There are forty-six caitta sa@msk@rta dharmas.  Of the three asa@msk@rta dharmas akas’a (ether) is in essence the freedom from obstruction, establishing it as a permanent omnipresent immaterial substance (nirupakhya, non-rupa).  The second asa@msk@rta dharma, apratisa@mkhya nirodha, means the non-perception of dharmas caused by the absence of pratyayas or conditions.  Thus when I fix my attention on one thing, other things are not seen then, not because they are non-existent but because the conditions which would have made them visible were absent.  The third asa@msk@rta dharma, pratisa@mkhya nirodha, is the final deliverance from bondage.  Its essential characteristic is everlastingness.  These are called asa@msk@rta because being of the nature of negation they are non-collocative and hence have no production or dissolution.  The eightfold noble path which leads to this state consists of right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right rapture [Footnote ref 1].

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[Footnote 1:  Mr Sogen mentions the name of another Buddhist Hinayana thinker (about 250 A.D.), Harivarman, who founded a school known as Satyasiddhi school, which propounded the same sort of doctrines as those preached by Nagarjuna.  None of his works are available in Sanskrit and I have never come across any allusion to his name by Sanskrit writers.]

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Mahayanism.

It is difficult to say precisely at what time Mahayanism took its rise.  But there is reason to think that as the Mahasa@nghikas separated themselves from the Theravadins probably some time in 400 B.C. and split themselves up into eight different schools, those elements of thoughts and ideas which in later days came to be labelled as Mahayana were gradually on the way to taking their first inception.  We hear in about 100 A.D. of a number of works which are regarded as various Mahayana sutras, some of which are probably as old as at least 100 B.C. (if not earlier) and others as late as 300 or 400 A.D.[Footnote ref 1].  These Mahayanasutras, also called the Vaipulyasutras, are generally all in the form of instructions given by the Buddha.  Nothing is known about their authors or compilers, but they are all written in some form of Sanskrit and were probably written by those who seceded from the Theravada school.

The word Hinayana refers to the schools of Theravada, and as such it is contrasted with Mahayana.  The words are generally translated as small vehicle (hina = small, yana = vehicle) and great vehicle (maha = great, yana = vehicle).  But this translation by no means expresses what is meant by Mahayana and Hinayana [Footnote ref 2].  Asa@nga (480 A.D.) in his Mahayanasutrala@mkara gives