Sambodhi 1990 Vol 17

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 82

77
To accept the ultimate reality of svalakšana, is to hold pure difference to be the ultimate. As it is shown by the Madhyamika school, the pure difference, like pure identity, is an intellectual abstraction and therefore not worth considering as ultimately real or absolute.
Now we shall proceed to study the other school of Hinayāna Buddhism, namely the Sautrāntika school.
(to be continued in Vol. 18)
FOOT-NOTES 1. V.M. II, p. 558. (Edi. by Rhys Davids, 1921. Published for P.T.S. by
Humphrey Milford, Oxford Uni. Press). 2. Milindapanha: Translated by II. Oldenberg, pp. 25. Seg. : 3. Material form, sensations, perceptions, conformations, consciousness. 4. Ninian Smart: Doctrine and argument in Indian philosophy. (1964,
George Allen & Unwin), p. 45. 5. Oldenberg : Buddha-his life, his doctrine, his order, pp. 253–54. 6. Ninian Smart : Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy. (Georgo
Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1064) p. 42. 7. Vaibhāşika merely stated the doctrines. It was the Sautrāntika system
which afterwards critically reflected upon the doctrines, presented by the Vaibhāșika school. I shall therefore discuss fully the doctrine of momentariness in my account of the Sautrāntika School. It is sufficient to note that reality, according to the Hinayāna schools is of the
nature of unique, unrelated, momentary Svalaksaņāh. 8. The word in bracket is mine. 9. Ninian Smart : Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy, p. 43. 10. Oldenberg : Buddha, His Life, His Doctrine, His Order. p. 249.
Buddha tells Kaccāna : "The world, O Kaccāna, generally proceeds on a duality, on the 'it is' and the “it is not'. But, O Kaccāna, whoever perceives in truth and wisdom how things originate in the world, in his eyes there is no 'it is not in this world. Whoever, Kaccana, perceives in truth and wisdom how things pass away in this world, in his cyes there is no “it is in this world...Sorrow alone arises where anything arises; sorrow passes away where anything passes away. 'Everything is', is the one extreme, O Kaccāna. 'Everything is not, is the other extreme. The Perfect One, O Kaccāna, remaining far from both these extremes, proclaims the truth in the middle.”