The general Mahayana, like the Hinayana, can be subdivided into two vehicles: the Paramitayana and the Mantrayana. The cause for differentiating them into the particular Hinayana and Mahayana lineages is whether or not they have the methods of generating bodhichitta and so forth. Just so the mother, the perfection of wisdom, is the common cause of the sons, all four kinds of aryas: shravaka aryas, pratyekabuddha aryas, bodhisattava aryas, and buddha aryas. This is the assertion of Arya Nagarjuna and his disciple Aryadeva: A mother is the common cause of all her sons, and their fathers are the causes for distinguishing their races. Thus, the Mahayana and Hinayana are not distinguished due to differences in their philosophical viewpoints, but they are differentiated according to their respective practice and non-practice of the entire range of skillful means. They also teach the dedication of merits to enlightenment, the two accumulations of merit and gnosis, and the inconceivable reality that is purified of all stains. The doctrines of the Mahayana do not merely illuminate the selflessness of phenomena, they teach the bodhisattva stages, the perfections, the prayer to achieve perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, great compassion, and so forth. Even though the Hinayana paths do not lead directly to Buddhahood, it is taught that followers of the Hinayana do in fact eventually enter the Mahayana and obtain Buddhahood.Īlthough followers of the Hinayana, like followers of the Mahayana, realize that phenomena are devoid of own-being, it is not the case that there is no difference at all between the Hinayana and the Mahayana. Thus, the Buddha's demonstrations of the path are strictly means to lead sentient beings to Buddhahood. The Buddha appears in the world so that sentient beings may obtain the gnosis that he himself obtained. Thus, do not misapprehend the Hinayana paths as being solely an obstacle to enlightenment, because the Saddharmapundarika sutra and other texts teach that they are methods for achieving Buddhahood. They meditate on it accompanied by the other paths of moral conduct, meditative concentration and so forth, and thus extinguish all their passions, greed, hatred, ignorance and so forth.Įven though Hinayanists do not engage in their path intending to obtain Buddhahood, their path is in fact a means for ultimately leading such people to the stage of Buddhahood. Thus, shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, like bodhisattvas, realize selflessness. Since the main cause of bondage in samsara is grasping at a self, the main cause of obtaining the freedom of liberation is the wisdom that realizes the meaning selflessness. People with the propensity to follow these two Hinayana vehicles take them up for the sake of their own emancipation as they feel the urgency to first free themselves as quickly as possible from the vicious cycle of existence. The shravakas and pratyekabuddhas can be differentiated according to the relative inferiority and superiority of their faculties and the results they obtain, but the doctrinal features of the paths they follow are basically the same. The Hinayana itself can be divided into the vehicle of the shravakas and the vehicle of the pratyekabuddhas. The Buddha's Dharma, can be divided to two vehicles, the Hinayana and the Mahayana.
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