The tathagatagarbha-sutras, on occasion, speak of the ineffable skandhas of the Buddha (beyond the nature of worldly skandhas and beyond worldly understanding). In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra the Buddha tells of how the Buddha's skandhas are in fact eternal and unchanging. The Buddha's skandhas are said to be incomprehensible to unawakened vision.
|
|
The five skandhas are also mentioned in the Lankavatara-sutra: The Yogacara explains this "emptiness" in an analysis of the way we perceive "things". Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas—results of perception, feeling, volition, and discrimination. The five skandhas together compose consciousness. The "things" we are conscious of are "mere concepts", not Ding an sich.
|
|
Small skandhas may be invisible to the eye, but they can be seen when the combinations are larger.
|
|
Regarding the first form of designation, Dan Lusthaus adds that: > If the appropriator is something different from the skandhas themselves, > then there is a sixth skandha, which is doctrinally impermissible. If the > skandhas appropriate themselves, that leads to a vicious cycle of infinite > regress. Hence, the Vātsīputrīya argue, the nominal person (pudgala) is > neither the same as nor different from the skandhas. It is a heuristic > fiction that avoids these unwarranted consequences and lends coherence by > also corresponding to how actual persons experience themselves—that is, as > distinct individuals continuous with, but not absolutely identical to or > reducible to, their own pasts and futures.
|
|
Nirvāṇa is the absolute absence of karma and the defilements, the escape from the skandhas and all saṃsāric existence which attained by an arhat.Dhammajoti (2009), pp. 275-476.
|
|
The various terms all point to the same basic idea of Buddhism, as described in five skandhas and twelve nidānas. In the five skandhas, sense-contact with objects leads to sensation and perception; the saṅkhāra ('inclinations', c.q. craving etc.) determine the interpretation of, and the response to, these sensations and perceptions, and affect consciousness in specific ways. The twelve nidānas describe the further process: craving and clinging (upādāna) lead to bhava (becoming) and jāti (birth).
|
|
Thus Buddha-nature is not perceived and only the five skandhas are seen, which are then conflated with a sense of self in opposition to the Buddhist idea of anātman or no-self.
|
|
Jinpa 2002 , page 112. The Yogacara-school further analysed the workings of the mind, elaborated on the concept of nama-rupa and the five skandhas, and developed the notion of the Eight Consciousnesses.
|
|
Sunyata points to the "emptiness" or no-"thing"-ness of all "things". Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, designated by names, on close analysis the "thingness" dissolves, leaving them "empty" of inherent existence. The Heart sutra, a text from the prajnaparamita-sutras, articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be "empty": The teachings on the five skandhas belong to the central teachings in the Tripitaka. They form a subdivision of the Samyutta Nikaya.
|
|
It is a Buddhist reductionism of everything perceived, each person and personality as an "aggregate, heap" of composite entities without essence. According to Harvey, the five skandhas give rise to a sense of personality, but are dukkha, impermanent, and without an enduring self or essence. Each aggregate is an object of grasping (clinging), at the root of self-identification as "I, me, myself". According to Harvey, realizing the real nature of skandhas, both in terms of impermanence and non-self, is necessary for nirvana.
|
|
In the sutra, Avalokiteśvara addresses Śariputra, explaining the fundamental emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, known through and as the five aggregates of human existence (skandhas): form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), volitions (saṅkhāra), perceptions (saṃjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna). Avalokiteśvara famously states, "Form is Emptiness (śūnyatā). Emptiness is Form", and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty—that is, dependently originated. Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths, and explains that in emptiness none of these notions apply.
|
|
This definition is given in Pravachanasara. Skandhas and Paramanus are two types of Pudgalas (Matter). Skandha are of six types: Gross-gross, gross, gross-fine, fine-gross, fine, and fine-fine. This classification is given in Niyamsara.
|
|
Of the early Indian Buddhist schools, only the Pudgalavada-school diverged from this basic teaching. The Pudgalavādins asserted that, while there is no ātman, there is a pudgala or "person", which is neither the same as nor different from the skandhas.
