Because there is no relationship between the series of
skandhas
of others and this idea.
AbhidharmakosabhasyamVol-4VasubandhuPoussinPruden1991
But we have shown that this explanation is inadmissable.
A good explanation is simple: one says that when a flame burns a field it travels, although they be only moments of flame, because it constitutes a series; in the same way the harmony of the skandhas which is constantly repeated receives, metaphori- cally, the name of being; supported by thirst, the series of skandhas travels in samsdra.
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[The Vatsiputrlyas]: If only the skandhas exist, we do not see how one can explain these words of the Blessed One, "In the past, I
110
was the teacher Sunetra. "
existence of the individual skandhas metaphorically termed "soul," past skandhas are not the same as present skandhas, and so the Blessed One cannot express himself in this manner.
But what is the thing that the Blessed One calls "soul"? The pudgala, you would say: then, since the "soul" is permanent, a past "soul" is identical with a present "soul". For us, when the Blessed One said, "I was the teacher Sunetra/' he teaches us that the skandhas that constitute his present "soul" formed part of the
Refutation of the pudgala 1337
In fact, in the hypothesis of the
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same series as the skandhas that constituted Sunetra. In the same way one says, "This fire has been burning here/'
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You affirm the existence of a real soul: we hold that only the Buddhas, Tathagatas would see it (because it is subtle). But if the Buddhas see a soul, they would produce a firm belief in a soul; from this belief in a soul there would be produced among them a belief in things pertaining to a soul; from these two beliefs there would be produced among them affection for the soul and for things pertaining to a soul. The Blessed One said in fact that "whosoever believes in a soul, believes in things pertaining to a soul; believing in things pertaining to a soul, they become attached to the skandhas as they form a soul and things pertaining to a soul/' There would be then satkayadrsti among the Buddhas; they would be bound by affection for a soul and for things pertaining to a soul; and they would be very far from liberation.
[The Vatslputrlyas]: Affection is not produced with regard to a soul. We explain: when one recognizes a soul in what is not the soul, as do the non-Buddhists, one feels affection for this pretended soul; but, when one sees the soul in that which is truly the soul, namely the ineffable pudgala, as do the Buddhas, no affection is produced with regard to the soul.
This statement has no support. The Vatslputrlyas, without any
shadow of reason, introduce the sickness of heresy into the
teachings of the Master. Whereas there are those who admit an
111 ineffable pudgala, others deny the existence of all the dharmas;
non-Buddhists imagine a soul apart from all other substances. All these doctrines are wrong and present the same flaw in that they do not lead to liberation.
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? Refutation of the pudgala 1339 112
If the soul does not absolutely exist, how can a mind--which perishes as soon as it is generated--be capable of remembering an object perceived a long time before? How is it able to recognize an object similar to what it has formerly perceived?
Memory and recognition are generated immediately, in a series, from a certain type of mind, when this type of mind arises from the idea of object already perceived and which one calls "object of the memory. "
[Now then, let us first examine memory. ]
What is the type of mind from whence memory immediately shoots up?
We answer: It's a certain mind (citta-visesa), bent towards the object of memory, a mind in which one finds ideas related to that thing or resembling that thing, or even "resolutions" of a certain nature, etc. ; with the condition however that the power that this mind possesses to produce memory is not paralysed by a psycho- somatic change arising from sickness, from grief, from mental
113 trouble, or the disturbing influence of magic formulas, etc.
1. It is necessary that a bending of the mind be produced, an act of attention, towards the object; 2. it is necessary that the mind involves an idea resembling the object, in the case where one remembers by reason of resemblance (for example, I remember fire perceived a long time ago because the idea of fire is placed in my mind by the sight of present fire); 3. or it is necessary that the mind involves an idea in relation to the object, in the case where one remembers without there being resemblance (for example, I remember fire because the idea of smoke is placed in my mind by the sight of smoke); 4. or it is necessary that the mind involves a pranidhdna, or resolution, an abhydsa, or habit (for example, the resolution has been placed in the mental series, "I shall remember this at such a time"); 5. also when it is of this nature--that is to say, when it presents the characteristic 1. and one of the characteristics 2 - 4--if the thought does not proceed from the idea of the object of memory--that is to say, if the mind so envisaged is
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not produced in a series where the idea of a certain object has been placed by perception, if this mind does not proceed from this idea--the mind cannot produce memory; 6. when it is not of this nature, even though it proceeds from an idea of the object of memory, it cannot produce memory.
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] How can one mind see and another mind remember? It is contrary that Yajnadatta remembers an object that Devadatta has seen.
That is right. There is no connection between Devadatta and Yajnadatta: Their minds are not in the relationship of cause and effect, as is the case for minds which form series. Indeed, we do not say that one mind sees an object and that another mind remembers this object, because these two minds belong to the same series. We say that one past mind, bearing a certain object, brings about the existence of another mind, the present mind, capable of remem- bering this object. In other words, a mind of memory is generated from a mind of seeing, as fruit is generated from the seed through the force of the last stage of the transformation of the series. This point has been clarified. Memory is generated after recognition.
114
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] In the absence of a soul, who remembers? [Vasubandhu:] What do you understand by "to remember"? [The Vatsiputrlyas:] To grasp an object by the memory. [Vasubandhu:] Does "to grasp" differ from memory? [The
115
[Vasubandhu:] We have explained what is the agent of this action: it is the cause of memory, namely a certain type of mind.
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] But, if it is only a certain type of mind that is the cause of memory, how can one say that Caitra remembers?
[Vasubandhu:] One gives the name Caitra to a series; a mind of memory is generated, in this series, from a mind of seeing, and by reason of this fact one says that Caitra remembers.
Vatsiputrlyas:] Memory is the agent of the action "to grasp. "
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] In the absence of a soul, whose is the
? memory?
[Vasubandhu:] What is the sense of the genitive "whose"? [The Vatsiputriyas:] This genitive designates its master.
[Vasubandhu:] Explain by an example how you understand that someone is the master of memory. [The Vatsiputriyas:] As Caitra is the master of the cow.
[Vasubandhu:] In what is Caitra the master of the cow?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] In that he directs and employs the cow as he pleases.
[Vasubandhu:] To what then is the memory directed and employed by a master, for whom you search with great pains.
[The Vatsiputriyas:] It is directed and employed on the object that one wants to remember (that is to say, it is employed on remembering).
[Vasubandhu:] To what purpose?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] For the purpose of memory.
[Vasubandhu:] What idle talk! I direct and employ a certain thing with a view to the same thing! Explain to me then how memory is employed: do you want to say that one transmits it to a certain place? Do you want to say that one causes it to be produced?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] Memory does not die out; it is then not transmitted. One causes it to be produced.
[Vasubandhu:] What you call "master" is then simply the cause, and what you call "subject" is simply the result. In fact the cause, by its command, operates the result; it is then "master"; and the result, in that it is subordinate to the cause at the moment of its arising, is called "subject. " Since the cause suffices as master, why require a self to which you could attribute memory? Memory belongs to whatever causes memory. Complexes of samskdras, or the five skandhas forming a homogeneous series, are called
Refutation of the pudgala 1341
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"Caitra" and "cow. " One says that the Caitra-series possesses the cow-series, because the Caitra-series is the cause of the geographic displacement and the various changes of the cow-series. There is not there any one, real entity "Caitra," nor another entity called "cow;" there is not, for the Caitra-series, any quality of owner or master outside of its quality of cause.
[As with memory, so too with recognition. ]
We would answer, mutatis mutandis, to the questions: "Who knows? To whom do we attribute consciousness? " and to other similar questions, "What feels, what makes ideas? " as we have responded to the questions, "What remembers? To whom do we attribute memory and recognition? "
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116
Certain scholars
(bhava) depends on an existing being (bhavitar), as the walking of Devadatta depends on Devadatta. Walking is an action, and Devadatta is the active being. In the same way consciousness {vijnana) and all action depends on a "base of support" {asraya), "one who knows {vijnatar)** the agent.
say that the soul (dtman) exists, as existence
We would ask what it is that they understand by "Devadatta. " If they regard Devadatta as a real individual, we have discussed and refuted this theory. Devadatta is an imaginary individual and not an individual entity; Devadatta is only the name that one gives to the series of samskaras. In the sense that one could say that such a Devadatta walks, in the same sense we can say that Devadatta knows.
How does Devadatta walk? "Devadatta" is only a homogene- ous series of samskaras, moments of existence replaced without interruption and roughly similar one to another. The foolish see within this series an entity which would be the cause of the action that this series generates in a different place, the cause by the efficacy of which the successive moments of the existence of the
? body of Devadatta is produced in different places. In fact, the walking of Devadatta is simply the act of the generation of the series which is the body in different locations; the cause of this action--that is to say, the previous moment of the series--receives the name of "walker. "
It is in this sense that we say that Devadatta walks, in order to designate a walk totally similar to that of fire or sound: the fire walks, the sound walks, that is to say, the fire-series and the
117
sound-series go being generated from one place to another.
the same way the world says that Devadatta knows (vijdndti) because the complex which is Devadatta is the cause of conscious- ness (vijndna); and, in order to conform to received usage, the Aryans also express themselves in this manner, which is inexact.
Nevertheless, a Sutra says that the consciousness knows the object. What does the vijndna do with regard to the object?
