The History of Buddhist Thought c21.40

c21.40

Evidently these schools belong to the southern group which in addition to these doctrines developed a docetic theory of the nature of a Buddha. The theory is best known in literature from the Mahāvastu, which expressly claims to be drawn from the Vinaya of the Lokottaravādins, a branch of the Mahāsanghikas. The tendencies of this group of schools can be well seen in the Kathāvatthu. The commentator puts most of the group in south India, and he is probably speaking of contemporary circumstances with which he was in close contact. The chief principle is that a Buddha is supramundane (lokottara), above the laws and conditions of ordinary human existence. Hence his behaviour as a human being was merely a convention. It should not even be said that he abode in the world of men and taught the doctrine. It was only a mind-formed image of him which appeared in the world. These schools also exalted the powers of the great disciples by holding that they had acquired the powers of a Buddha, and that they as well as a Buddha could work miracles in the true sense.³