Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.s2.t3.64

c8.s2.t3.64

niyato sambodhiparāyaṇo (a sotāpanna gone beyond the possibility of retrogression and destined to attain the highest knowledge).” The reply of Ānanda was that one must have firm faith (pasāda) in Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha¹ and must be endowed with all the sīlas liked and praised by the wise. They are called the Sotāpattiyaṅgas.² One who has the four Sotāpattiyaṅgas is considered free of five sins, viz., killing, stealing, misconduct, lying, and drinking.³ The Saṃyutta Nikāya also tells us that when an ariyasāvaka knows the taste, the dangers and the way out of the indriyas, viz., sukha, dukkha, somanassa, domanassa and upekkhā, he is a sotāpanna.⁴ In a discourse in connection with the illness of Anāthapiṇḍika, it is said that the puthujjana was expected also to comply as far as possible with the eight conditions of the aṭṭhaṅgikamagga plus the sammāñāṇa and sammāvimutti,⁵ besides the four sotāpattiyaṅgas. The sotāpattiyaṅgas, in fact, are merely preliminaries, though essential, to the actual commencement of practices for attaining the sotāpatti stage. The duties entailed upon a candidate just after the sotāpattiyaṅgas are a further increase in pīti (pleasure), pāmojja (joy), passaddhi (calmness), samādhi (concentration), and the practice of the cha vijjā- (or nibbedha-) bhāgiya dhammas (six dharmas leading to knowledge), viz., the realisation (anupassanā) of (i) transitoriness (anicca) of constituted things, (ii) unhappiness (dukkha) due to transitoriness, (iii) essencelessness (anatta) of things; (iv) giving up (pahāna), (v) virāga (detachment), and (vi) nirodha (cessation).¹ The Nikāyas do not go into details about the attempts of a candidate in the sotāpanna stage to comprehend the anicca, anattā and dukkha or the four āryasatyas. In the Dīgha Nikāya there is only a bare mention of the four ñāṇas viz., dukkhe ñāṇam, nirodhe ñāṇam, samudaye ñāṇam, and magge ñāṇam.² An exposition of these has been given in the Paṭisambhidāmagga,³ which says that when one has “understanding, search, research, discernment, discrimination, etc. of each of the four truths, he is said to have comprehended the four truths.” This topic has received special treatment in the Kośa,⁴ which may be briefly stated. There are two mārgas, darśana and bhāvanā,⁵ the latter commencing at the last stage of darśanamārga. The darśanamārga has sixteen kṣaṇas or moments of comprehension of the truths,⁶ which are as follows:—