PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

182Pacific Worldmore demanding than the pursuit of arhatship. It is no exaggeration, then,to suggest that the vocation of the bodhisattva was viewed, by those pioneerswho first embarked on it, as suitable only for “the few, the proud, the brave.” 8ONE COMMUNITY, TWO VOCATIONS:PROBLEMS WITH THE BODHISATTVA IDEALEarly Mahåyåna scriptures often speak of “three vehicles”: the vehicleof the disciple (Ωråvaka), the vehicle of the candidate forpratyekabuddhahood, and the vehicle of the bodhisattva. Although therewas considerable overlap in the practices carried out by the members ofthese three categories, they were viewed as three distinct paths leading tothree distinct goals: arhatship, pratyekabuddhahood, and buddhahood,respectively (in ascending order of superiority). Of these three theoreticaloptions there seems to be no evidence that members of living Buddhistcommunities actually took the middle one—the path of the solitaryBuddha or pratyekabuddha—as a genuine option for practice; indeed,there is not even a name parallel to the terms “disciple” and “bodhisattva”for persons who are pursuing, but have not yet completed, thepratyekabuddha path. 9There is considerable evidence, by contrast, that by the beginning ofthe Common Era a small minority of monks, belonging in all probability toa number of different monastic ordination lineages (nikåya-s), had chosento devote themselves to the attainment of buddhahood. Most of theirfellow monastics, however, were still dedicated to the pursuit of thetraditional arhat path, and the introduction of the new bodhisattva idealseems to have brought with it a number of problems. Some Buddhists seemto have rejected the very possibility of living Buddhists becomingbodhisattvas in the present; others questioned the legitimacy of this “newvehicle,” since it was not recommended by the Buddha in scripturesprerserved in the traditional Buddhist canon (Tripi†aka). And the status ofthe new scriptures known as Mahåyåna sutras remained a contentious onefor centuries, with many Indian Buddhists rejecting their claim to be theword of the Buddha (buddhavacana).Beyond questions concerning the legitimacy of this new path and thescriptures that recommend it, bodhisattvas faced yet another potentiallydivisive issue: that of social status. Those pursuing the path to buddhahoodwere attempting to reach a goal that was universally acclaimed as the mostexalted of spiritual destinations, yet most of these early bodhisattvas’monastic fellows were content to “settle” for the lesser goal of arhatship.One can well imagine the tensions that could erupt in Buddhist communitieswhere the choice by an individual or a small group to becomebodhisattvas rather than Ωråvaka-s introduced a two-tier hierarchy of