________________
CHAPTER VIII
Examination of the Doctrine of the Permanence of Things.
COMMENTARY. The Author has spoken of his doctrine (in the opening lines of his Intro. duction) as "mobile","impermanent'. The following Texts proceed with the proof in support of this :
TEXT (350-351) OR, ALL THIS EFFORT (TO REFUTE THE VARIOUS DOCTRINES REGARDING THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD) IS MADE NEEDLESSLY AS ALL SUCH DOOTRINES ARE REALLY SET ASIDE BY THE WELL-ESTABLISHED DOCTRINE OF THE PERPETUAL FLUX' OF THINGS.HENCE IT IS THIS PERPETUAL FLUX THAT IS GOING TO BE CLEARLY ESTABLISHED FOR THE REFUTATION OF ALL THAT HAS BEEN REFERRED TO ABOVE AND ALL SUCH THINGS AS THE UNIVERSAL' AND THE LIKE WHICH ARE GOING TO BE MENTIONED LATER ON, A REFUTATION THAT IS APPLIED EQUALLY TO ALL THOSE DOCTRINES.
(350-351)
COMMENTARY. As a matter of fact, by establishing the Perpetual Flag of things, all the various entities postulated by others, such as those of Primordial Matter * God and the like become discarded at a single stroke ; under the circumstances, all the effort that we have put forth in the above extensive portions of our work, towards the setting forth in detail of the several dootrines and refuting them, is practically useless; that is to say, all these are refuted by the much simpler method (of establishing the Perpetual Flux). That is to say, Primordial Matter' and the rest are not held by others to be undergoing destruction immediately on appearance, or to be liable to absolute destruction ; hence by the establishing of the doctrine of Perpetual Flux which includes all things, all those postulated entities become set aside ; holding this opinion as we do, we proceed to establish this 'Perpetual Flux' with special care,for the purpose of discarding (a) all those doctrines that have been discussed so far,-beginning with Primordial Matter' and ending with 'Pudgala',and (b) all those that are going to be discussed later on,-such as the Universal', 'Quality', 'Substance', etc., Words and their denotation, the Means
