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HINAYANA AND MAHAYANA
(whether mental or physical, inferential or perceived, longenduring or of bricfest moment) is regarded as without substance. The philosopliers of the Mahāyāna liken the universe to a magical display, a mirage, a flash of lightning, or the ripple of waves on the sca. The sca itself, the reality beyond and within the rippling forms, cannot be measured in terms of the ripples. Comparably, the objects in the world are of one reality and in reality therefore one; but this reality is beyond description in terms of phenomenality. This one reality, in its ontological aspect, can be termed only bhūla-tathatā, "the suchness of beings, the essence of existence." In its relation to knowledge it is known as bodhi ("wisdom") and nirvāņa.
That is to say, by treating positively the term and problem to which the Hīnayāna philosophers accorded only a negative description, the Mahāyāna schools transcended the comparatively naïve positivism of their associates and approached the nondualism of the contemporary Vedānta. The Hinayāna thinkers, in short, never really faced the question of the degree or nature of their so-called "reality.” Precisely in what sense were their dharmas and chains of causes and effects being declared to "exist"? How much was being said, after all, when it was insisted that the dharmas were ultimately “real”? The Mahāyāna philosophers, turning their attention to this question, distinguished three aspects in terms of which the reality of any object could be considered: 1. quintessence, 2. attributes, 3. activities. The quintessence of a jar is earth or clay; its attributes, the coarseness or fineness, fragility or strength, beauty or ugliness, etc. of the form; while its activities are the receiving, holding, and discharging of water. Both attributes and activities are subject to laws of change, but quintessence is absolutely indestructible. The waves of the sca may be high or low, but the water itself neither increases nor decreases. And so it is that though all things are born to die-whether as long-lived individuals, or as infinitesimal momentary particles--the quintessence of them all remains un
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