Sambodhi 1993 Vol 18

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 73

66
SAMBODHI
being, which presents itself last to the consciousnss.” The doctrine meant the causal law as applied to the dharmāh, which stood for its ethical significance in the Vaibhāsika School. By accepting the reality of only momentary,unrelated point instants (svalaksana) and consequently dismissing the universal as imaginary thought construction, the Sautrāntika school denies the existence of any relation like inherence (samavāya) wherein the attributes are said to co-exist in the substance. As there are no separate substance there is no need for them to admit any relation of the inherence. According to the Principle of Momentariness, there is no continuity between one dharma and another dharma. The causal relation, therefore, cannot be had between them in its usual (ordinary) sense of the term. The cause, then, is considered to be only an occasion, depending on which the effect is held to happen (asmin sati idam bhavati).
The dharma moments are thus considered to be subject to this law of dependent origination."
Accordingly pratityasamutpāda is held to stand for the law of their rigorous temporal sequence.
For Sautrāntika, therefore, change implies" revolution, not evolution"!2. Accordingly, in the statement, 'AB' changes into 'AC'- the conditions bringing about change, alter from B to C without at all affecting A. 'A' is therefore held to be merely a conventional adjuct to B & C. As being redundant, it can therefore be dispensed with as superflous. The result is, that 'B becomes C. Here we have the case of change which is not only perpetual but total as well. In case of the seed becoming sprout, we must identify seed with continuous activity, even before its becoming the sprout. The causal efficiency being the sole test of reality, the inactive seed can never be held to produce the sprout at any time and consequently it can not be considered as unreal because unproductive.
If 'A' of this statement is held to stand for ego (attā) the early Buddhism (as we have already seen), stops at its theoretical dismisal by considering at to be a conventional adjunct.
The Madhyamika Buddhism with its mature interpretation, tries to work out theoratically and pin-point the underlying significance behind the seemingly theoretical dismissal of 'A', by using the significant words like 'śünya' and 'ālaya' referring to the actual achievement of a state when the mind is totally silenced.
It is only in the Buddha's treading of the Path, that the underlying deep significance hidden behind this theoritical dismissal of A, gets totally revealed, wherein it is held to stand for the actual process leading to the complete dissolution of the ego (attā) by constantly striving and treading the path of spiritual discipline.
- IV. The exhaustive analysis of being into the momentary point-instants makes it impossible for the realists to explan the causation all the more. Because just as it is