[Footnote 1: See Mrs Rhys Davids’s translation Kathâvatthu, p. xix, and Sections I.6,7; II. 9 and XI. 6.]

[Footnote 2: Mahâvyutpatti gives two names for Sarvâstivâda, viz.

Mûlasarvâstivâda and Âryyasarvâstivâda. Itsing (671-695 A.D.) speaks

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of Âryyamûlasarvâstivâda and Mûlasarvâstivâda. In his time he found it prevailing in Magadha, Guzrat, Sind, S. India, E. India. Takakusu says (_P.T.S._ 1904-1905) that Paramârtha, in his life of Vasubandhu, says that it was propagated from Kashmere to Middle India by Vasubhadra, who studied it there.]

[Footnote 3: Takakusu says (_P.T.S._ 1904-1905) that Kâtyâyanîputtra’s work

was probably a compilation from other Vibhâ@sâs which existed before the Chinese translations and Vibhâ@sâ texts dated 383 A.D.]

[Footnote 4: See Takakusu’s article J.R.A.S. 1905.]

[Footnote 5: The Sautrântikas did not regard the Abhidharmas of the Vaibhâ@sikas as authentic and laid stress on the suttanta doctrines as given in the Suttapi@taka.]

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to say that none of the above works are available in Sanskrit, nor have they been retranslated from Chinese or Tibetan into any of the modern European or Indian languages.

The Japanese scholar Mr Yamakami Sogen, late lecturer at Calcutta University, describes the doctrine of the Sabbatthivâdins

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from the Chinese versions of the Abhidharmakos’a, Mahâvibhâ@sâs’âstra,

etc., rather elaborately [Footnote ref 1]. The following is a short sketch, which is borrowed mainly from the accounts given by Mr Sogen.

The Sabbatthivâdins admitted the five skandhas, twelve âyatanas, eighteen dhâtus, the three asa@msk@rta dharmas of pratisa@mkhyânirodha apratisa@mkhyânirodha and âkâs’a, and the sa@msk@rta dharmas (things composite and interdependent) of rûpa (matter), citta (mind), caitta (mental) and cittaviprayukta (non-mental) [Footnote ref 2]. All effects are produced by the coming together (sa@msk@rta) of a number of causes. The five skandhas, and the rûpa, citta, etc., are thus called sa@msk@rta dharmas (composite things or collocations—_sambhûyakâri_). The rûpa dharmas are eleven in number, one citta dharma, 46 caitta dharmas and 14

cittaviprayukta sa@mskâra dharmas (non-mental composite things); adding to these the three asa@msk@rta dharmas we have the seventy-five dharmas. Rûpa is that which has the capacity to obstruct the sense organs. Matter is regarded as the collective organism or collocation, consisting of the fourfold substratum of colour, smell, taste and contact. The unit possessing this fourfold substratum is known as paramâ@nu, which is the minutest form of rûpa. It cannot be pierced through or picked up or thrown away. It is indivisible, unanalysable, invisible, inaudible, untastable and intangible.

But yet it is not permanent, but is like a momentary flash into being. The simple atoms are called dravyaparamâ@nu

The four elements are to be observed from three aspects, namely, (1) as things, (2) from the point of view of their natures (such as activity, moisture, etc.), and (3) function (such as dh@rti or attraction, sa@mgraha or cohesion, pakti or chemical heat, and vyûhana or clustering and collecting). These combine together naturally by other conditions or causes. The main point of distinction between the Vaibhâ@sika Sarvâstivadins and other forms of Buddhism is this, that here the five skandhas and matter are regarded as permanent and eternal; they are said to be momentary only in the sense that they are changing their phases constantly, owing to their constant change of combination. Avidyâ is not regarded here as a link in the chain of the causal series of pratîtyasamutpâda; nor is it ignorance of any particular individual, but is rather identical with “moha” or delusion and represents the ultimate state of immaterial dharmas. Avidyâ, which through sa@mskâra, etc., produces nâmarûpa in the case of a particular individual, is not his avidyâ in the present existence

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but the avidyâ of his past existence bearing fruit in the present life.

“The cause never perishes but only changes its name, when it becomes an effect, having changed its state.” For example, clay becomes jar, having changed its state; and in this case the name clay is lost and the name jar arises [Footnote ref 1]. The Sarvâstivâdins allowed simultaneousness between cause and effect only in the case of composite things (_sa@mprayukta hetu_) and in the case of

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[Footnote 1: Sogen’s quotation from Kumârajîva’s Chinese version of Âryyadeva’s commentary on the Mâdhyamika s’âstra (chapter XX.

Kârikâ 9).]

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the interaction of mental and material things. The substratum of “vijñâna” or “consciousness” is regarded as permanent and the aggregate of the five senses (_indriyas_) is called the perceiver.

It must be remembered that the indriyas being material had a permanent substratum, and their aggregate had therefore also a substratum formed of them.

The sense of sight grasps the four main colours of blue, yellow,

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red, white, and their combinations, as also the visual forms of appearance (_sa@msthâna_) of long, short, round, square, high, low, straight, and crooked. The sense of touch (_kâyendriya_) has for its object the four elements and the qualities of smoothness, roughness, lightness, heaviness, cold, hunger and thirst. These qualities represent the feelings generated in sentient beings by the objects of touch, hunger, thirst, etc., and are also counted under it, as they are the organic effects produced by a touch which excites the physical frame at a time when the energy of wind becomes active in our body and predominates over other energies; so also the feeling of thirst is caused by a touch which excites the physical frame when the energy of the element of fire becomes active and predominates over the other energies. The indriyas (senses) can after grasping the external objects arouse thought (_vijñâna_); each of the five senses is an agent without which none of the five vijñânas would become capable of perceiving an external object. The essence of the senses is entirely material. Each sense has two subdivisions, namely, the principal sense and the auxiliary sense. The substratum of the principal senses consists of a combination of paramâ@nus, which are extremely pure and minute, while the substratum of the latter is the flesh, made of grosser materials. The five senses differ from one another with respect to the manner and form of their respective atomic combinations. In all sense-acts, whenever an act is performed and an idea is impressed, a latent energy is impressed

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on our person which is designated as avijñapti rûpa. It is called rûpa because it is a result or effect of rûpa-contact; it is called avijñapti because it is latent and unconscious; this latent energy is bound sooner or later to express itself in karma effects and is the only bridge which connects the cause and the effect of karma done by body or speech. Karma in this school is considered as twofold, namely, that as thought (_cetana karma_) and that as activity (_caitasika karma_). This last, again, is of two kinds, viz.

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that due to body-motion (_kâyika karma_) and speech (_vâcika karma_). Both these may again be latent (_avijñapti_) and patent (_vijñapti_), giving us the kâyika-vijnñpti karma, kâyikâvijñapti karma, vâcika-vijñapti karma and vâcikâvijñapti karma. Avijñapti rûpa and avijñapti karma are what we should call in modern phraseology subconscious ideas, feelings and activity. Corresponding to each conscious sensation, feeling, thought or activity there is another similar subconscious state which expresses itself in future thoughts and actions; as these are not directly known but are similar to those which are known, they are called avijñapti.

The mind, says Vasubandhu, is called cittam, because it wills (_cetati_), manas because it thinks (_manvate_) and vijñâna because it discriminates (_nirdis’ati_). The discrimination may be

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of three kinds: (1) svabhâva nirdes’a (natural perceptual discrimination), (2) prayoga nirdes’a (actual discrimination as present, past and future), and (3) anusm@rti nirdes’a (reminiscent discrimination referring only to the past). The senses only possess the svabhâva nirdes’a, the other two belong exclusively to manovijñâna.

Each of the vijñânas as associated with its specific sense discriminates its particular object and perceives its general characteristics; the six vijñânas combine to form what is known as the Vijñânaskandha, which is presided over by mind (_mano_). There are forty-six caitta sa@msk@rta dharmas. Of the three asa@msk@rta dharmas âkâs’a (ether) is in essence the freedom from obstruction, establishing it as a permanent omnipresent immaterial substance (_nîrûpâkhya_, non-rûpa). The second asa@msk@rta dharma, apratisa@mkhyâ

nirodha, means the non-perception of dharmas caused by the absence of pratyayas or conditions. Thus when I fix my attention on one thing, other things are not seen then, not because they are nonexistent but because the conditions which would have made them visible were absent. The third asa@msk@rta dharma, pratisa@mkhyâ nirodha, is the final deliverance from bondage. Its essential characteristic is everlastingness. These are called asa@msk@rta because being of the nature of negation they are non-collocative and hence have no production or dissolution.

The eightfold noble path which leads to this state consists of right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right rapture [Footnote ref 1].

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[Footnote 1: Mr Sogen mentions the name of another Buddhist Hînayâna thinker (about 250 A.D.), Harivarman, who founded a school known as Satyasiddhi school, which propounded the same sort of doctrines as those preached by Nâgârjuna. None of his works are available in Sanskrit and I have never come across any allusion to his name by Sanskrit writers.]

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Mahâyânism.

It is difficult to say precisely at what time Mahâyânism took its rise. But there is reason to think that as the Mahâsa@nghikas separated themselves from the Theravâdins probably some time in 400 B.C. and split themselves up into eight different schools, those elements of thoughts and ideas which in later days came to be labelled as Mahâyâna were gradually on the way to taking their first inception. We hear in about 100 A.D. of a number of works which are regarded as various Mahâyâna sûtras, some of which are probably as old as at least 100 B.C. (if not earlier) and others as late as 300 or 400 A.D.[Footnote ref 1]. These Mahâyânasûtras, also called the Vaipulyasûtras, are generally all in the form of instructions

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given by the Buddha. Nothing is known about their authors or compilers, but they are all written in some form of Sanskrit and were probably written by those who seceded from the Theravâda school.

The word Hînayâna refers to the schools of Theravâda, and as such it is contrasted with Mahâyâna. The words are generally translated as small vehicle (_hîna_ = small, yâna = vehicle) and great vehicle (_mahâ_ = great, yâna = vehicle). But this translation by no means expresses what is meant by Mahâyâna and Hînayâna [Footnote ref 2]. Asa@nga (480 A.D.) in his Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra gives

[Footnote 2: The word Yâna is generally translated as vehicle, but a consideration of numerous contexts in which the word occurs seems to suggest that it means career or course or way, rather than vehicle (Lalitavistara_, pp. 25, 38; Prajñâpâramitâ, pp. 24, 319; Samâdhirâjasûtra, p. 1; Karu@nâpu@ndarîka, p. 67; La@nkâvatârasûtra,

pp. 68, 108, 132). The word Yâna is as old as the Upani@sads where we read

of Devayâna and Pit@ryâna. There is no reason why this word should be taken in a different sense. We hear in La@nkâvatâra of S’râvakayâna (career of the S’râvakas or the Theravâdin Buddhists), Pratyekabuddhayâna (the career of saints before the coming of the Buddha), Buddha yâna (career of the Buddhas), Ekayâna (one career), Devayâna (career of the gods), Brahmayâna (career of becoming a Brahmâ), Tathâgatayâna (career of a Tathâgata). In one place Lankâvatâra says that ordinarily distinction is made between the three careers and one career and no career, but these distinctions are only for the ignorant (_Lankâvatâra_, p. 68).]

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us the reason why one school was called Hînayâna whereas the

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other, which he professed, was called Mahâyâna. He says that, considered from the point of view of the ultimate goal of religion, the instructions, attempts, realization, and time, the Hînayâna occupies a lower and smaller place than the other called Mahâ (great) Yâna, and hence it is branded as Hîna (small, or low).

This brings us to one of the fundamental points of distinction between Hînayâna and Mahâyâna. The ultimate good of an adherent of the Hînayâna is to attain his own nirvâ@na or salvation, whereas the ultimate goal of those who professed the Mahâyâna creed was not to seek their own salvation but to seek the salvation of all beings. So the Hînayâna goal was lower, and in consequence of that the instructions that its followers received, the attempts they undertook, and the results they achieved were narrower than that of the Mahâyâna adherents. A Hînayâna man had only a short business in attaining his own salvation, and this could be done in three lives, whereas a Mahâyâna adherent was prepared to work for infinite time in helping all beings to attain salvation. So the Hînayana adherents required only a short period of work and may from that point of view also be called hîna, or lower.

This point, though important from the point of view of the difference in the creed of the two schools, is not so from the point of view of philosophy. But there is another trait of the Mahâyânists which distinguishes them from the Hînayânists from the

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philosophical point of view. The Mahâyânists believed that all things were of a non-essential and indefinable character and void at bottom, whereas the Hînayânists only believed in the impermanence of all things, but did not proceed further than that.

It is sometimes erroneously thought that Nâgârjuna first preached the doctrine of S’ûnyavâda (essencelessness or voidness of all appearance), but in reality almost all the Mahâyâna sûtras either definitely preach this doctrine or allude to it. Thus if we take some of those sûtras which were in all probability earlier than Nâgârjuna, we find that the doctrine which Nâgârjuna expounded

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with all the rigour of his powerful dialectic was quietly accepted as an indisputable truth. Thus we find Subhûti saying to the Buddha that vedanâ (feeling), samjñâ (concepts) and the sa@mskâras (conformations) are all mâyâ (illusion) [Footnote ref 1]. All the skandhas, dhätus (elements) and âyatanas are void and absolute cessation. The highest knowledge of everything as pure void is not different from the skandhas, dhâtus and âyatanas, and this absolute cessation of dharmas is regarded as the highest knowledge (_prajñâpâramitâ_) [Footnote ref 2]. Everything being void there is in reality no process and no cessation. The truth is neither eternal

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(_s’âs’vata_) nor non-eternal (_as’âs’vata_) but pure void. It should be the object of a saint’s endeavour to put himself in the “thatness”

(_tathatâ_) and consider all things as void. The saint (_bodhisattva_) has to establish himself in all the virtues (_pâramitâ_), benevolence (_dânapâramitâ_), the virtue of character (_s’îlapâramitâ_), the virtue of forbearance (_k@sântipâramitâ_), the virtue of tenacity and strength (_vîryyapâramitâ_) and the virtue of meditation (_dhyânapâramitâ_).

The saint (_bodhisattva_) is firmly determined that he will help an infinite number of souls to attain nirvâ@na. In reality, however, there are no beings, there is no bondage, no salvation; and the saint knows it but too well, yet he is not afraid of this high truth, but proceeds on his career of attaining for all illusory beings illusory emancipation from illusory bondage.

The saint is actuated with that feeling and proceeds in his work on the strength of his pâramitâs, though in reality there is no one who is to attain salvation in reality and no one who is to help him to attain it [Footnote ref 3]. The true prajñapâramitâ is the absolute cessation of all appearance (_ya@h anupalambha@h sarvadharmâ@nâm sa prajñâpâramitâ ityucyate_) [Footnote ref 4].

The Mahâyâna doctrine has developed on two lines, viz. that of S’ûnyavâda or the Mâdhyamika doctrine and Vijñânavâda.

The difference between S’ûnyavâda and Vijñânavâda (the theory that there is only the appearance of phenomena of consciousness) is not fundamental, but is rather one of method. Both of them

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agree in holding that there is no truth in anything, everything is only passing appearance akin to dream or magic. But while the S’ûnyavâdins were more busy in showing this indefinableness of all phenomena, the Vijñânavâdins, tacitly accepting

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[Footnote 1: A@s@tesâhasiihâprajñâpâramita, p. 16.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid p. 177.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid p. 21.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid p. 177.]

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the truth preached by the S’ûnyavâdins, interested themselves in explaining the phenomena of consciousness by their theory of beginningless illusory root-ideas or instincts of the mind (_vâsanâ_).

As’vagho@sa (100 A.D.) seems to have been the greatest teacher of a new type of idealism (_vijñânavâda_) known as the Tathatâ philosophy. Trusting in Suzuki’s identification of a quotation in As’vagho@sa’s S’raddhotpâdas’âstra as being made from

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La@nkâvatârasûtra, we should think of the La@nkâvatârasûtra as being one of the early works of the Vijñânavâdins [Footnote ref 1].

The greatest later writer of the Vijñânavâda school was Asa@nga (400 A.D.), to whom are attributed the Saptadas’abhûmi sûtra, Mahâyâna sûtra, Upades’a, Mahâyânasamparigraha s’âstra, Yogâcârabhûmi s’âstra and Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra. None of these works excepting the last one is available to readers who have no access to the Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts, as the Sanskrit originals are in all probability lost. The Vijñânavâda school is known to Hindu writers by another name also, viz. Yogâcâra, and it does not seem an improbable supposition that Asa@nga’s Yogâcârabhûmi s’âstra was responsible for the new name. Vasubandhu, a younger brother of Asa@nga, was, as Paramârtha (499-569) tells us, at first a liberal Sarvâstivâdin, but was converted to Vijñânavâda, late in his life, by Asa@nga. Thus Vasubandhu, who wrote in his early life the great standard work of the Sarvâstivâdins, Abhidharmakos’a, devoted himself in his later life to Vijñânavâda [Footnote ref 2]. He is said to have commented upon a number of Mahâyâna sûtras, such as Avata@msaka, Nirvâ@na, Saddharmapu@n@darîka,

Prajñâpâramitâ, Vimalakîrtti and S’rîmâlâsi@mhanâda, and compiled some Mahâyâna sûtras, such as Vijñânamâtrasiddhi, Ratnatraya, etc. The school of Vijñânavâda continued for at least a century or two after Vasubandhu, but we are not in possession of any work of great fame of this school after him.

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We have already noticed that the S’ûnyavâda formed the fundamental principle of all schools of Mahâyâna. The most powerful exponent of this doctrine was Nâgârjuna (1OO A.D.), a brief account of whose system will be given in its proper place. Nâgârjuna’s kârikâs (verses) were commented upon by Âryyadeva, a disciple of his, Kumârajîva (383 A.D.). Buddhapâlita and Candrakîrtti (550 A.D.). Âryyadeva in addition to this commentary wrote at

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[Footnote 1: Dr S.C. Vidyâbhûshana thinks that Lankâvatâna belongs to about 300 A.D.]

[Footnote 2: Takakusu’s “A study of the Paramârtha’s life of Vasubandhu,”

J.R.A.S. 1905.]

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least three other books, viz. Catu@hs’ataka, Hastabâlaprakara@nav@rtti and Cittavisùddhiprakara@na [Footnote ref 1]. In the small work called Hastabâlaprakara@nav@rtti Âryyadeva says that whatever depends for its existence on anything else may be proved to be illusory; all our notions of external objects depend on space perceptions and notions of part and whole and should therefore be regarded as mere appearance. Knowing therefore that all that is dependent

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on others for establishing itself is illusory, no wise man should feel attachment or antipathy towards these mere phenomenal appearances. In his Cittavis’uddhiprakara@na he says that just as a crystal appears to be coloured, catching the reflection of a coloured object, even so the mind though in itself colourless appears to show diverse colours by coloration of imagination (_vikalpa_). In reality the mind (_citta_) without a touch of imagination (_kalpanâ_) in it is the pure reality.

It does not seem however that the S’ûnyavâdins could produce any great writers after Candrakîrtti. References to S’ûnyavâda show that it was a living philosophy amongst the Hindu writers until the time of the great Mîmâ@msâ authority Kumârila who flourished in the eighth century; but in later times the S’ûnyavâdins were no longer occupying the position of strong and active disputants.

The Tathataâ Philosophy of As’vagho@sa (80 A.D.) [Footnote ref 2].

As’vagho@sa was the son of a Brahmin named Sai@mhaguhya who spent his early days in travelling over the different parts of India and defeating the Buddhists in open debates. He was probably converted to Buddhism by Pâr@sva who was an important person in the third Buddhist Council promoted, according to some authorities, by the King of Kashmere

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and according to other authorities by Pu@nyayas’as [Footnote ref 3].

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[Footnote 1: Âryyadeva’s Hastabâlaprakara@nav@rtti has been reclaimed by

Dr. F.W. Thomas. Fragmentary portions of his Cittavis’uddhiprakara@na were published by Mahâmahopâdhyâya Haraprasâda s’âstrî in the Bengal Asiatic Society’s journal, 1898.]

[Footnote 2: The above section is based on the Awakening of Faith, an English translation by Suzuki of the Chinese version of S’raddhotpâdas`âstra by As’vagho@sa, the Sanskrit original of which appears to have been lost. Suzuki has brought forward a mass of evidence to show that As’vagho@sa was a contemporary of Kani@ska.]

