The History of Buddhist Thought c22.14

c22.14

The Lord tells Śāriputra that only Buddhas ² can explain things. His knowledge surpasses that of all other beings, and he declares that he addresses all the disciples and pratyekabuddhas, all those who have been established in Nirvāṇa and have been released from the series of pains. This is a direct challenge to the older teaching, and the arhats present are puzzled. Śāriputra asks the Lord to explain himself, and the proud arhats get up and leave the assembly. It is the kind of thing that might quite well have happened at a Mahāyāna meeting in which there were some Sarvāstivādins present. Buddha declares that the meeting has been cleared of rubbish and that it is well that the proud ones are gone. The sole aim why a perfect Buddha appears in the world is to show to all beings the Tathāgata-knowledge. “By means of only one career I teach beings the doctrine, namely, the Buddha-career. No second or third career exists.” But the Buddhas are skilful in devices, and at the decay of a cycle, when the roots of goodness are small they expound the Buddha-career by teaching it as being threefold. They show Nirvāṇa to those of low dispositions, but this is a device to save those who might not believe if they were told that they will become Buddhas (ch. 2).