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

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