Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c9.3

c9.3

In the extensive literature of the Mahāyānists in Chinese and Tibetan translations, we find some sūtras, which can be classified under Vinaya, as has been done by Nanjio in his *Catalogue of the Chinese Buddhist Tripitaka*¹, but in any case there remains the fact that the Mahāyānists lacked a well-codified Vinaya corresponding to that of the Hīnayānists. I-tsing, who was chiefly interested in the Vinaya, remarks that the Mahāyānists had no Vinaya of their own and that theirs was the same as that of the Hīnayānists². But at the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that the Mahāyānists had a large number of sūtras, which served the purpose of the Vinaya. Nanjio refers to some of them while the *Śikṣāsamuccaya* and the *Bodhicaryāvatāra* furnish us with many such names. Some of these sūtras are: