Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 90

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that all things are transitory; indeed his dying words were that, that all things that are produced must perish. The principal heresy, according to the Buddists, is the Atmavada, i.e. the belief that permanent Being is at the bottom of all things; they are, as we should say, but phenomena, of as Buddha expressed it dharmas; there is no dharmin, no permanent substance of which the dharmas could be said to be attributes.
5. Thus the Brahmans and the Buddhists entertrained opposite opinions on the problem of Being because they approached it from two different points of view. The Brahmans exclusively followed the dictates of pure reason which forces us to regard Being as permanent, absolute, and uniform, the Buddhists, on the other hand, were just as onesided in following the teaching of common experience according to which existence is but a succession of originating and perishing, Either view, the a priori view of the Brahmans, and the a posteriori view of the Buddhists, is beset with many difficulties when we are called upon to employ it in explanation of the state of things as pressented to us by our consciousness; difficulties which cannot be overcome without a strong faith in the paramount truth of the principle adopted.