Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c35.s3.t5.50

v2.c35.s3.t5.50

(i) *bhāvānyathātva*: Bhadanta Dharmatrāta maintains that the past, present and future are differentiated on account of the non-identity of *bhāva* and not of *dravya* e.g. when a vase of gold is broken and transformed into a figure of gold, colour remaining the same or when milk is transformed into whey, changing the taste, strength and digestibility but not its colour. In the same way when future *dharma* is changed to present, the *anāgata-bhāva* only is abandoned and the *vartamāna-bhāva* is acquired, *dravya* remaining identical; in the same way the change of the present into past may be explained, i.e., when the present *bhāva* is abandoned and the past *bhāva* is acquired, the *dravya* remains identical.