[Footnote 3: Târanâtha says that he was converted by Aryadeva, a disciple of Nâgârjuna, Geschichte des Buddhismus, German translation by Schiefner,

pp. 84-85. See Suzuki’s Awakening of Faith, pp. 24-32. As’vagho@sa wrote

the Buddhacaritakâvya, of great poetical excellence, and the Mahâla@mkâras’âstra. He was also a musician and had invented a musical

instrument called Râstavara that he might by that means convert the people of the city. “Its melody was classical, mournful, and melodious,

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inducing the audience to ponder on the misery, emptiness, and nonâtmanness

of life.” Suzuki, p. 35.]

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He held that in the soul two aspects may be distinguished —the aspect as thatness (_bhûtatathatâ_) and the aspect as the cycle of birth and death (_sa@msâra_). The soul as bhûtatathatâ means the oneness of the totality of all things (_dharmadhâtu_). Its essential nature is uncreate and external. All things simply on account of the beginningless traces of the incipient and unconscious memory of our past experiences of many previous lives (_sm@rti_) appear under the forms of individuation [Footnote ref 1]. If we could overcome this sm@rti “the signs of individuation would disappear and there would be no trace of a world of objects.” “All things in their fundamental nature are not nameable or explicable. They cannot be adequately expressed in any form of language. They possess absolute sameness (_samatâ_). They are subject neither to transformation nor to destruction. They are nothing but one soul”

—thatness (_bhûtatathatâ_). This “thatness” has no attribute and it can only be somehow pointed out in speech as “thatness.”

As soon as you understand that when the totality of existence is spoken of or thought of, there is neither that which speaks nor that which is spoken of, there is neither that which thinks nor

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that which is thought of, “this is the stage of thatness.” This bhûtatathatâ is neither that which is existence, nor that which is nonexistence, nor that which is at once existence and nonexistence, nor that which is not at once existence and nonexistence; it is neither that which is plurality, nor that which is at once unity and plurality, nor that which is not at once unity and plurality. It is a negative concept in the sense that it is beyond all that is conditional and yet it is a positive concept in the sense that it holds all within it. It cannot be comprehended by any kind of particularization or distinction. It is only by transcending the range of our intellectual categories of the comprehension of the limited range of finite phenomena that we can get a glimpse of it. It cannot be comprehended by the particularizing consciousness of all beings, and we thus may call it negation, “s’ûnyatâ,” in this sense. The truth is that which

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[Footnote 1: I have ventured to translate “_sm@rti_” in the sense of vâsanâ in preference to Suzuki’s “confused subjectivity” because sm@rti in the sense of vâsanâ is not unfamiliar to the readers of such Buddhist works as La@nkâvatâra. The word “subjectivity” seems to be too European a term to be used as a word to represent the Buddhist sense.]

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subjectively does not exist by itself, that the negation (_s’ûnyatâ_) is also void (_s’ûnya_) in its nature, that neither that which is negated nor that which negates is an independent entity. It is the pure soul that manifests itself as eternal, permanent, immutable, and completely holds all things within it. On that account it may be called affirmation. But yet there is no trace of affirmation in it, because it is not the product of the creative instinctive memory (_sm@rti_) of conceptual thought and the only way of grasping the truth—the thatness, is by transcending all conceptual creations.

“The soul as birth and death (_sa@msâra_) comes forth from the Tathâgata womb (_tathâgatagarbha_), the ultimate reality.

But the immortal and the mortal coincide with each other.

Though they are not identical they are not duality either. Thus when the absolute soul assumes a relative aspect by its self-affirmation it is called the all-conserving mind (_âlayavijñâna_).

It embraces two principles, (1) enlightenment, (2) non-enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the perfection of the mind when it is free from the corruptions of the creative instinctive incipient memory (_sm@rti_). It penetrates all and is the unity of all (_dharmadhâtu_). That is to say, it is the universal dharmakâya of all Tathâgatas constituting the ultimate foundation of existence.

“When it is said that all consciousness starts from this fundamental

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truth, it should not be thought that consciousness had any real origin, for it was merely phenomenal existence—a mere imaginary creation of the perceivers under the influence of the delusive sm@rti. The multitude of people (_bahujana_) are said to be lacking in enlightenment, because ignorance (_avidyâ_) prevails there from all eternity, because there is a constant succession of sm@rti (past confused memory working as instinct) from which they have never been emancipated. But when they are divested of this sm@rti they can then recognize that no states of mentation, viz. their appearance, presence, change and disappearance, have any reality. They are neither in a temporal nor in a spatial relation with the one soul, for they are not self-existent.

“This high enlightenment shows itself imperfectly in our corrupted phenomenal experience as prajñâ (wisdom) and karma (incomprehensible activity of life). By pure wisdom we understand that when one, by virtue of the perfuming power of dharma, disciplines himself truthfully (i.e. according to the dharma), and accomplishes meritorious deeds, the mind (i.e. the âlayavijñâna)

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which implicates itself with birth and death will be broken down and the modes of the evolving consciousness will be annulled, and the pure and the genuine wisdom of the Dharmakâya will manifest

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itself. Though all modes of consciousness and mentation are mere products of ignorance, ignorance in its ultimate nature is identical and non-identical with enlightenment; and therefore ignorance is in one sense destructible, though in another sense it is indestructible. This may be illustrated by the simile of the water and the waves which are stirred up in the ocean. Here the water can be said to be both identical and non-identical with the waves. The waves are stirred up by the wind, but the water remains the same. When the wind ceases the motion of the waves subsides, but the water remains the same. Likewise when the mind of all creatures, which in its own nature is pure and clean, is stirred up by the wind of ignorance (_avidyâ_), the waves of mentality (_vijñâna_) make their appearance. These three (i.e.

the mind, ignorance, and mentality) however have no existence, and they are neither unity nor plurality. When the ignorance is annihilated, the awakened mentality is tranquillized, whilst the essence of the wisdom remains unmolested.” The truth or the enlightenment “is absolutely unobtainable by any modes of relativity or by any outward signs of enlightenment. All events in the phenomenal world are reflected in enlightenment, so that they neither pass out of it, nor enter into it, and they neither disappear nor are destroyed.” It is for ever cut off from the hindrances both affectional (_kles’âvara@na_) and intellectual (_jñeyâvara@na_), as well as from the mind (i.e. âlayavijñâna) which implicates itself with birth and death, since it is in its true nature clean, pure, eternal,

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calm, and immutable. The truth again is such that it transforms and unfolds itself wherever conditions are favourable in the form of a tathâgata or in some other forms, in order that all beings may be induced thereby to bring their virtue to maturity.

“Non-elightenment has no existence of its own aside from its relation with enlightenment a priori.” But enlightenment a priori is spoken of only in contrast to non-enlightenment, and as non-enlightenment is a non-entity, true enlightenment in turn loses its significance too. They are distinguished only in mutual relation as enlightenment or non-enlightenment. The manifestations of non-enlightenment are made in three ways: (1) as a disturbance of the mind (_âlayavijñâna_), by the avidyâkarma (ignorant

as well as pure. The fifth name is succession-consciousness, in the sense that continuously directed by the awakening consciousness of attention (_manaskâra_) it (_manas_) retains all experiences and never loses or suffers the destruction of any karma, good as well as evil, which had been sown in the past, and whose retribution, painful or agreeable, it never fails to mature, be it in the present or in the future, and also in the sense that it unconsciously recollects things gone by and in imagination anticipates things to come. Therefore the three domains (_kâmaloka_, domain of feeling—_rûpaloka_, domain of bodily existence—_arûpaloka_, domain of incorporeality) are nothing but the self manifestation of the mind (i.e. âlayavijñâna which is practically identical with bhûtatathatâ). Since all things, owing the principle of their existence to the mind (_âlayavijñâna_), are produced by sm@rti, all the modes of particularization are the self-particularizations of the mind. The mind in itself (or the soul) being however free from all attributes is not differentiated. Therefore we come to the conclusion that all things and conditions in the phenomenal world, hypostatized and established only through ignorance (_avidyâ_) and memory (_sm@rti_), have no more reality than the images in a mirror. They arise simply from the ideality of a particularizing mind. When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced; but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears.

By ego-consciousness (_manovijñâna_) we mean the ignorant mind which by its succession-consciousness clings to the conception of

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I and Not-I and misapprehends the nature of the six objects of sense. The ego-consciousness is also called separation-consciousness, because it is nourished by the perfuming influence of the prejudices (_âsrava_), intellectual as well as affectional. Thus believing in the external world produced by memory, the mind becomes

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oblivious of the principle of sameness (_samatâ_) that underlies all things which are one and perfectly calm and tranquil and show no sign of becoming.

Non-enlightenment is the raison d’étre of samsâra. When this is annihilated the conditions—the external world—are also annihilated and with them the state of an interrelated mind is also annihilated. But this annihilation does not mean the annihilation of the mind but of its modes only. It becomes calm like an unruffled sea when all winds which were disturbing it and producing the waves have been annihilated.

In describing the relation of the interaction of avidyâ (ignorance), karmavijñâna (activity-consciousness—the subjective mind), vi@saya (external world—represented by the senses) and the tathatâ (suchness), As’vaghosa says that there is an interperfuming of these elements. Thus As’vaghosa says, “By perfuming we mean

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that while our worldly clothes (viz. those which we wear) have no odour of their own, neither offensive nor agreeable, they can yet acquire one or the other odour according to the nature of the substance with which they are perfumed. Suchness (_tathatâ_) is likewise a pure dharma free from all defilements caused by the perfuming power of ignorance. On the other hand ignorance has nothing to do with purity. Nevertheless we speak of its being able to do the work of purity because it in its turn is perfumed by suchness.

Determined by suchness ignorance becomes the raison d’étre of all forms of defilement. And this ignorance perfumes suchness and produces sm@rti. This sm@rti in its turn perfumes ignorance.

On account of this (reciprocal) perfuming, the truth is misunderstood.

On account of its being misunderstood an external world of subjectivity appears. Further, on account of the perfuming power of memory, various modes of individuation are produced.

