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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s2.t6: III. Abhidharmakośa

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c7.s2.t6

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III. Abhidharmakośa

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We may now consider the writings of Vasubandhu, the great exponent of the Sarvāstivāda school. In his Abhidharmakośa he imported a new meaning into the words Dharmakāya and Rūpakāya. In examining the three Śaraṇas, he tried to bring out the real sense of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha in which a devotee takes refuge. He said that those who take refuge in Buddha do, in fact, take refuge in the dharmas (qualities) which constitute a Buddha (buddha-kāraka), i.e., the dharmas by the acquisition of which a certain person is called a Buddha, or in other words, the dharmas by the acquisition of which a person understands all things. These dharmas are kṣayajñāna (knowledge of the destruction of misery), anutpādajñāna¹ (knowledge of the further non-origination of misery), and samyagdṛṣṭi (right view) of the Aśaikṣas together with the dharmas attendant on the jñāna, viz., the five pure skandhas. A dharmakāya is formed of these dharmas. In another place, while showing the sameness of the Dharmakāyas of all Buddhas, he explained the Dharmakāya as a series of pure dharmas, or rather a renewal of the psycho-physical organism of the substratum (anāsravadharmasaṃtāna, āśrayaparāvṛtti).² The Dharmakāya then signifies a new purified personality or substratum (āśraya), but it is pointed out that such a dharmakāya is possessed also by an arhat.³ In the Sūtrālaṃkāra⁴ such a dharmakāya is attributed to the mother of Śākyamuni or to an advanced upāsaka. Thus we see that the Kośa has two interpretations of the Dharmakāya, one being the qualities adhering to a Buddha and the other the purified personality (āśraya) possessed by him. The Kośa, in fact, replaces the concrete conceptions of the Dharmakāya found in the Nikāyas and the Divyāvadāna by an abstract one. In the last two works the Dharmakāya signified only the doctrines, viz., the Bodhipakkhiya dharmas or Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta, together with the Vinaya rules contained in the Pātimokkha, while to Vasubandhu it meant the qualities adhering to a Buddha as well as the purified personality (āśraya).

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¹ Kośa, VI, 67 explains that Kṣayajñāna with Anutpādajñāna makes Bodhi. On account of difference among saints in the acquisition of these jñānas, Bodhi is said to be of three kinds: Śrāvakabodhi, Pratyekabuddhabodhi and Anuttarasamyaksambodhi. By the above two jñānas one completely abandons ignorance (aśeṣavidyāprahāṇāt); by the first, one realises the truth that his task is accomplished (i.e., the duḥkha has been realised by him); by the second, one realises that his task is no more to be accomplished (i.e., the duḥkha has been realised by him and he will not have to exert any more.) The samyagdṛṣṭi of the Aśaikṣas is to see things as they are really, to know truly the general character (sāmānyalakṣaṇa) of dharmas. See Kośa, VI, 50 fn. For a note on the Kṣayajñāna, see Masuda, Early Origin etc., in Asia Major, Vol. II, Fasc. I.

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² Kośa, VII, 34; for the sense of āśraya see Ibid., VIII, 34 fn. Cf. āśraya pariśuddhi in Sūtrā., p. 186.

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³ Kośa, IV, 56.

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⁴ Hüber, Sūtrālaṃkāra, pp. 217, 390 quoted in the Kośa, VII, 32. p. 81.

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Referring to the formulæ of the Śaraṇas, Vasubandhu says that as the physical body (rūpakāya) of Buddha does not undergo any modification by the acquisition of the quality of Buddha, one should not take refuge in the rūpakāya of Buddha, which is, in fact, the rūpakāya of the Bodhisattva and hence sāsrava (impure). Just as a man would respect a monk for the qualities adhering to him and not for his person, so a devotee should take refuge in Buddhatva and not in Buddha the person. In the same way Vasubandhu explains the two other śaraṇas, viz., Dharma and Saṅgha, the former being explained as Nirvāṇa, or the three Truths—Duḥkha, Samudaya and Mārga, or Sukha, Duḥkha and Asukha-aduḥkha—and the latter as the qualities that a saṅgha of monks is expected to possess.¹

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¹ Compare the formula of Śaraṇa in the Nikāyas, e.g., Digha, III, p. 227.

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The Vibhāṣā informs us that there are some who believe that to take refuge in Buddha is to take refuge in the body constituted by the head, nape of the neck, belly, back, hands and feet of the Tathāgata. Some say that as the body is born of parents, it is impure (sāsrava) and therefore it should not be a place of refuge. The refuge should be the Asaikṣa dharmas, which make a Buddha, i.e., the Dharmakāya.² Apparently the Vibhāṣā refers in the first case to the earlier Hinayāna schools and in the second to the Sarvāstivādins and their followers.

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² Kośa, VI, p. 32; IV, p. 76n.; VIII, p. 34.

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