The Dharma of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna Has Never Been Separate

The Buddha's teachings have always been the One Vehicle path, the One Buddha Vehicle. All Buddhist teachings are each one method among the methods for attaining buddhahood. Within the Buddha's teachings, the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna have never been separable—one is the foundation, the other is the advancement and transformation, the progression. Why should they be separated?

The Theravādins regard arhats as Buddhas and regard the Buddha as an arhat; their slander of the Buddha is very serious, so they cannot have the essence of precepts, nor can they attain realization of the fruits. Since they do not believe that the Mahāyāna was spoken by the Buddha, bringing out the Śūraṅgama Sūtra is of no use either. Faith is the mother of merit, the origin of the Path; without faith there is no faculty of faith, and no wholesome roots either, and practice cannot lead to attainment of the Way. Following them to learn for many kalpas is futile labor. If you help them propagate and foster their power, you will foster the power that slanders the Buddha and destroys Buddhism, and will accelerate the destruction of Buddhism and the Mahāyāna sūtras—the offense is truly extremely enormous, an offense of the Avīci hell.

Furthermore, later on the demon king will exploit the foolishness of Buddhist practitioners, pretending to conduct textual research again, and then create divisions of "Eastern transmission" and "Western transmission," splitting Buddhism into fragments, so that no one can attain accomplishment, and all remain under Pāpīyas's palm in the cycle of birth and death. Who has the qualifications and wisdom to conduct textual research on the course of spreading the Dharma and the true events of the Buddha's era? Unless it is a bodhisattva from the Buddha's era who possesses the wisdom of the seeds of consciousness-only (yogācāra seed-wisdom) and has returned again, having cultivated and studied together with the Buddha, possessing the seeds from that time. But if a bodhisattva truly possesses the wisdom of the seeds of consciousness-only, then by looking at the Buddhist sūtras they can quickly judge which was spoken by the Buddha and which was not, and would not be muddled and unable to discern clearly. And by what ability does an ordinary being presume to conduct textual research on ancient Buddhist history? There are even amateur Buddhism enthusiasts doing such textual research—truly the greatest absurdity under heaven!

Greed can be delivered, hatred can be delivered; only foolishness—even the Buddha is helpless against it. Those with hatred fall into hell, and Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva delivers beings in hell; those with greed become hungry ghosts, and various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas go to the hungry ghost realm to deliver them; but for the foolish—bacteria and animals—no one has any way to deliver them; they cannot understand the Buddha's teachings, cannot understand human language.

They also seriously misunderstand meditative concentration (dhyāna); quite a few of them commit the grave false speech of claiming that they themselves and others have attained the fourth dhyāna, when in fact what they have is the state of excessive blankness in preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). In such concentration there are also no thoughts or mental activity, as if one did not exist, and they mistake this for the fourth dhyāna. In such a group there is no one who has realized the fruits, and they fundamentally cannot produce anyone who has realized the fruits and attained accomplishment. Following behind them, one can only create some karma and gain no benefit whatsoever.

Yet some people like the Theravāda's assertions denying the Mahāyāna—what can be done? When Buddhism is destroyed and the great river dries up, how could the small streams still have water? When the Mahāyāna Dharma perishes, Buddhism perishes; when Buddhism perishes, what Theravāda or Mahāyāna is there left? What liberation is there left? It would be better to go study the teachings of non-Buddhist paths—at the very least one would not slander the Buddha and the Dharma, and would not have the karma of hell.