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

the scriptural texts which have a conventional meaning, and what are those which have a direct meaning? Those discourses which have been delivered in order to teach the Path of Salvation are metaphorically expressed. Those discourses which are delivered in order to teach the Final Result are ex¬ pressed with precision. Wheresoever you find a text specifying the entrance 43 . 6 . into that kind of Final Deliverance which is Relativity, where there is no separate object, no profound meditation, no volition, no birth, no causation, no existence, no Ego, no living creature, no individual Soul, no personality and no Lord — they are all called texts having direct meaning. This, o Re- 43 . 8 . vereud Sariputra, is called keeping to the precise meaning of the Scrip¬ tures and not to their metaphorical expressions)).

Further it is stated in the Samadhirajasutra, 44 . l.

A man who knows the difference
Of the precise meaning of Scripture,

Knows in what sense the Relativity 1
Has been conceived by Buddha.

When, on the contrary, the Personality,

The Being, the Spiritual Self are spoken of,

He knows that all the elements are then
Conventionally taken.

Therefore, in order to show that the doctrine wdiick admits causality 44 . 6 . etc. is a wrong doctrine, our Master (Nagarjuna) has undertaken to re¬ consider the doctrine of Dependent Origination.

XXXII. How is the moral law be to vindicated in an unreal world?

Now r , the following objection (will eventually be made). If the Master 44. 8. has composed this treatise in order to prove that there is no real causation and that the plurality of the elements of life is a mere illusion, then, con¬ sidering that what is an illusion does not really exist, it will follow that wicked actions do not exist, and if they do not exist, neither do miserable lives exist, nor are virtuous actions possible, and without them no happy life. Without the happy and unhappy lives there will be no phenomenal world , 2 and thus all endeavours (towards a better life) will be absolutely fruitless.

1 sunyatd.

2 samsara.

44 . 12. We answer. We teach the illusion ol existence as an antidote against the obstinate belief of common mankind in the reality of this world, (we teach its relative truth). But for the Saints 1 (there is no need for that). They have reached the goal. They apprehend (no plurality), nothing that (could be) illusion or non-illusion. And when a man has thoroughly realized the (pluralistic) illusion of all (separate) entities, (there is for him no Moral Law). How can there be any virtuous actions for him, or any phenomenal life? The question whether an entity exists or does not exist will never occur to him.

45. l. Accordingly Buddha has declared in the «Ratnakuta Discourse)). «0 Kasyapa! if we search for consciousness we do not find it. What is not to be found, is not to be perceived. What is not to be perceived is neither past, nor future, nor present. What is neither past, nor future, nor present has no separate 2 reality. What has no reality has no causation. What is un¬ caused cannot disappear. But (an ordinary man) follows wrong views. He does not realize the illusive character of separate elements. He obstinately thinks that the contingent entities have a reality of their own. Swayed by this inveterate belief in the reality of separate things, 3 he takes action, 4 and as a consequence of this he migrates through this phenomenal world. As long as lie takes his stand on such confusion, he is not fit to attain Nirvana».

45. 8. But although the reality of (these separate) entities is an illusion, they nevertheless can produce either moral defilement or purification, just as the magical apparition of a beauty (inspires passion to those) who have not realized her nature, and just as a vision evoked by the Buddha (is a cause of moral purification for those) who have practised the roots of virtue

46 . l. This is stated in the ((Discourse with the Drdhasaya». «It is similar, o noble son, to somebody watching a magical show. He contemplates the vision of a (pretty) woman and his heart fills with passion. Feeling shy before the assistance, he gets up from his seat and disappears. After having left, he tries to persuade himself that the woman was ugly, that it is (even) no real personality, but (an assemblage) of elements impermanent, disquiet¬ ing and illusive etc».

46 . s. The following is stated in the Yin ay a. «An engineer 5 might construct

1 drya. 2 svabhavatah.