Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c9.23

c9.23

文 is Bodhisattva-śilakarma-paddhati (Nanjio renders it as "A composition or treatise on the Bodhisattva's śilakarma"). So the Bodhisattva Prātimokṣa Sūtra, from which passages have been cited in the Śikṣāsamuccaya and Bodhicaryāvatāra, is not the one, of which we have found the Sanskrit Ms. but is very probably the original of the Chinese translations, Nos. 1500, 1501, entitled 菩薩戒本 quotations are to be found in the Śikṣāsamuccaya and a list of which has been compiled by Bendall in his edition of the text. That the Mahāyānists looked for the rules of conduct in these sūtras is evidenced by the remark in the Śikṣāsamuccaya that “uktāni ca sūtrānteṣu bodhisattva-śikṣāpadāni” (the duties of the bodhisattvas are mentioned in the Sūtrāntas¹). In the Ratnameghasūtra it is stated likewise that bodhisattvas should know that they cannot attain bodhi by merely observing the Prātimokṣa rules and that they are to perform the duties prescribed by the Tathāgata in the Sūtrāntas². So also in the Caturdharmakasūtra it is said that the bodhisattva duties are to be found in the Sūtrāntas if they are frequently examined. How a bodhisattva is to conduct himself, and what śikṣāpadas are to be observed are all described in the Sūtrāntas³. Thus we clearly see that the Mahāyānists depended upon the rules scattered in the Mahāyāna texts and did not possess a code of the Vinaya rules.