不具菩提心，不入大乘道

The difference between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism

第三、大乘和小乘的差别

What is the difference between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism? It is a matter of having bodhicitta or not.

大乘和小乘的区别是什么呢？就是有没有菩提心。

What is bodhicitta? The answer is simple and known to everyone, at least in words: bodhicitta is the wish to attain Buddhahood so as to be able to liberate all sentient beings. But in practice, it is not so easy at all. Even some senior monks and people who claim to be yogis of Dzogchen or Vajrayana practitioners have yet developed genuine renunciation and bodhicitta.

什么是菩提心？说起来很简单，每个人都会说：为了度化一切众生而发誓成佛，这就是菩提心。但是要付诸行动却并非易事，即使是修行多年的出家人，并自诩为是大圆满的瑜伽士或密法的修行者，有些人也没有真正生起出离心和菩提心。

When the Venerable Atisha was in Tibet, once during breakfast with some disciples，he blurted out，“Today，a practitioner of Hevajra’Tantra in India achieved the samadhi of cessation of a sravaka.”（This is a concentration in which all gross sensations and thoughts have been totally extinguished. From a secular point of view, it means entering a completely thoughtless state and remaining in that state for a very long period of time.) The disciples asked，“How is it possible for a Hevajra practitioner to descend to a sravaka’s samadhi of cessation?” The master said，''Hevajra Tantra itself is a supreme Vajrayana practice. As he did not practice it for the sake of all sentient beings, it became a practice of the Lesser Vehicle，which led to his downfall.” This story tells us that it is the motivation or the purpose for taking up a practice that really determines whether such practice is Mahayana or Theravada，mundane or supramundane.

阿底峡尊者在西藏时，有一次，他和他的弟子在用早餐的时候，尊者忽然说道：“今天，在印度的一个修喜金刚的修行者，已经堕入了声闻的灭定（灭定就是所有的粗分感受及思维都间断。从世间的角度来说，就是进入了一种很清净的状态，并在此状态中保持很长时间）。”尊者的弟子就说：“修喜金刚的行者，有可能落入声闻的灭定吗？这是什么原因呢？”尊者说：“喜金刚本来是无上密法，但他没有修好，就成了小乘的法，从而堕入此灭定。”所以，判断是大乘的法还是小乘的法，是出世间的法还是世间的法，全都要看自己的发心如何，也就是最初修这些法的目的是什么。