Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c34.s10.6

v2.c34.s10.6

Then the expressions, *dhātuvara-parigahita* or *nivāṇa-sampati-sampādaka* raise the presumption that the Andhaka-conception of Nirvāṇa was different from that of the Theravādins or their sub-sect the Mahīśāsakas. In the *Kathāvatthu*, there are two controversies (ix, 2; xix, 6), relating to the conception of Nirvāṇa as prevailing among the Andhakas. The one attributed to the Pubbaseliyas is that the *Amatapada* (= Nirvāṇa), is "an object of thought of a person not yet free from bondage",¹ and the other attributed to the Andhakas is that "the *Nibbāna-dhātu* is *kusala* (good)" in the sense in which mental states are spoken as *kusala* (good) and it is a faultless state.² Both these statements bear the implication that the Pubbaseliyas or the Andhakas conceived of Nirvāṇa as a 'positive faultless state'—a conception which can hardly be accepted by the Theravādins, who speak of realizing the Nibbāna within one's own self (*paccattam veditabbo viññūhi*) and not of grasping the same as some object producing pure happiness.³