|
|
Sunyata points to the "emptiness" or no-"thing"-ness of all "things". Though we perceive a world of concrete and discrete objects, designated by names, on close analysis the "thingness" dissolves, leaving them "empty" of inherent existence. The Heart sutra, a text from the prajñaparamita sutras, articulates this in the following saying in which the five skandhas are said to be "empty": Yogacara explains this "emptiness" in an analysis of the way we perceive "things". Everything we conceive of is the result of the working of the five skandhas—results of perception, feeling, volition, and discrimination.
|
|
Shinzen has adapted the central Buddhist concept of the five skandhas or aggregates into modern language, grouped them into sensory categories with potential neurological correlates, and developed an extensive system of meditation techniques for working with those categories individually and in combinations.
|
|
The Prajnaparamita-teachings developed from the first century BCE onward. It emphasises the "emptiness" of everything that exists. This means that there are no eternally existing "essences", since everything is dependently originated. The skandhas too are dependently originated, and lack any substantial existence.
|
|
In Buddhism the term dhamma/dharma is being used for the constitutional elements. Early Buddhist philosophy used several lists, such as namarupa and the five skandhas, to analyse reality. The Abhidhamma tradition elaborated on these lists, using over 100 terms to analyse reality.
|
|
One cannot fix onto any phenomenon, just like space, and are ultimately unknowable—viewing them thus through non-viewing is said to be viewing the world. Chapter 13. Unthinkable — The Prajñāpāramitā is said to be unthinkable and incalculable like space. The same is so of all skandhas, phenomena, attainments.
|
|
The declarations of the Prajñāpāramitā are to be approached through the "roaring of a lion," but one should also know that the qualities of the skandhas are equal to those of the Prajñāpāramitā. Bodhisattvas who practice with this understanding are said to find it easy to become a buddha.
|
|
The insight refers to apprehension of the fundamental emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, known through and as the five aggregates of human existence (skandhas): form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), volitions (saṅkhāra), perceptions (saṃjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna). The specific sequence of concepts listed in lines 12–20 ("...in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, ... no attainment and no non-attainment") is the same sequence used in the Sarvastivadin Samyukta Agama; this sequence differs in comparable texts of other sects. On this basis, Red Pine has argued that the Heart Sūtra is specifically a response to Sarvastivada teachings that, in the sense "phenomena" or its constituents, are real. Lines 12–13 enumerate the five skandhas.
|
|
The five skandhas together compose consciousness. The "things" we are conscious of are "mere concepts", not noumenon. It took Chinese Buddhism several centuries to recognize that śūnyatā is not identical to "wu", nor does Buddhism postulate a permanent soul. The influence of those various doctrinal and textual backgrounds is still discernible in Zen.
|
|
These are mistakenly perceived as the defilements rather than the purity of the jewel itself, which is merely reflecting conditions around it. Thus Buddha-nature is not perceived and only the five skandhas are seen, which are then conflated with a sense of self in opposition to the Buddhist idea of anātman or no-self.
|
|
If one obtains the sūtra, it is said to be because one encountered the buddhas previously, but that it is understood depending upon one's conditions. If, however, one rejects the Prajñāpāramitā, hell is said to be the retribution. Chapter 8. Purity – This chapter points out that ultimately the skandhas are pure, and so is the Prajñāpāramitā.
|
|
Craving does not cause dukkha, but comes into existence together with dukkha, or the five skandhas. It is this craving which is to be confined, as Kondanna understood at the end of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: "whatever arises ceases". The truth of nirodha, "cessation," "suppression," "renouncing," "letting go", or dukkha-nirodha, the cessation of dukkha, is the truth that dukkha ceases, or can be confined, when one renounces or confines craving and clinging, and nirvana is attained. Nirvana refers to the moment of attainment itself, and the resulting peace of mind and happiness (khlesa-nirvana), but also to the final dissolution of the five skandhas at the time of death (skandha-nirvana or parinirvana); in the Theravada-tradition, it also refers to a transcendental reality which is "known at the moment of awakening".
|
|
2, and Suzuki (1960), p. 26. The Madhyamaka-school elaborates on the notion of the middle way. Its basic text is the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, written by Nagarjuna, who refuted the Sarvastivada conception of reality, which reifies dhammas.Kalupahana 1975, page 78 The simultaneous non-reification of the self and reification of the skandhas has been viewed by some Buddhist thinkers as highly problematic.
