The two Nirvanadhatus according to the Vibhasa

·期刊原文
The two Nirvanadhatus according to the Vibhasa

By Louis de la Vallee Poussin

The Indian Historical Quarterly

Vol.VI, No.1, 1930.03 pp. 39-45

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p. 39

Introductory

The Abhidharmikas recognize two kinds of Nirodhas
(destruction, cessation): the Apratisamkhyanirodha
and the Prati- samkhyanirodha, to be more precise, an
infinite number of Apratisamkhyanirodhas and
Pratisamkhyanirodhas.

They are dharmas (or entities) not produced by
causes (asamskrta), eternal (nitya), and
extra-temporal (adhvavinirmukta). They are called
nirodha, because they are niyata rodha (i.e. they
have obstacle or impediment, which is certain).

When a person is said to have the prapti
(possession), of an Apratisamkhyanirodha, the future
thing, to which this Apratisamkhyanirodha relates,
becomes anutpattika dharman, i.e., it enters into the
category of things "which cannot be born." To wit: A
person, by a certain act of charity, morality or
contemplation, has prapti of Apratisamkhyanirodha of
births in the infernal regions, i.e., he cannot be
reborn in hell.

The Pratisamkhyanirodha is "detachment" (viraga)
or "disconnexion" (visamyoga). There are as many
Pratisamkhyanirodhas as there are "objects of
attachment" (samyogavastu), past, present or future.
The Pratisamkhyanirodha is the "thing of detachment''
(visamyogavastu). When a man severs the tie (e.g., of
love or hatred) by which he is bound to an impure
thing (sasrava dharma), he obtains possession of the
Pratisamkhyanirodha of this thing.

A man can have the Pratisamkhyanirodha without
having the Apratisamkhyanirodha. There are saints who
have obtained the Pratisamkhyanirodha of every desire
or passion, and thereby acquired the
asravaksayajnana(1) (the knowledge

----------------------
1. Kosa pp. 230, 240.

p. 40

that his passions are destroyed) but they may not
have obtained the Apratisamkhyanirodha of every
desire. They may fall from the sanctified state and
have desire again; they also do not possess the
anutpadajnana (the knowledge that his passions cannot
be born again).

Pratisamkhyanirodha - Nirvana

Let us now consider the perfect saint (akopyadha-
rman), the immutable Arhat, who has obtained the two
Nirodhas.

As we have already said, there is an infinite
number of Pratisamkhyanirodhas. The Arhat is in
possession of all; he is perfectly disconnected from
all impure things; the universal detachment is his
own; he possesses the Nirvana, the Nirvana of all.
The Arhat, who is perfect, possesses also the
universal Apratisamkhyanirodha; for him desire or
birth "cannot be born again.'' When the fruits of
acts of the previous existence to be experienced in
the present are exhausted, he will die a death, which
is styled apratisamdhika (not to be followed by
rebirth). It is clear that the saint, when living, is
in possession of Nirvana, i.e. he "touches the
Nirvana with his body" during the trances. This
Nirvana, " detachment from all impure things" is
complete. Nevertheless the body, the organs, the
sensation, the suffering, the thought are not yet
interrupted. One cannot say that the living saint is
perfectly appeased, completely ''nirvaned"
(parinirvrta), if we are permitted to coin such a
word. His Nirvana is a sopadhisesanirvana (Nirvana
with rests), a Nirvana to which (a cote du quel)
still adhere many upadhis, great elements, secondary
matter, organs, etc. But when the saint dies, there
is nirupadhisesanirvana (Nirvana without rests). The
Nirvana (detachment or disconnexion) is and continues
to be what it was, but the saint, who has now neither
body nor thought, is no longer in possession of
Nirvana i.e. he cannot now be said as touching
Nirvana.

