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

ANNOTATED TRANSLATIONS OF THE RELATED TEXTS
[Sautrantikas] We do not consider this locative case possible.
[Vaibhalikas] What do you mean?
[Sautrantikas] If when one says ‘It does not appear in that [nirvana]’ it is
further meant that ‘that [nirvana]’ exists, then it would follow that attachment
permanently does not appear, since nirvana is permanent.
When one says, then, ‘obtained’, that is to say, ‘that [nirvana] was obtained’
is referred to, you should admit ‘the non-appearance of suffering’ when the
noble path is or attained. 58 [In other words, the non-appearance of suffering
is obtained by a separately existing dharma called nirvana, but by the presence
of the noble path.] And this simile is thus well adduced. ‘Like the going out
of a lamp, his mind becomes liberated.’ 59 As the going out of a lamp is nonexistence
(abhAva), in that way the mind of even the blessed was liberated. 60
The interpretation of Anuruddha’s verse in the NyAyAnusAraUAstra 61
In addition, you should admit that nirvana is mere non-existence from the
following well explained sEtra: ‘His mind was liberated like the going out of
a lamp.’ The [Sautrantikas] think that as the blowing out of a lamp should
only be admitted as the extinction of fire without any separate entity, the
liberation attained by the mind of blessed one is only the extinction of all
aggregates without any [separate entity].
The first counterargument
Masters of Abhidharma have already gone through these texts. In other
words, when one says the cessation of suffering (duPkha), the meaning is
of two kinds: there is no separate entity apart from suffering and there is
a separate entity apart from suffering. The Buddha saw various mental
dispositions of those who are to be trained (vineya). That is why he taught
two different meanings of the cessation. He sometimes taught there is no
separate entity: for example, the two sAtras mentioned above. 62 By contrast,
he sometimes taught there is a separate entity: for example, the sEtras saying
there is certainly the place where there is no birth; the sEtras saying there is
sphere (Ayatana) and is escape (niPsaraOa) 63 ; the sEtras saying I saw that
there really is a thing ( padArtha), the unconditioned (asaNskKta), that is to
say nirvana; and the sEtras saying the cessation is said only by reason of the
cessation of five aggregates as fuel. The sEtras of these kinds are so numerous
that our system cannot be contradicted by the holy teaching.
The second counterargument
In addition, the going out of a lamp is mentioned in the sEtra because there
is a separate entity apart from the lamplight; that is to say, the characteristic of
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