|
|
Seeing this one is non- attached, but not seeing it, one develops attachment. Teaching and not teaching the Prajñāpāramitā and the skandhas is said to have no effect upon their increase or decrease, since they are ultimately like space. The Buddha points out that just as he teaches, so did all past buddhas, and so will Maitreya in the future. Chapter 9.
|
|
In this way, the Prajñāpāramitā is declared to be boundless, and thus its form in book form is not really the Prajñāpāramitā. Finally it is said that the Prajñāpāramitā is consummated through seeing non-extinction of the skandhas and seeing the links of dependent origination. Chapter 29. Approaches — The approach to the Prajñāpāramitā is said to be through non-conceptualisation in 54 aspects.
|
|
The Buddhists believe that the skandhas, the ayatanas and the dhātus are the dharmas that constitute the phenomenal world and are the forms (and the conditioning factors) in which consciousness appears to itself. Bhūtatathatā is the āśraya i.e. the basis which is to be transformed (āśraya-paravritti), and also the āśraya which is the result of the transformation. Therefore, it is the āśraya of delusion and awakening.
|
|
A human being merely consists of five aggregates, or skandhas and nothing else. In the same way, "mind" is what can be validly conceptually labelled onto our mere experience of clarity and knowing. There is something separate and apart from clarity and knowing which is "Awareness", in Buddhism. "Mind" is that part of experience the sixth sense door, which can be validly referred to as mind by the concept-term "mind".
|
|
The Sanskrit text based on which Krishnanattam was created was written on A.D 1653, aged 68. It consists of eight plays: Avataram, Kaliyamardanam, Rasakrida, Kamsavadham, Swayamvaram, Banayuddham, Vividavadham, and Swargarohanam. It is based on 10th and 11th skandhas of Bhagavata Purana dealing solely with the story of Krishna. It has also gained inspirations from Gita Govinda of Jayadeva, Sree krishna vilaasam Mahakavya and Narayaniyam of Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri.
|
|
The Buddha argued that no permanent, unchanging "Self" can be found. In Buddha's view, states Wayman, "eso me atta, or this is my Self, is to be in the grip of wrong view". All conditioned phenomena are subject to change, and therefore can't be taken to be an unchanging "Self". Instead, the Buddha explains the perceived continuity of the human personality by describing it as composed of five skandhas, without a permanent entity (Self, soul).
|
|
The Sanskrit version of the "Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra" ("Heart Sutra"), which may have been composed in China from Sanskrit texts, and later back-translated into Sanskrit, states that the five skandhas are empty of self-existence,Red Pine (2004), p.2. and famously states "form is emptiness, emptiness is form The same is true with feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness."Nhat Hanh (1988), p.1. Again, also see Red Pine (2004), p.
|
|
Chapter 12. Showing the World — This chapter emphasises how the Prajñāpāramitā is the mother of the buddhas: therefore they care for her, just as a child for his mother, by teaching the Prajñāpāramitā. The world to which it is taught is declared to be made up of empty skandhas, and thus the world, too, is said to be empty. Similarly all beings' thoughts are characterised by emptiness, are identical to suchness, and are inherently pure.
|
|
760 Sentient beings are composed of the five aggregates, or skandhas: matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha is recorded as saying that "just as the word 'chariot' exists on the basis of the aggregation of parts, even so the concept of 'being' exists when the five aggregates are available."David Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. The University Press of Hawaii, 1975, page 78.
|
|
Buddha, or Mahaparinirvana, Gandhara 2–3rd century. In Buddhism, parinirvana (Sanskrit: '; Pali: ') is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained nirvana during his or her lifetime. It implies a release from the ', karma and rebirth as well as the dissolution of the skandhas. In some Mahāyāna scriptures, notably the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, Parinirvāṇa is described as the realm of the eternal true Self of the Buddha.