The perfect sukha, perfect beatitude, may be
defined as the

p. 41

suppression of every sensation, and complete
disconnexion from, i.e. without the slightest trace
of, the samskaraduhkhata, (the pain essential to
existence or to becoming ).(1) It is sukha, but it is
not sukha-samvedana; it is "beatitude without
consciousness of beatitude". The Hinayana knows of no
other Nirvana.(2)

The school of Asanga-Vasubandhu (usually called
"idealistic", a misleading appellation) holds that
Nirvana is "the being reduced by the suppression of
existence and thought to the immaculate tathata which
is the immanent nature of every existence and
thought''. The Arhats, when dead, according to this
school, are nothing but the tathata; they are,
practically, if not theoretically, exactly the same
as the Arhats of the Hinayana schools. The idealistic
school, however, maintains that the Buddhas continue,
for eternity, enjoying the nirvanasukhasamvedana, the
consciousness of the beatitude of Nirvana, details of
which are to be found in the Vijnaptimatratasiddhi.
(3)
The Vibhasa(4) on the Nirvanadhatus

According to the Jnanaprasthanasutra,(5) there
are two Nirvanadhatus, viz., the Sopadhisesa and the
Nirupadhisesa......"

For what purpose does the author write this
Sastra? In order to explain the meaning of the Sutra.
The Sutra

----------------------
1. Kosa, vi, p. 124.
2. I mean the scholastic Hinayana, the Hinayana of
Buddhaghosa, Vibhasa, Kosa, and Sanghabhadra. What
the pre-Hinayana Buddhism taught concerning the
exact nature of Nirvana, I have tried elsewhere to
explain, but with little success to judge from the
monstrous ideas attributed to me.
3. See my Fr. Transl., pt, ii (1930).
4. Translated from the Chinese text, ch. 32 (Taisho
edition of the Tripitaka, vol. 27, p. 167, col. 2).
5 Chinese text, Taisho ed., vol, 26, p. 923, col. 2,
1. 12.

p. 42

states that there are two Nirvanadhatus, but does
not explain .....

We have seen that the Pratisamkhyanirodha is that
Nirodha which is Visamyoga. This Visamyoga is Nirvana.
Nirvana is of two kinds: Sopadhisesa and
Nirupadhisesa. We must state the difference between
them, refute the wrong theories and make the true
meaning manifest.

(i) According to an opinion, the Sopadhisesa
possesses a "nature" (svabhava) (i.e., the
Sopadhisesa is an entity, exists in se), but not so
the Nirupadhisesa. This view is wrong, both possess
svabhava.

It is said that the Sopadhisesa(1) is sasrava, while
the Nirupadhisesa(2) is anasrava: we say that both
are anasrava. Again it is said:

that S. is samskrta, N. asamskrta: we say both
are asamskrta.
that S. is kusala, N. avyakrta: we say both are
kusala.

that S. is marga (path) and not margaphala (fruit
of the path), N. is margaphala and not marga: we say
both are margaphala.

that S. is margaphala, N. is not margaphala: we
say both are margaphala.

that S. is a part of the truths
(satyasamgrhita)-it is the third truth) but not so is
N.:we say both are part of the truths.

that S. is asaiksa (a special quality of the
Arhat), N. is naivasaiksanasaiksa (neither of the
non-Arhat nor of the Arhat):--The aim of the author
in writing this Sastra is to establish that both are
naivasaiksanasaiksa.(3)

The Jnanaprasthanasutra says :

(ii) Question(aha). What is the Sopadhisesanirva-
nadhatu ?

Answer (ucyate). The Arhat, whose impurities are
all

----------------------
1. Henceforth abbreviated as S.
2. Henceforth abbreviated as N.
3. Kosa. vi, p. 232.

p. 43

exhausted (ksinasrava) while life remains, the series
of great elements and secondary matter is not cut,
and the series of thought, resting on the five organs
endures. As there are upadhis the perfect exhaustion
of all ties (samyojanaksaya) that the Arhat obtains,
takes, touches, realizes (prapti, pratilambha,
sparsana, saksatkara) is named Sopadhisesanirvanad-
hatu.

[Here the Vibhasa comments on the words "great
elements etc." thus: the enumeration of the upadhis
is incomplete, since the sabhagata and the
viprayuktasamskaras are omitted. The words "obtain,
take, etc" although they are different, bear the same
meaning. The upadhis are of two kinds, defiled
(klista) and undefiled (aklista); the upadhis of the
Arhat are undefiled].

