俱舍論疏 12.8

12.8

On the Śāstra's words, "The Abhidharma masters [...] the quantity of a single kṣaṇa": This states the Vaibhāṣika position. In the Vibhāṣā there are many more metaphors and comparisons; fearing prolixity, they are not recounted. Although it differs slightly from the Sautrāntika, it also fails to fully explain the quantity of a kṣaṇa. One master says: The real quantity of a kṣaṇa was not spoken by the World-Honoured One. The Nyāyānusāra says, "A kṣaṇa is difficult to know; it is manifested through provisional metaphors, but they do not exhaust the principle." Although there is this explanation, it still does not tally with the number of kṣaṇas in a day, nor can it demonstrate that the absolute minimum of a kṣaṇa has no parts of before and after. For instance, in the time of a finger snap there are sixty-five kṣaṇas; in that span of time it does not merely traverse sixty-five atoms. If it traverses many atoms, then it is not without before and after. If traversing a single atom is called a single kṣaṇa, then it would not be merely sixty-five. Now two brief explanations are given: First, the kṣaṇas of a day and night differ from these kṣaṇas. The kṣaṇas of a day and night are purely a method of calculation, like the name for the smallest measure of balances, measuring rules, and so on; when there is no Buddhadharma, this number is always fixed. This kṣaṇa of arising and ceasing, however, is the measure of the arising and ceasing of dharmas. The Sautrāntika say it is the moment dharmas obtain their intrinsic nature, while the Vaibhāṣika say it is the moment of seizing an effect. Second, explaining that the absolute minimum of time is called a single kṣaṇa: it is a term for the counting of time, meaning that the absolute minimum is called a single kṣaṇa, and the absolute maximum is called an eon (kalpa), and so forth. It is not that a kṣaṇa lacks even subtler divisions, nor that an eon lacks further times. One should deliberate further on this.