Against The Stream ~ MAHAYANA AND
HINAYANA
TWO WORDS— Mahayana
and Hinayana— cause much confusion
among Buddhists, I would like to offer a different
way of looking at them. They concern the Buddhist
approach to life.
Mahayana literally means ‘Great
Vehicle’ (of Liberation from Samsara,
or the "Wheel of Change’), somewhat like
a jumbo-jet, that carries many people. Hinayana
is a derogatory term meaning ‘Small Vehicle’
or ‘Inferior Vehicle’ (like a skateboard,
which carries only one), used by people who claim
to follow the ‘Mahayana’ to refer to followers
of the Theravada school or ‘Way of
the Elders’, as if they themselves have already
passed that stage. They say ‘Hinayanists’
are selfish, thinking only of their own salvation,
instead of— like them— the salvation of
‘all beings’. There is tremendous egoism
underlying this claim, and we can be sure than anyone
making it has not understood much at all! Actually,
the word ‘Hinayana’ is a misnomer and
should not be used to refer to people at all, for
both ‘Mahayana’ and ‘Hinayana’,
as I will show, are not schools of Buddhism, but attitudes
of mind.
Nowadays, Buddhism is little more than a
thing of tradition in most parts of Asia, and ‘Mahayana’
has degenerated into a system of worship and prayer
to numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that hope, fear
and superstition have populated the cosmos with. Ignorant
of the Buddha’s Teachings about Karma and the
importance of developing spiritual self-reliance,
people weak-mindedly turn for help and salvation to
celestial beings. They imagine Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
as remote from them— somewhere in the sky, perhaps—
similar to the deities of other religions. And so,
they miss the whole point of the Buddha’s parting
injunction: "Work out your own salvation with
diligence". Enlightenment is an intimate inner
experience, not something that comes to us from outside.
All Buddhists— regardless of the sect
or school they might follow— acknowledge the
Bodhisattva-ideal as being the highest path, as it
is the way of the aspirant to Buddhahood. Upon reaching
his goal and becoming a Buddha, he then has the capacity
to help others become Enlightened (not to forgive
their sins and save them, but more in the sense of
a school-teacher instructing his pupils and helping
them wherever possible, so they might pass the exams
and graduate; he can’t pass the exams for them).
Reaching Enlightenment he is a Bodhisattva no more,
but a fully-fledged Buddha. While he is a Bodhisattva,
as in the case of Prince Siddhartha until he was 35
years old, he is not yet fully-enlightened; indeed,
he doesn’t even know that he is a Bodhisattva.
An Arahant is someone who, by following the
Dharma of a Buddha, reaches Enlightenment, and the
Enlightenment he reaches is the same as that of a
Buddha (it being unconditioned and without grades
or divisions). He, too, may assist others, but his
capacity to do so is less than that of a Buddha. A
Buddha is an Arahant, too, but an Arahant is not a
Buddha, just as every doctor is a man (or woman, of
course), but not every man or woman is a doctor. Both
Buddha and Arahant are free from the chains of Samsara
(phenomenal existence); they no longer have a sense
of separateness and selfishness. (All this, of course,
is from the scriptures, and not from my own experience).
Far from being a way of petition and prayer
for help from superior or celestial beings, Mahayana
is a way of tremendous effort. A person on that
Way does not pray to the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, but,
by using the Dharma, strives to become a Bodhisattva
himself. He does so, not by rejecting the world, but
by understanding that he is the world, and
that he does not— cannot— live
by and for himself alone. Self-interest and fear for
self decrease in direct proportion as to how much
he sees himself as others, just as a sense of separateness
and ego increase the fear for, and pain of, the self.
As an illustration, let us say that there
are three kinds of people in the world: (1) Blind
people; (2) Selfish people; and (3) Selfless
people. Blind people— spiritually blind,
that is— wander aimlessly through life, knowing
and caring nothing about Dharma, infatuated with themselves,
but acting in ways that are inimical to themselves
and that only result in suffering; they think they
love themselves, but actually they don’t. They
are not bad, or selfish, but foolish; selfishness
is something above and beyond them, because selfish
people know how to take care of themselves, at least,
while blind and foolish people do not, and only hurt
themselves. There are so many blind people in the
world; the world is sinking beneath their weight.
If they woke up, they would change their ways.
Selfish people have seen something
of Dharma, and try to live by it, but their
insight is not deep, and they are motivated by self-interest.
Though they would try not to hurt anyone, and do what
is right and good, it is either out of fear of suffering
or from desire for gain— materially and/or spiritually.
But if the world had more people of this kind, it
would be a much better place, for real selfish
people do not kill, steal, lie, cheat, start and perpetuate
wars, etc.; it is the foolish people who do such things.
Abstention from doing evil, and the goodness of selfish
people, though motivated by thoughts of self, benefits
the world in many ways, and keeps it afloat. Like
the bud of a flower, however, goodness at this level
is not full or complete, but it is a necessary stage
of the Path; we must begin with self in order to understand
and go beyond it.
Of course, selfishness here is not as generally
understood, as something negative and anti-social;
not at all! This kind of selfishness recognizes others
and feels for them, even though it puts itself first.
It may be called the Hinayana stage, and
it shouldn’t be looked down upon, but respected
and praised, as it is already a high level. Often,
we find that people claiming to be Mahayanists,
and who look down on others they consider Hinayanists,
have got little more than silly and empty names.
Going beyond self, to the third stage—
that of Mahayana — is accomplished
through seeing, clearly, that we do not live alone,
by and for ourselves. Life is a Whole, with many parts,
like a multi-faceted diamond; we are not separate
and alone, but inter-exist with everything that is.
And whereas, before, we were motivated by thoughts
of self— fear of suffering, old age, sickness,
death, of not attaining Enlightenment, and of therefore
remaining in Samsara indefinitely—
now, through insight, we have power over
the vicissitudes of life. We see that most of our
suffering comes from ignorance and stupidity, and
so can be avoided— a discovery of tremendous
importance! Instead of looking for the causes of our
problems outside ourselves, we find them inside! It
is then within our capacity to communicate this to
others who might be ready for it, to shout it from
the rooftops, to proclaim to others that the only
chains that bind us are of our own forging. This—
and not a Buddhist sect or thinking with a separatist
mind— is Mahayana; it is the essence
of Enlightenment, and available to all.
We can follow the Mahayana, but nobody with
any modesty would say that he does so; indeed, he
would probably not be aware of it, and might even
deny it! There are no outward signs by which a Bodhisattva
might be recognized; certainly, he would not float
around on a lotus-flower, as depicted in popular but
misleading Buddhist art. And if a Bodhisattva can
help someone, he will help; it is not necessary to
pray to him, but only necessary to put oneself in
a position where one can be helped by first helping
others. If one does not prepare oneself in this way,
one will have no basis for receiving help from others.
We must first give out before we can receive, sow
the seeds before reaping the harvest.
Conclusion: Mahayana and Hinayana
are attitudes of mind or levels of consciousness,
not sects or schools of Buddhism.
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