Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c8.s8.11

c8.s8.11

We have seen that, according to the Hīnayānists, an adept on completion of the paññā practices becomes an arhat. Buddhaghosa devotes the last twenty chapters of the Visuddhimagga to the elucidation of the various matters which comprise the Paññābhūmi. In this bhūmi³ the adept is expected to examine analytically the five skandhas (constituents of the body), the twelve āyatanas (fields of the organs of sense), twenty kinds of indriyas (faculties), four truths, and the twelve-linked chain of causation. These are only the preliminary practices of the Paññābhūmi. These help the adepts to complete the bhāvanāmārga. We have seen⁴ that the bhāvanāmārga commences in the sixteenth moment, i.e., the last moment of the darśana-mārga when the adept becomes srotāpanna. So the adepts while progressing along the stages of sanctification complete the sila- and citta-visuddhis and partially the visuddhi relating to paññā. These visuddhis, as classified in the Visuddhimagga⁵ and the Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha⁶ are "(i) diṭṭhivisuddhi (purity of views), kaṅkhāvita-raṇa-visuddhi (purity by which all the sixteen classes of doubts with reference to the past, present and future are transcended); maggāmaggañāṇadassanavisuddhi (purity consisting in the distinguishing of the actual path from that which is not the path); paṭipadāñāṇadassanavisuddhi (purity of insight during the progress of the practice of discernment), and ñāṇadassanavisuddhi¹ (purity-insight or path-insight).² In the arhat stage, the adept gets rid of the five saṃyojanas (uddhambhāgiyas), all kilesas (afflictions), āsavas (impurities) and comprehends finally the real sense of the four truths, i.e., he obtains perfect knowledge and his mind is completely freed. He will have no more rebirth and will attain Nibbāna. This is also borne out by the description of the arhats that we find in the Prajñāpāramitās and other Mahāyāna texts. It generally runs thus: An arhat is kṣīṇāsrava (devoid of the four āsravas). niṣkleśa (free from afflictions), vaśībhūta (with a well-controlled self), suvimuktacitta (with the mind completely freed), suvimuktaprajña (with knowledge cleared up), ājāneya (well-bred), kṛtakṛtya (doer of all that is to be done); apahṛtabhāra (relieved of the burden of five skandhas), anuprāpta-svakārtha (successful in achieving the object of life) and parikṣīṇabhavasaṃyojana (free from the fetters of rebirth).