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DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY dharma. In fact, these problem areas were the starting point of the abhidharmic developments of Buddhist doctrines. In this chapter, I discuss the development of the nirvana concept in both the Pali abhidhamma tradition and the Chinese abhidharma tradition and then examine how this development affects the two nirvana theory in the JñAnaprasthAna and in the Theravada exegetical traditions. The Pali abhidhamma works Nirvana with and without a remainder of clinging is hardly mentioned within the seven Pali abhidhamma works. In fact, the word nibbAna is not used in the main body of the DhammasaWgani, the first and oldest work in the Abhidhamma-piMaka. It prefers the expression asaWkhatA dhAtu, which also belongs to the sphere of mental data base (dhammAyatana). 6 The word dhAtu is usually translated by ‘element’ and always refers, according to L. S. Cousins, 7 to a distinct sphere of experience. Visual object, for example, is perceived only by the faculty of sight and not by any of the other five faculties. The word dhAtu seems first to be used with asaWkhatA in the BahudhAtukasutta in the MajjhimanikAya in order to distinguish the unconditioned as an object of experience from the conditioned. 8 Since the term asaWkhatA in the Theravadin abhidhamma retains its earlier usage, nirvana, 9 this expression seems to be established to distinguish conceptually the unconditioned element of enlightened experience from all others. Unlike the early canon (nikAyas), where doctrines were expressed through metaphors and contexts, the abhidhamma works articulate doctrines through classifications and definitions. Nirvana was first distinguished, as a kind of classification, from the five aggregates in the DhammasaWgani in the following way: ‘Which are dhammas with condition? They are the five aggregates: form, feeling, apperception, volitional activities and consciousness. Which are dhammas without condition? They are the unconditioned element.’ 10 Later in the DhAtukathA, it is explicitly stated that ‘the unconditioned is not classified as an aggregate’. 11 The definition of nirvana was first seen in the VibhaWga. It places the unconditioned (asaWkhatA), which is nirvana, both in the sphere of mental data base (dhammAyatana) 12 and in the element of mental data base (dhammadhAtu), 13 and establishes a basic definition of nirvana based on the NibbAnasutta 14 as follows: ‘What is the unconditioned element? It is the cessation of passion, the cessation of hatred and the cessation of delusion.’ 15 The outcome of this early classification and definition was that nirvana was the unconditioned (asaWkhatA), which was different from the five aggregates and was made up of the cessation of passion, hatred and delusion. On top of this notion, the Theravada abhidhamma seems to have a monistic approach towards this dhamma: nirvana is the one and only unconditioned. 37
THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA The KathAvatthu in this respect gives us much valuable information. First of all, the view that there are two cessations, extinction through knowledge (paMisaWkhAnirodha) and extinction without knowledge (appaMisaWkhAnirodha) in Pali, which are two kinds of nirvana, is refuted in the second chapter. 16 It asks ‘Of the two nibbAnas, is one high one low, one excellent one deficient, one superior one inferior, and is there a boundary or difference, a line or interval between them?’ 17 The answer is no. In other words, there cannot be any hierarchy, superior or inferior, or division in nirvana. 18 Moreover, the KathAvatthu also rejects the idea that anything apart from nirvana can be unconditioned. There are six short discourses on nirvana in the sixth book of the KathAvatthu. 19 The subjects discussed are fixation (niyAma), dependent origination (paMiccasamuppAda), the four noble truths (sacca), the four formless spheres (AruppajhAna), the absorption of extinction (nirodhasamApatti) and space (AkAsa). When the opponent insists that these are unconditioned, it replies that if any one of them is unconditioned, it should be regarded as nirvana, as there is only one unconditioned thing. Since the unconditioned cannot be plural, it is not possible for nirvana and something else to be unconditioned. This rejection of plurality was, according to André Bareau, based on the analogy of infinite space, in which there is no limit, and was supported by the following unique argument: ‘If there were various Absolute (unconditioned), various nibbAnas, there would be between them a demarcating limit, one here and the other there.’ 20 I discuss problems or side effects caused both by this abhidhamma definition and classification of nirvana and by the rejection of plurality of the unconditioned in the next chapter, under the heading ‘The Theravada exegetical position on nirvana’. The rejection of plurality in the Pali abhidhamma seems to cause some difficulties concerning the two nirvanas, with and without a remainder of clinging, in the later exegetical traditions. The word dhAtu, which is applied in both cases, seems to suggest that the difference between them is conceptual, as they both belong to the sphere of mental data base (dhammAyatana), like the unconditioned elements. Buddhaghosa, nevertheless, has to make an excuse first in his Visuddhimagga before commenting on the two nirvana theory by saying, ‘The aim of the Buddha, etc. is one because there is no distinction.’ 21 The Chinese abhidharma works It is well known that while the Pali abhidhamma accepts only one unconditioned thing (dhamma), nirvana, the Chinese abhidharma accepts three, space (AkAUa) and two extinctions: extinction without knowledge (apratisaNkhyAnirodha) and extinction through knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha), which is the equivalent of nirvana. Like the Pali abhidhamma seen above, these three unconditioned things are said to belong both to the spheres of mental 38
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METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
Page 4 and 5: TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE WEST Edite
Page 6 and 7: METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
Page 8 and 9: FOR DONGJE MY ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE D
Page 10 and 11: CONTENTS List of figures and tables
Page 12 and 13: PREFACE I am glad to be able to tha
Page 14 and 15: ABBREVIATIONS The abbreviations for
Page 16 and 17: ABBREVIATIONS RV Rgveda. SA SaNyukt
Page 18 and 19: INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION In the Ab
Page 20 and 21: INTRODUCTION to reach it was descri
Page 22 and 23: INTRODUCTION two nirvana theory in
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Page 26 and 27: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE 1 NIRVANA
Page 28 and 29: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE early Bud
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Page 32 and 33: THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY IN THE EARLY
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NIRVANA IN NORTHERN BUDDHIST SCHOOL
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Table 5.4 Summary of the doctrinal
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CONCLUSION The term anAgAmin was of
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CONCLUSION passion, hatred and delu
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CONCLUSION The Sautrantikas probabl
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SELECTED SOURCES FOR THE NIRVANA CO
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NOTES Indians; and also because we
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NOTES 13 Huzita (1988: 8). 14 La Va
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NOTES 70 See Dutt (1960: 252-71), L
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NOTES 146 Akanuma (1929: 126). 147
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NOTES 39 yaP sAsravair dharmair vis
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NOTES 5 Harvey (1990: 66-7). 6 DN I
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NOTES 65 Tr. Norman (1992: 120): ac
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NOTES 132 Bareau (1955: 285). 133 B
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NOTES 15 Life faculty is one of the
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NOTES 77 Akb-h pp. 67-8. 78 Accordi
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NOTES 149 SA (TD2 57c8), SN IV 109.
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NOTES 6 SN IV 251-2. 7 The Chinese
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NOTES (1969: 378-82), which was mad
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BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY S
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BIBLIOGRAPHY SECONDARY SOURCES Adik
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Pasadika, Bhikkhu (198
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faculty see indriya fetters see saN
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