The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle - The Bahuśrutīyas

Textual analysis and comparative discussion on early Buddhist sects and scriptures.
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Ceisiwr
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The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle - The Bahuśrutīyas

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Bahuśrutīyas

There are conflicting accounts of the origin of this school. Mahāsāṃghika sources say they split directly from the main Mahāsāṃghika, whereas Theravādin and Sammatīya say they split from the Gokulikas/Kukkuṭikas. Their name means "those who have heard much", likely referring to themselves as learned scholars. They seem to have accepted the Mahāyāna sūtras.

Texts
This school had a Vinaya-piṭaka, Sūtra-piṭaka and Abhidharma-piṭaka. They also had a Bodhisattva-piṭaka. The Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra is a surviving text from this school. On the whole this tradition seems to have fused Mahāyāna and "Hīnayāna" doctrines. It’s possible that their Abhidharma was quite similar to the Sarvāstivādin’s.

Doctrines
1) Five points of the Buddha's teachings are transcendental (lokottara): impermanence, suffering, emptiness, anatta and nirvāṇa. The remainder of the Buddha's teachings are worldly - The very sounds by which these transcendental teachings are expressed is their substance (dravya), which makes them transcendental.

2) Acceptance of Mahādeva's five theses.

3) On the emancipatory (niryānika) Path, there is no deliberation (vicāra).

4) The Truth of Suffering, conventional Truth and the Noble Truths are the Truths.

5) One enters an attainment by means of the view of the suffering of conditioned things, but not by means of the view of the suffering of suffering or the suffering of formations.

6) The sangha is transcendental.

7) There are two truths, a worldly (laukika) or conventional truth and absolute truth (paramārtha).

8) Everything is concept only (prajñapti) and devoid of real existence.

9) The person does not really exist, contrary to the Vātsīputrīyas.

10) The Buddha is not included within the Sangha, as is claimed by the Mahīśāsakas.

11) A past action which has not ripened into a result exists yet the rest of the past does not exist, contrary to the Kāśyapīyas.

12) It cannot be said that everything exists, nor that the past and future exist, nor that they do not exist.

13) It cannot be said that an intermediate existence exists, nor that it does not exist.

14) It cannot be said that clear comprehension is progressive, nor that it is not so.

15) It cannot be said that an Arahant can regress, nor that he cannot regress.

16) It cannot be said that the mind is clear by nature, nor that it is not so.

17) It cannot be said that the latent tendencies are associated with thought nor dissociated from thought.

18) Whoever gives a gift to the Buddha or Sangha will generate much merit.

19) The fetters cannot be abandoned by the worldly path.

20) There are 10 kinds of emptiness in the sense of anatta.

21) There are two unconditioned dharmas: nirvāṇa and space.

22) It cannot be said that unconditioned things really exist, since they are pure absences nor that they do not exist.

Up next: Prajñaptivāda.
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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