|
|
The earliest layer of the text, which can be found in chapter two, contains the core meditation teachings of the text, which include an extensive exposition of six elements (dhatus) meditation, meditations on feeling (vedana), meditations on the skandhas and ayatanas, meditation on the mind and impermanence, and other meditation topics organized into a structure of ten levels (bhumi).Stuart, Daniel Malinowski (2012) A Less Traveled Path: Meditation and Textual Practice in the Saddharmasmrtyupasthana(sutra) pp. 46, 70-75.
|
|
Different varieties of religious experience are described in detail in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. In its section on the fifty skandha-maras, each of the five skandhas has ten skandha- maras associated with it, and each skandha-mara is described in detail as a deviation from correct samādhi. These skandha-maras are also known as the "fifty skandha demons" in some English-language publications. It is also believed that supernormal abilities are developed from meditation, which are termed "higher knowledge" (abhijñā), or "spiritual power" (ṛddhi).
|
|
According to Thanissaro, the Buddha never tried to define what a "person" is, though scholars tend to approach the skandhas as a description of the constituents of the person. He adds that almost any Buddhist meditation teacher explains it that way, as even Buddhist commentaries from about 1st century CE onwards have done. In Thanissaro's view, this is incorrect, and he suggests that skandha should be viewed as activities, which cause suffering, but whose unwholesome workings can be interrupted.Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2010), The Five Aggregates.
|
|
Traditionally, the reversal of the causal chain is explained as leading to the annihilation of mental formations and rebirth. Scholars have noted inconsistencies in the list, and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists. The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic-Brahmanic cosmogony, as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X, 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. These were integrated with a branched list which describe the conditioning of mental processes, akin to the five skandhas.
|
|
Vasubandhu's critique of the Self is a defence of Buddhist Anatman doctrine, and also a critique of the Buddhist Personalist School and Hindu view of the soul. It is intended to show the unreality of the self or person as over and above the five skandhas (heaps, aggregates which make up an individual). Vasubandhu begins by outlining the soteriological motive for his argument, writing that any view which sees the self as having independent reality (e.g. the Hindu view) is not conductive to Nirvana.
|
|
Skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pāḷi) means "heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings". In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging (Pañcupādānakkhandhā), the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging. They are also explained as the five factors that constitute and explain a sentient being’s person and personality, but this is a later interpretation in response to sarvastivadin essentialism. The five aggregates or heaps are: form (or material image, impression) (rupa), sensations (or feelings, received from form) (vedana), perceptions (samjna), mental activity or formations (sankhara), and consciousness (vijnana).
|
|
A Study Guide Rupert Gethin also notes that the five skandhas are not merely "the Buddhist analysis of man," but "five aspects of an individual being's experience of the world [...] encompassing both grasping and all that is grasped." Boisvert states that "many scholars have referred to the five aggregates in their works on Buddhism, [but] none have thoroughly explained their respective functions." According to Boisvert, the five aggregates and dependent origination are closely related, explaining the process which binds us to samsara. Boisvert notes that the pancha- upadanakkhanda does not incorporate all human experience.
|
|
The Lankavatara Sutra, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and the Surangama Sutra all used the Mani Jewel as metaphors for Buddha-nature. In these sutras, a transparent Mani Jewel within us changes colors depending on the conditions around us, representing the five skandhas. The Mani Jewel itself represents each being's Buddha-nature, but because of the three poisons of ignorance, attachment, and aversion, a being sees only the various colors emitted by the jewel. These are mistakenly perceived as the defilements rather than the purity of the jewel itself, which is merely reflecting conditions around it.
|
|
Beyond all coming and going: the Tathāgata A number of passages affirm that a Tathāgata is "immeasurable", "inscrutable", "hard to fathom", and "not apprehended".Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind. Curzon Press 1995 A tathāgata has abandoned that clinging to the skandhas (personality factors) that render citta (the mind) a bounded, measurable entity, and is instead "freed from being reckoned by" all or any of them, even in life. The aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and cognizance that compose personal identity have been seen to be dukkha (a burden), and an enlightened individual is one with "burden dropped".
|
|
Upon the destruction of the fetters, according to one scholar, "the shining nibbanic consciousness flashes out of the womb of arahantship, being without object or support, so transcending all limitations."Harvey, page 99. Both the Shurangama Sutra and the Lankavatara Sutra describe the tathagatagarbha ("arahant womb") as "by nature brightly shining and pure," and "originally pure," though "enveloped in the garments of the skandhas, dhatus and ayatanas and soiled with the dirt of attachment, hatred, delusion and false imagining." It is said to be "naturally pure," but it appears impure as it is stained by adventitious defilements.
