Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s2: Sassatavāda

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s2

Language: English

v1.c8.s2.t1 Sassatavāda and Sāṃkhya — 3 parts

Sassatavāda

v1.c8.s2.1

I. Four kinds of Sassatavāda (Eternalists), i.e. those who hold that the soul and the world exist eternally.¹

The reason assigned by the *Brahmajāla Sutta* as the basis of this view is that some people on account of their spiritual advancement develop the power (*abhiññā*) of remembering their former births (*pubbenivāsānussati*) up to a certain number. They may be divided into three classes in accordance with the number of births that can be remembered by them. The fourth class refers to those persons who arrive at the conclusion that the world and the soul are eternal by means of logic and reasoning only. In short, the memories of the past and future existences, according to the Sutta, make a person a Sassatavādin, for he thinks that the world has been rolling on from eternity and will be rolling on for ever and that he will be born again and again.² Times out of number Buddha was confronted with the question whether he was a Sassatavādin or not, and every time he had to say that he was neither a Sassatavādin nor an Asassatavādin because the question of Sassata or Asassata does not arise in reference to the highest truth.³ It should, however, be remembered that *Sassata* in the Pāli Nikāyas does not bear the metaphysical sense in which it is used in the Upaniṣads while speaking of the great Ātman. The Sassatavādins, according to the Nikāyas,¹ are those who take *attā* or self as one of the five khandhas or something apart from them, and hold that it continues for ever and without any change. It is stated in the *Majjhima Nikāya*² that the self (*attā*), according to the Sassatavādins, is the speaker, feeler, and enjoyer of the fruits of good and evil actions (*kamma*), is permanent (*nicca*), fixed (*dhuva*), eternal (*sassata*), unchangeable (*avipariṇāmadhamma*), and is steadfast like the so-called eternal objects, viz., the Sun, Moon, ocean, earth and mountain. The Buddhists, because of their *kṣaṇikavāda* and the denial of a permanent entity, are not prepared to admit that the identical being feels the consequences of his action, which as the *Nidāna-Saṃyutta* asserts, would make them Sassatavādins.³

v1.c8.s2.4

² *Dīgha*, III, p. 109-110: Atītaṃ kho ahaṃ addhānaṃ jānāmi, saṃvaṭṭi pi loko, anāgataṃ ca kho ahaṃ addhānaṃ jānāmi saṃvaṭṭissati vā ti.

v1.c8.s2.5

³ The Truth or Nibbāna, according to Buddha, is uncaused and unconditioned (*ahetu-appaccaya*) and hence is non-relative, absolute, and

v1.c8.s2.6

¹ *Majjhima*, I, pp. 98; 182, IV, p. 400.

v1.c8.s2.7

² *Majjhima*, I, p. 8; *Papañcasūdanī*, I, p. 71. *See Infra*, ch. VIII.

v1.c8.s2.8

³ *Saṃyutta*, II, p. 20: So karoti so paṭisaṃvediyatīti kho Kassapa ādito sato sayaṃkataṃ dukkhan ti iti vadaṃ sassatam etaṃ pareti. Cf *M Vr*, p. 344, *see infra*. Also Franke, *Dīgha* (transl.), p. 23

Sassatavāda and Sāṃkhya

v1.c8.s2.t1.1

The only Brāhmaṇic school of philosophy to which the Sassatavāda bears resemblance is the Sāṃkhya. According to this school, there are two distinct eternals, the *Puruṣa* and the *Prakṛti*, the former corresponding to *Attā* and the latter to *Loka*,

v1.c8.s2.t1.2

is only realisable within one’s ownself (*paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhi*). It cannot be described by any of the empirical terms, and hence the question of eternality or non-eternality does not arise.

v1.c8.s2.t1.3

with this difference that, according to the Sassatavādins, the soul is an active agent while the Puruṣa (= eternal attā) of the Sāṅkhya is an inactive onlooker, the active agent being Ahaṅkāra, the principle of individuation, which however, issues out of the Prakṛti or matter in its primeval form. The eternal Loka of the Sassatavādins is the evolved world in its variety.