Nothing: It is simply produced resembling the object. In the
118 correspond to the seed, to reproduce the seed, because it is
119
same way that fruit, although it does nothing,
is said to
produced resembling the seed;
the vijndna also, although it
accomplishes no action with regard to the object, is said to know
the object because it is produced resembling the object. This
resemblance of the vijndna consists in that it has the appearance of
120
the object.
By reason of this appearance one says that the
vijudna knows the object which is only one of its causes; the organ
is also a cause of the vijndna, but one does not say that the vijndna
knows the organ because the vijndna does not take the aspect of
the organ. This manner of speaking, "The vijndna knows," is again
justified from another point of view. Several successive moments
of vijndna are produced with regard to the object: the previous
moment is the cause of the later moment; the vijndna is then a
cause of vijndna; it is then called the agent (kartr) since it is the
One says that the lamp moves: here is what the moving of the lamp consists of: "lamp" is the name metaphorically attributed to
121
the action of ringing to a bell or the action of moving to a lamp.
cause:
one attributes the action of knowing to it as one attributes
In
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the uninterrupted series of moments of the flame that one sees,
wrongly, as a "unity. " When one of these successive moments is
produced in place other than that of the preceeding moment, one
says that the lamp moves. But there does not exist a "mover" apart
from and distinct from the moment of the fire. In the same way,
one metaphorically designates a series of minds by vijnana, or
consciousness: when one moment of mind is produced relative to a
new object, one says that the consciousness knows this object. One
says that the consciousness knows: the same way that one says that
"physical matter" exists (bhavati), is produced, lasts, without there
being an "exister" {bhavitr), a "producer," "anything that lasts,"
122
distinct from what is called its existence, etc.
[The Samkhya]:
123
If the later consciousness (vijnana) is
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produced from the previous consciousness and not from a soul
(atmari)y why is not the later consciousness always similar to the
previous consciousness? Why do not consciousnesses succeed
themselves in a determined order, as do shoots, stems, leaves,
124 etc?
Answer to the first question: Because everything that is produced through causes, i. e. , conditioned things, presents the character of "transformation" (sthityanyathdtva)\ this is the nature of conditioned things: in the series which they form, the latter should differ from the former. If it were otherwise, the ascetics who had entered into meditation--in which the body and the consciousness are always produced in the same way, the successive moments of the series being identical--would not
125
As for the second difficulty: The production of consciousness is subject to a certain order. If a certain mind should be produced
126
after a certain mind, it will be produced after this mind.
other hand, certain consciousnesses present a partial similarity that obliges them to produce one another by reason of the
spontaneously get out of meditation.
On the
? 121
particular character of their gotra. For example, upon the idea of
128
"woman"
detesting the body of a woman, but (among non-ascetics) there immediately arises the idea of a wife or daughter. Later, following upon the differing development of the succession of ideas, the idea
129
there immediately arises the idea (among ascetics) of
of a woman reproduces itself.
This second idea of a woman
would have the capacity of producing the idea of the detesting the
body, or the idea of wife or daughter, accordingly as it has either of
these ideas as gotra, that is to say, as a seed; but not when it does
lb0
not have a similar gotra. And again innumerable different ideas
can succeed the idea of a woman, and that by reason of multiple causes. Among all these ideas, those are produced first which are the most "numerous"--having formed a series in the past--the most "alive," the "nearest"--as these ideas have most strongly
131
impregnated the mental series:
when other ideas are produced by a certain state of the body or by certain external objects.
But why does the consciousness, which has most strongly impregnated the mental series, not continue to so impregnate it without ceasing?
Because, as we have said, transformation is a characteristic of the mental series; this characteristic is eminently propitious for the production of the result of ideas, having medium or small force.
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Here we have, in an incomplete and summary manner, explained the causes and conditions of the order of the reciprocal generation of different categories of consciousness. Complete knowledge of these causes belongs only to the Buddha. Thus the stanza says, "All the types of causes which go to produce a peacock feather--no one can know them except the Omniscient Ones: this
is the power of knowledge of Omniscience (to know a thing
completely). "
132
The causes of the variety of material things are
Refutation of the pudgala 1345
except, of course, at the moment
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difficult to know; how much more difficult is it to penetrate the variety of causes and conditions of non-material things, minds and
133
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A certain non-Buddhist
produced from a soul. One can successfully oppose his objections vainly formulated against us: Why isn't the latter consciousness the same as the former consciousness? Why aren't the conscious- nesses produced in a fixed order?
133
This master
absence of a fixed rule to their arising by the diversity that he terms "the conjunction (samyoga) of the soul with the manas or mental organ. " This explanation does not hold. No type of
136
On the other hand, reasoning shows that two things in conjunction should be delimited, that is to say, localized in distinct places. Judge if your definition of conjunction, "possession
137
succeeding upon non-possession,
as our reasoning, namely that the soul is delimited, localized. (Whence it follows that the soul is not omnipresent: and this
139
It also results from your definition of conjunction that, when
the manas moves--it goes to such and such a part of the body--the
soul should also move to make a place for it (and then it is not
niskriya, or exempt from action) or that it should perish (and then
140
mental states!
conjunction is proved.
contradicts your system. )
134
believes that the consciousnesses are
explains the variety of consciousnesses and the
it is not nitya, or eternal).
that the soul is in partial conjunction
according to you, the soul is an entity without parts.
142
Supposing also that there is conjunction between the permanent soul and an always immoveable manas, how does one explain the diversity of the conjunction (necessary for the diversity of consciousness)? Would you say that this diversity results from
admits of the same conclusion 138
On the other hand, you cannot admit
141
with the manas, for,
? the diversity of the buddhi, "intelligence," (which is a quality, guna, of the soul)? But the buddhi presents the same difficulty as the manas: if the soul is not diversified, how would buddhi be diversified? Would you say that the diversity of the buddhi results from the diversity of conjunction of the soul and the manas, a variety which results from the samskdras? In this hypothesis, the soul serves no purpose; why not say that the diversity of consciousnesses comes from the consciousness itself which is diversified by the samskdras? The soul does not intervene in the beginning of consciousness, and to say that consciousness comes from a soul is to be as the charlatan who, although drugs suffice for the healing of the sickness, pronounces some magic syllables: Phut! Svaha!
You would say without doubt that consciousness, like the samskdras, exists through conjunction with the soul: but this is merely a statement without proof. But you would insist, saying that the soul is its support {asraya): please explain by an example the nature of the relationship of the support and the supported. The consciousness (that the samskdras influence) and the samskdras themselves are not a picture or a fruit that the soul supports as a wall supports a picture or as a plate supports fruit: in fact, on the one hand, one would have to admit physical contact (between the soul and the thought-samskdras); and, on the other hand, the picture and the fruit exist independently of the wall and the plate.
You say that you do not understand the support that the soul furnishes the thought-samskdras to be thus: the soul supports thought-samskdras as earth supports smell, color, taste, touch. We rejoice in this comparison, for it establishes the non-existence of the soul. In the same way that one cannot perceive the existence of earth independently of smell, etc. --what one designates by the word "earth" is only a collection of smells, etc. --in this same way there is no soul existing apart from the thought-samskdras: the thought-samskdras are what one designates by the word "soul". Who can obtain the idea of "earth" apart from smell, etc. ?
But, if "earth" does not exist apart from smells, etc , how can one qualify certain smells, etc. , as properties of earth: "The smell,
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the taste of earth? "
One expresses oneself thus with a view to distinguishing: in other words, one wants to indicate that certain smells, tastes, etc. , are what is termed "earth," not other smells or tastes which are termed "water. " In the same way, one designates a certain thing as being "the body of a wooden statue" indicating by that that it is of
143 wood, and not of baked clay.
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If the soul produces the consciousnesses by reason of the variety of the samskdras, why doesn't it produce all the conscious- nesses at the same time?
[The Vaisesikas:] Because the strongest samskdra opposes the weakest samskdra in producing its result. And if the strongest samskdra does not constantly produce its result, it is for the same reason that you have given in explaining the traces (vdsands) abandoned by the consciousness in the series: we think that the samskdras are not permanent and are subject to change.
But then of what use is a soul? Diverse consciousnesses would be generated by the diverse force of the samskdras, since there is
144 no difference in nature between your samskdras and our vdsands.
[The Vaisesikas:] One cannot do without the soul. Memory,
145
the samskdras, etc. ,
"attributes" {guna)\ these attributes must of necessity have for their substratum, or support {dsraya), a "substance" {dravya) and, among the nine substances (earth, etc. ), the soul, since it is inadmissable that memory and the other mental qualities would have for their substratum any substance other than the soul (namely earth, etc. ), since the soul alone is intelligent.
But this system of substances and attributes is not proved. [You say that memory, the samskdras, etc. , are things included within the category of "attributes" and are not substances: we do
are things {padarthas) that are termed
? not agree. ] We think that all that exists is "substance. " A Sutra says that "the result of the religious life consists of six substances (namely the five pure skandhas and pratisarhkhyanirodha)" It is false that memory, etc. , has the soul as its substratum: as we have criticized the idea of a substratum.
[The Vaisesikas say:] If the soul does not really exist, what is the result of actions?
The result of actions is that the "soul" experiences pleasure or pain.
[The Vaisesikas:] What do you understand by "soul"?
