History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s3.4

c24.s3.4

In the Buddha’s day speculation about the nature of the soul was widespread. The Brahmajāla Sutta of the Dīgha refers to heretics who declare the soul to have form and to be unharmed after death, while others maintain its formlessness.³ Buddhaghosa declares the Ājīvikas and others to be in the former category, while the Nigaṇṭhas or Jainas were in the latter.⁴ His obscure phrase ādisu kasiṇa-rūpam attā, may imply that the former school thought of the soul as having a complete form, or that Ājīvikas on the lower levels of spiritual development endowed it with form as a kasiṇa, or help to meditation. We have seen already that the Ājīvika soul theory did in fact differ from that of the Jainas in the manner stated by Buddhaghosa.⁵ The Petavatthu passage, which we have already mentioned in various contexts,⁶ confirms his statement.