|
|
Mahasi Sayadaw, Practical Vipassana InstructionsBhante Bodhidhamma, Vipassana as taught by The Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma By noticing the arising of physical and mental phenomena, the meditator becomes aware how sense impressions arise from the contact between the senses and physical and mental phenomena, as described in the five skandhas and paṭiccasamuppāda. This noticing is accompanied by reflections on causation and other Buddhist teachings, leading to insight into anicca, dukkha, and anattā.PVI, p.22-27 When the three characteristics have been comprehended, reflection subdues, and the process of noticing accelerates, noting phenomena in general, without necessarily naming them.
|
|
The use of the skandhas concept to explain the self is unique to Buddhism among major Indian religions, and must be seen in the contexts of polemics about the Sarvastivada teachings that "phenomena" or its constituents are real. It contrasts with the premise of Hinduism and Jainism that a living being has an eternal soul or metaphysical self. David Kalupahana further explains that the individual is considered unreal but the skandha are considered real in some early Buddhist texts, but the skandha too are considered unreal and nonsubstantial in numerous other Buddhist Nikaya and Āgama texts.
|
|
Mahasi Sayadaw, Practical Vipassana InstructionsBhante Bodhidhamma, Vipassana as taught by The Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma By noticing the arising of physical and mental phenomena the meditator becomes aware of how sense impressions arise from the contact between the senses and physical and mental phenomena, as described in the five skandhas and paṭiccasamuppāda. The practitioner also becomes aware of the perpetual changes involved in breathing, and the arising and passing away of mindfulness. This noticing is accompanied by reflections on causation and other Buddhist teachings, leading to insight into dukkha, anatta, and anicca.Mahasi Sayadaw, Practical Vipassana Instructions, pp.
|
|
The Buddhist understanding of conditioned nature of the ordinary mind provides a model of human process which is cyclical and based on distorted perception. Since all Buddhist teachings can be linked through this model, details found in different teachings can be used to elaborate and clarify aspects of it. This Buddhist understanding of mind can be used in practical ways to create interventions which will facilitate psychological change in therapeutic and other contexts. The teachings of the Skandhas and Dependent origination describe a cycle of perception and attachment and examining the stages in this cycle suggest a number of different possibilities for therapeutic intervention.
|
|
The Lankavatara Sutra, the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, and the Surangama Sutra all used the Mani Jewel as metaphors for Buddha- nature. It was this metaphor in particular that Xuansha Shibei had in mind for his expression "the ten-direction world is one bright jewel", and is thus the primary focus of Dōgen's essay. In these sutras, a transparent Mani Jewel within us changes colors depending on the conditions around us, representing the five skandhas. The Mani Jewel itself represents each being's Buddha- nature, but because of the three poisons of ignorance, attachment, and aversion, a being sees only the various colors emitted by the jewel.
|
|
The Buddha and Sariputta, in similar passages, when confronted with speculation as to the status of an arahant after death, bring their interlocutors to admit that they cannot even apprehend an arahant that is alive. As Sariputta puts it, his questioner Yamaka "can't pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life."Yamaka Sutta, . These passages imply that condition of the arahant, both before and after parinirvana, lies beyond the domain where the descriptive powers of ordinary language are at home; that is, the world of the skandhas and the greed, hatred, and delusion that are "blown out" with nirvana.
|
|
This psycho-physical process is further linked with psychological craving, manas (conceit) and ditthi (dogmas, views). One of the most problematic views according to the Buddha, is the notion of a permanent and solid Self or 'pure ego'. This is because in early Buddhist psychology, there is no fixed self (atta; Sanskrit atman) but the delusion of self and clinging to a self concept affects all one's behaviors and leads to suffering. For the Buddha there is nothing uniform or substantial about a person, only a constantly changing stream of events or processes categorized under five categories called skandhas (heaps, aggregates), which includes the stream of consciousness (Vijñāna-sotam).
