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

DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY
but its activities – arising, duration, decay and ceasing – through its inherent
characteristic (svalakLaOa) of impermanence.
This repeated ceasing was different from the two unconditioned extinctions:
extinction without knowledge (apratisaNkhyAnirodha) and extinction through
knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha). For the SarvAstivAdins, the former is
the perpetual non-existence of the future dharmas within a series of aggregates,
while the latter is the perpetual separation of an impure dharma from
a series of aggregates through the antidote, ‘acquisition of disjunction’
(visaNyogaprApti).
One of the common examples, though it seems to be of later origin, 42 to
explain extinction without knowledge (apratisaNkhyAnirodha) is a cognitive
one. According to the SarvAstivAdins, only one type of consciousness operates
at each moment within the series of aggregates (skandhasaNtAna). At a
certain moment of visual consciousness, even though other objects of visual
consciousness as well as other types of consciousness and their objects exist
in the future waiting to arise, they do not arise, because a particular visual
consciousness has already arisen in the moment within the series. Those
other particular objects and types of perceptual consciousness, having missed
their opportunity to arise, are as if at a standstill; though they still exist as
intrinsic nature (svabhAva) in the future time period, they will be forever
incapable of arising. The person, the series of aggregates, is then said to
have extinction without knowledge with regard to those that have not arisen. 43
Thus, although it explains the future non-existence of a certain dharma
within one’s series, it actually occurs not because of the cessation or destruction
of a dharma, which is impossible within the Sarvastivada system, but
because of a deficiency of the conditions necessary for that dharma to arise.
What is the nirvana that in this abhidharma is called ‘extinction through
knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha)’? In this system, it is impossible to destroy
defilement and thus the elimination of a defilement is referred to as a ‘separation’
from the series. That is to say, the acquisition of the defilement is
negated, or technically ‘disjoined’ (visaNyoga), through the power of knowledge
that terminates the junction between that defilement and the series of
aggregates. By reason of this separation, then, there arises ‘the acquisition
of disjunction’ (visaNyogaprApti) that serves as an antidote (pratipakLa),
which henceforward prevents the junction between the defilement and this
series. 44
These two steps are later compared to throwing out a thief and closing
the door or to catching an insect in a jar and plugging the jar’s mouth. 45
Extinction through knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha) is thus equated with
nirvana not in the sense of cessation or destruction of defilement, but in the
sense that defilement has been removed from a person and will henceforward
be separated from him.
Therefore, nirvana as extinction through knowledge in the Chinese
abhidharma has two distinctive features. First, it should be regarded as a
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