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

4 It has been supposed that the four dhyanas are of an earlier date than the four samajpattis, cp. Heiler, op. cit. p. 43 f. The conception of ethereal existences in the Rupa-dhatu as consisting of 14 dhatus only, because they did not want any physical food is evidently a rationa¬ lisation of the myth about the descent of man from one of the Buddhist mystic worlds where the denizens fed on samadhi, cp. D. N.III. 84 ff. The full theory probably existed already at the time of the formation of the Pali Kanon.

5 Central Conception, p. 65 ff.

6 Cp. the article on Buddhist magic in ERE where mysticism, magic and popular su¬ perstition are not sufficiently distinguished. In the Brahmajalasutta, D. N. I. 9 ff., we have a long, list of superstitions and magical practices, all strongly condemned.

controversy between the schools. We can safely assert that within the pale of Hlnayana Buddhism there is no place for trivial sorcery. 1

The psychology of trance is indeed a characteristic feature of many Indian systems, not Buddhism alone. It appears almost inevitably in that part of every Indian system which is called «the Path» ( marga) in which the means of a transition out of the phenomenal world into the Absolute are considered. With the exception of the orthodox Mimamsakas and the materialists, every system in this part, but not in others, contains a certain amount of mysticism. The Jains had their teaching about Yoga. Even the realistic and theistic Nayayikas, when feeling it difficult to explain the tran¬ sition into the Absolute, i. e., from samsara into nirvana, have recourse not to God, but to Yoga. 2 However, just as the European mind is not alto¬ gether and always free from mysticism, so is the Indian mind not at all necessarily subject to it. Not to speak about numerous materialistic doctrines, the orthodox Mimamsakas themselves held about Yoga an opinion which probably represents just what all of us, so far we are not mystics, think about it, viz. that Yoga is sheer imagination, just as any other ordinary fantasticism. 3 Considering that the Mimamsakas are the oldest philosophical system in India whose roots go down into the Yedic age, we at once can measure the exact value of the ((historical method» which finds it highly improbable that in India, at the time of Buddha, nothing but vulgar magic and thaumaturgy could exist.

It is the common lot of every philosophy or religion to reach a point where further explanation becomes impossible. A higher and mystical prin¬ ciple is then invoked, because the usual methods have failed to give satis¬ faction. With Descartes and Leibnitz it is God, with many Indian systems it is Yoga as a mystical power. An appeal to this power plays a considerable part in Buddhism, but not otherwise.

1 If every supernatural world or power, imagined by the mystic is represented as magic, then of course Hinayana will be full of magic, but Christianity, especially that which believes in miracles, will neither escape a similar reproach. The rddhis and abhijUas should therefore be more properly characterised as mystical imagined powers, with the proviso that «of the reality or unreality of the mystic’s world we know nothing# (B. Russel, External World, 1922, p. 20). Very interesting are the explanations, and a certain vindication, of the Buddhist supernatural cognitions and powers by Fr. Heiler, op. cit., p. 33 f.

2 About the place Yoga occupies in the system of Nyaya-Vaisesika see below, p. 55 ff.

3 Cf. Slokavart., on pratyaksasutra, 32.

2 *

NIRVANA

V. WAS BUDDHA AN AGNOSTIC

IV. Buddha’s belief in personal immortality

Additional arguments in favour of an unpliilosophic primitive Buddhism are derived from 1) the occurrence in the Pali Kanon of the word «immortal» among the epithets of Nirvana, 2) the interpretation of two passages where Buddha is reported to have given no answer at all when questioned about Nirvana, 3) the occurrence in later literature of the term reality (vastu) in connection with Nirvana.

A short examination of the value of these additional arguments will not he out of place.