ལས་ཀྱ་རྣམ་པར་འགྱར་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ཆས་ཀྱ་གཞང intro.6

intro.6

In the Tibetan canon, Transformation of Karma is classified as a sūtra belonging to the Śrāvakayāna, and in the Degé edition of the Kangyur it is listed in the sūtra section under “various sūtras belonging to the Hīnayāna.”² The Japanese scholar Kudo Noriyuki and others proposed that the related Karma­vibhaṅga (Toh 338)³ belonged to the canon of the early Buddhist ordination lineage of the Sāṃmitīyas (or Sammatīyas). The Sāṃmitīyas were a branch of the Vātsīputrīya sect, whose adherents were also known as the “Personalists” (Skt. Pudgalavādin) because they posited the existence of the individual or person (Skt. pudgala) that transmigrates from one existence to the next and is neither identical with nor different from the five aggregates. Whether Transformation of Karma, too, can be considered to have belonged to the canon of the Sāṃmitīyas, however, is difficult to say with certainty without further research.⁴ However, the text contains some clues that may point in that direction. The first indication is a curious statement found in , which lists as one of the karmic causes that lead to rebirth in the realm of the asuras “conceiving of nonexistence with regard to the self (Skt. ātman).” If our translation of this difficult passage is correct, the view expressed therein may betray the doctrinal position of the Pudgalavādins.⁵ A second clue is found in , which contains the following statement: “one will not become lost in the intermediate state between death and rebirth.” We know that not all the early Buddhist sects accepted the concept of an intermediate state between death and rebirth. Those that did, according to André Bareau, included the Sarvāstivādins (Vaibhāṣikas), the Sammatīyas, the Pūrvaśailas, the later Mahīśāsakas, and the Dārṣṭāntikas.⁶