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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c9.s8.t1: (A) Kalyāṇamitra

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c9.s8.t1

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(A) Kalyāṇamitra

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(i) Bodhisattvas should have kalyāṇamitras (spiritual advisers). In the Mahāyāna texts, the kalyāṇamitra plays an important rôle. In the *Prajñāpāramitās* it signifies any person, layman, or monk, who teaches the bodhisattvas that things are transitory, and non-existent in the highest sense, advises them to perform the kuśalamūlas (good deeds), and tries to create in them an interest for Sarvajñatā (omniscience) through Mahāyāna, avoiding Hīnayāna. Those who advised the bodhisattvas to study the Aṅgas (scriptures) and to practise the various dhyānas, apramāṇas, ārūpya-samāpattis and so forth, or in other words, the practices of the Hīnayānists, and dissuaded them from practising the pāramitās and studying the sūtrāntas, should be regarded as pāpamitras (evil friends²). It is enjoined upon a bodhisattva never to forsake a kalyāṇamitra even at the cost of his life, because the duties to be followed by him are all explained in the sūtrāntas which can be learnt only from a kalyāṇamitra³. A kalyāṇamitra, according to the *Bodhicaryā-* vatāra¹, is one who is well versed in the bodhisattvasaṃvara (discipline) and thoroughly knows the Mahāyāna. One should reverently attend upon him for the sake of detailed knowledge (parijñāna)². A kalyāṇamitra protects a bodhisattva from falling into evil courses (durgati), doing improper deeds, frequenting pleasure resorts and so forth. He also brings him out of the worldly life³. The bodhisattvas in their turn should approach the kalyāṇamitra with a firm and tranquil mind, ready to obey him and carry out his wishes, however difficult they may be, just as a dutiful son would do to his father and a patient to his physician, taking his instructions as medicines, and the consequent attainments as the cure of diseases⁴. The Śikṣāsamuccaya also quotes many texts about the duties of a kalyāṇamitra and his disciple⁵. According to it, a person, who teaches even a gāthā of four pādas, is a kalyāṇamitra⁶; hence a dharmabhāṇaka is a kalyāṇamitra. Thus we see that a kalyāṇamitra is a very wide term and includes both Ācārya and Upādhyāya. Though we do not come across the actual rules observed by the kalyāṇamitra and his antevāsika (disciple) as we get in the Vinaya of the Hinayānists, we may infer from the above description of the duties of a kalyāṇamitra and his disciple that the texts have in view the Hinayānic rules of conduct. The term is also found in use in the later Pāli texts. In the Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa uses it in the sense of both Ācariya and Upajjhāya, and even calls Buddha a sabbākārasampanno kalyāṇamitta, (a perfect friend or spiritual adviser⁷). He also points out that kalyāṇamitta is a kammaṭṭhanadāyaka (prescriber of the basis of meditation), which is really the function of an Ācariya.⁸

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² *Śata*., pp. 937-1041, 1185, 1190; *Pañca*. (ASB. Ms.), leaf 216a.

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³ *Śikṣā*., p. 41.

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¹ Bodhic., p. 157.

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² Bodhic., p. 157.

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³ Ibid., p. 157; Śikṣā., p. 35: niṣkāsayitāraḥ saṃsārapurāt. This is similar to the function of an Ācariya.

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⁴ Bodhic., p. 158.

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⁵ See e.g. Śikṣā., pp. 34-6.

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⁶ Ibid., p. 37.

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⁷ Vis. M., pp. 121, 98; also pp. 89, 98, 99. Kalyāṇamitta is used in a general sense in the Maṅgalasutta and the Saṃyutta, I, p. 88.

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⁸ For the duties of the Ācariya and the Upajjhāya, see Cv., VIII, 12-14.

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