(iii) Question. What is the Nirupadhisesanirva-
nadhatu ?

Answer. The Arhat, whose impurities are all
exhausted, life is extinct, the series of great
elements and secondary matter is cut and thought
resting on the five organs is not to proceed further.
As there are upadhis no longer, it is complete
exhaustion of all ties, and hence named Nirupadhise-
sanirvanadhatu.

When the Arhat is to have ''parinirvana", a wind
is produced by which the body attains a bad state,
the interior fire becomes weak, the aliments are not
assimilated, desire for aliments disappear, eating
and drinking cease, the great elements perish, the
organs (which are constituted by secondary matter)
perish likewise; the series of thought and mental
dharmas do not continue any longer (for their support
disappears). As the series of thought and mental
dharmas do not continue, the 'life-force, '
(jivitendriya) and [the sabhagata] are severed. By
this severance there is entrance into Nirvana.

But why does not the Jnanaprasthana qualify the
complete exhaustion of ties as before and say: 'The
complete exhaustion of ties that the Arhat obtains,
takes, touches, realizes, is named Nirupadhisesanir-
vana? --These words

p. 44

"obtains,etc." refer to an actual ''obtainment" and
every actual 'obtainment' is cut. Therefore one
cannot any longer speak of an exhaustion as a thing
obtained......Again, if one used these expressions,
it must be with reference to a person (pudgala) who
obtains. and as there is no more Pudgala, there is
only the Dharmata.(1)

(iv) Question: Is it possible to conceive of an
Arhat who is neither in the Sopadhisesa nor in the
Nirupadhisesa?

Answer: Evidently, if we take verbatim the above
definitions of the Jnanaprasthana, which posits three
conditions of the Sopadhisesa, viz., life, series of
matter, and series of thought, an Arhat reborn in the
Arupyadhatu cannot be said to abide in the
Sopadhisesa, since he has no body; nor does he abide
in the Nirupadhisesa, since he has thought.......
Therefore, it is better to answer the question "What
is the Sopadhisesanirvana?" by saying "It is the
Arhat, as long as life endures, --the complete
exhaustion of ties which this Arhat obtains......"

(v) Question: Whether the disconnection obtained
by the Prthagjana or the Saiksa is one of the two
Nirvanas? Answer: The disconnection obtained by the
Prthagjana is named prahana, viraga, nirodha
(nirodhasatya), it is not named parijna,
sramanyaphala, sopadhisesanirvanadatu and nirupadhi-
sesanirvanadhatu.

----------------------
1. The sentences above (at the end of para iii) is
worth noticing :

"There is only the Dharmata (fa-sing). The question
is whether the word 'Dharmata' was in the original,
or added by the translator, Hiuen-tsang.

The Vibhasa states that in the
Nirupadhisesanirvanadhatu, there is no Pudgala, there
is only the Dharmata, so the Nirvana of the Vibhasa
turns to be identical with the Nirvana of the
Vijnaptimatrata.

But I am of opinion that the notion of dharmata,
(transcendent nature of things)=tathata is foreign to
the old Abhidharma. The Karika of the Kosa (Fr.
transl., vol. 5, p. 65) which Rosenberg quotes (see
Stcherbatsky, Central Conception, p. 91), viz., that
"the Dharmata is deep" does not support the opposite
opinion.

p. 45

The disconnection obtained by the Saiksa is
termed prahana, viraga, nirodha (nirodhasatya),
sometimes parijna(1) and sramanyaphala, (2) and
sometimes not. It is never named Sopadhisesanirvana-
dhatu or Nirupadhisesanirvanadhatu.

The disconnection obtained by the Arhat (Asaiksa)
is termed prahana...It is Sopadhisesanirvanadhatu (as
long as the Arhat is living) and Nirupadhisesanirva-
nadhatu (when the Arhat is dead).

----------------------
1. Kosa, v, p.110.
2. Kosa, vi, p.241.