The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)
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4 Mesa. 5 skandha.
6 sunya. 7 kleSdh = avidyd-trsne.
s skandhdh.
skandhdnam = sarnskrta-dharmandm = samskdrdndm.
9 bhavanam svabhdvah, «non relative, absolute existence*).
521. 1.
521. 4.
521. 8.
521. 10.
521. 12.
To this the following aphorism is an answer,
II. Should everything be absolutely real, 1
No (real) creation, no (real) destruction.
How is Nirvana then conceived?
Through what deliverance, through what annihilation ?
If the defiling elements, 2 or all the elements in general, 3 are indepen¬ dent entities, existing in themselves, 4 since it is impossible for them to be deprived of their own reality, how can they be annihilated, in order that through this annihilation Nirvana should be reached? Therefore Nirvana is equally impossible from the standpoint of the Realists. 5 But the Rela¬ tivists 0 do nut admit a Nirvana consisting in annihilation of all elements in general, nor do they admit a (partial Nirvana) consisting in an anihilation of the defiling elements alone. Therefore they are not responsible for the just mentioned incongruity. 7 The Relativists, in consequence, can never be accused (of assuming a kmd of Nirvana which is logically impossible).
II. The Mahayanistic Nirvana, what?
If, to be sure, the Relativists admit neither a Nirvana consisting in the extinction of illusion and desire, 8 nor a Nirvana consisting in the extinction of all elements of life, what is then their idea of Nirvana? (The following aphorism) gives the answer,
III. What neither is released, nor is it ever reached,
What neither is annihilation, nor is it eternality,
What never disappears, nor has it been created,
This is Nirvana (World’s Unity, the Unexpressible).
That (undefinable essence) which can neither be extinguished, as e. g., a desire, nor can it be attained, as e. g., a reward for renunciation; which neither can be annihilated, as e. g., all the (active) elements of our life, 9 nor
1 aSunya. 2 kleSa.
3 skandha. * svabhavenavyavasthita.
■’ svabhdva-vadin. 6 sunyala-vadin.
7 tesam ayam adotali. * kleSa = avidyd-trsne.
skandhddhat.
p. 187
is it everlasting, 1 as a non-relative 2 (absolute principle); which cannot really 3 disappear, nor can it be created; (that something) which consists in the Quiescence 4 of all Plurality, 5 that is Nirvana.
Now, if the Universe is really such (a Unity), if it is no Plurality, 6 521 . 14 . how is it then that our imagination has built up defilers 7 (i. e., an illusion of personal identity and desires) through a suppression of which Nirvana is supposed to be attained? Or how is it that our imagination has built up sepa¬ rate elements through the annihilation of which Nirvana reveals itself?
As long as these constructions of our imagination 8 exist, Nirvana cannot be reached, since it is reached just through a suppression of all Plurality.
(The Hlnayanist objects). Be that as the case may be, let us admit 522 . 3 . that neither the defiling elements, nor the elements in general exist when Nirvana is reached.. However they must exist on this side of Nirvana, (i. e., before Nirvana is reached). In that case Nirvana will be possible through their total annihilation.
We answer. You are haunted 9 (by illusion), get rid of it! 522. 4.
For a (real Ens) which exists as an independent entity 10 can never be converted into a non-entity. Therefore those who are really desirous to attain Nirvana must first of all get rid (of this imagined Plurality). Indeed (Nagarjuna himself) will state (that there is no line of demarcation, with the Pheno¬ menal world on this side and the Absolute on the other),
Where is the limit of Nirvana,
’T is also there the limit of Samsara,
There is between (no line of demarcation),
No slightest shade of difference (between them). 11
Thus it should be realized that nothing is really suppressed in Nirvana, and nothing really annihilated. Nirvana consists merely in the suppression
1 Sdsvata « beginningless ».
2 aSunyavat , as the svalaksaua of the Yogacaras, the Nirvana of the Hlnayanists, the pradhana of the Sankhyas etc. etc. They are all asunya in that sense that their adepts suppose them to be absolute, non-relative.
3 svnbhavatah. 4 upasama.
5 sarva-prapaiicu. 0 nisprapanca.
7 kksa-kcdpand. * kalpanah.
[i grdlia. 10 svabhdvato vidyarndna.
p. 20
nirvana of absolutely all the (false) constructions of our imagination. This has been stated by the Buddha himself (in the following words),
522. 11. Real ultimate elements 1 can never be annihilated,
The things that in this world do not exist.
They never did at alL exist.
Those who imagine existence along w r ith non-existence
Will never realize phenomenal 2 (Plurality's) Quiescence.
522 . 15. The meaning of this stanza is the following one. In the Absolute, 3 i. e.,