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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c9.s7: Mahāyānists Observe Śikṣā-Saṁvaras

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c9.s7

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Mahāyānists Observe Śikṣā-Saṁvaras

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Notwithstanding their idealistic philosophy the Mahāyānists did not underestimate the value of the rules of conduct as formulated by the Hinayānists. It was regarded as a mūlāpatti (grave offence) if a bodhisattva dissuaded a person from the observance of the Prātimokṣa rules and asked him to read Mahāyāna sūtras⁴, and by mistake if one believed that purity could be attained by reading the Mahāyāna texts without observing the rules of discipline⁵. But again it is sometimes said that the aspiration for Tathatā or Śūnyatā or Sarvajñatā absolves one from all sins¹, and hence the observance of samudācāras is not essential. The significance of such a statement is that a person, who is striving to realise Śūnyatā or Tathatā, endeavours to raise his mind to the height where he cannot find any distinction between positive and negative, between offence and non-offence, vinaya (rules) and avinaya (absence of rules), saṅkleśa (impurities) and vyavadāna (purification). He endeavours to go beyond the realm of vikalpa or saṃvṛti, under which fall the disciplinary rules, whence it appears to him that there is no such thing as samudācāra (rules of conduct); and he can therefore be regarded as free from karmāvaraṇa (obstacles due to action²). But this aspiration for śūnyatā³ cannot be had without going through a certain amount of samudācāra for it is often said that they who say that bodhi can be attained by one means (ekanayena) and that means is śūnyatā are foolish. Thus we see that the Mahāyānists felt the need of samudācāra or śikṣāsaṃvara as much as the Hinayānists, and for this, they drew upon the stock of disciplinary rules of the Hinayānists as also upon the common heritage of the Indian religious orders.

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⁴ Bodhic., pp. 147-8=Śikṣā., p. 61.

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⁵ Bodhic., pp. 146, 147.

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¹ Śikṣā., pp. 165, 171-2, 178.

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² Śikṣā., p. 172; for details of Karmāvaraṇa, see Śikṣā., pp. 90, 98, 99. Cf. Patañjali-yogasūtra, iv. 31.

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³ Śikṣā., p. 97: Buddha after saying that he had practised the pāramitās for countless years said, "tat te mohapuruṣa evam vakṣyanti ekanayenaiva bodhir yaduta śūnyatānayene ti"; p. 117: "kā punar iyam sarvākāravaropetā śūnyatā? yeyam bodhisattvacaryāyā aparityāgenābhyāsyamānā abhyastā vā sarvabhāvaśūnyatā"; see also p. 272.

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We have seen that as far as the development of bodhicitta and the practice of the pāramitās, and maitrī and karuṇā, are concerned, no distinction is made between a gṛhī bodhisattva and a pravrajita bodhisattva except in regard to a few directions that are necessary for gṛhī bodhisattvas for performing the duties of a bodhisattva compatible with family life. Though the Mahāyānists approved of the family life of a bodhisattva, they do not, in fact, believe that it is possible for a gṛhī bodhisattva to attain bodhi by continuing to be a householder. The life of Gautama Buddha, always the ideal of the Mahāyānists in regard to the career of a bodhisattva, shows that at the end, a bodhisattva must retire from the household life in order to attain bodhi. In the description of bhūmis, the Daśabhūmikasūtra also points out that a bodhisattva in the fifth or sixth bhūmi seeks ordination and retires from the world. Evidently, they recognise that the bodhisattvas should, at a certain time, lead the life of a monk and abide by the rules of Vinaya.

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