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

ANNOTATED TRANSLATIONS OF THE RELATED TEXTS
‘Let it be the same or different. What is the use of your grinding so exceedingly
fine?’ ‘You don’t know whether it is the same or different.’ ‘But surely
it is good if that is known!’ Being repeatedly asked such questions, he is
unable to play tricks and says ‘Sainthood is called the destruction of passion,
hatred, and delusion because it arises at the end of the cessation of
passion etc.’ Then to him they say ‘You have done a great work. Even by
giving a bribe 11 one is getting you to say, he would get you to say just this.
And just as you have said this by making a distinction, so you should notice
this [next remark]. NibbAna is said to be the cessation of passion, the cessation
of hatred, and the cessation of delusion, because passion etc. ceases on
coming to nibbana. All these three are terms for nibbana alone.’
[The refutation continues in this form on the following subjects: ‘plurality
of nibbAna’, ‘grossness’, ‘Change of Lineage (gotrabhE)’ and ‘the Noble Eightfold
Path’, and finally the disputant (Vitaosavadin) asked the kernel of the
problem.]
This has been said, he (the disputant) says: ‘You say “on coming to, on
coming to”. From where have you got this [word] called on coming to?’ ‘It
is taken from a sutta.’ 12 ‘Quote the sutta.’ ‘Thus ignorance and craving, on
coming to this, are destroyed in this, 13 are abolished in this, nor do they do
anything anywhere.’ 14 When this was said, the other speaker (the disputant)
became silent.
The exegesis of the two nirvana theory in the MahAvibhALAUAstra 15
Introductory comment
According to the early canon (sEtra), there are two nirvana elements: nirvana
with a remainder of clinging (sopadhiUeLanirvAOadhAtu) and nirvana
without a remainder of clinging (nirupadhiUeLanirvAOadhAtu) and so on. 16
Question: Why is this discourse composed [by the author of the
JñAnaprasthAna]?
Answer: It is to clarify the complete meaning of the early canon (sEtra).
Although the early canon (sEtras) says that there are two nirvana elements:
nirvana with a remainder of clinging and nirvana without a remainder of
clinging, it does not fully explain their meaning. Thus, ‘what is nirvana with
a remainder of clinging?’ and ‘what is nirvana without a remainder of clinging?’
were fundamental questions for that treatise. 17 Since they are not clarified
[in the early canon], they are explained [in the JñAnaprasthAna].
Alternatively, we have seen above [in the JñAnaprasthAna] that ‘what is
extinction through knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha)? It is all extinction
which is disjunction (visaNyoga).’ 18 Although this disjunction is nirvana,
nirvana is of two kinds: with a remainder of clinging (sopadhiUeLa) and
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