The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)

•Causality I, in Hinayana. The world an infinite plurality of momentary entities (dharma) and forces ( sarnskara ) appearing and disappearing in strict coordination accord¬ ing to causal laws, 89, 197. No production of entities by other entities, but their coordi¬ nated appearance, ibid. Uniformity or regularity ( niyama ) in nature, 179, 197. The mys¬ tic worlds also imagined as obeying to special causal laws, 13, 14, 15. Similarity of this Buddhist conception of causality with the modern conception of causation as afunctional in¬ terdependence)), 40 n. 3. This the general meaning of the formula oiprafitya-samutpada, to be distinguished from the 12 membered special formula (q.c.), 134,164 n. 6. A general causal in¬ terdependence ( kdrana-hetu ) between all elements, past,present and future, of the whole Uni¬ verse, 41 n. 6, 172 n. This conception the forerunner (or corollary) of Monism, 42. Causes and conditions (hetu-pratyaya), 171, 172; the difference how far observed, 195 n., 171; both terms used as synonyms, ibid. Classification of conditions, 172; not always required to be strictly systematical, ibid. The classification of conditions in the school of the Sarvastivadins, 165 n. The preceding condition or causa maUriaHs {samanantara-pratyaya), 174. The special condition or causa efficiens ( adhipati-pratyaya ), 176. The objective condition ( alambana-pratyaya ), 173. The general or cooperating condition (hetu-resp. sahakdripratyaya), 171. The homogeneous ( sabhaga -), the simultaneous (sahabhu-, samprayukta-), and the moral ( vipaka-hetu — karman) causations, 172. Anthropomorphic {puruSa-kara - phala) conception of causation rejected, 176.

•Causality II, in Mahayana. The conception of interdependent momentary elements replaced by the idea of their Relativity (q. c.), 40 ff. Origination, existence, relation con¬ ceived as synonyms, 166. The relativity of separate elements conceived as their ulti¬ mate unreality, 42; therefore causality denied altogether, 48, 92 ff, 113. The «adamantine » argument against causation: the effect can be neither identical with the cause nor can it be different, 139 n. 2. The current views of causality involved in contradictions, 92 ff. Critique of the Sankhya view of an identity between the effect and its material cause, 93 ff. A new manifestation not to be distinguished from a new production, 97, 101, 102—103. A new production of an existing thing useless, 100. Meaning of such argu¬ ments, 98, 118, 121, 138—139, 154—155. Critique of the converse (Yaisegika) view of a break between the effect and its material cause, 120, 139 n.; impossibility of efficient causes, 176 n. 2. Causation not to be established on the basis of direct experience, 189. Causality as coordination denied, 170. The denial of identity between cause and effect does not entail the acceptance of a difference between them, 103—104. Im¬ possibility of a double causation, when the effect is supposed to be partly identical and partly different from its cause, 121. Impossibility of a (pluralistic) Universe without causation, 121 ff. Impossibility of a causation by God, 122. Causation from Time, from the Atoms, from Primitive Matter, or Nature denied, 106. Causality in the phenomenal world likewise denied, but only on the score that its advocates are lacking the right conception of the difference between the Absolute and the Phenomenal, 107; otherwise contingent, phenomenal, relative causality accepted, 107, 112, 164 n.

•Commiseration, Great, ( mahd-karuna) different in Hinayana and Mahayana, 83 n. 4.

Controversy, philosophic, to be conducted on principles admitted by one party 118;— by both parties, 119.

Cosmotheism, 48.

Dharma-k ay a, the Cosmos or Cosmical Body of the Buddha, 45, 48, 91, 182 n. 3, 185, 204; cp. Index 7 s. v.

Differential calculus, its principle known to Indian astronomers, 142.

D u a 1 i s m, 8.

Jfelan vital, = karman , 14,66 ff.; = vipaka-hetu or moral causation, 172 n. 1; 7rpa)Tov xivouv, 41 n. 1.

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— 230 —

El ements, their number in a personality, 8; linked together by causal laws, 8; their intensity in a combination, 9; the two most precious ones in a personality, 9. Some elements suppressed by insight,’others by concentration {yoga), 10; divided in fundamental and their manifestations, 27.

Energies, their separate existence denied, 167.

Eternalist, 2.

EtRic, 3.

Entropy, 26, 197 n. 6.

Evanescence, Buddhist theories about it, 110.

God, as a Supreme Deity denied, 106, 122.

Gods, their position in Buddhism, 10; are conceived as denizens of mystic worlds, eternally merged in trance, representing assemblages either of 14 or 3 categories of elements, 11.

H I n a y a n a contrasted with Mahayana, 36, 123; its central conception a Plurality of Elements (dharma) and unreality of Substance or Soul (pudgala-nairatmya), 39; its moral ideal of personal Quietism leading to final Annihilation of every life, 3—4; divided into Vaibha- Sikas and Sautrantikas q. c.

Idealistic views appearing several times in the history of Buddhism, 31.

Ignorance (avidya) or naive realism conceived as a separate mental element, the reverse of prajna, 9.

Illusion and reality, contrasted, 110.

Impersonal Universe, 3.

Introspection, 113,145.