The History of Buddhist Thought c21.15

c21.15

It is in the avadānas of the Sarvāstivādins that we first find the bodhisattva ideal. There we read that Buddha preached so that “ in some the roots of goodness that form a part of release were produced, in some those (four) roots that form a part of penetration, in some the fruit of Entering the Stream was realized, in some the fruit of the Once-returner, in some the fruit of the Non-returner, in some arhatship with the abandonment of all the vices was realized, in some the thought of (attaining) the disciple’s enlightenment was produced, in some the thought of a pratyekabuddha’s enlightenment, and in some the thought of complete enlightenment was produced.”¹ Here the different stages of the disciple’s career are described as we find it in the suttas, but it is preceded by preparatory stages, and there is added to them the thought of becoming a pratyekabuddha as well as the career of a bodhisattva, the thought which arises in him when he decides to win the enlightenment of a complete Buddha. It is sometimes said that this is a borrowing from Mahāyāna. For this, whether true or not, there is no evidence. We do not know how the earliest schools of Mahāyāna began, but we do know that they must have begun amongst the Sarvāstivādins. In the Sarvāstivāda schools there were all the conditions for the rise of such a doctrine. There was the belief in one particular human being who had attained such enlightenment, the belief that he was only one among previous beings who had done so, and also (with the doctrine of rebirth) the belief that he had gradually prepared himself for the great attainment. It is thus clear how the belief might arise that other beings might do the same. Buddha was already preached as the great being who had for cycles of ages undertaken this task for the good of all beings. That others should also undertake the task and, instead of merely winning their own release work also for the release of others, was a new and greater ideal. We know that this new ideal did originate, but we know nothing about its actual origin. To say that the Sarvāstivādins borrowed it from Mahāyāna schools explains nothing. The Mahāyāna schools themselves were originally Sarvāstivādin, so that in any case the doctrine arose in Sarvāstivādin schools.