It is what one speaks of when one says "I," the object of the
idea of self, the skandhas or object.
How do we know this?
It is to the series of skandhas, that is, to the skandhas--to one's body, to one's sensations--that one becomes attached; as the idea of "I" is generated with reference to the idea of white and other similar ideas: in the world does one not say "I am white, black, old, young, thin, fat"? What one regards as white, etc. ,--evidently the skandha of physical matter--is also what one regards as "I. " The "soul" imagined by the Vaisesika is different from white, etc. ; but, in fact, the idea of "I" is relative only to those skandhas and not to any "self" imagined [by the Vaisesikas. ]
[The Vaisesikas:] It is through metaphor that the world designates the body by the word "I" when it says, "I am white. " This metaphor is justified because the body is in the service of the true "I. "
So be it: one metaphorically calls what is used by the "I" by the
Refutation of the pudgala 1349
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name of "I. " But one cannot explain in this manner the conscious- ness that says "I" (with regard to the body, sensations, conscious-
146
[The Vaisesikas:] If the idea of "I" has the body for an object why is not this idea generated with regard to the bodies of others?
Because there is no relationship between the series of skandhas of others and this idea. When the body or mind is in a relationship with the idea of "I"--a cause and effect relationship--this idea is generated with regard to this body and this mind; but not with regard to the skandhas of others. The habit of considering "my" series as "I" exists in "my" series from the very beginning.
[The Vaisesikas:] If there is no "soul," to what do you attribute the idea of "I"?
We have answered this question when we explained what
**#
[The Vaisesikas:] What is the cause of the idea of "I"? It is a defiled mind, impregnated by this same idea of self, and having for its object the series of minds wherein it is produced.
***
[The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, who has suffering or pleasure? The dsraya within which suffering or pleasure is produced, in the same way that a tree is said to have flowers, a
forest has fruit. And the dsraya in question may belong to any of
148
ness, etc. )
147
of memory. It is the same for the idea of "I".
memory belongs to.
The master of memory is simply the cause
the six internal ayatanas, the eye-dyatana, etc. explained [in the First Chapter. ]
This has been
***
? [The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, who is it that does a deed? Who is it that tastes the result?
What do you understand by "he who does/* and "he who tastes"?
[The Vaisesikas:] We understand this to be the agent, the
149
taster.
Your explanation is merely words and explains nothing. The
150
Vaisesikas here invoke the doctrine of the Grammarians.
say that the agent is he who has independent power, that the taster is he who enjoys the result of the deed. Iri the world he who possesses independent power with regard to a certain action is considered as the "agent"; for example, Devadatta, having the power to bathe himself, to seat himself, and to walk, is called "the bather," "the sitter," and "the walker. "
This definition is not admissable. What does one understand by "Devadatta"? If one understands this to be a soul, the example is not proved, and is without value. If one understands a certain coming together or complex of skandhas, then Devadatta is indeed an agent, but he is not "an independent agent and creator of
151
Refutation of the pudgala 1351
--body, speech, and mind. That
deeds. " Action is threefold
which produces bodily action is the wind agitating the body; the body and the mind depend again on their causes and conditions; these causes and conditions depend in their turn on their causes and conditions: in all this there is not any simple entity, a "producer" dependent on itself or, in other words, independent. For everything that exists depends on causes and conditions. The soul as you understand it does not depend on causes and condi- tions; furthermore, it does nothing: it is not then an independent agent. Nowhere does anyone maintain the existence of an agent conforming to your definition, "He who possesses independent power is termed an agent. " That which one terms the agent of a certain action, is, amongst all its causes, that which is the principal cause of this action. Now even if we were to define the agent in this manner, your "self" is not an agent.
They
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What is in fact the principal cause of the beginning of bodily
152
action?
from desire there proceeds imagination; from imagination there proceeds effort which gives rise to a vapor which sets in motion bodily action. In this process, what activity do the Vaisesikas attribute to a "sour? This soul is certainly not an agent of bodily action. Vocal and mental action can be explained in the same way.
You say that the "soul" enjoys the result, because it discerns or knows the result: but soul has no role in discerning the result; it does not figure among the causes that produce consciousnesses as
153 we have shown above.
[The Vaisesikas:] If there is no soul, why do good and bad
154
Because the "non-assumed" elements, not constitutive of living beings, are not susceptible of serving as a support for sensation, etc. Only the six internal organs are the support of sensation, etc. ; not a soul, as we have proved.
***
[The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, how can past action, which is now destroyed, produce a future result?
To this question we would answer now by asking how, even
though a soul were to exist, destroyed action can have the force of
producing the result. The Vaisesikas would have it that the result
135 is generated from merit or from demerit (dharma, adharma),
inherent attributes (guna) of the soul, supported by the soul: but
156
Memory causes a wish or a desire for action to surge up;
deeds not die out in "non-living things'?
we have criticized the idea of a substratum or "support" shown that it is not rational.
and
According to the Buddhists, future results are not generated
157
moment in the evolution of a series that has its origin in action.
from destroyed action;
results are generated from the last 158
How does fruit proceed from the seed? One says, in the world,
? that fruit is generated from a seed. But in speaking in this way, one does not intend to affirm that the fruit is generated from a destroyed seed, nor that the fruit arises immediately after the seed (that is to say, from a "dying" seed). In fact, the fruit is generated from the last moment in the evolution of a series that has its origin in the seed. The seed successively produces a sprout, a stalk, a leaf, and finally the flower that brings the fruit into existence. If one says that the seed produces the fruit, this is because the seed, through a series of intermediate stages, projects in the flower the efficacy of producing the fruit. If the efficacy of producing the fruit, efficacy which is found in the flower, did not have the seed as its original cause (as its antecedent, or purva), then the flower would not have produced a fruit resembling its seed. In the same way, one says that although a result is generated from an action, it is not generated from destroyed action, nor is it generated immediately
after the action: it is generated from an ultimate moment in the evolution of a series issuing from the action.
Series, or samtana, means the material and mental skandhas succeeding without interruption in a row which has an action for its original cause. The successive moments of this row are different: there is then evolution (parindma), or transformation of the series. The last moment of this evolution possesses a special efficacy, the capacity of immediately producing the result: it is distinguished, in this regard, from other moments; it is then termed visesa, or the ultimate moment of evolution.
For example, when the mind at death is "associated with attachment," it possesses the capacity of producing a new existence. This mind has for its antecedents many actions of all types: nevertheless, it is the efficacy projected by a weighty action that informs (or qualifies) the last thought; in the absence of heavy action, the efficacy is projected by near action; in its absence by
159 habitual action; and in its absence by the action of a previous life.
There is a stanza (by Rahula) which says, "Weighty action, near
160
action, habitual action, old action: these four die in this order. " There is good reason to establish a distinction between a
Refutation of the pudgala 135 3
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retributive result and an out-flowing result. When the force that produces a retributive result has given forth its result, this force is
161
abolished.
force projected by a "cause similar to its effect" (sabhdgahetu), does not perish by the production of its result; when it is defiled, this force perishes by the force of its opposition; when it is not defiled, it perishes through Nirvana, which involves the abolition of the series, both physical matter and mind.
Why is a new retribution not generated from the retributive
result as a new fruit is generated from the fruit of a tree, or as a
162 fruit is also a seed?
163 But a new fruit is not generated from the fruit seed.
From what is the new fruit generated, if not from the evolution of a new series?
The first fruit seed, encountering the conditions necessary for evolution (water, earth, etc. ), finally produces the ultimate moment in the evolution--from whence the new fruit arises. When it produces the shoot, the old fruit takes the name of seed. If, before any evolution, (before any germinative processes), it is given the name of seed, it is an anticipative name, a name justified by the similarity of the ungerminated seed and the germinated
164
But the force that produces an out-flowing result, a
seed. In the same way here: when a retributive result
encounters the conditions that produce good and bad--good teaching, bad teaching--it gives rise to minds that will be rewarded, namely bad or good-impure minds. From these minds there proceeds an evolution of their series that results in an ultimate state from whence a new retribution will emerge. This is not generated under any other conditions. The example then justifies our thesis.
One can also take into account the nature of the retribution by another example (that shows that a new retribution does not necessarily succeed the first). If one colors the flower of a lemon tree with milk, a certain evolution of the plant series will take place which will cause the seed of the new fruit to be red. But the
(body, etc. )
? red seed, once planted, will not generate another red seed. In the
same way the retribution of an action does not produce a new
165 retribution.
***
I have, to the measure of my intelligence, taught in a summary and outline manner the result of actions. Only the Buddhas know how the series, impregnated by actions diverse in nature and in force, evolve from such a type that, arriving at such a stage, it produces a certain result: There is a stanza, "Action, the impression caused by the action, the active entry of this impres- sion, the result that results from it--no one if not a Buddha, knows
166 all this in the totality of its processes. "
Seeing then, by a path of demonstrative arguments, that the doctrine of the teaching of the Buddhas is perfect, and rejecting the opinion of those blind through bad views and through bad steps,
167 the non-blind see.
In fact, this doctrine of the non-existence of the soul is the only road to the city of Nirvana; although illumined by the rays which are the words of this sun which is the Tathagata, although followed by thousands of saints, and although it is without
168 obstacles, it is not seen by persons of weak insight.
