Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

someone tried to remove the foundation after building
the house? The answer to this question applies also in
Buddhism.
d. These two vehicles are not the familiar and the
remote. The Buddha's personal teaching of the
Hinayana, of course, is very familiar. But the Mahayana
doctrines are close to the truth of sunyata and so they
also may be called "familiar." One cannot and should
not distinguish them as near or far away. The reader
should think for himself, "Which yana should I take first
for study and practice?" That one is familiar to him, and
the next, to which his practice of the first leads, is
remote. This distinction, therefore, is between
individual knowledge and practice.
2. Now we should give some positive explanations:
a. "Great" and "small" mean differentiation discerned on
a basis of wisdom and merit. These two are compared
by the Venerable Tsong-khapa to the feet of the Buddha,
and neither one of them could be shorter than the other.
In what sense is Mahayana great in wisdom? Mahayana
wisdom is great because its teachings of sunyata are
complete, whereas the Hinayana knows only a partial
sunyata; therefore its wisdom is less.
A Mahayanist should know sunyata so well that he can
penetrate to the void nature of all dharmas and so is able
to use them in the conversion of sentient beings and for
316