And by clinging to them various deeds are done, and we suffer as the result miseries mentally as well as bodily.” Again “suchness perfumes ignorance, and in consequence of this perfuming the individual in subjectivity is caused to loathe the misery of birth and death and to seek after the blessing of Nirvâna. This longing and loathing on the part of the subjective mind in turn perfumes suchness. On account of this perfuming influence we are enabled to believe that we are in possession within ourselves of suchness whose essential nature is pure and immaculate; and we also recognize that all phenomena in the world are nothing

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but the illusory manifestations of the mind (_âlayavijñâna_) and have no reality of their own. Since we thus rightly understand the truth, we can practise the means of liberation, can perform those actions which are in accordance with the dharma. We should neither particularize, nor cling to objects of desire. By virtue of this discipline and habituation during the lapse of innumerable âsa@nkhyeyakalpas [Footnote ref 1] we get ignorance annihilated. As ignorance is thus annihilated, the mind (_âlayavijñâna_) is no longer disturbed, so as to be subject to individuation. As the mind is no longer disturbed, the particularization of the surrounding world is annihilated. When in this wise the principle and the condition of defilement, their products, and the mental disturbances are all annihilated, it is said that we attain Nirvâ@na and that various spontaneous displays of activity are accomplished.” The Nirvâ@na of the tathatâ philosophy is not nothingness, but tathatâ (suchness or thatness) in its purity unassociated with any kind of disturbance which produces all the diversity of experience.

To the question that if all beings are uniformly in possession of suchness and are therefore equally perfumed by it, how is it that there are some who do not believe in it, while others do, As’vagho@sa’s reply is that though all beings are uniformly in

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possession of suchness, the intensity of ignorance and the principle of individuation, that work from all eternity, vary in such manifold grades as to outnumber the sands of the Ganges, and hence the difference. There is an inherent perfuming principle in one’s own being which, embraced and protected by the love (_maitrî_) and compassion (_karu@nâ_) of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, is caused to loathe the misery of birth and death, to believe in nirvâ@na, to cultivate the root of merit (_kus’alamûla_), to habituate oneself to it and to bring it to maturity. In consequence of this, one is enabled to see all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and, receiving instructions from them, is benefited, gladdened and induced to practise good deeds, etc., till one can attain to Buddhahood and enter into Nirvâ@na. This implies that all beings have such perfuming power in them that they may be affected by the good wishes of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for leading them to the path of virtue, and thus it is that sometimes hearing the Bodhisattvas and sometimes seeing them, “all beings thereby acquire (spiritual) benefits (_hitatâ_)” and “entering into the samâdhi of purity, they

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[Footnote 1: Technical name for a very vast period of time.]

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destroy hindrances wherever they are met with and obtain all-penetrating insight that enables them to become conscious of the absolute oneness (_samatâ_) of the universe (_sarvaloka_) and to see innumerable Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.”

There is a difference between the perfuming which is not in unison with suchness, as in the case of s’râvakas (theravâdin monks), pratyekabuddhas and the novice bodhisattvas, who only continue their religious discipline but do not attain to the state of non-particularization in unison with the essence of suchness.

But those bodhisattvas whose perfuming is already in unison with suchness attain to the state of non-particularization and allow themselves to be influenced only by the power of the dharma.

The incessant perfuming of the defiled dharma (ignorance from all eternity) works on, but when one attains to Buddhahood one at once puts an end to it. The perfuming of the pure dharma (i.e. suchness) however works on to eternity without any interruption.

For this suchness or thatness is the effulgence of great wisdom, the universal illumination of the dharmadhâtu (universe), the true and adequate knowledge, the mind pure and clean in its own nature, the eternal, the blessed, the self-regulating and the pure, the tranquil, the inimitable and the free, and this is called the tathâgatagarbha or the dharmakâya. It may be objected that since thatness or suchness has been described as being without characteristics, it is now a contradiction to speak of it as embracing

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all merits, but it is held, that in spite of its embracing all merits, it is free in its nature from all forms of distinction, because all objects in the world are of one and the same taste; and being of one reality they have nothing to do with the modes of particularization or of dualistic character. “Though all things in their (metaphysical) origin come from the soul alone and in truth are free from particularization, yet on account of non-enlightenment there originates a subjective mind (_âlayavijñâna_) that becomes conscious of an external world.” This is called ignorance or avidyâ. Nevertheless the pure essence of the mind is perfectly pure and there is no awakening of ignorance in it. Hence we assign to suchness this quality, the effulgence of great wisdom. It is called universal illumination, because there is nothing for it to illumine. This perfuming of suchness therefore continues for ever, though the stage of the perfuming of avidyâ comes to an end with the Buddhas when they attain to nirvâ@na. All Buddhas while at

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the stage of discipline feel a deep compassion (_mahâkaru@nâ_) for all beings, practise all virtues (_pâramitâs_) and many other meritorious deeds, treat others as their own selves, and wish to work out a universal salvation of mankind in ages to come, through limitless numbers of kalpas, recognize truthfully and adequately the principle of equality (_samatâ_)among people; and do not cling

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to the individual existence of a sentient being. This is what is meant by the activity of tathatâ. The main idea of this tathatâ philosophy seems to be this, that this transcendent “thatness” is at once the quintessence of all thought and activity; as avidyâ veils it or perfumes it, the world-appearance springs forth, but as the pure thatness also perfumes the avidyâ there is a striving for the good as well. As the stage of avidyâ is passed its luminous character shines forth, for it is the ultimate truth which only illusorily appeared as the many of the world.

This doctrine seems to be more in agreement with the view of an absolute unchangeable reality as the ultimate truth than that of the nihilistic idealism of La@nkâvatâra. Considering the fact that As’vagho@sa was a learned Brahmin scholar in his early life, it is easy to guess that there was much Upani@sad influence in this interpretation of Buddhism, which compares so favourably with the Vedânta as interpreted by S’a@nkara. The La@nkâvatâra admitted a reality only as a make-believe to attract the Tairthikas (heretics) who had a prejudice in favour of an unchangeable self (_âtman_). But As’vagho@sa plainly admitted an unspeakable reality as the ultimate truth. Nâgârjuna’s Mâdhyamika doctrines which eclipsed the profound philosophy of As’vagho@sa seem to be more faithful to the traditional Buddhist creed and to the Vijñânavâda creed of Buddhism as explained in the La@nkâvatâra [Footnote ref 1].

that this doctrine is called the middle doctrine (_madhyamaka_) [Footnote ref 1]. Existence and nonexistence have only a relative truth (_samv@rtisatya_) in them, as in all phenomena, but there is no true reality (_paramârthasatya_) in them or anything else. Morality plays as high a part in this nihilistic system as it does in any other Indian system. I quote below some stanzas from Nâgârjuna’s Suk@rllekha as translated by Wenzel (P.T.S. 1886) from the Tibetan translation.

6. Knowing that riches are unstable and void (_asâra_) give according to the moral precepts, to Bhikshus, Brahmins, the poor and friends for there is no better friend than giving.

7. Exhibit morality (_s’îla_) faultless and sublime, unmixed and spotless, for morality is the supporting ground of all eminence, as the earth is of the moving and immovable.

8. Exercise the imponderable, transcendental virtues of charity, morality,

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patience, energy, meditation, and likewise wisdom, in order that, having reached the farther shore of the sea of existence, you may become a Jina prince.

9. View as enemies, avarice (_mâtsaryya_), deceit (_s’â@thya_), duplicity (_mâyâ_), lust, indolence (_kausîdya_), pride (_mâna_), greed (_râga_), hatred (_dve@sa_) and pride (_mada_) concerning family, figure, glory, youth, or power.

15. Since nothing is so difficult of attainment as patience, open no door for anger; the Buddha has pronounced that he who renounces anger shall attain the degree of an anâgâmin (a saint who never suffers rebirth).

21. Do not look after another’s wife; but if you see her, regard her, according to age, like your mother, daughter or sister.

24. Of him who has conquered the unstable, ever moving objects of the six senses and him who has overcome the mass of his enemies in battle, the wise praise the first as the greater hero.

29. Thou who knowest the world, be equanimous against the eight worldly conditions, gain and loss, happiness and suffering, fame and dishonour, blame and praise, for they are not objects for your thoughts.

37. But one (a woman) that is gentle as a sister, winning as a friend,

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careful of your well being as a mother, obedient as a servant her (you must) honour as the guardian god(dess) of the family.

40. Always perfectly meditate on (turn your thoughts to) kindness, pity, joy and indifference; then if you do not obtain a higher degree you (certainly) will obtain the happiness of Brahman’s world (_brahmavihâra_).

41. By the four dhyânas completely abandoning desire (_kâma_), reflection (_vicâra_), joy (_prîti_), and happiness and pain (_sukha, du@hkha_) you will obtain as fruit the lot of a Brahman.

49. If you say “I am not the form, you thereby will understand I am not endowed with form, I do not dwell in form, the form does not dwell in me; and in like manner you will understand the voidness of the other four aggregates.”

50. The aggregates do not arise from desire, nor from time, nor from

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[Footnote 1: See Mâdhyamikav@rtti (B.T.S.), p. 160.]

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nature (_prak@rti_), not from themselves (_svabhâvât_), nor from the Lord

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(_îs’vara_), nor yet are they without cause; know that they arise from ignorance (_avidyâ_) and desire (_t@r@s@nâ_).

51. Know that attachment to religious ceremonies (_s’îlabrataparâmars’a_), wrong views (_mithyâd@r@s@ti_) and doubt (_vicikitsâ_) are the three fetters.

53. Steadily instruct yourself (more and more) in the highest morality, the highest wisdom and the highest thought, for the hundred and fifty one rules (of the prâtimok@sa) are combined perfectly in these three.

58. Because thus (as demonstrated) all this is unstable (_anitya_) without substance (_anâtma_) without help (_as’ara@na_) without protector (_anâtha_) and without abode (_asthâna_) thou O Lord of men must become

discontented with this worthless (_asâra_) kadali-tree of the orb.

104. If a fire were to seize your head or your dress you would extinguish and subdue it, even then endeavour to annihilate desire, for there is no other higher necessity than this.

105. By morality, knowledge and contemplation, attain the spotless dignity of the quieting and the subduing nirvâ@na not subject to age, death or decay, devoid of earth, water, fire, wind, sun and moon.

107. Where there is no wisdom (_prajñâ_) there is also no contemplation

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(_dhyana_), where there is no contemplation there is also no wisdom; but know that for him who possesses these two the sea of existence is like a grove.

