tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 175

Buddhism
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
143
nature into its constituent elements, which are fixed and permanent, and which, in their combinations in different forms, produce the phenomenal effects. They accept the eighteen dhātus as the ultimate permanent Realities, and the five Skandhas are responsible for the creation of the 'Self'. All effects are regarded not as entirely new creations, but simply changed forms of the same causes. The underlying cause remains the same under the changing aspects of effects. Aryadeva says"The cause never perishes but only changes its name, when it becomes an effect, having changed its state."1 Th. Stcherbatsky writes-"This leads to the construction of two sets of elements, the one representing the everlasting nature (dharmasvabhāva), the other their momentary manifestation in actual life (dharmalakṣaṇa).""
The Self, according to them, is called the 'pudgala', and it exists as an effect of the combination of the constituent elements. The existence of the individual is not any concrete entity, but a fictitious name ascribed to the unity of the physical and mental states of an individual. Th. Stcherbatsky describes the Self in the following way-"Every combination of these data (dharma) was then declared to represent a nominal, not an ultimate reality. A substantial soul was thus transformed into a stream
1 Dasgupta S.: A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. I,
P. 122.
For Private And Personal
a Stcherbatsky Th. The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana,
p. 27.