The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)
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3. ((Whether (some) elements of existence have appeared or whether 40. 1- thev have not appeared, there is, according to the teaching of the Buddhas (no controlling conscious Agent who makes them either appear or not ap¬ pear), remains (unchallenged) just this (eternal) essence of what the elements (really) are, (their causal interconnection)». 4
1 saviskara.
2 This is the abridged formula of pratitya-samutpada as applied to the development of an individual life in 12 conseculive stages, the so called prakarsika or avasthika pratityasamutpada. Its first part corresponds to the direct order ( anuloma) of the members, its second part to their reversed (pratiloma) order. This abridgment clearly reveals the simple meaning of the formula as it is understood in ali Buddhist countries. Cp. 0. Rosenberg, Probleme, ch. XVI, and my Central Conception, p. 28 n. 3.
3 samskara for samskrta-dharma.
4 This is the celebrated formula of pratitya-samutpada in its generalized sense, as given in the Salistamba-sutra, it is very often quoted, cp. references in M. de la V. P.’s text edition, p. 40 n. 1. The second tathugatandm must be dropped and the first understood with Madha vacarva, Sarvadars./p. 21.8, in the sense of tathagatdnam mate. Lit., ((whether according to the Buddhas the dharmas originate or if they do not originate, this their essence
NIRVANA
APPENDIX: CANDRAKIRTI’S COMMENT ON RELATIVITY, I
40. 2. 4 . «There is one fundamental law 1 for the subsistance of living beings, that is their fourfold nutrition».
5 . «Tliere are two mental elements 2 which protect the world, humility and the sense of justice)).
4o. 4. 6 . «There is a descent from another world into this one, and a depar¬ ture from this one into another one ». 3
40. 5. Thus (it is clear) that Buddha has taught a principle of Dependent Origination which is not incompatible with the disappearing (of some things and the appearing of others). How can you (assert) that it does not inter¬ fere with (your principle of Relativity )? 4
40. 7. It is just for this reason, because (Scripture) mentions a principle of Dependent Origination meaning that some elements disappear (when others appear), it is for this very reason that our Master (Nagarjuna) has com- " posed this Treatise on Relativity, in order to show the difference between necessarily stands ». The notion of causality, as well as the idea of a gradual evolution (by karma) of the world towards Nirvana, the absence in this process of any Controlling Conscious Will, all this is included in the connotation of the term dharma itself. Therefore dharma as an element of existence and dharma as the doctrine about these elements are expressed by the same word. The formula is found in Hlnayanistic, as well as in Mahayanistic literature. Madhavacarya, borrowing from some Buddhist source, gives it a Hlnayanist interpretation ( dharmdnam kdryalarana-rupanam). Candrakirti takes it as a comprehensive formula admitting both doctrines, it very well suits his aim in this place, since he wishes to establish that the Hinayanist view is the simpler one and the Mabayanist the deeper one. In Agtas. Prajiiap., p. 573.21 ff. and in Bodhicary av. t. ad IX. 150 it is given a Mahayanist interpretation as a denial of Causation and of Plurality. The meaning of the formula may then be freely rendered thus. «Whether we, with the Hmayanists, decide that according to the teaching of the Buddhas there is a causality between the separate elements of existence, or whether we, with the Mahayanists, decide that there is none, the (eternal) essence of elements stands (as a Unity)». At the time when the theory Jof a kdrana-hetu was established in the Abhidharma, this theory which implies a uni¬ versal link of a special causality between all the elements of the Universe, past, present and future, at that time the Mahayanistic Monism was already foreshadowed.