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Śrāvakabhumi
Asanga along with Maitreyanatha also subscribes to this view-point. The atman or pudgala is not regarded as 'existent', as it is not 'upalabdha' in our experience. In actuality, no ātman is 'upalabdha' except in combination with the five skandhas, in the form of satkāyadṛṣṭi. The pudgala-dṛṣṭi is produced due to the five skandhas and regarding them as permanent which are not so. This 'viparyasa' has been regarded as the Satkaya-dṛṣṭi or avidya and Asanga, following his preceptors clearly states that no permanent character of pudgala or atman should be taken into account as it arises out of the ego-is-tic-ness.1
Thus, the Buddhist concept of 'nairatmya' with regard to pudgala or dharmin, is basically the negation of the identification of the five skandhas with the atman. This nairatmya-doctrine has also been elucidated in relation to the non-eternal and ephemeral character and the impermanent nature of the phenomenal dharmas." They are produced out of their mutual dependence and hence they cannot be regerded as having any permanent or enduring character of their own. This also points towards the permanent character of atman otherwise characterised as 'dharmata' or tathata' which is devoid of any phenomenality or dogmatic view-point. Nagarjuna terms it as 'tattva' or 'dharmata', while Maitreyanatha and Asanga mention it as 'mahātma-dṛṣṭi.5
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Thus, in Asanga's view-point, only the conceived identity of atman is negated and in the realm of the phenomenal existents the non-intrinsic character of the dharmas relates to their impermanent and dependently originated character (pratitya samutpannatva)
1. YBS. I. 162; MSA and Bhasya, VI. 2-9; cf. XI. 49 sq. XVIII. 92103; MVs; 4.
2.
Vide our paper 'Buddhist Atmavāda and Asanga', JGJRI. XXIII.
29-49.
3.
4.
Cp. LV, XIII. 95-117.
MK, XVIII. 7, 9, 11.
5. संस्कारमात्रं जगदेत्य बुद्धया निरात्मकं दुःख विरुढिमात्रम् ।
विहाय यानथं मयात्मदृष्टि महात्मदृष्टि श्रयते महार्थाम् ॥ ( MSA, ch. XIX).
