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DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY Table 3.1 Relative chronology of Chinese adhidharma texts Early period SaWgCtiparyAya, Dharmaskandha, PrajñaptiUAstra Middle period Late period Earlier Later Earlier Later DhAtukAya, VijñAnakAya PrakaraOapAda, JñAnaprasthAna VibhALAUAstra, AbhidharmahKdaya Sources: Cox (1998: 171–3), Frauwallner (1995: 13–14). TattvasiddhiUAstra, AbhidharmakoUabhALya, NyAyAnusAra, AbhidharmadCpa data base (dhammAyatana) and to the elements of mental data base (dhammadhAtu), yet do not belong to any of the five aggregates. 22 According to E. Frauwallner, the abhidharma classification, which is based primarily on the five aggregates (skandha), is the oldest one and is termed pañcaskandhaka. 23 This old system of classification was step by step replaced in the Chinese abhidharma by a new and more comprehensive system called pañcavastuka, the five categories of form (rEpa), mind (citta), mental states (caitta), states not associated with mind (cittaviprayukta) and the unconditioned (asaNskKta). The unconditioned is a new category, not found in the old classification of the five aggregates ( pañcaskandhaka). 24 The process of adopting this new system in the Sarvastivadins’ abhidharma was slow and gradual. It was applied in the DhAtukAyapAdaUAstra and the PrakaraOapAdaUAstra, which are, according to Pu-guang ( ), 25 a disciple of Xuan-zang, written at the beginning of the fourth century after the final nirvAOa of the Buddha. 26 Modern scholars, although they differ slightly, place these texts together with the VijñAnakAyaUAstra and the JñAnaprasthAnaUAstra in the middle period of abhidharma development, whereas the SaNgCtiparyAyaUAstra and the DharmaskandhaUAstra, which applied the old system and relied more on quoting sutras, are placed in the early period. Among the four texts in the middle period, the PrakaraOapAdaUAstra and the JñAnaprasthAnaUAstra are regarded as more advanced texts since they show great developments in both organisation and doctrinal exposition. 27 While both classifications were applied in the DhAtukAyapAdaUAstra, 28 the PrakaraOapAdaUAstra 29 applied the new system alone. Thus the new system may have become fully established at some time between when the two texts were written. Within the Sarvastivadin abhidharma tradition in this middle period, the abstract concepts, or dharmas, were, under the five new categories ( pañcavastuka), further classified into around seventy sub-categories in terms of their distinctive intrinsic nature (svabhAva); later, in the AbhidharmakoUabhALya, they were enumerated as seventy-five. 30 39
THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA The three unconditioned things are first mentioned in relation to the pañcaskandhaka in the DharmaskandhapAdaUAstra, 31 one of the early abhidharma texts, and then listed as real existents (dravya) under the new classification, pañcavastuka, 32 in the PrakaraOapAdaUAstra. 33 Since these new categories differ from those mentioned in the early canon, a new basis was needed to establish their authority. The concept of ‘intrinsic nature’ (svabhAva) plays a major role in this establishment; it was widely used from this middle period on. In the Pali tradition, the word sabhAva is seen only once, in the PaMisambhidAmagga, 34 within the three PiMakas, but is used extensively for exegetical purposes in the Visuddhimagga and the main commentaries and sub-commentaries. 35 Intrinsic nature in the SarvAstivAdins not only provides the basis for the new classification, but also functions as the determinant of its existential status: any concept or any dharma characterised by intrinsic nature is said to exist as a real existent (dravya); all other phenomena that one can experience exist as aggregations of these real existents and, as a consequence, they are said to exist as mere designations (prajñapti). 36 Within the Sarvastivada abhidharma, extinction through knowledge ( pratisaNkhyAnirodha) is regarded as the equivalent of nirvana 37 and is characterised by its intrinsic nature, ‘all extinction which is disjunction (visaNyoga)’. 38 This dharma was defined in the AbhidharmakoUabhALya as follows: 39 Disjunction from impure dharmas is extinction through knowledge. Knowledge (pratisaNkhyA) is a special understanding, the penetration (pratisaNkhyAna) of suffering and the other noble truths. The extinction which is to be attained by that is extinction through knowledge. For as in ‘oxcart’, the middle word is elided. 40 The SarvAstivAdins on the one hand insist on the existence of all dharmas in the three time periods, while on the other hand they accept the momentariness of conditioned dharmas. Moreover, dharmas are on a par: they are impersonal and do not ‘possess’ each other, like substances and properties in other scholastic systems. What looks like possession is just conjunction, a shift in position, within a series of aggregates (skandhasaNtAna). Thus, if a person, or technically a series of aggregations (skandhasaNtAna), attains a certain defilement, it does not mean that the series possesses the defilement directly but means that there is the arising of the acquisition ( prApti) of that defilement in the series. 41 Once there occurs the acquisition of the defilement, the acquisition (prApti) makes the defilement renew its existence and continue its activity: arising, duration, decay and ceasing, within the series until this acquisition is eliminated from the series. Thus, what changes momentarily is not the intrinsic nature (svabhAva) of a dharma 40
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METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
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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
Page 24 and 25: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE Part 1 TH
Page 26 and 27: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE 1 NIRVANA
Page 28 and 29: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE early Bud
Page 30 and 31: NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE original
Page 32 and 33: THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY IN THE EARLY
Page 54 and 55: DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TWO NIRVANA THE
Page 68 and 69: NIRVANA IN THE THERAVf DA BUDDHIST
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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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