Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c24.s1.7

c24.s1.7

In accord with the Hīnayāna, the Mahāyāna holds that the mode of stopping the activity of the chain of causation demands essentially the co-operation of intuition (*prajñā*) and merit (*puṇya*). Intuition, viewed as the cause of release, involves study, reflection, meditation, and the diverse forms of applications of active attention (*smṛty-upasthāna*);¹ merit includes the inferior perfections of morality, generosity, and patience, and with this are connected the taking of refuge in the jewels, the Buddha, the law, and the order. Strictly speaking, merit is a means, but intuition as cause and merit are reciprocally means to each other, and their common aim is the attainment of intuition as fruition—that is, illumination (*bodhi*), the definite cessation of the activity of thought, or release.²