|
|
Next, the monastic asks the disciple if to follow additional habits to prevent breaking the precepts, to discourage others from breaking them, and to avoid excessive attachment to the five skandhas. If the practitioner is prepared, the monk asks the disciple to practice all the advice for six months while remaining under the monk's regular observation. If, after six months, the disciple has upheld the precepts well, he may ask the monastic for formal taking of the precepts. The disciple will then take refuge in the Triple Gem, and the monastic will then ensure the disciple is prepared to take on all (as opposed to only some) of the precepts.
|
|
A grouping between matter and Atman is not considered a Skandha but is considered a Bandha (bondage). Each Paramanu has "intensity points" of aridness or cohesiveness that, because of transformation, can increase or decrease between one and infinity. These Paramanus can combine with each other to create Skandhas or Aggregates when there is a difference of two "intensity points", whether it is arid or cohesive or whether having even or odd "intensity points" except the minimum (one) "intensity point". For example, a paramanu with two points of cohesiveness can combine with a paramanu of four points of cohesiveness or aridness; and that of three points with that of five points and so on.
|
|
In the Abhidhamma Pitaka's Dhammasangani, the first chapter identifies 56 states of material-world consciousness that are wholesome, including "lightness of sense and thought," upon which the text elaborates: :What on that occasion is repose of sense (kayāpassaddhi)? :The serenity, the composure which there is on that occasion, the calming, the tranquillizing, the tranquillity of the skandhas of feeling, perception and syntheses -- this is the serenity of sense that there then is. :What on that occasion is serenity of thought (cittapassaddhi)? :The serenity, the composure which there is on that occasion, the calming, the tranquillizing, the tranquillity of the skandha of intellect -- this is the serenity of thought that there then is.
|
|
London: Routledge, 2000, p 135. In a famous passage, the Heart sutra, a later but influential Prajñāpāramitā text, directly states that the five skandhas (along with the five senses, the mind, and the four noble truths) are said to be "empty" (sunya):In the Prajñāpāramitā sutras the knowledge of emptiness, i.e. prajñāpāramitā is said to be the fundamental virtue of the bodhisattva, who is said to stand on emptiness by not standing (-stha) on any other dharma (phenomena). Bodhisattvas who practice this perfection of wisdom are said to have several qualities such as the "not taking up" (aparigṛhīta) and non-apprehension (anupalabdhi) of anything, non-attainment (aprapti), not-settling down (anabhinivesa) and not relying on any signs (nimitta, mental impressions).
|
|
Avalokiteśvara addresses Śariputra, who was the promulgator of abhidharma according to the scriptures and texts of the Sarvastivada and other early Buddhist schools, having been singled out by the Buddha to receive those teachings. Avalokiteśvara famously states, "Form is empty (śūnyatā). Emptiness is form", and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and explains that in emptiness none of these notions apply. This is interpreted according to the two truths doctrine as saying that teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality—they are not reality itself—and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond mental understanding.
|
|
Of the several Chinese parallel versions, the one contained in the Ekottara-āgama, attributed to the Mahāsānghikas, preserves a simpler, shorter and older form of this sutra. It treats Dona's questions as enquiries about the Buddha's present status, but omits the specific answer given by the Buddha, that he is a Buddha, found in all other versions. Here, the Buddha merely states that he knows that attachment and desire are the sources of the skandhas (the constituents of individual existence) and through that knowledge he has ended suffering. Thus, though the Mahāsānghikas are known to have espoused a form of docetism, the version of the Dona-sutta used by them does not imply that the Buddha is a transcendental being in human form, while the version preserved in Pali may be open to that interpretation.
|
|
Hume's position is similar to Indian Buddhists’ theories and debates about the self, which generally considers a bundle theory to describe the mind phenomena grouped in aggregates (skandhas), such as sense-perceptions, intellective discrimination (saṃjñā), emotions and volition. Since the beginning of Buddhist philosophy, several schools of interpretation assumed that a self cannot be identified with the transient aggregates, as they are non-self, but some traditions questioned further whether there can be an unchanging ground which defines a real and permanent individual identity, sustaining the impermanent phenomena; concepts such as Buddha-nature are found in the Mahayana lineage, and of an ultimate reality in dzogchen tradition, for instance in DolpopaSchaeffer, Kurtis R.; Kapstein, Matthew T.; Tuttle, Gray (2013-03-26). Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Columbia University Press. . p.
