Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c15.s6.3

c15.s6.3

The three uncompounded things of the Sarvāstivādins receive equally short shrift.¹ These entities are represented as non-substantial, merely negative (*abhāva-mātra*), devoid of positive characteristics. Cessation, dependent on a sublative act of mind, or not so dependent, denotes destruction preceded by an act of thought and not so preceded,² and either is absolutely impossible of acceptance. For both forms must refer either to the series of momentary entities as destroyed or to the entities themselves. The former is impossible; analysed, it means that the last link in the series has no effect; that means, on the Buddhist doctrine of causal efficiency as existence, that it does not exist; if so, the preceding member of the series equally does not exist, and so the whole series is reduced to nothingness. The second alternative is equally impossible; utter destruction of a momentary existence is inconceivable; experience shows us always persistence amid change, and, even where empirical investigation does not actually reveal the permanent element, analogy proves that it is still in existence, an argument possibly suggested by the case of light or chemical compounds. Moreover, the destruction of nescience, which is included in the cessations above-mentioned, must either take place in consequence of perfect intuition or without such intuition. In the former case then it is caused, and destruction can no longer be assigned to a special class of uncompounded and uncaused things; in the latter, the Buddhist teaching is waste of words.