Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c35.s6.t1: Doctrines
Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c35.s6.t1
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Doctrines
v2.c35.s6.t1.1
Vasumitra characterises the Sautrāntikas as the school which admits the transference of skandhamātras from one existence to another as distinguished from the Sammitīyas who maintain the transference of pudgala. Both of these views are wholly opposed to the cardinal doctrine of the early Buddhists, viz., kṣaṇika (momentary) existence of skandhas (constituents of a being), i.e., the skandhas disintegrate every moment to give rise to another. The Sautrāntikas, in deference to this old kṣaṇika theory, add that the skandhas in their gross form do not pass from one existence to another; the mūlāntika (original or the subtlest form of) skandhas all the five of which are of one nature (ekarasa), in other words, which are in reality one substance and not five different substances pass from one existence to another. Bhāvaviveka in his Tarkajvāla (see Obermiller, Analysis of the Abhisamayālaṅkāra, pt. iii, p. 380) states that the school admitted the reality of the individual which is something inexpressible but neither identical nor different from the skandhas.
v2.c35.s6.t1.2
The second doctrine attributed by Vasumitra to this school is "apart from the aryan paths there is no eternal destruction of the skandhas." This shows that according to the Sautrāntikas, the skandhas, gross or subtle end in nirvāṇa. This view is also allied to the doctrine of the Sammitīyas that the pudgala ceases in nirvāṇa. So we may state that according to the Sautrāntikas, the subtle skandhas like the pudgala of the Sammitīyas may continue through several existences but totally cease to exist in Nirvāṇa.
v2.c35.s6.t1.3
For this doctrine of transference of skandhamātras through several existences, the Sautrāntikas are also called Saṃkrāntivādins or Saṃkrāntikas.