In this book one will find but a summary indication for the use
of intelligent persons: but poison (of belief in soul), once within a
169 wound, will spread itself everywhere by its own force.
Refutation of the pudgala 1355
? 1356 Chapter Nine
Preliminary Notes
I. According to the Tibetan, this is "The Ninth Chapter {Kosastbdnam) entitled An Exposition of the Refutation of the Pudgala" {gan zag dgag pa bstan pa zhes bya ba mdzod kyi gnas dgu pa; Mdo 64, Gordier, p. 394).
But the colophon to the Eighth Chapter says that the Abhidharmako/abhdsyam ends with that Chapter: chos mnon pa'i mdzod kyi bfad pa las snoms par 'jug pa bstan pa zhes bya ba mdzog kyi gnas brgyad pa'? / chos mnon pa'i mdzod 'di rdzogs so = Abhidbarma- kofabhdsye Samdpattinirdeso ndma astamam kosastbdnam / samdpto'yam Abhidharma- kosah.
According to the colophon of the Vydkhyd, this Chapter is "The Determination of the Pudgala, An Annex to the Eighth Chapter" {astamakosasthdnasambaddha eva pudgalavinis- cayah). And according to the Bhdsyam, this section is entitled "The Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala," Pudgalapratisedha-prakarana (iv. 73, p. 650), or "The Refutation of the Doctrine of the Soul," Atmavddapratisedha (v. 27, p. 818).
To certain commentators, the last of the final stanzas of the "Ninth Chapter" refer to the entire Ko/abhdsyam; for others,-- who appear to be the wiser, --to only the Refutation of the Pudgala.
Evidently the Abhidharmakoiabhdsyam, an exposition of the doctrines of the Abhidharma according to the principles of the Vaibhasikas, ends with Karika viii. 40. The stanzas which follow on p. 1355 are the conclusion of the work.
The so-called "Ninth Chapter" does not contain any Karikas; here Vasubandhu teaches many doctrines which are common to both the Vaibhasikas and the Sautrantikas, but, on the whole, he adopts the position of the Sautrantikas.
Samghabhadra does not concern himself with the Ninth Chapter.
The stanzas on p. 1355 are, we would say, the conclusion of the Abhidharmakosabhd- syam. Hstian-tsang (TD 29, p. 152b17-22) places them at the end of his Chapter VIII; Paramurtha, on the contrary, makes them the preamble to Chapter IX {TD 29, p. 304al5-20). Thus it is evident that the "Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala" importunes,--if one can say this,--these stanzas (see below note 1).
II. Vasubandhu refutes the doctrines of the Pudgalavadins, "followers of the pudgala," and he calls them Vatsiputriyas. The Vydkhyd explains: vatsiputriyd dryasdmmattydh (see note 8). The sources (Vasumitra, Bhavya, and Vinitadeva) do not agree in their enumeration of the sects or schools which admit a pudgala. One will finds some information in Nirvana, 1926, p. 34, and in a version of Vasumitra's treatise which I hope to publish in the Collection de Materiaux pourI 'etude du Bouddhisme, by J. Przyluski.
The question is asked: are the Pudgalavadins Buddhists? Yasbmitra is very plain in this: na hi Vdtsiputriydndm muktir nesyate bauddhatvdt; "one does not pretend that they cannot obtain deliverance, for they are Buddhists" (see note 8). An opposite opinion, however, is given on p. 1338 (Hsuan-tsang, TD 29, p. 156c25) and in the final stanzas where the Pudgalavadins are included among the Tlrthikas.
Lcan-skya hu-thug-hu expresses a very widespread opinion when he says that the five schools of the Mahasmmitiyas, admitting that the "self is a "person", cannot be considered as Buddhist (Wassilief, p. 270).
Santideva {Bodhicarydvatdra, ix. 60) says, "The followers of a pudgala, internal non-believers (antas'caratirthika), admit a soul (dtman) called pudgala, and say that this soul is neither identical to the skandhas, nor different from them: otherwise one can see that they enter into the philosophy of the non-Buddhists. " They call themselves Buddhists, saugatammanya.
Candrakirti {Madhyamakdvatdra, vi. 86) says, "The non-Buddhists (tirthikas) speak of a pudgala, etc. ; seeing that the pudgala and other supposed principles do not have any activity,
? the Buddha declared that the mind alone is active. To say 'non-Buddhists' is a general manner of speaking; for there are Buddhists ('some sectarians of this Dharma') who admit a pudgala. From a certain point of view (rnam pa gcig tu na - ekaprakarena), they are not Buddhists, for, like non-Buddhists, they do not correctly understand the sense of the Teaching. Consequently, this designation ('non-Buddhist') is extended to all. It says in the Ratndvali, 'The world, with the Samkhyas, Vaisesikas, and Nirgranthas, believe in a pudgala, in the skandhas, and in other principles. We would ask them if they teach the means to pass beyond being and non-being (or rather: if they pass beyond the affirmation and the negation of existence). . . ' Consequently one must consider those who believe in the skandhas, etc. , as persons outside (bdhya)" (We see that the "followers of the skandhas" or skandhavddins, that is to say, the orthodox Buddhists of the Hlnayana, are, like the followers of the pudgala, excluded from the Good Law).
III. The classical etymology of pudgala is represented in the Tibetan by gan zag and in the Chinese (Mahdvyutpatti, 207. 7) as ts'eng-chien ? ? : puryati galati ca (Sarvadarfana; and Sarad Candra Das and S. LeVi's translation of the Sutrdlamkdra, p. 259: "through which demerit increases and merit decreases, and vice versa").
Buddhaghosa, in his Visuddhimagga, 310, has: pun ts vuccati nirayo tasmin galantiti puggald.
The Abhisamaydlamkdrdloka, commenting on the Astasahasrika 19. 2, proposes the etymology: punah punar gatisu liyate, which is reflected in the translation of Hsuan-tsang "which, on many occasions, takes up the gatis. "
TheAstasahasrikahas:sattvadrstydjivadrstyd pudgaladrstydbhavadrstydvibhavadrstyd ucchedadrstydh idsvatadrstydh svakdyadrstyd etasdm evamddydndm drstindm prahdndya dharmam deiayisyatiti tendrthena bodhisattvo mahdsattva ity ucyate.
The Abhisamaydlamkdrdloka has: tatrdhamkdrddhdndrthena dtmd / dhito'hamkdra etasminn iti krtvd / sidandtmakatvdt sattvah / jivitendriyavaiena nikdyasabhdge parisamdpte vart at a itijivah / punah punar gatisu liyta itipudgalah / dvirbhavatiti bhavah / tirobhavatiti vibhavah / ndstiddnim abhut purvam ity ucchedah (prasajyate) astiyac (ca) svabhdvena na tan ndstiti fas vat ah / atmdtmiydkdrena pancaskandhadarsanam / evamddydndm drstindm . . .
We would remark that the etymology of sattva is as we have encountered in Kofa, v. 7, note 27 (reading of S. Levi). Buddhaghosa gets sattva from sakta, etc.
On other synonyms of pudgala, see above p. 1324 (Hsuan-tsang, TD 29, p. 154a28)
IV. Among the sources which must be compared with the present Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala, we would point out: 1. Kathdvatthu, i. l (translation of S. Z. Aung and Mrs. Rhys Davids, Points ofi Controversy); 2. Vijnanakdya, TD 26, number 1539, Chap. II (translated and analyzed in Etudes Asiatiques, 1925, i. p. 358-376); 3. Sdmmitiyasdstra, TD 32, number 1649, an analysis of which will be published in the Collection de Materiaux pour I'eftude du Bouddhisme, by Przyluski). Vasubandhu quotes part of these last two treatises: some indications on this subject are in the notes of our translation.
On the other hand, the Sutrdlamkdra of Asanga (edited and translated by S. Le'vi, 1907-1911), xviii. 92-103, depends to a certain extent on the Treatise of Vasubandhu. We would mention for example the discussion of the relationship between fire and fuel, the use of the same scriptural texts, and the demonstration of the inactivity of the pudgala.
A dependence by &antideva (for example, the Bodhicarydvatdra ix. 73) and his commentator on Vasubandhu is no less evident.
Vasubandhu's observations on the inability of an dtman to transmigrate, and on the relationship of fire and fuel, is seen in the Madhyamakasutras, x. 14 and xvi. 2.
All of the refutation to the pudgala in Candraklrti's Madhyamakdvatdra, is, one could say, inspired by Vasubandhu; for example vi. 146: "Some maintain the real existence of a pudgala, of which one cannot say that it is identical to the skandhas or different from them, permanent or impermanent; it is known by the six vijrldnas, and it is the object of the idea
Footnotes 1357
? 1358 Chapter Nine
of self. "
In his small Treatise, Vasubandhu refutes not only the followers of the pudgala,
--Buddhists albeit heretical, --but also some non-Buddhists, the Grammarians, the Samkhyas, and the VaiSesikas. He quotes Varsaganya (v. 27, translation, p. 818). He has some details concerning the positions of these non-Buddhists which can be compared with the traditions preserved by Paramartha and K'uei-chi (Takakusu, Toung-pao, 1904, and JRAS, 1905).