Uncompromising Idealism or the School

of Vijñânavâda Buddhism.

The school of Buddhist philosophy known as the Vijñânavâda or Yogâcâra has often been referred to by such prominent teachers of Hindu thought as Kumârila and S’a@nkara. It agrees to a great extent with the S’ûnyavâdins whom we have already described.

All the dharmas (qualities and substances) are but imaginary constructions of ignorant minds. There is no movement in the so-called external world as we suppose, for it does not exist. We construct it ourselves and then are ourselves deluded that it exists by itself (_nirmmitapratimohi_) [Footnote ref 1]. There are two functions involved in our consciousness, viz. that which holds the perceptions (_khyâti vijñâna_), and that which orders them by imaginary constructions (_vastuprativikalpavijñâna_). The two functions however mutually determine each other and cannot be separately distinguished (_abhinnalak@sa@ne anyonyahetuke_). These functions are set to work on account of the beginningless instinctive tendencies inherent in them in relation to the world of appearance (_anâdikâla-prapañca-vâsanahetukañca_) [Footnote ref 2].

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All sense knowledge can be stopped only when the diverse

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[Footnote 1: Lankâvatârasûtra, pp. 21-22.]

[Footnote 2 Ibid. p. 44.]

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unmanifested instincts of imagination are stopped (_abhûta-parikalpa-vâsanâ-vaicitra-nirodha_) [Footnote ref 1]. All our phenomenal knowledge is without any essence or truth (_nihsvabhâva_) and is but a creation of mâyâ, a mirage or a dream. There is nothing which may be called external, but all is the imaginary creation of the mind (_svacitta_), which has been accustomed to create imaginary appearances from beginningless time. This mind by whose movement these creations take place as subject and object has no appearance in itself and is thus without any origination, existence and extinction (_utpâdasthitibha@ngavarjjam_) and is called the âlayavijñâna. The reason why this âlayavijñâna itself is said to be without origination, existence, and extinction is probably this, that it is always a hypothetical state which merely explains all

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the phenomenal states that appear, and therefore it has no existence in the sense in which the term is used and we could not affirm any special essence of it.

We do not realize that all visible phenomena are of nothing external but of our own mind (_svacitta_), and there is also the beginningless tendency for believing and creating a phenomenal world of appearance. There is also the nature of knowledge (which takes things as the perceiver and the perceived) and there is also the instinct in the mind to experience diverse forms. On account of these four reasons there are produced in the âlayavijñâna (mind) the ripples of our sense experiences (_prav@rttivijñana_) as in a lake, and these are manifested as sense experiences. All the five skandhas called pañchavijñânakâya thus appear in a proper synthetic form. None of the phenomenal knowledge that appears is either identical or different from the âlayavijñâna just as the waves cannot be said to be either identical or different from the ocean. As the ocean dances on in waves so the citta or the âlayavijñâna is also dancing as it were in its diverse operations (_v@rtti_). As citta it collects all movements (_karma_) within it, as manas it synthesizes (_vidhîyate_) and as vijñâna it constructs the fivefold perceptions (_vijñânân vijânâti d@rs’yam kalpate pañcabhi@h_) [Footnote ref 2].

It is only due to mâyâ (illusion) that the phenomena appear in their

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twofold aspect as subject and object. This must always be regarded as an appearance (_samv@rtisatyatâ_) whereas in the real aspect we could never say whether they existed (_bhâva_) or did not exist [Footnote ref 3].

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[Footnote 1: Pañcâvatârasûtra, p. 44.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., pp. 50-55.]

[Footnote 3: Asa@nga’s Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra, pp. 58-59.]

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All phenomena both being and non-being are illusory (_sadasanta@h mâyopamâ@h_). When we look deeply into them we find that there is an absolute negation of all appearances, including even all negations, for they are also appearances. This would make the ultimate truth positive. But this is not so, for it is that in which the positive and negative are one and the same (_bhâvâbhâvasamânatâ_) [Footnote ref 1]. Such a state which is complete in itself and has no name and no substance had been described in the La@nkâvatârasûtra as thatness (_tathatâ_) [Footnote ref 2]. This state is also described in another place in the La@nkâvatâra as voidness (_s’ûnyatâ_) which is one

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and has no origination and no essence [Footnote ref 3]. In another place it is also designated as tathâgatagarbha [Footnote ref 4].

It may be supposed that this doctrine of an unqualified ultimate truth comes near to the Vedantic âtman or Brahman like the tathatâ doctrine of As’vagho@sa; and we find in La@nkavatâra that Râva@na asks the Buddha “How can you say that your doctrine of tathâgatagarbha was not the same as the âtman doctrine of the other schools of philosophers, for those heretics also consider the âtman as eternal, agent, unqualified, all pervading and unchanged?” To this the Buddha is found to reply thus—”Our doctrine is not the same as the doctrine of those heretics; it is in consideration of the fact that the instruction of a philosophy which considered that there was no soul or substance in anything (nairatmya) would frighten the disciples, that I say that all things are in reality the tathâgatagarbha. This should not be regarded as âtman. Just as a lump of clay is made into various shapes, so it is the non-essential nature of all phenomena and their freedom from all characteristics (_sarvavikalpalak@sa@navinivrttam_) that is variously described as the garbha or the nairâtmya (essencelessness). This explanation of tathâgatagarbha as the ultimate truth and reality is given in order to attract to our creed those heretics who are superstitiously inclined to believe in the âtman doctrine [Footnote ref 5].”

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So far as the appearance of the phenomena was concerned, the idealistic Buddhists (_vijñânavâdins_) agreed to the doctrine of pratîtyasamutpâda with certain modifications. There was with them an external pratîtyasamutpâda just as it appeared in the

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[Footnote 1: Asa@nga’s Mahâyânasûtrâla@mkâra, p. 65.]

[Footnote 2: Lankâvatârasûtra, p. 70.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 78.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid. p. 80.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid. pp. 80-81.]

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objective aspect and an internal pratîtyasamutpâda. The external pratîtyasamutpâda (dependent origination) is represented in the way in which material things (e.g. a jug) came into being by the cooperation of diverse elements—the lump of clay, the potter, the wheel, etc. The internal (_âdhyâtmika_) pratîtyasamutpâda was represented by avidyâ, t@r@s@nâ, karma, the skandhas, and the

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âyatanas produced out of them [Footnote ref 1].

Our understanding is composed of two categories called the pravichayabuddhi and the

vikalpalak@sa@nagrahâbhinives’aprati@s@thapikâbuddhi. The pravicayabuddhi is that which always seeks to take things in either of the following four ways, that they are either this or the other (_ekatvânyaiva_); either both or not both (_ubhayânubhaya_), either are or are not (_astinâsti_), either eternal or non-eternal (_nityânitya_).

But in reality none of these can be affirmed of the phenomena. The second category consists of that habit of the mind by virtue of which it constructs diversities and arranges them (created in their turn by its own constructive activity—_parikalpa_) in a logical order of diverse relations of subject and predicate, causal and other relations. He who knows the nature of these two categories of the mind knows that there is no external world of matter and that they are all experienced only in the mind. There is no water, but it is the sense construction of smoothness (_sneha_) that constructs the water as an external substance; it is the sense construction of activity or energy that constructs the external substance of fire; it is the sense construction of movement that constructs the external substance of air.

In this way through the false habit of taking the unreal as the real (_mithyâsatyâbhinives’a_) five skandhas appear. If these were to appear all together, we could not speak of any kind of causal relations, and if they appeared in succession there could be

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no connection between them, as there is nothing to bind them together. In reality there is nothing which is produced or destroyed, it is only our constructive imagination that builds up things as perceived with all their relations, and ourselves as perceivers. It is simply a convention (_vyavahâra_) to speak of things as known [Footnote ref 2]. Whatever we designate by speech is mere speech-construction (_vâgvikalpa_) and unreal. In speech one could not speak of anything without relating things in some kind of causal

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[Footnote 1: La@nkâvatârasûtra, p. 85.]

[Footnote 2: Lankâvatârasûtra, p. 87, compare the term “vyavahârika” as used of the phenomenal and the conventional world in almost the same sense by S’a@nkara.]

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relation, but none of these characters may be said to be true; the real truth (_paramartha_) can never be referred to by such speech-construction.

The nothingness (_s’ûnyata_) of things may be viewed from seven aspects—(1) that they are always interdependent, and hence

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have no special characteristics by themselves, and as they cannot be determined in themselves they cannot be determined in terms of others, for, their own nature being undetermined, a reference to an “other” is also undetermined, and hence they are all indefinable (_laksanas’ûnyata_); (2) that they have no positive essence (_bhâvasvabhâvas’ûnyatâ_), since they spring up from a natural nonexistence (_svabhâvâbhâvotpatti_); (3) that they are of an unknown type of nonexistence (_apracaritas’ûnyatâ_), since all the skandhas vanish in the nirvana; (4) that they appear phenomenally as connected though nonexistent (_pracaritas’ûnyatâ_), for their skandhas have no reality in themselves nor are they related to others, but yet they appear to be somehow causally connected; (5) that none of the things can be described as having any definite nature, they are all undemonstrable by language (_nirabhilapyas’ûnyatâ_); (6) that there cannot be any knowledge about them except that which is brought about by the long-standing defects of desires which pollute all our vision; (7) that things are also nonexistent in the sense that we affirm them to be in a particular place and time in which they are not (_itaretaras’ûnyatâ_).

There is thus only nonexistence, which again is neither eternal nor destructible, and the world is but a dream and a mâyâ; the two kinds of negation (_nirodha_) are âkâs’a (space) and nirvana; things which are neither existent nor nonexistent are only imagined to be existent by fools.

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This view apparently comes into conflict with the doctrine of this school, that the reality is called the tathâgatagarbha (the womb of all that is merged in thatness) and all the phenomenal appearances of the clusters (_skandhas_), elements (_dhâtus_), and fields of sense operation (_âyatanas_) only serve to veil it with impurities, and this would bring it nearer to the assumption of a universal soul as the reality. But the La@nkâvatâra attempts to explain away this conflict by suggesting that the reference to the tathâgatagarbha as the reality is only a sort of false bait to attract those who are afraid of listening to the nairâtmya (non-soul doctrine) [Footnote ref 1].

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[Footnote 1: La@nkâvatârasûtra, p. 80.

