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Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c17.s2: 2. The Mode of Transmigration

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c17.s2

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2. The Mode of Transmigration

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On one point in special in the process of the working of action, we find an interesting divergence in the schools, on the precise mode of transmigration. Popular ideas attributed birth to the co-operation with the parents of an entity, the Gandharva,² representing in some vague way the soul which was to be born. Acting on this doctrine the Sammitiyas and Pubbaseliyas held that after death there was an intermediate state before rebirth, a view with which we may connect the opinion of both the Pubba- and Apara-seliyas that the embryo was immediately provided with a full sense apparatus.³ The Sarvāstivādins adhered to the view as regards all those to be reborn in the worlds of desire and matter as contrasted with those to be reborn in the world of non-matter, a distinction suggesting that the intermediate being must be treated as quasi-material, with a transporting (*ativāhika*) body, analogous to the subtle body of the Sāṃkhya. The Vaibhāṣikas seem to have accepted the intermediate being, supporting the view by the consideration that it is not always possible for the suitable rebirth to be obtained immediately on death.

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² Cf. MN. ii. 137 ; Mil., p. 123 ; J. v. 330 ; Divyāv., pp. 1, 440 ; AK. iii. 12 (pp. 18, 23, 25, 65, 234). For the Vedic idea see Oldenberg, *Rel. des Veda*², pp. 252 ff.

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³ KV. viii. 2; xiv. 2; Wassilieff, *Bouddhisme*, pp. 242, 249, 255 ; Poussin, JA. 1902, ii. 296 ff. ; BCAP. ix. 73 ; *Çlokavārttika*, p. 704 ; SS. iii. 10 with comm. ; Keith, SS., pp. 36, 82 ; KM., pp. 59, 65.

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On the other hand the idea is rejected by the Mahāsāṅghikas, the Ekavyavahārikas, Lokottaravādins, and Kukkuṭikas, and the *Milindapañha*¹ clearly has no belief in any body to transport the consciousness from one destiny to another; the difficulties of the king are resolved by the reflection that one can as rapidly send one's thought to Kashmir as to Kalasi, 200 leagues as against twelve. We learn also from Caṅkara that the passage of the soul into a new life was conceived as taking place without any body by the Buddhists whose views he combats. If for soul we say series of consciousness, this may stand for the Sautrāntika view, but it is possible that, realists as they were, they were willing to accept some subtle matter as accompanying consciousness; the important fact, however, is that their doctrine of continuity enables them to meet adequately the difficulty of continued existence. In any case from their standpoint it is clear that the consciousness is the essential element which determines the new life; whether or not it takes a body with it, it is the seed of consciousness, which through the physiological apparatus of the union of the parents produces the shoot of name and form, the concrete individual.

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¹ p. 83; Caṅkara, BS. iii. 1. 1.

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