|
|
The one thousand suchnesses are active in each of the three spheres (the five skandhas, sentient beings, and their environment) forming three thousand worlds in one thought moment. Nichiren regarded the doctrine of "three thousand [worlds] in one thought" (ichinen-sanzen) as the fundamental principle of the Lotus Sutra and the very essence of the Buddha's teachings. He wrote in his work Kaimoku-shō (Essay on the Eye-opener) concerning ichinen- sanzen: "The very doctrine of the Three Thousand Realms in One Mind of the Tendai sect appears to be the way to lead man to buddhahood." Nikkyo Niwano states that the principle of the Reality of All Existence not only analyzes what modern science would analyze in physical substances to the extent of subatomic particles, but also extends to mental state.
|
|
Sautrāntika, Encyclopædia Britannica It stated that each personal act "perfumes" the individual and leads to the planting of a "seed" that would later germinate as a good or bad karmic result. The Pudgalavada school of early Buddhism accepted the core premise of Buddhism that there is no attā (ātman, soul, self), but asserted that there is a "personal entity" (pudgala, puggala) that retains a karma balance sheet and is mechanistically involved in rebirth; this personal entity, stated Pudgalavada Buddhists, is neither different nor identical to the five aggregates (skandhas). This concept of personal entity to explain rebirth by Pudgalavada Buddhists was polemically attacked by Theravada Buddhists in the early 1st millennium CE. The personal entity concept was rejected by the mid-1st millennium CE Pali scholar Buddhaghosa, who attempted to explain rebirth mechanism with "rebirth- linking consciousness" (patisandhi).
|
|
While Pratītyasamutpāda, "dependent origination," and the twelve nidānas, the links of dependent origination, are traditionally interpreted as describing the conditional arising of rebirth in saṃsāra, and the resultant duḥkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness), an alternate Theravada questions the authenticity of this interpretation, and regards the list as describing the arising of mental formations and the resultant notion of "I" and "mine," which are the source of suffering.Payutto, Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of CausalityBUddhadasu, Paticcasamuppada: Practical dependent Origination Scholars have noted inconsistencies in the list, and regard it to be a later synthesis of several older lists. The first four links may be a mockery of the Vedic-Brahmanic cosmogeny, as described in the Hymn of Creation of Veda X, 129 and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. These were integrated with a branched list which describe the conditioning of mental processes, akin to the five skandhas.
|
|
However the Bhagavata Purana asserts that the inner nature and outer form of Krishna is identical to the Vedas and that this is what rescues the world from the forces of evil.Barbara Holdrege (2015), Bhakti and Embodiment, Routledge, , page 114 An oft-quoted verse (1.3.40) is used by some Krishna sects to assert that the text itself is Krishna in literary form.Barbara Holdrege (2015), Bhakti and Embodiment, Routledge, , pages 109-110 The date of composition is probably between the eighth and the tenth century CE, but may be as early as the 6th century CE. Manuscripts survive in numerous inconsistent versions revised through the 18th century creating various recensions both in the same languages and across different Indian languages.Ludo Rocher (1986), The Puranas, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 138-149 The text consists of twelve books (skandhas) totalling 332 chapters (adhyayas) and between 16,000 and 18,000 verses depending on the recension.
|
|
Lusthaus argues that, far from promoting the view of a self (atmavada), the Vātsīputrīya position which can be seen in their surviving texts is that the pudgala is "a prajñapti (only a nominal existent) that is neither identical to nor different from the skandhas." Furthermore: > The Vātsīputrīya argument is that the pudgala is a necessary prajñapti since > any theory of karma, or any theory that posits that individuals can make > spiritual progress for themselves or can assist other individuals to do > likewise, is incoherent without it. Karma means that an action done at one > time has subsequent consequences for the same individual at a later time, or > even a later life. If the positive and negative consequences of an action > don’t accrue to the self-same individual, then it would make no sense to > speak of things like progress (who is progressing?), and Buddhist practice > itself becomes incoherent.
|
|