The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)
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in that principle which is final Nirvana 4 without any residue (of phenomenal life altogether), all elements of existence have vanished, because (all of them), whether they be called defilers, 5 or the creative power of life, 6 or individual existences, 7 or groups of elements, they have all totally vanished. This all systems of philosophy 8 admit, (i. e., that the Absolute is a negation of the Plenomenal).
523. l. Now, these elements which do not exist there, in the Absolute, they really do not exist at all; they are like that kind of terror which is expe¬ rienced when, in the dark, a rope is mistaken for a snake and which dissipates as soon as a light (is brought in). These elements (of our life), called illusion and desire, their creative force and the (consequent) individual lives, 9 have no real existence in the absolute sense, 10 even at any time in the phenomenal condition of life. 11 Indeed, the rope which in the dark has been mistaken for the serpent, is not really in itself a serpent, since it is not apprehended by sight and touch, whether in the light or in the darkness, (as a real serpent would necessarily be).
How is it then that it is called phenomenal reality? 12
523 . 5 . We answer. Obsessed by the unreal devil of their «Ego» and their «Mine»
the obtuse men and common worldlings imagine that they really perceive separate entities which in reality do not exist, just as the ophtalmic sees Before himself hair, flies and other (objects which never did exist). It has therefore been said,
523 . 9 . Those who imagine existence aloug with non-existence
Will never realize phenomenal Pluraty’s Quiescence.
1 dharmdh. - duhkha — samsdra, cp. p 523.13.
3 nirvrtii. 4 nirvdna-dhdtu.
5 klesa. fi karma.
7 janma. % sarva-mdinah.
9 kleSa-karma-janmadi . 10 tattvaiah.
11 sarnsdra-avasthdydm. 12 samsdra.
appendix: candrakIrtps comment on relativity, xxv 189
Those who assert existence, (the Realists) who imagine that there is 523. 9. a real existence of (separate) entities , 1 are (the followers of) Jaimini, Kanada, Kapila and others up to the (realistic Buddhists), the Vaibhasikas . 2
Those who deny (future) existence are the Materialists 3 who are firmly 523 . 10 . rpotedin a destiny leading them to hell. The others are (the Sautrantikas) who deny the existence of the past and the future , 4 deny the existence of such a separate element as the moral character of the individual , 5 deny the existence of forces which are neither physical nor mental , 6 but admit the reality of all other separate elements. Or they are (the Yogacaras, the Idealists) who deny the existence of individual things so far as they represent logical con¬ structions of our thought , 7 but admit I. their contingent, reality so far they obey to causal laws , 6 and 2 . their final reality (so far they are merged into the universal Whole).’’
The phenomenal world , 10 or the phenomenal life , 11 will never reach final 523 . 12 . Quiescence neither for the Realists , 12 nor for the Negativists . 13 (nor for partial Realists). Indeed,
A man, suspecting he has taken poison. 524. 1.
Faints even when there is no poison in his stomach.
Swayed by (the care) of Ego and of <.<Mine».
Eternally lie comes and dies,
Without real knowledge 14 ’bout this Ego . 15
1 bhdva-sadbhdva-kalpandvantah.
2 It is noteworthy that the Sautrantikas are uot mentioned among the Realists, it is just because they are half-realists. In addition to what has been said above, p. 29 ff., about the position of the Sautrantikas, it must be mentioned that Bodhidharma and many others cha¬ racterized this school as Mahayanistic because of its moral philosophy. But their opinion was rejected, since the founders of the two main schools of the Mahayana, i. e., Nagarjuna and Aryiisanga. did not share it (Cp. Lean - skya-hu-tuk - tu, Grub-mthah. trans. by M. Gorsky, Ms. Mus. As. Petr.). The total silence about Vedanta is also to be noted.
3 ndstika, they deny retribution, moral responsibility, cp. p. 28.
4 Cp. Central Concep-tion, p. 42.
3 avijnapti to be corrected from vijhapti , p. 523.11, cp. ibid., p. 6, 7, 99.
6 viprayukta-samskdra — rupa-citta-viptayukta-sumskdra, cp. ibid., p. 21.
7 pari-kalpita-svabhava, cp. Tritnsika, p. 39, and above p. 33.
8 paratantra, cp. ibid. 9 parinispanna , cp. ibid.
10 duhkha =-panca-updddna-skandhdh.
11 samsdra. 12 astimdin.
13 ndstivddin.
14 bday-der-hdiL-ies-yau-day — tad-dtma-samjhd.
13 from the Tib.
Therefore it should be known, that nothing is suppressed in Nirvana and nothing annihilated. The essence of Nirvana consists merely in the extinction of all constructions of our productive imagination . 1 Accordingly we find it stated in the Ratnavali . 2
Nor is Nirvana non-existence.
How can such an idea 3 come to you?
We call Nirvana the cessation
Of every thought of non-existence and existence.
III. Nirvana not an Ens.