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The Bodhisattvas may attain their highest by the fourfold knowledge of (1) svacittad@rs’hyabhâvanâ, (2) utpâdasthitibha@ngavivarjjanatâ, (3) bâhyabhâvâbhâvopalak@sa@natâ and (4) svapratyâryyajñânâdhigamâbhinnalak@sa@natâ. The first means

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that all things are but creations of the imagination of one’s mind.

The second means that as things have no essence there is no origination, existence or destruction. The third means that one should know the distinctive sense in which all external things are said either to be existent or nonexistent, for their existence is merely like the mirage which is produced by the beginningless desire (_vâsanâ_) of creating and perceiving the manifold. This brings us to the fourth one, which means the right comprehension of the nature of all things.

The four dhyânas spoken of in the Lankâvatâra seem to be different from those which have been described in connection with the Theravâda Buddhism. These dhyânas are called (1) bâlopacârika, (2) arthapravichaya, (3) tathatâlambana and (4) tathâgata.

The first one is said to be that practised by the s’râvakas and the pratyekabuddhas. It consists in concentrating upon the doctrine that there is no soul (_pudgalanairâtmya_), and that everything is transitory, miserable and impure. When considering all things in this way from beginning to end the sage advances on till all conceptual knowing ceases (_âsa@mjñânirodhât_); we have what is called the vâlopacârika dhyâna (the meditation for beginners).

The second is the advanced state where not only there is full consciousness that there is no self, but there is also the comprehension that neither these nor the doctrines of other heretics

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may be said to exist, and that there is none of the dharmas that appears. This is called the arthapravicayadhyâna, for the sage concentrates here on the subject of thoroughly seeking out (_pravichaya_) the nature of all things (_artha_).

The third dhyâna, that in which the mind realizes that the thought that there is no self nor that there are the appearances, is itself the result of imagination and thus lapses into the thatness (_tathatâ_). This dhyâna is called tathatâlambana, because it has for its object tathatâ or thatness.

The last or the fourth dhyâna is that in which the lapse of the mind into the state of thatness is such that the nothingness and incomprehensibility of all phenomena is perfectly realized;

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and nirvâna is that in which all root desires (_vâsanâ_) manifesting themselves in knowledge are destroyed and the mind with knowledge and perceptions, making false creations, ceases to work. This cannot be called death, for it will not have any rebirth and it cannot be called destruction, for only compounded things (_sa@msk@rta_) suffer destruction, so that it is different from either death or destruction. This nirvâna is different from that of the s’râvakas and the pratyekabuddhas for they are satisfied to call that state

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nirvâ@na, in which by the knowledge of the general characteristics of all things (transitoriness and misery) they are not attached to things and cease to make erroneous judgments [Footnote ref 1].

Thus we see that there is no cause (in the sense of ground) of all these phenomena as other heretics maintain. When it is said that the world is mâyâ or illusion, what is meant to be emphasized is this, that there is no cause, no ground. The phenomena that seem to originate, stay, and be destroyed are mere constructions of tainted imagination, and the tathatâ or thatness is nothing but the turning away of this constructive activity or nature of the imagination (_vikalpa_) tainted with the associations of beginningless root desires (_vâsanâ_) [Footnote ref 2]. The tathatâ has no separate reality from illusion, but it is illusion itself when the course of the construction of illusion has ceased. It is therefore also spoken of as that which is cut off or detached from the mind (_cittavimukta_), for here there is no construction of imagination (_sarvakalpanavirahitam_) [Footnote ref 3].

Sautrântika Theory of Perception.

Dharmottara (847 A.D.), a commentator of Dharmakîrtti’s [Footnote ref 4]

(about 635 A.D.) Nyâyabindu, a Sautrantika logical and epistemological work, describes right knowledge (_samyagjñâna_) as an

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invariable antecedent to the accomplishment of all that a man

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[Footnote 1: Lankâvatarasûtra, p. 100.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 109.]

[Footnote 3: This account of the Vijñanavada school is collected mainly from Lankâvatârasûtra, as no other authentic work of the Vijñânavâda school is available. Hindu accounts and criticisms of this school may be had in such books as Kumarila’s S’loka vârttika or S’a@nkara’s bhasya, II. ii, etc. Asak@nga’s Mahâyânasûtralamkâra deals more with the duties concerning the career of a saint (_Bodhisattva_) than with the metaphysics of the system.]

[Footnote 4: Dharmakîrtti calls himself an adherent of Vijñanavâda in his Santânântarasiddhi, a treatise on solipsism, but his Nyâyabindu seems rightly to have been considered by the author of Nyâyabindu@tîkâ@tippani

(p. 19) as being written from the Sautrântika point of view.]

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desires to have (_samyagjñânapûrvikâ sarvapuru@sârthasiddhi_) [Footnote ref 1]. When on proceeding, in accordance with the presentation of any

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knowledge, we get a thing as presented by it we call it right knowledge. Right knowledge is thus the knowledge by which one can practically acquire the thing he wants to acquire (_arthâdhigati_).

The process of knowledge, therefore, starts with the perceptual presentation and ends with the attainment of the thing represented by it and the fulfilment of the practical need by it (_arthâdhigamât samâpta@h pramâ@navyâpârah_). Thus there are three moments in the perceptual acquirement of knowledge: (1) the presentation, (2) our prompting in accordance with it, and (3) the final realization of the object in accordance with our endeavour following the direction of knowledge. Inference is also to be called right knowledge, as it also serves our practical need by representing the presence of objects in certain connections and helping us to realize them. In perception this presentation is direct, while in inference this is brought about indirectly through the li@nga (reason). Knowledge is sought by men for the realization of their ends, and the subject of knowledge is discussed in philosophical works only because knowledge is sought by men. Any knowledge, therefore, which will not lead us to the realization of the object represented by it could not be called right knowledge. All illusory perceptions, therefore, such as the perception of a white conch-shell as yellow or dream perceptions, are not right knowledge, since they do not lead to the realization of such objects as are presented by them. It is true no doubt that since all objects are momentary, the object which was perceived

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at the moment of perception was not the same as that which was realized at a later moment. But the series of existents which started with the first perception of a blue object finds itself realized by the realization of other existents of the same series (_nîlâdau ya eva santâna@h paricchinno nilajñânena sa eva tena prâpita@h tena nilajñânam pramâ@nam_) [Footnote ref 2].

When it is said that right knowledge is an invariable antecedent of the realization of any desirable thing or the retarding of any undesirable thing, it must be noted that it is not meant

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[Footnote 1: Brief extracts from the opinions of two other commentators of Nyâyaybindu, Vinîtadeva and S’antabhadra (seventh century), are found in

Nyâyabindu@tîkâtippanî, a commentary of Nyayabindutikâ of Dharmmottara,

but their texts are not available to us.]

[Footnote 2: Nyâyabindu@tîkâ@tippanî, p. 11.]

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that right knowledge is directly the cause of it; for, with the rise of any right perception, there is a memory of past experiences,

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desire is aroused, through desire an endeavour in accordance with it is launched, and as a result of that there is realization of the object of desire. Thus, looked at from this point of view, right knowledge is not directly the cause of the realization of the object.

Right knowledge of course directly indicates the presentation, the object of desire, but so far as the object is a mere presentation it is not a subject of enquiry. It becomes a subject of enquiry only in connection with our achieving the object presented by perception.

Perception (_pratyaks’a_) has been defined by Dharmakîrtti as a presentation, which is generated by the objects alone, unassociated by any names or relations (_kalpanâ_) and which is not erroneous (_kalpanâpo@dhamabhrântam_) [Footnote ref 1]. This definition does not indeed represent the actual nature (_svarûpa_) of perception, but only shows the condition which must be fulfilled in order that anything may be valid perception. What is meant by saying that a perception is not erroneous is simply this, that it will be such that if one engages himself in an endeavour in accordance with it, he will not be baffled in the object which was presented to him by his perception (_tasmâdgrâhye arthe vasturûpe yadaviparyastam tadabhrântamiha veditavyam_}. It is said that a right perception could not be associated with names (_kalpanâ_ or abhilâpa). This qualification is added only with a view of leaving out all that is not directly generated by the object. A name is given to a thing only when it is associated in the mind, through memory, as being

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the same as perceived before. This cannot, therefore, be regarded as being produced by the object of perception. The senses present the objects by coming in contact with them, and the objects also must of necessity allow themselves to be presented as they are when they are in contact with the proper senses. But the work of recognition or giving names is not what is directly produced by the objects themselves, for this involves the unification of previous experiences, and this is certainly not what is presented

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[Footnote 1: The definition first given in the Pramânasamucaya (not available in Sanskrit) of Di@nnâga (500 A.D.) was “_Kalpanâpodham_.”

According to Dharmakirtti it is the indeterminate knowledge (_nirvikalpa jñâna_) consisting only of the copy of the object presented to the senses that constitutes the valid element presented to perception. The determinate knowledge (_savikalpa jñâna_), as formed by the conceptual activity of the mind identifying the object with what has been experienced before, cannot be regarded as truly representing what is really presented to the senses.]

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to the sense

(_pûrvad@r@s@tâparad@r@s@tañcârthamekîkurvadvijñânamasannihitavi@

sayam

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pûrvad@r@s@tasyâsannihitatvât_). In all illusory perceptions it is the sense which is affected either by extraneous or by inherent physiological causes. If the senses are not perverted they are bound to present the object correctly. Perception thus means the correct presentation through the senses of an object in its own uniqueness as containing only those features which are its and its alone (_svalak@sa@nam_). The validity of knowledge consists in the sameness that it has with the objects presented by it (_arthena saha yatsârûpyam sâd@rs’yamasya jñânasya tatpramâ@namiha_).

But the objection here is that if our percept is only similar to the external object then this similarity is a thing which is different from the presentation, and thus perception becomes invalid. But the similarity is not different from the percept which appears as being similar to the object. It is by virtue of their sameness that we refer to the object by the percept (_taditi sârûpyam tasya vas’ât_) and our perception of the object becomes possible.

