Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c9.s1.43

c9.s1.43

The Ugradattaparipṛcchā, from which the above information is mostly collected, is apparently a book of conduct for use by the lay bodhisattvas⁸. The question—"katham āśayasampannasyāpy ugradattaparipṛcchāyām gṛham anujñātam" (how is it that in the Ugradattaparipṛcchā those who have aspiration for buddhahood are also allowed to continue the family life?)—makes it clear that laymen, unlike the early Hinayānists, had a place in the disciplinary code of the Mahāyānists, though, of course, preference was given to the life of a recluse in the forest rather than to that of a dweller in the town¹. With the Hinayānists they also hold that ‘na jātu kāmān pratisevamānaḥ putreṣu dāreṣu janitvā tṛṣṇām gṛham ca sevitvā jugupsanīyam anuttarām prāpayati so’grabodhim.’ (Never will he obtain the supreme wisdom by living the detested life of a family man, by enjoying the pleasure of the world, and by hankering after wife and sons)². On the contrary, they extol life in a forest in extravagant terms³.