Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Sukhlal Sanghavi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 81

The Various Buddhist Views Regarding Soul
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for one doing so p By way of answering these questions one ought to point to the doctrine of rebirth and the allied doctrines as also to the spiritual doctrines like that of bondage and emancipation. For if all these doctrines are fully acceptable to Buddha then in no case can his position be chara. cterized as the doctrine of no-soul. On the contrary, this should be regarded as a supreme intellectual skill of this position that even while sanctifying through its vision the doctrine of momentariness it offers a proper account of the phenomena like rebirth etc80.
Let us now see as to how the Buddhists have been giving thought to soul in the form of an independent element. Buddha's own viewpoint was truly penetrating, and hence it could not lend countenance to the permanent character of any real or substance whatsoever. This viewpoint of the founder has powerfully influenced all the later groups of his followers. The result was that just as there prevailed an uninterrupted unanimity as to the nature of soul in the traditions like Jaina, Sankhya-Yoga and Nyaya-Vaiśesika there was nothing of the sort in the Buddhist sect. Thus in the history of philosophical speculation undertaken by this sect we come across of views. viz. (1) the doctrine that soul (=pudgala) does not exist in the form of a real entity, (2) the doctrine that soul exists in the form of a real entity, (3) the doctrine that all elements whatsoever exist in all the three phases of time, (4) the doctrine that no element whatsoever exists in the form of a real entity or the doctrine of no own-nature or the doctrine of Void, (5) the doctrine that there exists consciousness alone.81
In this connection one should keep in mind that the proponents of all these views developed their respective ideas while fully endorsing Buddha's own viewpoint and the aim he had set forth. This aim was to vindicate the possibility of spiritual purification and progress on the basis of the Four Noble Truths.
The Pall Pitakas unanimously proclaim that the element descr bed by other philosophers in the form of soul is in fact of the form of an aggre ate which changes every moment and whose constituent elements are the mutually indivisible vedana(=feeling), samjñā (conception), samskāra (impression and vijñāna (cognition).37 The Buddhists also refer to this element as 'näma'. In Upanişads too there occurs the couple Dāma-rūpe and is also maintained the position that some basic single element makes
30 See the Tattvasangraha Section 'Karmaphalasmbandhaparikșă' p. 476. - 31 For the three stages of Buddhist philosophical speculation see Buddhist Logic, Vol.
I, pp. 3-14 and Central Philosophy of Buddhism, p. 26. 32 See the Visuddhimagga section Khandhaniddesa 14 and Introduction to "Gapadbarn.
vāda,' pp. 82-87.
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