V. An argument of the Pudgalavadins, not mentioned by Vasubandhu, is pointed out in the Vydkhyd for i. 42 (p. 85 of the Petrograd edition). The Sutra says: caksusa rilpani drstvd na nimittagrahi'. .
***
[The Vatsiputrlyas]: If only the skandhas exist, we do not see how one can explain these words of the Blessed One, "In the past, I
110
was the teacher Sunetra. "
existence of the individual skandhas metaphorically termed "soul," past skandhas are not the same as present skandhas, and so the Blessed One cannot express himself in this manner.
But what is the thing that the Blessed One calls "soul"? The pudgala, you would say: then, since the "soul" is permanent, a past "soul" is identical with a present "soul". For us, when the Blessed One said, "I was the teacher Sunetra/' he teaches us that the skandhas that constitute his present "soul" formed part of the
Refutation of the pudgala 1337
In fact, in the hypothesis of the
? 1338 Chapter Nine
same series as the skandhas that constituted Sunetra. In the same way one says, "This fire has been burning here/'
***
You affirm the existence of a real soul: we hold that only the Buddhas, Tathagatas would see it (because it is subtle). But if the Buddhas see a soul, they would produce a firm belief in a soul; from this belief in a soul there would be produced among them a belief in things pertaining to a soul; from these two beliefs there would be produced among them affection for the soul and for things pertaining to a soul. The Blessed One said in fact that "whosoever believes in a soul, believes in things pertaining to a soul; believing in things pertaining to a soul, they become attached to the skandhas as they form a soul and things pertaining to a soul/' There would be then satkayadrsti among the Buddhas; they would be bound by affection for a soul and for things pertaining to a soul; and they would be very far from liberation.
[The Vatslputrlyas]: Affection is not produced with regard to a soul. We explain: when one recognizes a soul in what is not the soul, as do the non-Buddhists, one feels affection for this pretended soul; but, when one sees the soul in that which is truly the soul, namely the ineffable pudgala, as do the Buddhas, no affection is produced with regard to the soul.
This statement has no support. The Vatslputrlyas, without any
shadow of reason, introduce the sickness of heresy into the
teachings of the Master. Whereas there are those who admit an
111 ineffable pudgala, others deny the existence of all the dharmas;
non-Buddhists imagine a soul apart from all other substances. All these doctrines are wrong and present the same flaw in that they do not lead to liberation.
***
? Refutation of the pudgala 1339 112
If the soul does not absolutely exist, how can a mind--which perishes as soon as it is generated--be capable of remembering an object perceived a long time before? How is it able to recognize an object similar to what it has formerly perceived?
Memory and recognition are generated immediately, in a series, from a certain type of mind, when this type of mind arises from the idea of object already perceived and which one calls "object of the memory. "
[Now then, let us first examine memory. ]
What is the type of mind from whence memory immediately shoots up?
We answer: It's a certain mind (citta-visesa), bent towards the object of memory, a mind in which one finds ideas related to that thing or resembling that thing, or even "resolutions" of a certain nature, etc. ; with the condition however that the power that this mind possesses to produce memory is not paralysed by a psycho- somatic change arising from sickness, from grief, from mental
113 trouble, or the disturbing influence of magic formulas, etc.
1. It is necessary that a bending of the mind be produced, an act of attention, towards the object; 2. it is necessary that the mind involves an idea resembling the object, in the case where one remembers by reason of resemblance (for example, I remember fire perceived a long time ago because the idea of fire is placed in my mind by the sight of present fire); 3. or it is necessary that the mind involves an idea in relation to the object, in the case where one remembers without there being resemblance (for example, I remember fire because the idea of smoke is placed in my mind by the sight of smoke); 4. or it is necessary that the mind involves a pranidhdna, or resolution, an abhydsa, or habit (for example, the resolution has been placed in the mental series, "I shall remember this at such a time"); 5. also when it is of this nature--that is to say, when it presents the characteristic 1. and one of the characteristics 2 - 4--if the thought does not proceed from the idea of the object of memory--that is to say, if the mind so envisaged is
? 1340 Chapter Nine
not produced in a series where the idea of a certain object has been placed by perception, if this mind does not proceed from this idea--the mind cannot produce memory; 6. when it is not of this nature, even though it proceeds from an idea of the object of memory, it cannot produce memory.
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] How can one mind see and another mind remember? It is contrary that Yajnadatta remembers an object that Devadatta has seen.
That is right. There is no connection between Devadatta and Yajnadatta: Their minds are not in the relationship of cause and effect, as is the case for minds which form series. Indeed, we do not say that one mind sees an object and that another mind remembers this object, because these two minds belong to the same series. We say that one past mind, bearing a certain object, brings about the existence of another mind, the present mind, capable of remem- bering this object. In other words, a mind of memory is generated from a mind of seeing, as fruit is generated from the seed through the force of the last stage of the transformation of the series. This point has been clarified. Memory is generated after recognition.
114
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] In the absence of a soul, who remembers? [Vasubandhu:] What do you understand by "to remember"? [The Vatsiputrlyas:] To grasp an object by the memory. [Vasubandhu:] Does "to grasp" differ from memory? [The
115
[Vasubandhu:] We have explained what is the agent of this action: it is the cause of memory, namely a certain type of mind.
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] But, if it is only a certain type of mind that is the cause of memory, how can one say that Caitra remembers?
[Vasubandhu:] One gives the name Caitra to a series; a mind of memory is generated, in this series, from a mind of seeing, and by reason of this fact one says that Caitra remembers.
Vatsiputrlyas:] Memory is the agent of the action "to grasp. "
[The Vatsiputrlyas:] In the absence of a soul, whose is the
? memory?
[Vasubandhu:] What is the sense of the genitive "whose"? [The Vatsiputriyas:] This genitive designates its master.
[Vasubandhu:] Explain by an example how you understand that someone is the master of memory. [The Vatsiputriyas:] As Caitra is the master of the cow.
[Vasubandhu:] In what is Caitra the master of the cow?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] In that he directs and employs the cow as he pleases.
[Vasubandhu:] To what then is the memory directed and employed by a master, for whom you search with great pains.
[The Vatsiputriyas:] It is directed and employed on the object that one wants to remember (that is to say, it is employed on remembering).
[Vasubandhu:] To what purpose?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] For the purpose of memory.
[Vasubandhu:] What idle talk! I direct and employ a certain thing with a view to the same thing! Explain to me then how memory is employed: do you want to say that one transmits it to a certain place? Do you want to say that one causes it to be produced?
[The Vatsiputriyas:] Memory does not die out; it is then not transmitted. One causes it to be produced.
[Vasubandhu:] What you call "master" is then simply the cause, and what you call "subject" is simply the result. In fact the cause, by its command, operates the result; it is then "master"; and the result, in that it is subordinate to the cause at the moment of its arising, is called "subject. " Since the cause suffices as master, why require a self to which you could attribute memory? Memory belongs to whatever causes memory. Complexes of samskdras, or the five skandhas forming a homogeneous series, are called
Refutation of the pudgala 1341
? 1342 Chapter Nine
"Caitra" and "cow. " One says that the Caitra-series possesses the cow-series, because the Caitra-series is the cause of the geographic displacement and the various changes of the cow-series. There is not there any one, real entity "Caitra," nor another entity called "cow;" there is not, for the Caitra-series, any quality of owner or master outside of its quality of cause.
[As with memory, so too with recognition. ]
We would answer, mutatis mutandis, to the questions: "Who knows? To whom do we attribute consciousness? " and to other similar questions, "What feels, what makes ideas? " as we have responded to the questions, "What remembers? To whom do we attribute memory and recognition? "
***
116
Certain scholars
(bhava) depends on an existing being (bhavitar), as the walking of Devadatta depends on Devadatta. Walking is an action, and Devadatta is the active being. In the same way consciousness {vijnana) and all action depends on a "base of support" {asraya), "one who knows {vijnatar)** the agent.
say that the soul (dtman) exists, as existence
We would ask what it is that they understand by "Devadatta. " If they regard Devadatta as a real individual, we have discussed and refuted this theory. Devadatta is an imaginary individual and not an individual entity; Devadatta is only the name that one gives to the series of samskaras. In the sense that one could say that such a Devadatta walks, in the same sense we can say that Devadatta knows.
How does Devadatta walk? "Devadatta" is only a homogene- ous series of samskaras, moments of existence replaced without interruption and roughly similar one to another. The foolish see within this series an entity which would be the cause of the action that this series generates in a different place, the cause by the efficacy of which the successive moments of the existence of the
? body of Devadatta is produced in different places. In fact, the walking of Devadatta is simply the act of the generation of the series which is the body in different locations; the cause of this action--that is to say, the previous moment of the series--receives the name of "walker. "
It is in this sense that we say that Devadatta walks, in order to designate a walk totally similar to that of fire or sound: the fire walks, the sound walks, that is to say, the fire-series and the
117
sound-series go being generated from one place to another.
the same way the world says that Devadatta knows (vijdndti) because the complex which is Devadatta is the cause of conscious- ness (vijndna); and, in order to conform to received usage, the Aryans also express themselves in this manner, which is inexact.
Nevertheless, a Sutra says that the consciousness knows the object. What does the vijndna do with regard to the object?
