Buddha And Jainas Reconsidered

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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THE BUDDHA AND THE JAINAS
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influence, which have been dealt with in my book. 12 GOMBRICH does not discuss these other cases, so I cannot say how he would explain them. It seems however likely that, as in the case of the three examples just discussed, he would come up with various different explanations. Given that one single explanation can account for all these cases, such alternative explanations create the impression of being invented ad hoc.
In the remainder of this article I will show that the theory which explains these contradictions as due to outside influence is far more homogeneous than it may look at first sight. I will argue that Buddhism, from a very early date onward, has been particularly vulnerable to one specific kind of influence. Most, if not all, of the cases of outside influence which we can, as it seems to me, discover in the ancient texts, are of this particular kind.
12 One of the conclusions arrived at, was that the four meditational states known by the
Sanskrit names of ākāśānantyāyatana, vijñānānantyāyatana, äkiñcanyāyatana, and naivasamjñānāsamjñāyatana, some (or all) of which appear to have been final stages of meditational exercises, are not authentically Buddhist. In this connection it is interesting to cite a passage from the Mahāvibhāṣā, in the French translation of Louis DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN (1937: 161-162):
"En outre, l'expression 'une vérité', veut dire: 'un nirodhasatya', car le Bouddha veut condamner les autres (théories de la) délivrance (vimukti). En effet les hétérodoxes enseignent quatre délivrances: 1. La délivrance incorporelle qui est l'ākāśānantyāyatana; 2. la délivrance de l'esprit infini (anantamanovimukti) qui est le vijñānānantyāyatana; 3. la délivrance de l'accumulation du pur' qui est l'ākiñcanyāyatana; 4. la délivrance du 'Stūpa du monde' qui est le naivasamjñānāsamjñāyatana. Le Bouddha dit que cela n'est pas la vraie délivrance (vimukti), la vraie sortie (nihsarana), mais l'existence dans la sphère immatérielle (ārūpyabhava). La vraie délivrance est seulement l'unique nirodhasatya, l'absolu Nirvana. En outre, l'expression: 'une vérité', veut dire: 'un märgasatya', car Bhagavat désire condamner les autres mārgasatyas. Les hétérodoxes enseignent en effet beaucoup de märgasatyas. Ils pensent que le chemin est: 1. s'affamer; 2. coucher dans la cendre; 3. suivre le soleil (sūryānuvartana); 4. boire le vent, boire l'eau, manger des fruits, manger des légumes; 5. nudité; 6. coucher sur des épines; 7. ne pas se coucher; 8. se vêtir de haillons; 9. prendre des drogues et ne pas manger. Le Bouddha dit que cela n'est pas le vrai chemin; ce sont de mauvais chemins, des chemins contrefaits, des chemins décevants. Les saints ne les pratiquent pas; ce sont les mauvais qui y errent. Le vrai pur chemin est l'unique mārgasatya, le
saint chemin à huit membres, vue correcte, etc." Can one conclude from this passage that these meditational states where still known as being practised by non-Buddhists in the time of the Mahāvibhāsä?