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.60Let us move now to look briefly in this context at another Mahayana setra that is thoughtto be quite early in origin, the UgraparipVcchA SEtra.This is a setra that has recentlybecome well-known among scholars for its description of what was involved in being a layBodhisattva.61 It was serious business.Lay bodhisattvas were not ordinary Buddhist laity,but semi-renunciate specialists who had taken specific vows and lived very austerely indeed.There is no suggestion that being a lay Bodhisattva, let alone a monastic Bodhisattva,was some sort of easy path.It is taken for granted that he is a family man, but the layBodhisattva (who is therefore male) is left in no doubt that women are a hindrance in thespiritual path, he should now be celibate, and he is exhorted to see his wife as an enemyor executioner, a burden, and destined for hell (Nattier 2003a: 249 50).He should be 9780203428474_4_001.qxd 16/6/08 11:55 AM Page 3636 MahÖyÖna Buddhismdetached from his son (he too is referred to at one point as an enemy), replacing fondnessfor his son with the spirit of loving kindness for all sentient beings (ibid.: 256).62 Thelay Bodhisattva spends much of his time visiting monasteries, and admonishing othersto take up Buddhist practices.He must make sure he admonishes absolutely everyonein the village or town, or he will be blamed by the Buddhas (ibid.: 236).One gets theimpression such an earnest and self-righteous Bodhisattva might make himself somethingof a public nuisance, a point rather confirmed by the annoyingly persistent and hencepersecuted Bodhisattva Sadaparibheta in the SaddharmapuURarCka SEtra (see Chapter 7below).The Bodhisattva is hence an exemplary lay Mahayana Buddhist, exemplary inmany ways precisely inasmuch as he emulates as far as possible in his lay state the life ofa Buddhist monk.But really, the UgraparipVcchA SEtra suggests, the lay Bodhisattva should become amonk himself.No lay Bodhisattva, it is asserted, has ever become a Buddha while inthe lay state.63 Accordingly the setra shows considerable respect for Buddhist monks,and indeed even those on the ]ravakayana path to Arhatship, in a way that contrastswith the antagonistic approach to the ]ravakayana found in some (later?) Mahayanasetras (e.g.ibid.: 218 19; cf.Harrison 1987; 2005b reprint: 115).It is suggested thatthe Bodhisattva path is not suitable for all.It is one vehicle, the supreme vehicle toBuddhahood, but it is not the only vehicle for a good Buddhist.Since to become a Buddhais the very peak of attainment, it is portrayed as an elite path, a path only for those whocan undertake the long and arduous route through the many, many, rebirths necessaryin order to achieve the complete perfection of wisdom and compassion that issues inBuddhahood.We find in the UgraparipVcchA SEtra that there are among the monks in the monastery itselfBodhisattva monks, as well as mainstream monks following the ]ravakayana.Clearly,then, Buddhist monasteries as represented by the UgraparipVcchA SEtra contained bothBodhisattvas and those monks following the path to Arhatship.Moreover the monasteriesalso contain among their members, and presumably in some sense as inhabitants ofthe monastery, ascetic hermit dhEtaguUa monks as well.These are described as occupyingspecialist positions within the monastery (ibid.: 274).Thus the polarized antagonism of theRAWXrapAlaparipVcchA is not borne out by the UgraparipVcchA SEtra.The suggestion thereforeis that at different times and places in ancient India the scenario on the ground in termsof early Mahayana and its relationship to ascetic hermits, and their relationships withestablished Buddhist monasticism, may have been a fluctuating and variable one.64 Havingsaid that, a great deal of space is taken up in this setra describing the advantages of seriouspractice as a forest/wilderness hermit, and what it involves.So the overall direction of theUgraparipVcchA SEtra is from austere devoted lay Bodhisattva practice through to monasticordination and eventually to serious and sustained practice as a forest hermit, whether ornot that involves occasional controlled interaction with the home monastery (cf.ibid.: 289 90).And as a forest hermit the ideal is severely restricted contact with others.It is clear that asfar as this setra is concerned being a serious Bodhisattva practising according to the ideal 9780203428474_4_001.qxd 16/6/08 11:55 AM Page 37Introduction 37is a matter of isolation from other people.65 It is nothing to do with social engagement, socialaction, or being a do-gooder , even though it is granted that eventually, when perfectionhas been attained, the wilderness monk will finally return to the world in order to preachthe Dharma.That, after all, is what the Buddha did himself.66Finally, I want to draw attention to a partially contrasting picture of forest/wildernesshermits and their relationship to village monks that we get from a little-known Mahayanasetra, the SarvadharmApravVttinirdeZa.This setra has come to the attention of scholarsrecently because of the discovery, in Afghanistan, of a series of fragments from the lost Sanskrittext, perhaps originally from a Mahasatghika library.They are now preserved in Oslo withother Buddhist fragments from Afghanistan, including those from a number of Mahayanasetras, in what is known as the Schøyen Collection.The SarvadharmApravVttinirdeZa SEtrawas not a particularly important Mahayana setra, and it may not be particularly early.Butit does contain some interesting material for our purposes.This setra seems to emphasize a critique not so much of non-Mahayanists who rejectthe Mahayana but rather of other Mahayanists who in the eyes of the setra are onlyplaying at following the Mahayana and have not really understood and do not put intopractice what it is truly all about.67 Among those criticized are forest hermit monks them-selves, and they are criticized in another jataka-type story.A certain monk spends histime not in meditation but travelling from village to village preaching to the laity out ofcompassion.He is a Dharma-preacher (dharmabhAUaka).He is accused in this respect bya forest hermit who loves meditation.This forest hermit is described as having supremelypure morality, supernormal knowledge and powers, and he is a formidable ascetic.He is aBodhisattva, and an expert in meditative absorption.He has founded his own monastery,where he stays in meditation
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