Nothing: It is simply produced resembling the object. In the
118 correspond to the seed, to reproduce the seed, because it is
119
same way that fruit, although it does nothing,
is said to
produced resembling the seed;
the vijndna also, although it
accomplishes no action with regard to the object, is said to know
the object because it is produced resembling the object. This
resemblance of the vijndna consists in that it has the appearance of
120
the object.
By reason of this appearance one says that the
vijudna knows the object which is only one of its causes; the organ
is also a cause of the vijndna, but one does not say that the vijndna
knows the organ because the vijndna does not take the aspect of
the organ. This manner of speaking, "The vijndna knows," is again
justified from another point of view. Several successive moments
of vijndna are produced with regard to the object: the previous
moment is the cause of the later moment; the vijndna is then a
cause of vijndna; it is then called the agent (kartr) since it is the
One says that the lamp moves: here is what the moving of the lamp consists of: "lamp" is the name metaphorically attributed to
121
the action of ringing to a bell or the action of moving to a lamp.
cause:
one attributes the action of knowing to it as one attributes
In
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the uninterrupted series of moments of the flame that one sees,
wrongly, as a "unity. " When one of these successive moments is
produced in place other than that of the preceeding moment, one
says that the lamp moves. But there does not exist a "mover" apart
from and distinct from the moment of the fire. In the same way,
one metaphorically designates a series of minds by vijnana, or
consciousness: when one moment of mind is produced relative to a
new object, one says that the consciousness knows this object. One
says that the consciousness knows: the same way that one says that
"physical matter" exists (bhavati), is produced, lasts, without there
being an "exister" {bhavitr), a "producer," "anything that lasts,"
122
distinct from what is called its existence, etc.
[The Samkhya]:
123
If the later consciousness (vijnana) is
***
produced from the previous consciousness and not from a soul
(atmari)y why is not the later consciousness always similar to the
previous consciousness? Why do not consciousnesses succeed
themselves in a determined order, as do shoots, stems, leaves,
124 etc?
Answer to the first question: Because everything that is produced through causes, i. e. , conditioned things, presents the character of "transformation" (sthityanyathdtva)\ this is the nature of conditioned things: in the series which they form, the latter should differ from the former. If it were otherwise, the ascetics who had entered into meditation--in which the body and the consciousness are always produced in the same way, the successive moments of the series being identical--would not
125
As for the second difficulty: The production of consciousness is subject to a certain order. If a certain mind should be produced
126
after a certain mind, it will be produced after this mind.
other hand, certain consciousnesses present a partial similarity that obliges them to produce one another by reason of the
spontaneously get out of meditation.
On the
? 121
particular character of their gotra. For example, upon the idea of
128
"woman"
detesting the body of a woman, but (among non-ascetics) there immediately arises the idea of a wife or daughter. Later, following upon the differing development of the succession of ideas, the idea
129
there immediately arises the idea (among ascetics) of
of a woman reproduces itself.
This second idea of a woman
would have the capacity of producing the idea of the detesting the
body, or the idea of wife or daughter, accordingly as it has either of
these ideas as gotra, that is to say, as a seed; but not when it does
lb0
not have a similar gotra. And again innumerable different ideas
can succeed the idea of a woman, and that by reason of multiple causes. Among all these ideas, those are produced first which are the most "numerous"--having formed a series in the past--the most "alive," the "nearest"--as these ideas have most strongly
131
impregnated the mental series:
when other ideas are produced by a certain state of the body or by certain external objects.
But why does the consciousness, which has most strongly impregnated the mental series, not continue to so impregnate it without ceasing?
Because, as we have said, transformation is a characteristic of the mental series; this characteristic is eminently propitious for the production of the result of ideas, having medium or small force.
***
Here we have, in an incomplete and summary manner, explained the causes and conditions of the order of the reciprocal generation of different categories of consciousness. Complete knowledge of these causes belongs only to the Buddha. Thus the stanza says, "All the types of causes which go to produce a peacock feather--no one can know them except the Omniscient Ones: this
is the power of knowledge of Omniscience (to know a thing
completely). "
132
The causes of the variety of material things are
Refutation of the pudgala 1345
except, of course, at the moment
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difficult to know; how much more difficult is it to penetrate the variety of causes and conditions of non-material things, minds and
133
***
A certain non-Buddhist
produced from a soul. One can successfully oppose his objections vainly formulated against us: Why isn't the latter consciousness the same as the former consciousness? Why aren't the conscious- nesses produced in a fixed order?
133
This master
absence of a fixed rule to their arising by the diversity that he terms "the conjunction (samyoga) of the soul with the manas or mental organ. " This explanation does not hold. No type of
136
On the other hand, reasoning shows that two things in conjunction should be delimited, that is to say, localized in distinct places. Judge if your definition of conjunction, "possession
137
succeeding upon non-possession,
as our reasoning, namely that the soul is delimited, localized. (Whence it follows that the soul is not omnipresent: and this
139
It also results from your definition of conjunction that, when
the manas moves--it goes to such and such a part of the body--the
soul should also move to make a place for it (and then it is not
niskriya, or exempt from action) or that it should perish (and then
140
mental states!
conjunction is proved.
contradicts your system. )
134
believes that the consciousnesses are
explains the variety of consciousnesses and the
it is not nitya, or eternal).
that the soul is in partial conjunction
according to you, the soul is an entity without parts.
142
Supposing also that there is conjunction between the permanent soul and an always immoveable manas, how does one explain the diversity of the conjunction (necessary for the diversity of consciousness)? Would you say that this diversity results from
admits of the same conclusion 138
On the other hand, you cannot admit
141
with the manas, for,
? the diversity of the buddhi, "intelligence," (which is a quality, guna, of the soul)? But the buddhi presents the same difficulty as the manas: if the soul is not diversified, how would buddhi be diversified? Would you say that the diversity of the buddhi results from the diversity of conjunction of the soul and the manas, a variety which results from the samskdras? In this hypothesis, the soul serves no purpose; why not say that the diversity of consciousnesses comes from the consciousness itself which is diversified by the samskdras? The soul does not intervene in the beginning of consciousness, and to say that consciousness comes from a soul is to be as the charlatan who, although drugs suffice for the healing of the sickness, pronounces some magic syllables: Phut! Svaha!
You would say without doubt that consciousness, like the samskdras, exists through conjunction with the soul: but this is merely a statement without proof. But you would insist, saying that the soul is its support {asraya): please explain by an example the nature of the relationship of the support and the supported. The consciousness (that the samskdras influence) and the samskdras themselves are not a picture or a fruit that the soul supports as a wall supports a picture or as a plate supports fruit: in fact, on the one hand, one would have to admit physical contact (between the soul and the thought-samskdras); and, on the other hand, the picture and the fruit exist independently of the wall and the plate.
You say that you do not understand the support that the soul furnishes the thought-samskdras to be thus: the soul supports thought-samskdras as earth supports smell, color, taste, touch. We rejoice in this comparison, for it establishes the non-existence of the soul. In the same way that one cannot perceive the existence of earth independently of smell, etc. --what one designates by the word "earth" is only a collection of smells, etc. --in this same way there is no soul existing apart from the thought-samskdras: the thought-samskdras are what one designates by the word "soul". Who can obtain the idea of "earth" apart from smell, etc. ?
But, if "earth" does not exist apart from smells, etc , how can one qualify certain smells, etc. , as properties of earth: "The smell,
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the taste of earth? "
One expresses oneself thus with a view to distinguishing: in other words, one wants to indicate that certain smells, tastes, etc. , are what is termed "earth," not other smells or tastes which are termed "water. " In the same way, one designates a certain thing as being "the body of a wooden statue" indicating by that that it is of
143 wood, and not of baked clay.
***
If the soul produces the consciousnesses by reason of the variety of the samskdras, why doesn't it produce all the conscious- nesses at the same time?
[The Vaisesikas:] Because the strongest samskdra opposes the weakest samskdra in producing its result. And if the strongest samskdra does not constantly produce its result, it is for the same reason that you have given in explaining the traces (vdsands) abandoned by the consciousness in the series: we think that the samskdras are not permanent and are subject to change.
But then of what use is a soul? Diverse consciousnesses would be generated by the diverse force of the samskdras, since there is
144 no difference in nature between your samskdras and our vdsands.
[The Vaisesikas:] One cannot do without the soul. Memory,
145
the samskdras, etc. ,
"attributes" {guna)\ these attributes must of necessity have for their substratum, or support {dsraya), a "substance" {dravya) and, among the nine substances (earth, etc. ), the soul, since it is inadmissable that memory and the other mental qualities would have for their substratum any substance other than the soul (namely earth, etc. ), since the soul alone is intelligent.
But this system of substances and attributes is not proved. [You say that memory, the samskdras, etc. , are things included within the category of "attributes" and are not substances: we do
are things {padarthas) that are termed
? not agree. ] We think that all that exists is "substance. " A Sutra says that "the result of the religious life consists of six substances (namely the five pure skandhas and pratisarhkhyanirodha)" It is false that memory, etc. , has the soul as its substratum: as we have criticized the idea of a substratum.
[The Vaisesikas say:] If the soul does not really exist, what is the result of actions?
The result of actions is that the "soul" experiences pleasure or pain.
[The Vaisesikas:] What do you understand by "soul"?
It is what one speaks of when one says "I," the object of the
idea of self, the skandhas or object.
How do we know this?
