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

ling elements of illusion, desire, aversion etc. are here represented as a kind of subtle matter which through the pores of the skin flows into the body and fills it up like absorbed medicine or like a bag is filled with sand. 1 By taking vows, by ascetic and meditative practices the entrance into the body is shut up, the inflow ceases, and the individual becomes purified. In all other systems this process is spiritualized, and instead of an «inflow» of defiling matter we have an «influence » (dsrava) of defiling psychical elements which is being stopped by insight and meditation. All elements of existence are in the Buddhist system, as mentioned above, divided in such that can be extin¬ guished by philosophic knowledge, and such that can be extinguished by mysti¬ cal absorption only. The first class includes wrong views, under which item the naive realism of ordinary men is understood. Desire, passion and even the physi¬ cal elements of matter can be extinguished for ever only by the force of absorp¬ tion. 2 Although the Nyaya-Vaisesika system favours a naively realistic view of the universe, it has no other means of reaching Nirvana than the mystical power of Yoga. «The details about this matter», says Vatsyayana, «will be found in special yoga manuals». 3 Any question about the efficency of this method is answered by stating that the power of yoga is illimited. The Nyaya sutras mention a characteristic objection from some skeptic mind. 4 A man, says he, may be intensely absorbed in meditation, so as to forget everything which exists about him. He may retire into a lonely place, a forest, a cave, a sandy beach, and there practice meditation until every perception of the external

1 Cf. Tattvarthadhiyamasutra, VI. 2 ft'., VIII. 2 (transl. by H. Jacobi, Z. D. M. G., LX). Cf. also the detailed and very clear exposition of the complicated Jaina theory in H. v. Glasenapp, Der Jainismus (Berlin, 1925), p. 158 f. The passions are imagined as a kind of tar by which the influent matter is glued with the Soul, ibid. VI. 5.

2 Samudaya-satya (= heya-hetuh) consists in Nyaya just as in Buddhism of avidyd-tsrne. cf. Nvayaviirt, p. 4, 1. 13. It is specified that these elements are also included in duhkha (i. e. in the upddanaskandhas) — tad dhctus ca duhkham uktam , ibid. Their respective antidotes (i. e. marga) consist on both sides of prajha and samadhi, cf. Vais, sutra, V. 17—18. Prajha is characterised as dharma-praviveka (cf. Vatsyayna ad IV. 2, 41) which corresponds to the Buddhist dharma-pravicaya (Abh. Kosa, I, 2).

3 Nyayabhagya ad IV, 2, 46. Although the prasankhyana is analogous to prati-sankhyanirodha of the Buddhists, its procedure is different. By the illimited mystic power of Yoga innu¬ merable «magic bodies», nirmana-kaya, must be created at once, to atone in them for endless former deeds and thus to reach Final Extinction. Cf. Tatparyatika, p. 6. This prof. B. Keith, Indian Logic and Atomism, p. 260, calls «vulgar thaumaturgy». According to such phrasing Dr. H. Beck, who interpets even the knowledge of duhkha-satya as a vision of ethereal bodies (Buddhismus 2 , II, p. 89 f.), would be called a magician. Usually these men are called mystics.

4 IV, 2, 39—44.

world has ceased. Nevertheless when external phenomena of exceptional force, as e. g., a thunderstorm, overcome him, he will awake out of the most intense meditation. Why could not the same happen to him in the moment he is about to attain Final Release, if this is to be attained by such meditation? The objection is answered by pointing to the mystical power of trance which stops all energies of life for ever. After that no living bodies, no feelings and no cognitions can exist