It is because we have an awareness of blueness that we speak of having perceived a blue object. The relation, however, between the notion of similarity of the perception with the blue object and the indefinite awareness of blue in perception is not one of causation but of a determinant and a determinate (_vyavasthâpyavyavasthâpakabhâvena_). Thus it is the same cognition which in one form stands as signifying the similarity with the object of perception and is in another indefinite form the awareness as the percept (_tata ekasya vastuna@h kiñcidrûpam pramâ@nam kiñcitpramâ@naphalam

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na virudhyate_). It is on account of this similarity with the object that a cognition can be a determinant of the definite awareness (_vyavasthâpanaheturhi sârûpyam_), so that by the determinate we know the determinant and thus by the similarity of the sense-datum with the object {_pramâ@na_) we come to think that our awareness has this particular form as “blue”

(_pramâ@naphala_). If this sameness between the knowledge and its object was not felt we could not have spoken of the object from the awareness (_sârûpyamanubhûtam vyavasthâpanahetu@h_). The object generates an awareness similar to itself, and it is this correspondence that can lead us to the realization of the object so presented by right knowledge [Footnote ref l].

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[Footnote 1: See also pp. 340 and 409. It is unfortunate that, excepting the Nyâyabindu, Nyâyabindu@tîkâ, Nyâyabindu@tîkâ@tippanî (St Petersburg,

1909), no other works dealing with this interesting doctrine of perception are available to us. Nyâyabindu is probably one of the earliest works in which we hear of the doctrine of arthakriyâkâritva (practical fulfilment of our desire as a criterion of right knowledge). Later on it was regarded as a criterion of existence, as Ratnakîrtti’s works and the profuse references by Hindu writers to the Buddhistic doctrines prove. The word arthakriyâ is found in Candrakîrtti’s commentary on Nâgârjuna and also in such early works as Lalitavistara (pointed out to me by Dr E.J.

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Thomas of the Cambridge University Library) but the word has no philosophical significance there.]

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Sautrântika theory of Inference [Footnote ref 1].

According to the Sautrântika doctrine of Buddhism as described by Dharmakîrtti and Dharmmottara which is probably the only account of systematic Buddhist logic that is now available to us in Sanskrit, inference (_anumâna_) is divided into two classes, called svârthânumâna (inferential knowledge attained by a person arguing in his own mind or judgments), and parârthânumâna (inference through the help of articulated propositions for convincing others in a debate). The validity of inference depended, like the validity of perception, on copying the actually existing facts of the external world. Inference copied external realities as much as perception did; just as the validity of the immediate perception of blue depends upon its similarity to the external blue thing perceived, so the validity of the inference of a blue thing also, so far as it is knowledge, depends upon its resemblance to the external fact thus inferred (_sârûpyavas’âddhi tannîlapratîtirûpam sidhyati_).

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The reason by which an inference is made should be such that it may be present only in those cases where the thing to be inferred exists, and absent in every case where it does not exist. It is only when the reason is tested by both these joint conditions that an unfailing connection (_pratibandha_) between the reason and the thing to be inferred can be established. It is not enough that the reason should be present in all cases where the thing to be inferred exists and absent where it does not exist, but it is necessary that it should be present only in the above case. This law (_niyama_) is essential for establishing the unfailing condition necessary for inference [Footnote ref 2]. This unfailing natural connection (_svabhâvapratibandha_) is found in two types

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[Footnote 1: As the Pramâ@nasamuccaya of Diñnâga is not available in Sanskrit, we can hardly know anything of developed Buddhist logic except what can be got from the Nyâyabindu@tîkâ of Dharmmottara.]

[Footnote 2: tasmât niyamavatorevânvayavyatirekayo@h prayoga@h karttavya@h

yena pratibandho gamyeta sâdhanyasa sâdhyena. Nyâyabindu@tîkâ, p. 24.]

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of cases. The first is that where the nature of the reason is contained

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in the thing to be inferred as a part of its nature, i.e. where the reason stands for a species of which the thing to be inferred is a genus; thus a stupid person living in a place full of tall pines may come to think that pines are called trees because they are tall and it may be useful to point out to him that even a small pine plant is a tree because it is pine; the quality of pineness forms a part of the essence of treeness, for the former being a species is contained in the latter as a genus; the nature of the species being identical with the nature of the genus, one could infer the latter from the former but not vice versa; this is called the unfailing natural connection of identity of nature (_tâdâtmya_).

The second is that where the cause is inferred from the effect which stands as the reason of the former. Thus from the smoke the fire which has produced it may be inferred. The ground of these inferences is that reason is naturally indissolubly connected with the thing to be inferred, and unless this is the case, no inference is warrantable.

This natural indissoluble connection (_svabhâvapratibandha_), be it of the nature of identity of essence of the species in the genus or inseparable connection of the effect with the cause, is the ground of all inference [Footnote ref 1]. The svabhâvapratibandha determines the inseparability of connection (avinâbhâvaniyama) and the inference is made not through a series of premisses, but directly by the li@nga (reason) which has the inseparable connection

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[Footnote ref 2].

The second type of inference known as parârthânumâna agrees with svârthânumâna in all essential characteristics; the main difference between the two is this, that in the case of parârthânumâna, the inferential process has to be put verbally in premisses.

Pandit Ratnâkarasânti, probably of the ninth or the tenth century A.D., wrote a paper named Antarvyâptisamarthana in which

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[Footnote 1: na hi yo yatra svabhâvena na pratibaddha@h sa tam apratibaddhavi@sayamavs’yameva na vyabhicaratîti nâsti tayoravyabhicâraniyama. Nyâyabindu@tîkâ, p. 29.]

[Footnote 2: The inseparable connection determining inference is only possible when the li@nga satisfies the three following conditions, viz. (1) pak@sasattva (existence of the li@nga in the pak@sa—the thing about which something is inferred); (2) sapak@sasattva (existence of the li@nga in those cases where the sâdhya oc probandum existed), and (3) vipak@sâsattva (its nonexistence in all those places where the sâdhya did not exist). The Buddhists admitted three propositions in a syllogism, e.g. The hill has fire, because it has smoke, like a kitchen but unlike

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a lake.]

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he tried to show that the concomitance is not between those cases which possess the li@nga or reason with the cases which possess the sâdhya (probandum) but between that which has the characteristics of the li@nga with that which has the characteristics of the sâdhya (probandum); or in other words the concomitance is not between the places containing the smoke such as kitchen, etc., and the places containing fire but between that which has the characteristic of the li@nga, viz. the smoke, and that which has the characteristic of the sâdhya, viz. the fire. This view of the nature of concomitance is known as inner concomitance (_antarvyâpti_), whereas the former, viz. the concomitance between the thing possessing li@nga and that possessing sâdhya, is known as outer concomitance (_bahirvyâpti_) and generally accepted by the Nyâya school of thought. This antarvyâpti doctrine of concomitance is indeed a later Buddhist doctrine.

It may not be out of place here to remark that evidences of some form of Buddhist logic probably go back at least as early as the Kathâvatthu (200 B.C.). Thus Aung on the evidence of the Yamaka points out that Buddhist logic at the time of As’oka “was conversant with the distribution of terms” and the process

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of conversion. He further points out that the logical premisses such as the udâhara@na (_Yo yo aggimâ so so dhûmavâ_—whatever is fiery is smoky), the upanayana (_ayam pabbato dhûmavâ_—this hill is smoky) and the niggama (_tasmâdayam aggimâ_—therefore that is fiery) were also known. (Aung further sums up the method of the arguments which are found in the Kathâvatthu as follows:

“Adherent. Is A B? (_@thâpanâ_).

Opponent. Yes.

Adherent. Is C D? (_pâpanâ_).

Opponent. No.

Adherent. But if A be B then (you should have said) C is D.

That B can be affirmed of A but D of C is false.

Hence your first answer is refuted.”)

The antecedent of the hypothetical major premiss is termed @thâpanâ, because the opponent’s position, A is B, is conditionally established for the purpose of refutation.

The consequent of the hypothetical major premiss is termed pâpanâ because it is got from the antecedent. And the conclusion

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is termed ropa@na because the regulation is placed on the opponent. Next:

“If D be derived of C.

Then B should have been derived of A.

But you affirmed B of A.

(therefore) That B can be affirmed of A but not of D or C is wrong.”

This is the pa@tiloma, inverse or indirect method, as contrasted with the former or direct method, anuloma. In both methods the consequent is derived. But if we reverse the hypothetical major in the latter method we get

“If A is B C is D.

But A is B.

Therefore C is D.

By this indirect method the opponent’s second answer is reestablished [Footnote ref 1].”

The Doctrine of Momentariness.

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Ratnakîrtti (950 A.D.) sought to prove the momentariness of all existence (_sattva_), first, by the concomitance discovered by the method of agreement in presence (_anvayavyâpti_), and then by the method of difference by proving that the production of effects could not be justified on the assumption of things being permanent and hence accepting the doctrine of momentariness as the only alternative. Existence is defined as the capacity of producing anything (_arthakriyâkâritva_). The form of the first type of argument by anvayavyâpti may be given thus: “Whatever exists is momentary, by virtue of its existence, as for example the jug; all things about the momentariness of which we are discussing are existents and are therefore momentary.” It cannot be said that the jug which has been chosen as an example of an existent is not momentary; for the jug is producing certain effects at the present moment; and it cannot be held that these are all identical in the past and the future or that it is producing no effect at all in the past and future, for the first is impossible, for those which are done now could not be done again in the future; the second is impossible, for if it has any capacity to

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[Footnote: 1: See introduction to the translation of Kathâvatthu (_Points of Controversy_) by Mrs Rhys Davids.]

The doctrine of momentariness ought to be a direct corollary of the Buddhist metaphysics. But it is curious that though all dharmas were regarded as changing, the fact that they were all strictly momentary (_k@sa@nika_—i.e. existing only for one moment) was not emphasized in early Pâli literature. As’vagho@sa in his S’raddhotpâdas’âstra speaks of all skandhas as k@sa@nika (Suzuki’s translation, p. 105). Buddhaghosa also speaks of the meditation of the khandhas as kha@nika in his Visuddhimagga. But from the seventh century A.D. till the tenth century this doctrine together with the doctrine of arthakriyâkâritva received great attention at the hands of the Sautrântikas and the Vaibhâ@sikas. All the Nyâya and Vedânta literature of this period is full of refutations and criticisms of these doctrines. The only Buddhist account available of the doctrine of momentariness is from the pen of Ratnakîrtti. Some of the general features of his argument in favour of the view have been given above. Elaborate accounts of it may be found in any of the important Nyâya works of this period such as Nynyamanjari, Tâtparyya@tîkâ of Vâcaspati Mis’ra, etc.

