MAHAYANA SUTRA

The eighth lecture - "The Five Accumulation of Grasping, Mahayana and Hinayana"


Mahayana is superior to Hinayana

But it seems that he had told the process of Mahayana to some of his high disciples. When I read their poems, I can understand that they are far above from the level of Hinayana.

It seems that the teacher have to change the level or the method according to whom he speaks to.

Any way, the difference between the level of Hinayana and Mahayana is great. There is such story in Buddhist text which shows this.
Long before Sakyamuni comes down to this world as Buddha, he was a spiritual practitioner named Mikyak.

One day, True Victor Holy Light went to the palace invited by a king. On his way, there was a paved road and unpaved road. People carpeted their own clothes on the paved road so as to make the path for the True Victor.

However, nobody put their clothes on the unpaved road because the clothes becomes dirty by earth.

But this was not the case with Mikyak. She put her long hair on the unpaved road and let the True Victor pass by. The True Victor Holy Light told the enlightened disciples who were walking after him, "You shouldn't step on the hair of Mikyak. Only Buddha (the enlightened one of Mahayana) can step on this.". Those disciples were the practitioners of Hinayana. And I think his words clearly shows the difference between the enlightenment of Mahayana and the enlgihtenment of Hinayana.

To tell the truth, Mikyak was having promise at that time; I shall offer my hair to the True Victor Holy Light. And with this merit, I hope I become the Buddha in the future. Buddha here means the Mahayana Buddha, or the ultimate enlightened one.

And after he, Mikyak in this story, reincarnated over and over to do his spiritual practice (some people say after 1,000 lives, some people say after 2,000 lives), he became Mahayana Buddha and appeard 2,500 years ago. And he finished his salvation and returned to Mahayana.

The big difference between transcending and detaching

Let's go back to "the five accumulations of grasping" once again. In fact, the practice to detach from the five accumulations of grasping is necessary in both Hinayana as well as in Mahayana. So let's think of how to understand the five accumulations of grasping as the practitioner of Mahayana. In case of Mahayana, please change "detaching from the five accumulations of grasping" into "transcending the five accumulations of grasping".

Then what is thedifference between transcending and detaching? Can anybody answer to this question?

Detaching is to to be detached without any understanding. However, this has a problem. For example, let's say that you had detached thinking, "It is horrible.". But if the new information "It is pleasurable" was given, you may start to think, "Perhaps it is not horrible but pleasurable.", and may begin to approach once again.

Compared to the detachment, to transcend is more certain because it indicates the state when you are not influenced at all, which is done as the result of understanding everything. No matter what information you may be given, you can never lose your stability.

Especially in case of the spiritual practitioners of Mahayana, one should sacrifice oneself and go into the sufferings of other people. If he kept escaping and detaching from the five accumulations of grasping, he is sure to lose his stability. Then there will be a possibility to go into the world of obscuration once again. So you must transcend the five accumulations of grasping, or else you can not do the practice of Mahayana. Could you understand me?

Today, based on the five accumulations of grasping, I spoke about the difference of the level and the system of practice of Mahayana and Hinayana.