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

CONCLUSION
passion, hatred and delusion, they all abandoned this definition in due course
owing to the doctrinal development of their abhidharma systems.
Despite developing other explanations of the word nibbAna, 13 the
Theravadin was perhaps the only school that made an effort within its
abhidhamma to retain its original value: this definition was applied not
only to nirvana but also to the one and only unconditioned. However, at the
end it became a fragile spot in their positive interpretation of nirvana and
was challenged by the disputants (vitaOSavAdins). 14 Their solution was
to devalue this definition as referring to a temporary phenomenon that
appears on one’s going to (tam Agamma) nirvana. 15 Thus, nirvana for them
existed separately (pAMiyekka) from the mere extinction of passion, hatred
and delusion, and on this point the Theravadins were not alone: the
Sarvastivadins insisted that the cessation, like the going out of a lamp,
appeared only at the moment of entering nirvana without a remainder of
clinging (nirupadhiUeLanirvAOadhAtu). 16
For the Sarvastivadins, the word nirvAOa is not in their list of seventy-five
dharmas that exist in the three time periods. Extinction through knowledge
(pratisaNkhyAnirodha), one of the three unconditioned dharmas, is their
equivalent of nirvana. Part of the reason why they use a different name for
their nirvana concept seems to be its application: while nirvana in the early
canon was applied to the extinction of all defilements represented by the
triple fires of passion, hatred and delusion, extinction through knowledge
was applied to the single perpetual separation of an impure dharma from a
series of aggregates. This could be the reason why the above basic definition
of nirvana appeared only as one of ten explanations of the word nirvAOa. 17
In this respect, the state of nirvana within the Sarvastivada tradition was
interpreted positively: it is a real existent (dravya) that exists in the three
time periods. However, this does not mean, as mentioned above, that this
interpretation can be applied to the state of the TathAgata after death, which
is the disintegration of the series of aggregates. When the series of aggregates
has disintegrated, personal identity no longer continues, even if dharmas
that constitute that series of aggregates continue to exist.
Under the influence of the Buddhist theory of momentariness, the nirvana
concept seems to have changed: it prefers non-arising to cessation or extinction.
Since a momentary dharma is constantly arising, enduring, decaying
and ceasing, ceasing or extinction simply means that a new arising follows
immediately. Non-arising in this case means the stopping of any new
sequence of arising, duration, decay and ceasing. All three schools in fact
accepted this change and used it to strengthen their abhidharmic systematisation.
The Theravadins used it to support their positive interpretation of
nirvana by saying that nirvana is ‘cessation consisting in non-arising’, 18
whereas the Sarvastivadins used it to reinforce their equivalent of nirvana,
extinction through knowledge, by saying ‘the cessation (nirodha) that is
acquired through the cutting of the acquisition of a defilement’. 19
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