The History of Buddhist Thought c28.s5.7

c28.s5.7

¹ Dr. N. Dutt makes the astounding statement that “the Mahāyānists lacked a well-codified Vinaya corresponding to that of the Hīnayānists” (*Aspects*, p. 290), as if the schools that adopted Mahāyāna had not always been in possession of a well-codified Vinaya. The ancient Vinaya belonged as much to them as to the Hīnayānists. They added a compendium of rules for bodhisattvas, but even the bodhisattva, if he was a monk, still had the Vinaya rules to keep, and even though he began as a layman, he was always a monk in the higher stages of his career.