It is to the series of skandhas, that is, to the skandhas--to one's body, to one's sensations--that one becomes attached; as the idea of "I" is generated with reference to the idea of white and other similar ideas: in the world does one not say "I am white, black, old, young, thin, fat"? What one regards as white, etc. ,--evidently the skandha of physical matter--is also what one regards as "I. " The "soul" imagined by the Vaisesika is different from white, etc. ; but, in fact, the idea of "I" is relative only to those skandhas and not to any "self" imagined [by the Vaisesikas. ]
[The Vaisesikas:] It is through metaphor that the world designates the body by the word "I" when it says, "I am white. " This metaphor is justified because the body is in the service of the true "I. "
So be it: one metaphorically calls what is used by the "I" by the
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name of "I. " But one cannot explain in this manner the conscious- ness that says "I" (with regard to the body, sensations, conscious-
146
[The Vaisesikas:] If the idea of "I" has the body for an object why is not this idea generated with regard to the bodies of others?
Because there is no relationship between the series of skandhas of others and this idea. When the body or mind is in a relationship with the idea of "I"--a cause and effect relationship--this idea is generated with regard to this body and this mind; but not with regard to the skandhas of others. The habit of considering "my" series as "I" exists in "my" series from the very beginning.
[The Vaisesikas:] If there is no "soul," to what do you attribute the idea of "I"?
We have answered this question when we explained what
**#
[The Vaisesikas:] What is the cause of the idea of "I"? It is a defiled mind, impregnated by this same idea of self, and having for its object the series of minds wherein it is produced.
***
[The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, who has suffering or pleasure? The dsraya within which suffering or pleasure is produced, in the same way that a tree is said to have flowers, a
forest has fruit. And the dsraya in question may belong to any of
148
ness, etc. )
147
of memory. It is the same for the idea of "I".
memory belongs to.
The master of memory is simply the cause
the six internal ayatanas, the eye-dyatana, etc. explained [in the First Chapter. ]
This has been
***
? [The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, who is it that does a deed? Who is it that tastes the result?
What do you understand by "he who does/* and "he who tastes"?
[The Vaisesikas:] We understand this to be the agent, the
149
taster.
Your explanation is merely words and explains nothing. The
150
Vaisesikas here invoke the doctrine of the Grammarians.
say that the agent is he who has independent power, that the taster is he who enjoys the result of the deed. Iri the world he who possesses independent power with regard to a certain action is considered as the "agent"; for example, Devadatta, having the power to bathe himself, to seat himself, and to walk, is called "the bather," "the sitter," and "the walker. "
This definition is not admissable. What does one understand by "Devadatta"? If one understands this to be a soul, the example is not proved, and is without value. If one understands a certain coming together or complex of skandhas, then Devadatta is indeed an agent, but he is not "an independent agent and creator of
151
Refutation of the pudgala 1351
--body, speech, and mind. That
deeds. " Action is threefold
which produces bodily action is the wind agitating the body; the body and the mind depend again on their causes and conditions; these causes and conditions depend in their turn on their causes and conditions: in all this there is not any simple entity, a "producer" dependent on itself or, in other words, independent. For everything that exists depends on causes and conditions. The soul as you understand it does not depend on causes and condi- tions; furthermore, it does nothing: it is not then an independent agent. Nowhere does anyone maintain the existence of an agent conforming to your definition, "He who possesses independent power is termed an agent. " That which one terms the agent of a certain action, is, amongst all its causes, that which is the principal cause of this action. Now even if we were to define the agent in this manner, your "self" is not an agent.
They
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What is in fact the principal cause of the beginning of bodily
152
action?
from desire there proceeds imagination; from imagination there proceeds effort which gives rise to a vapor which sets in motion bodily action. In this process, what activity do the Vaisesikas attribute to a "sour? This soul is certainly not an agent of bodily action. Vocal and mental action can be explained in the same way.
You say that the "soul" enjoys the result, because it discerns or knows the result: but soul has no role in discerning the result; it does not figure among the causes that produce consciousnesses as
153 we have shown above.
[The Vaisesikas:] If there is no soul, why do good and bad
154
Because the "non-assumed" elements, not constitutive of living beings, are not susceptible of serving as a support for sensation, etc. Only the six internal organs are the support of sensation, etc. ; not a soul, as we have proved.
***
[The Vaisesikas:] In the absence of a soul, how can past action, which is now destroyed, produce a future result?
To this question we would answer now by asking how, even
though a soul were to exist, destroyed action can have the force of
producing the result. The Vaisesikas would have it that the result
135 is generated from merit or from demerit (dharma, adharma),
inherent attributes (guna) of the soul, supported by the soul: but
156
Memory causes a wish or a desire for action to surge up;
deeds not die out in "non-living things'?
we have criticized the idea of a substratum or "support" shown that it is not rational.
and
According to the Buddhists, future results are not generated
157
moment in the evolution of a series that has its origin in action.
from destroyed action;
results are generated from the last 158
How does fruit proceed from the seed? One says, in the world,
? that fruit is generated from a seed. But in speaking in this way, one does not intend to affirm that the fruit is generated from a destroyed seed, nor that the fruit arises immediately after the seed (that is to say, from a "dying" seed). In fact, the fruit is generated from the last moment in the evolution of a series that has its origin in the seed. The seed successively produces a sprout, a stalk, a leaf, and finally the flower that brings the fruit into existence. If one says that the seed produces the fruit, this is because the seed, through a series of intermediate stages, projects in the flower the efficacy of producing the fruit. If the efficacy of producing the fruit, efficacy which is found in the flower, did not have the seed as its original cause (as its antecedent, or purva), then the flower would not have produced a fruit resembling its seed. In the same way, one says that although a result is generated from an action, it is not generated from destroyed action, nor is it generated immediately
after the action: it is generated from an ultimate moment in the evolution of a series issuing from the action.
Series, or samtana, means the material and mental skandhas succeeding without interruption in a row which has an action for its original cause. The successive moments of this row are different: there is then evolution (parindma), or transformation of the series. The last moment of this evolution possesses a special efficacy, the capacity of immediately producing the result: it is distinguished, in this regard, from other moments; it is then termed visesa, or the ultimate moment of evolution.
For example, when the mind at death is "associated with attachment," it possesses the capacity of producing a new existence. This mind has for its antecedents many actions of all types: nevertheless, it is the efficacy projected by a weighty action that informs (or qualifies) the last thought; in the absence of heavy action, the efficacy is projected by near action; in its absence by
159 habitual action; and in its absence by the action of a previous life.
There is a stanza (by Rahula) which says, "Weighty action, near
160
action, habitual action, old action: these four die in this order. " There is good reason to establish a distinction between a
Refutation of the pudgala 135 3
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retributive result and an out-flowing result. When the force that produces a retributive result has given forth its result, this force is
161
abolished.
force projected by a "cause similar to its effect" (sabhdgahetu), does not perish by the production of its result; when it is defiled, this force perishes by the force of its opposition; when it is not defiled, it perishes through Nirvana, which involves the abolition of the series, both physical matter and mind.
Why is a new retribution not generated from the retributive
result as a new fruit is generated from the fruit of a tree, or as a
162 fruit is also a seed?
163 But a new fruit is not generated from the fruit seed.
From what is the new fruit generated, if not from the evolution of a new series?
The first fruit seed, encountering the conditions necessary for evolution (water, earth, etc. ), finally produces the ultimate moment in the evolution--from whence the new fruit arises. When it produces the shoot, the old fruit takes the name of seed. If, before any evolution, (before any germinative processes), it is given the name of seed, it is an anticipative name, a name justified by the similarity of the ungerminated seed and the germinated
164
But the force that produces an out-flowing result, a
seed. In the same way here: when a retributive result
encounters the conditions that produce good and bad--good teaching, bad teaching--it gives rise to minds that will be rewarded, namely bad or good-impure minds. From these minds there proceeds an evolution of their series that results in an ultimate state from whence a new retribution will emerge. This is not generated under any other conditions. The example then justifies our thesis.
One can also take into account the nature of the retribution by another example (that shows that a new retribution does not necessarily succeed the first). If one colors the flower of a lemon tree with milk, a certain evolution of the plant series will take place which will cause the seed of the new fruit to be red. But the
(body, etc. )
? red seed, once planted, will not generate another red seed. In the
same way the retribution of an action does not produce a new
165 retribution.
***
I have, to the measure of my intelligence, taught in a summary and outline manner the result of actions. Only the Buddhas know how the series, impregnated by actions diverse in nature and in force, evolve from such a type that, arriving at such a stage, it produces a certain result: There is a stanza, "Action, the impression caused by the action, the active entry of this impres- sion, the result that results from it--no one if not a Buddha, knows
166 all this in the totality of its processes. "
Seeing then, by a path of demonstrative arguments, that the doctrine of the teaching of the Buddhas is perfect, and rejecting the opinion of those blind through bad views and through bad steps,
167 the non-blind see.
In fact, this doctrine of the non-existence of the soul is the only road to the city of Nirvana; although illumined by the rays which are the words of this sun which is the Tathagata, although followed by thousands of saints, and although it is without
168 obstacles, it is not seen by persons of weak insight.
In this book one will find but a summary indication for the use
of intelligent persons: but poison (of belief in soul), once within a
169 wound, will spread itself everywhere by its own force.
