The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
4) V century, the idealistic interpretation of Asanga and Yasubandhu.
5) VI century, a split between the idealistic and relativistic schools,
Sthiramati and Dignaga representing the first, Buddhapalita and Bhavavi¬
veka the second.
6) VII century, final establishment of the Madhyamika System in its ex-, treme form by Candrakirti.
We now give the translation of the first chapter of the treatise of Nagar¬ juna with Candraklrti’s comment. 1 All the protagonists of the development just sketched together with some representatives of the brahmanical systems will he here seen at work. From the rest of the work the chapter about Nirvana
1 Candrakirti has given to his comment the title of «The Clear-worded# (prasannapadd) probably not without some dose of irony, since, as prof. Wassilieff attests, its extreme dialectical subtlety, especially in the first chapter, is equalled by no other work in the whole domain of northern Buddhist literature.
NIRVANA
has been chosen as an illustration of the method which is in turn applied to every philosophic conception.
In our translation we have endeavoured to avoid, as far as possible, literal renderings when they convey no clear meaning, in order to escape what M. A. Barth has called «traductions infideles a force d’etre litt4rales». Sanscrit scientifical works are not supposed to be read, but to be studied, their style is laconic and their technical terms suggestive of a wide connotation. Their trans¬ lation, in order to be comprehensible, should be, to a certain extent, an expla¬ nation. The literal rendering, when needed, is given in a foot-note. The sanserif text has been edited by M. de la Vallee Poussin in the Bibliotheca Buddhica. The division into small sections has been introduced by the translator in order to facilitate a vue d’ensemble.
A TREATISE ON RELATIVITY
DEDICATION
The Perfect Buddha,
The foremost of all Teachers I salute.
He has proclaimed
The Principle of (Universal) Relativity, ; Tis like blissful (Nirvana),
Quiescence of Plurality.
There nothing disappears,
Nor anything appears,
Nothing has an end,
Nor is there anything eternal,
Nothing is identical (with itself),
Nor is there anything differentiated,
Nothing moves,
Neither hither nor thither.
CHAPTER FIRST
EXAMINATION OF CAUSALITY
I.
There absolutely are no things,
Nowhere and none, that arise (anew),
Neither out of themselves, nor out of non-self
Nor out of both, nor at raudom.
II.
Four can be the conditions
(Of every thing produced),
Its cause, its object, its foregoing moment,
Its most decisive factor.
III.
In these conditions we can find
No self-existence of the entities.
Where self-existence is deficient,
Relational existence also lacks.
IV.
No energies in causes,
Nor energies outside them.
No causes without energies,
Nor causes that possess them.
NIRVANA
appendix: Nagarjuna s treatise relativity
V.
Let those facts be causes
With whom coordinated other facts arise.
Non-causes will they be,
So far the other facts have not arisen.
VI.
Neither uon-Ens nor Eus
Can have a cause.
If non-Ens, whose the cause?
If Ens, whatfore the cause?
VII.
Neither an Ens nor a non-Ens,
Nor any Ens-non-Ens,
No element is really turned out.
How can we then assume
The possibility of a producing cause?
VIII.
A mental Ens is reckoned as an element,
Separately from its objective (counterpart).
Now, if it (begins) by having no objective counterpart,
How can it get one afterwards?
IX.
If (separate) elements do not exist,
Nor is it possible for them to disappear.
The moment which immediately precedes
Is thus impossible. And if ’t js gone,
How can it be a cause?
X.
The (formula) «this being, that appears»
Then loses every meaning.
XI.
Neither in any of the single causes
Nor in all of them together
Does the (supposed) result reside.
How can you out of them extract
What iu them never did exist?
XII.
Supposing from these causes does appear
What never did exist iu them,
Out of uon-causes then
W^hy does it not appear?
XIII.
The result is cause-possessor,
But causes are not even self-possessors.
How can result be cause-possessor,
If of non-self-possessors it be a result?
XIV.
There is, therefore, no cause-possessor,
Nor is there an effect without a cause.
If altogether no effect arises,
(How can we then distinguish)
Between the causes and non-causes?
Finished the Examination of Causality, the first chapter of the
Treatise on Relativity.
If entities are relative,
They have no real existence.
appendix: Nagarjuna’s treatise on relativity
CHAPTER XXV
EXAMINATION OF NIRVANA
I.
If every thing is relative,