Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c2.7

c2.7

Your critical *exposé* of the views formerly and lately offered concerning Nirvāṇa is very lucid. It is a problem full of difficulties because it is not easy for unmystical minds to understand a thing which can only be "realised" in trance. Clearly, the Hinayāna denied the existence of any psychological principle outside the Skandhas. Evidently, the Skandhas (which are also named Upadhi) disappear at the death of a saint. Nevertheless, if the (Sautrāntika) author of the Sūtra says: "Five things are mere name, *viz.*, things of the past, things of the future, space, Pudgala and Nirvāṇa," the Buddhists, as a rule, admit that Nirvāṇa is bliss; but the saint, when dead, does not touch, seize, possess, realize Nirvāṇa, as he used to do when living. Such is the doctrine of the Vibhāṣā. For early Buddhists, the Nirvāṇa was, of course, an immortal state beyond existence and non-existence. The thirst for non-existence is very bad, the aspiration to Nirvāṇa is the very root of salvation and happiness.