{"id":211,"date":"2012-03-04T06:02:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T05:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/?p=211"},"modified":"2012-03-04T06:02:44","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T05:02:44","slug":"a-svabhavika-school-of-buddhism-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/a-svabhavika-school-of-buddhism-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sv\u0101bh\u0101vika School of Buddhism?, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the early dominance of the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da school of Buddhism, we no longer hear of the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da doctrine, because only schools of Buddhism that opposed it exist at present. Neither current books on Buddhism nor modern Buddhist teachers tell us that Buddhism once taught, \u201call exists\u201d (sarvam asti). The early schools of Buddhism were all in general agreement that the dharmas are real, real existents or substances (dravya), and thus that they each have a svabh\u0101va, an inherent nature. For, as put by Bhikkhu Dhammajoti (Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da Abhidharma<\/em>, p. 65), \u201cWhat is real is what has a svabh\u0101va.\u201d But while the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101dins taught that the dharmas exist throughout the three time periods, the early schools who opposed them taught that the dharmas, although real, do not exist for more than a moment, much less throughout the three time periods. The dharmas along with their svabh\u0101vas arise, exist, and perish, all in a moment. This is the doctrine we find today in the Therav\u0101da school, which has survived up to the present in Southeast Asian countries.<\/p>\n

The basic teaching of the early Buddhist schools, that the dharmas are real and thus have a svabh\u0101va, was then denied by the Mah\u0101y\u0101na schools. For the Mah\u0101y\u0101na schools, the dharmas are not real existents or substances (dravya). This was denied by denying that the dharmas have svabh\u0101va. Thus, we have their famous statements that all dharmas or phenomena are empty of or lack svabh\u0101va, an inherent nature or inherent existence. To the often repeated statements of one of these schools that no svabh\u0101va is ultimately findable anywhere, the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101dins would reply that the svabh\u0101va of a dharma is, in ultimate truth, exactly what IS findable, and the only thing that is findable. This is clearly stated in the Abhidharmako\u015ba-bh\u0101\u1e63ya<\/em> by Vasubandhu, chapter 6, verse 4. Vasubandhu introduces this verse by asking what is the definition of the two truths, conventional truth and ultimate truth (or relative truth and absolute truth). The verse concisely states these (translated by Poussin and Pruden): \u201cThe idea of a jug ends when the jug is broken; the idea of water ends when, in the mind, one analyzes the water. The jug and the water, and all that resembles them, exist relatively. The rest exist absolutely.\u201d The bh\u0101\u1e63ya<\/em> or commentary explains as follows, skipping to the explanation of ultimate or absolute truth (translated directly from Sanskrit by Bhikkhu Dhammajoti, Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da Abhidharma<\/em>, p. 67; words in single brackets are his, while words in double brackets have been added by me):<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolute truth (param\u0101rthasatya) is other than this [[conventional or relative truth]]. Therein, even when [a thing] has been broken, the cognition of it definitely arises and likewise, even when its [constituent] dharma-s are removed mentally\u2014that is [to be understood as] an absolute existent (param\u0101rthasat). For instance r\u016bpa: for, therein, when the thing is broken into the atoms (param\u0101\u1e47u\u015ba\u1e25), and when the [constituent] dharma-s taste, etc., have been removed mentally, the cognition of the intrinsic nature [[svabh\u0101va]] of r\u016bpa definitely arises. Vedan\u0101, etc., are also to be seen in the same way. This is called absolute truth as the existence is in the absolute sense (etat param\u0101rthena bh\u0101v\u0101t param\u0101rthasatyam iti).\u201d<\/p>\n

After analyzing a jug and water and mentally removing the imputations of jug and water, we see that the jug and water only exist in conventional or relative truth. But then, in ultimate or absolute truth, \u201cthe cognition of the intrinsic nature [svabh\u0101va] of r\u016bpa definitely arises\u201d (r\u016bpasya svabh\u0101va-buddhir bhavaty eva). This ultimate or absolute truth, Vasubandhu goes on to tell us, is cognized by supramundane or trans-worldly knowledge (lokottara-j\u00f1\u0101na), or by the kind of mundane knowledge (laukika-j\u00f1\u0101na) that is obtained immediately following upon (tat-p\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e6dha-labdha) an experience of supramundane knowledge in meditation. This, he reports, is the teaching of the ancient masters (p\u016brv\u0101c\u0101rya).<\/p>\n

The very same criterion for ultimate or absolute truth is accepted by the Mah\u0101y\u0101na schools. One must then wonder why some \u0101ryas who have the capacity of supramundane knowledge are reported to cognize svabh\u0101va, while other \u0101ryas who have the capacity of supramundane knowledge are reportedly unable to find any svabh\u0101va. This puts the now forgotten Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da doctrine on an equal footing with the now prevalent Mah\u0101y\u0101na doctrine. The fact of the Theosophical associations with Tibet, and that Tibet is a Mah\u0101y\u0101na country, does not oblige us to follow the Mah\u0101y\u0101na criticisms of Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da (which, as shown by Ryotai Fukuhara in his article, \u201cOn Svabh\u0101vav\u0101da<\/a>,\u201d sometimes misrepresent the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da position). What we know is that the stanzas we have from the Book of Dzyan use the word svabh\u0101va, that the Mahatma K.H. advised A. O. Hume to study the doctrines of the Sv\u0101bh\u0101vikas, that HPB in an 1877 letter said that her teacher \u201cis a Buddhist, but not of the dogmatic Church, but belongs to the Svabhavikas\u201d (The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky<\/em>, vol. 1, p. 353), and that in another 1877 letter she said about herself that \u201cI am a Shwabhavika, a Buddhist Pantheist, if anything at all\u201d (p. 370). We have more to learn about the svabh\u0101va doctrine of the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da school of Buddhism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the early dominance of the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da school of Buddhism, we no longer hear of the Sarv\u0101stiv\u0101da doctrine, because only schools of Buddhism that opposed it exist at present. Neither current books on Buddhism nor modern Buddhist teachers tell us that Buddhism once taught, \u201call exists\u201d (sarvam asti). The early schools of Buddhism were all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svabhavat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}