Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The ... - misterdanger.net

THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA
the AbhidharmakoUabhALya 143 and his opinion was later contested by
Sawghabhadra in his NyAyAnusAraUAstra from the Sarvastivada-Vaibhalika
perspective. 144 This stanza was later quoted and explained by Candrakcrti
in the PrasannapadA, the commentary on MElamadhyamakakArikA. 145
Vasubandhu quotes this stanza in the AbhidharmakoUabhALya as follows:
‘His mind was liberated like the going out of a lamp.’ 146 After quoting this
verse, he comments ‘as the going out of a lamp is non-existence (abhAva), in
that way the mind of the blessed one too was liberated’. 147
Within the AbhidharmakoUabhALya, the core of the debate on issues
surrounding Anuruddha’s stanza between the Sarvastivada-Vaibhalikas
and the Sautrantikas is grammatical. What the Sarvastivada-Vaibhalikas
tried to establish by grammatical analysis was that nirvana is, as seen in
Sawghabhadra’s effort in the NyAyAnusAraUAstra, a real dharma existing separately
from phenomenal extinction, which is likened in Anuruddha’s stanza
to the going out of a lamp.
First, the Sarvastivada-Vaibhalikas used the genitive case to insist that
nirvana is a cessation (nirodha) which is acquired through the cutting of the
acquisition of defilement: 148
[Vaibhalikas] How is the genitive case understood in the sentence,
‘This is the cessation of that thing (vastu)’? [Sautrantikas] There is
indeed no relationship of this [cessation] with that [thing] because
there can be no state of being related as the result of a cause and the
like. But mere negation, ‘the non-existence of that’, is applicable!
[Vaibhalikas] The cessation (nirodha) that is acquired through the
cutting of the acquisition of defilement, even in another existence, is
designated as ‘of that [thing]’. [Sautrantikas] In that case, what is
the cause of limitating the acquisition of that [thing]? [Vaibhalikas]
The sEtra talks about ‘a monk who has attained nirvana in the
present life’. 149 In that case how could he have the acquisition of
non-existence? [Sautratikas] It is said that nirvana is attained through
acquiring the basis (AUraya), which completely prevents the arising
of defilement and future life, by acquiring an antidote.
Since a defilement exists in the three time periods in the Sarvastivada-
Vaibhalika system, its cessation is done by cutting, or technically ‘disjoining’
(visaNyoga), its connection with a series of aggregates (skandhasaNtAna)
through the power of knowledge (pratisaNkhyA). As a result of this cutting
there arises ‘the acquisition of disjunction’ (visaNyogaprApti), which serves
as an antidote (pratipakLa) to prevent perpetually the reconnection between
that defilement and this series. 150
Within the Sarvastivada-Vaibhalika system, ‘ceasing a defilement’ could
only be possible by the arising of a dharma, ‘the acquisition of disjunction’,
against the defilement; as a consequence, there are no more activities, arising,
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