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

THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA
(saNjñA) or volitional activities (saNskAra) in the five skandha. Placing it
under the five skandhas also causes difficulty, because nirvana is said to be
wholly different from them. In either case, there must be an explanation for
how it is possible. This seems to cause tremendous difficulties among early
Buddhist schools and each came up with its own solution to this dilemma.
The Sarvastivadins, 96 for example, seemed to stop puzzling over this predicament,
and as a solution they introduced a new and more comprehensive
category called pañcavastuka: the five categories of rEpa, mind (citta), mental
states (caitta), states not associated with mind (cittaviprayukta), and the
unconditioned (asaNskKta), which all together made up seventy-five dharma. 97
The Sautrantikas, who stressed the value of the early canon (sEtra)
against the abhidharma, were obviously against this new category of the
Sarvastivadins, since they could not find it in the early canon (sEtra).
Vasubandhu seems to leave this dilemma unsolved in the first chapter of his
AbhidharmakoUabhALya. 98 He gave three explanations why unconditioned
things should not be classed under the five aggregates, yet did not give an
answer to the crucial question: how could unconditioned things form part of
dharmAyatana and dharmadhAtu while at the same time not forming part of
the skandha.
Instead, he mentioned one opinion that insisted that unconditioned things
could be neither Ayatana nor dhAtu from the simple reasoning: ‘Just as the
end of a pot is not a pot, so the end of aggregates is not aggregates’. 99 By the
same reasoning, the end of spheres is not a sphere and the end of elements is
not an element. In fact this simile was initially presented by the Sarvastivadins
in the MahAvibhALAUAstra as one of the ten reasons why unconditioned things
cannot be under the skandhas. 100 This suggests that there were discrepancies
even among the Sarvastivadins, despite their introduction of the new category.
By mentioning this opinion Vasubandhu seemed to enjoy this internal
conflict, since he, as a Sautrantika, was not obliged to solve this predicament,
a kind of side effect caused by abhidharma classification.
What was the Theravadins’ solution to this dilemma? One simple answer
could be their later introduction of a new category that consists of four
fundamentals: rEpa, mental states (cetasika), mind (citta) and the unconditioned
(asaWkata), which all together are made up of eighty-two dhamma. 101
But how did they deal with it earlier in the abhidhamma period?
L. S. Cousins in his article ‘Nibbana and Abhidhamma’ has suggested that
the unconditioned could be placed under nAma, a name given to the four
mental aggregates. Based on the clarification given in the DhammasaWgaOi,
the first book of the Pali abhidhamma, he explains this as follows:
The unconditioned is not matter, although like matter it is inactive
from a kammic point of view and does not depend upon an object
as a reference point. It is not any kind of mental event or activity
nor is it the consciousness which is aware of mind and matter,
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