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Buddhism did not at any time believe anything to be permanent.

With the development of this doctrine they gave great emphasis to this point. Things came to view at one moment and the next moment they were destroyed. Whatever is existent is momentary. It is said that our notion of permanence is derived from the notion of permanence of ourselves, but Buddhism denied the existence of any such permanent selves. What appears as self is but the bundle of ideas, emotions, and active tendencies manifesting at any particular moment. The next moment these dissolve, and new bundles determined by the preceding ones appear and so on. The present thought is thus the only thinker.

Apart from the emotions, ideas, and active tendencies, we cannot discover any separate self or soul. It is the combined product of these ideas, emotions, etc., that yield the illusory appearance of self at any moment. The consciousness of self is the resultant product as it were of the combination of ideas, emotions, etc., at any particular moment. As these ideas, emotions, etc., change every moment there is no such thing as a permanent self.

The fact that I remember that I have been existing for

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a long time past does not prove that a permanent self has been

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existing for such a long period. When I say this is that book, I perceive the book with my eye at the present moment, but that “this book” is the same as “that book” (i.e. the book arising in memory), cannot be perceived by the senses. It is evident that the “that book” of memory refers to a book seen in the past, whereas “this book” refers to the book which is before my eyes. The feeling of identity which is adduced to prove permanence is thus due to a confusion between an object of memory referring to a past and different object with the object as perceived at the present moment by the senses [Footnote ref 1]. This is true not only of all recognition of identity and permanence of external objects but also of the perception of the identity of self, for the perception of self-identity results from the confusion of certain ideas or emotions arising in memory with similar ideas of the present moment. But since memory points to an object of past perception, and the perception to another object of the present moment, identity cannot be proved by a confusion of the two. Every moment all objects of the world are suffering dissolution and destruction, but yet things appear to persist, and destruction cannot often be noticed.

Our hair and nails grow and are cut, but yet we think that we have the same hair and nail that we had before, in place of old hairs new ones similar to them have sprung forth, and they leave the impression as if the old ones were persisting. So it is that though things are destroyed every moment, others similar to these often rise into being and are destroyed the next moment

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and so on, and these similar things succeeding in a series produce the impression that it is one and the same thing which has been persisting through all the passing moments [Footnote ref 2]. Just as the flame of a candle is changing every moment and yet it seems to us as if we have been perceiving the same flame all the while, so all our bodies, our ideas, emotions, etc., all external objects around us are being destroyed every moment, and new ones are being generated at every succeeding moment, but so long as the objects of the succeeding moments are similar to those of the preceding moments, it appears to us that things have remained the same and no destruction has taken place.

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[Footnote 1: See pratyabhijñânirâsa of the Buddhists, Nyâyamañjarî, V.S.

Series, pp. 449, etc.]

[Footnote 2: See Tarkarahasyadîpikâ of Gu@naratna, p. 30, and also Nyâyamañjarî, V.S. edition, p. 450.]

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The Doctrine of Momentariness and the Doctrine of Causal Efficiency (Arthakriyâkâritva).

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It appears that a thing or a phenomenon may be defined from the Buddhist point of view as being the combination of diverse characteristics [Footnote ref 1]. What we call a thing is but a conglomeration of diverse characteristics which are found to affect, determine or influence other conglomerations appearing as sentient or as inanimate bodies. So long as the characteristics forming the elements of any conglomeration remain perfectly the same, the conglomeration may be said to be the same. As soon as any of these characteristics is supplanted by any other new characteristic, the conglomeration is to be called a new one [Footnote ref 2]. Existence or being of things means the work that any conglomeration does or the influence that it exerts on other conglomerations. This in Sanskrit is called arthakriyâkâritva which literally translated means—the power of performing actions and purposes of some kind [Footnote ref 3]. The criterion of existence or being is the performance of certain specific actions, or rather existence means that a certain effect has been produced in some way (causal efficiency).

That which has produced such an effect is then called existent or sat.

Any change in the effect thus produced means a corresponding change of existence. Now, that selfsame definite specific effect

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[Footnote 1: Compare Milindapañha, II. I. 1—The Chariot Simile.]

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[Footnote 2: Compare Tarkarahasyadîpikâ of Gu@naratna, A.S.’s edition, pp. 24, 28 and Nyâyamañjarî, V.S. edition, pp. 445, etc., and also the paper on K@sa@nabha@ngasiddhi by Ratnakîrtti in Six Buddhist Nyâya tracts.]

[Footnote 3: This meaning of the word “arthakriyâkâritva” is different from the meaning of the word as we found in the section “sautrântika theory of perception.” But we find the development of this meaning both in Ratnakîrtti as well as in Nyâya writers who referred to this doctrine.

With Vinîtadeva (seventh century A.D.) the word “_arthakrîyâsiddhi_”

meant the fulfilment of any need such as the cooking of rice by fire (_arthas’abdena prayojanamucyate puru@sasya praycjana@m dârupâkâdi tasya siddhi@h ni@spatti@h_—the word artha means need; the need of man such as cooking by logs, etc.; siddhi of that, means accomplishment).

With Dharmottara who flourished about a century and a half later arthasiddhi means action (anu@s@thiti) with reference to undesirable and desirable objects (_heyopâdeyârthavi@sayâ_). But with Ratnakîrtti (950 A.D.) the word arthakriyâkâritva has an entirely different sense.

It means with him efficiency of producing any action or event, and as such it is regarded as the characteristic definition of existence sattva). Thus he says in his K@sa@nabha@ngasiddhi, pp. 20, 21, that though in different philosophies there are different definitions of existence or being, he will open his argument with the universally accepted definition of existence as arthakriyâkâritva (efficiency of causing any

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action or event). Whenever Hindu writers after Ratnakîrtti refer to the Buddhist doctrine of arthakriyâkâritva they usually refer to this doctrine in Ratnakîrtti’s sense.]

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which is produced now was never produced before, and cannot be repeated in the future, for that identical effect which is once produced cannot be produced again. So the effects produced in us by objects at different moments of time may be similar but cannot be identical. Each moment is associated with a new effect and each new effect thus produced means in each case the coming into being of a correspondingly new existence of things. If things were permanent there would be no reason why they should be performing different effects at different points of time. Any difference in the effect produced, whether due to the thing itself or its combination with other accessories, justifies us in asserting that the thing has changed and a new one has come in its place.

The existence of a jug for example is known by the power it has of forcing itself upon our minds; if it had no such power then we could not have said that it existed. We can have no notion of the meaning of existence other than the impression produced on us; this impression is nothing else but the power exerted by things on us, for there is no reason why one should hold that beyond such powers as are associated with the production

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of impressions or effects there should be some other permanent entity to which the power adhered, and which existed even when the power was not exerted. We perceive the power of producing effects and define each unit of such power as amounting to a unit of existence. And as there would be different units of power at different moments, there should also be as many new existences, i.e. existents must be regarded as momentary, existing at each moment that exerts a new power.

This definition of existence naturally brings in the doctrine of momentariness shown by Ratnakîrtti.

Some Ontological Problems on which the Different Indian Systems Diverged.

We cannot close our examination of Buddhist philosophy without briefly referring to its views on some ontological problems which were favourite subjects of discussion in almost all philosophical circles of India. These are in brief: (1) the relation of cause and effect, (2) the relation of the whole (_avayavi_) and the part (_avayava_), (3) the relation of generality (_samanya_) to the specific individuals, (4) the relation of attributes or qualities and the substance and the problem of the relation of inherence, (5) the

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relation of power (_s’akti_) to the power-possessor (_s’aktimân_). Thus on the relation of cause and effect, S’a@nkara held that cause alone was permanent, real, and all effects as such were but impermanent illusions due to ignorance, Sâ@mkhya held that there was no difference between cause and effect, except that the former was only the earlier stage which when transformed through certain changes became the effect. The history of any causal activity is the history of the transformation of the cause into the effects.

Buddhism holds everything to be momentary, so neither cause nor effect can abide. One is called the effect because its momentary existence has been determined by the destruction of its momentary antecedent called the cause. There is no permanent reality which undergoes the change, but one change is determined by another and this determination is nothing more than “that happening, this happened.” On the relation of parts to whole, Buddhism does not believe in the existence of wholes. According to it, it is the parts which illusorily appear as the whole, the individual atoms rise into being and die the next moment and thus there is no such thing as “whole [Footnote ref 1]. The Buddhists hold again that there are no universals, for it is the individuals alone which come and go. There are my five fingers as individuals but there is no such thing as fingerness (_a@ngulitva_) as the abstract universal of the fingers. On the relation of attributes and substance we know that the Sautrântika Buddhists did not believe in the existence

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of any substance apart from its attributes; what we call a substance is but a unit capable of producing a unit of sensation.

In the external world there are as many individual simple units (atoms) as there are points of sensations. Corresponding to each unit of sensation there is a separate simple unit in the objective world. Our perception of a thing is thus the perception of the assemblage of these sensations. In the objective world also there are no substances but atoms or reals, each representing a unit of sensation, force or attribute, rising into being and dying the next moment. Buddhism thus denies the existence of any such relation as that of inherence (_samavâya_) in which relation the attributes are said to exist in the substance, for since there are no separate substances there is no necessity for admitting the relation of inherence. Following the same logic Buddhism also does not

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believe in the existence of a power-possessor separate from the power.

Brief survey of the evolution of Buddhist Thought.

In the earliest period of Buddhism more attention was paid to the four noble truths than to systematic metaphysics. What

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was sorrow, what was the cause of sorrow, what was the cessation of sorrow and what could lead to it? The doctrine of pa@ticcasamuppâda was offered only to explain how sorrow came in and not with a view to the solving of a metaphysical problem. The discussion of ultimate metaphysical problems, such as whether the world was eternal or non-eternal, or whether a Tathâgata existed after death or not, were considered as heresies in early Buddhism. Great emphasis was laid on sîla, samâdhi and paññâ and the doctrine that there was no soul. The Abhidhammas hardly give us any new philosophy which was not contained in the Suttas. They only elaborated the materials of the suttas with enumerations and definitions. With the evolution of Mahâyâna scriptures from some time about 200 B.C. the doctrine of the non-essentialness and voidness of all dhammas began to be preached.