Refutation of the pudgala 1355
? 1356 Chapter Nine
Preliminary Notes
I. According to the Tibetan, this is "The Ninth Chapter {Kosastbdnam) entitled An Exposition of the Refutation of the Pudgala" {gan zag dgag pa bstan pa zhes bya ba mdzod kyi gnas dgu pa; Mdo 64, Gordier, p. 394).
But the colophon to the Eighth Chapter says that the Abhidharmako/abhdsyam ends with that Chapter: chos mnon pa'i mdzod kyi bfad pa las snoms par 'jug pa bstan pa zhes bya ba mdzog kyi gnas brgyad pa'? / chos mnon pa'i mdzod 'di rdzogs so = Abhidbarma- kofabhdsye Samdpattinirdeso ndma astamam kosastbdnam / samdpto'yam Abhidharma- kosah.
According to the colophon of the Vydkhyd, this Chapter is "The Determination of the Pudgala, An Annex to the Eighth Chapter" {astamakosasthdnasambaddha eva pudgalavinis- cayah). And according to the Bhdsyam, this section is entitled "The Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala," Pudgalapratisedha-prakarana (iv. 73, p. 650), or "The Refutation of the Doctrine of the Soul," Atmavddapratisedha (v. 27, p. 818).
To certain commentators, the last of the final stanzas of the "Ninth Chapter" refer to the entire Ko/abhdsyam; for others,-- who appear to be the wiser, --to only the Refutation of the Pudgala.
Evidently the Abhidharmakoiabhdsyam, an exposition of the doctrines of the Abhidharma according to the principles of the Vaibhasikas, ends with Karika viii. 40. The stanzas which follow on p. 1355 are the conclusion of the work.
The so-called "Ninth Chapter" does not contain any Karikas; here Vasubandhu teaches many doctrines which are common to both the Vaibhasikas and the Sautrantikas, but, on the whole, he adopts the position of the Sautrantikas.
Samghabhadra does not concern himself with the Ninth Chapter.
The stanzas on p. 1355 are, we would say, the conclusion of the Abhidharmakosabhd- syam. Hstian-tsang (TD 29, p. 152b17-22) places them at the end of his Chapter VIII; Paramurtha, on the contrary, makes them the preamble to Chapter IX {TD 29, p. 304al5-20). Thus it is evident that the "Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala" importunes,--if one can say this,--these stanzas (see below note 1).
II. Vasubandhu refutes the doctrines of the Pudgalavadins, "followers of the pudgala," and he calls them Vatsiputriyas. The Vydkhyd explains: vatsiputriyd dryasdmmattydh (see note 8). The sources (Vasumitra, Bhavya, and Vinitadeva) do not agree in their enumeration of the sects or schools which admit a pudgala. One will finds some information in Nirvana, 1926, p. 34, and in a version of Vasumitra's treatise which I hope to publish in the Collection de Materiaux pourI 'etude du Bouddhisme, by J. Przyluski.
The question is asked: are the Pudgalavadins Buddhists? Yasbmitra is very plain in this: na hi Vdtsiputriydndm muktir nesyate bauddhatvdt; "one does not pretend that they cannot obtain deliverance, for they are Buddhists" (see note 8). An opposite opinion, however, is given on p. 1338 (Hsuan-tsang, TD 29, p. 156c25) and in the final stanzas where the Pudgalavadins are included among the Tlrthikas.
Lcan-skya hu-thug-hu expresses a very widespread opinion when he says that the five schools of the Mahasmmitiyas, admitting that the "self is a "person", cannot be considered as Buddhist (Wassilief, p. 270).
Santideva {Bodhicarydvatdra, ix. 60) says, "The followers of a pudgala, internal non-believers (antas'caratirthika), admit a soul (dtman) called pudgala, and say that this soul is neither identical to the skandhas, nor different from them: otherwise one can see that they enter into the philosophy of the non-Buddhists. " They call themselves Buddhists, saugatammanya.
Candrakirti {Madhyamakdvatdra, vi. 86) says, "The non-Buddhists (tirthikas) speak of a pudgala, etc. ; seeing that the pudgala and other supposed principles do not have any activity,
? the Buddha declared that the mind alone is active. To say 'non-Buddhists' is a general manner of speaking; for there are Buddhists ('some sectarians of this Dharma') who admit a pudgala. From a certain point of view (rnam pa gcig tu na - ekaprakarena), they are not Buddhists, for, like non-Buddhists, they do not correctly understand the sense of the Teaching. Consequently, this designation ('non-Buddhist') is extended to all. It says in the Ratndvali, 'The world, with the Samkhyas, Vaisesikas, and Nirgranthas, believe in a pudgala, in the skandhas, and in other principles. We would ask them if they teach the means to pass beyond being and non-being (or rather: if they pass beyond the affirmation and the negation of existence). . . ' Consequently one must consider those who believe in the skandhas, etc. , as persons outside (bdhya)" (We see that the "followers of the skandhas" or skandhavddins, that is to say, the orthodox Buddhists of the Hlnayana, are, like the followers of the pudgala, excluded from the Good Law).
III. The classical etymology of pudgala is represented in the Tibetan by gan zag and in the Chinese (Mahdvyutpatti, 207. 7) as ts'eng-chien ? ? : puryati galati ca (Sarvadarfana; and Sarad Candra Das and S. LeVi's translation of the Sutrdlamkdra, p. 259: "through which demerit increases and merit decreases, and vice versa").
Buddhaghosa, in his Visuddhimagga, 310, has: pun ts vuccati nirayo tasmin galantiti puggald.
The Abhisamaydlamkdrdloka, commenting on the Astasahasrika 19. 2, proposes the etymology: punah punar gatisu liyate, which is reflected in the translation of Hsuan-tsang "which, on many occasions, takes up the gatis. "
TheAstasahasrikahas:sattvadrstydjivadrstyd pudgaladrstydbhavadrstydvibhavadrstyd ucchedadrstydh idsvatadrstydh svakdyadrstyd etasdm evamddydndm drstindm prahdndya dharmam deiayisyatiti tendrthena bodhisattvo mahdsattva ity ucyate.
The Abhisamaydlamkdrdloka has: tatrdhamkdrddhdndrthena dtmd / dhito'hamkdra etasminn iti krtvd / sidandtmakatvdt sattvah / jivitendriyavaiena nikdyasabhdge parisamdpte vart at a itijivah / punah punar gatisu liyta itipudgalah / dvirbhavatiti bhavah / tirobhavatiti vibhavah / ndstiddnim abhut purvam ity ucchedah (prasajyate) astiyac (ca) svabhdvena na tan ndstiti fas vat ah / atmdtmiydkdrena pancaskandhadarsanam / evamddydndm drstindm . . .
We would remark that the etymology of sattva is as we have encountered in Kofa, v. 7, note 27 (reading of S. Levi). Buddhaghosa gets sattva from sakta, etc.
On other synonyms of pudgala, see above p. 1324 (Hsuan-tsang, TD 29, p. 154a28)
IV. Among the sources which must be compared with the present Treatise on the Refutation of the Pudgala, we would point out: 1. Kathdvatthu, i. l (translation of S. Z. Aung and Mrs. Rhys Davids, Points ofi Controversy); 2. Vijnanakdya, TD 26, number 1539, Chap. II (translated and analyzed in Etudes Asiatiques, 1925, i. p. 358-376); 3. Sdmmitiyasdstra, TD 32, number 1649, an analysis of which will be published in the Collection de Materiaux pour I'eftude du Bouddhisme, by Przyluski). Vasubandhu quotes part of these last two treatises: some indications on this subject are in the notes of our translation.
On the other hand, the Sutrdlamkdra of Asanga (edited and translated by S. Le'vi, 1907-1911), xviii. 92-103, depends to a certain extent on the Treatise of Vasubandhu. We would mention for example the discussion of the relationship between fire and fuel, the use of the same scriptural texts, and the demonstration of the inactivity of the pudgala.
A dependence by &antideva (for example, the Bodhicarydvatdra ix. 73) and his commentator on Vasubandhu is no less evident.
Vasubandhu's observations on the inability of an dtman to transmigrate, and on the relationship of fire and fuel, is seen in the Madhyamakasutras, x. 14 and xvi. 2.
All of the refutation to the pudgala in Candraklrti's Madhyamakdvatdra, is, one could say, inspired by Vasubandhu; for example vi. 146: "Some maintain the real existence of a pudgala, of which one cannot say that it is identical to the skandhas or different from them, permanent or impermanent; it is known by the six vijrldnas, and it is the object of the idea
Footnotes 1357
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of self. "
In his small Treatise, Vasubandhu refutes not only the followers of the pudgala,
--Buddhists albeit heretical, --but also some non-Buddhists, the Grammarians, the Samkhyas, and the VaiSesikas. He quotes Varsaganya (v. 27, translation, p. 818). He has some details concerning the positions of these non-Buddhists which can be compared with the traditions preserved by Paramartha and K'uei-chi (Takakusu, Toung-pao, 1904, and JRAS, 1905).
V. An argument of the Pudgalavadins, not mentioned by Vasubandhu, is pointed out in the Vydkhyd for i. 42 (p. 85 of the Petrograd edition). The Sutra says: caksusa rilpani drstvd na nimittagrahi'. .
