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Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c22.s3: 3. Nirvāṇa as the Absolute

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c22.s3

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3. Nirvāṇa as the Absolute

c22.s3.1

With the development of the positive side of the Mahāyāna there appears inevitably a certain change in the sense attributed to Nirvāṇa.¹ In the Vijñānamātraçāstra four forms of Nirvāṇa are distinguished. The first aspect is that in which Nirvāṇa is equivalent to the body of the law (dharmakāya); it is thus possible to view it in two aspects; in the one it is the absolute wholly simple, above all determinations of any empirical kind; in the other it is the reality which underlies the whole of existence, and in this sense, as a commentator on the Çāstra says, it is present in every man in whatever stage of mental development. The second form is Nirvāṇa with residue (upādhi-çeṣa) which denotes the state achieved in life by the man who achieves complete enlightenment, but who still continues to work out his accumulated action. On death the result is Nirvāṇa without residue (anupādhi-çeṣa).² The fourth form of Nirvāṇa is that without basis or stay (*apratiṣṭhita*),¹ which is the state superior to that of the Śrāvakas and the solitary Buddhas; in it the adept rises superior to the ideas of transmigration (*saṃsāra*) and Nirvāṇa itself. He lays aside the idea of contenting himself with the Nirvāṇa of the Śrāvaka and determines to deliver his fellow creatures from all misery and bring them to final emancipation and supreme bliss.

c22.s3.2

¹ See Suzuki, MB. ch. xiii.

c22.s3.3

² MSA. iii. 4; MKV., p. 519 (xxv. 1).

c22.s3.4

¹ Lévi, MSA. ii. *21, 27, n. 4.

c22.s3.5

There are in fact in the Mahāyāna two strains of thought regarding Nirvāṇa. The negativism of Nāgārjuna asserts that it is not created, not liable to destruction, not eternal, not passing away, not acquired, not wanting, and leaves it therefore in the same condition of negativism as anything else, so that it can be asserted to be the same as Saṃsāra, since both are purely negative in character, and two negations can be identified. But the doctrine can be given a positive aspect, and this is clearly seen in the *Vimalakīrti Sūtra*,² in which insight is said to grow amid the defilement of passion and sin, even as the lotus grows in the watery mire, as the seed springs up in muddy soil, not in the air. Passion is intelligence; Nirvāṇa is Saṃsāra; the two are vitally connected, and the attainment of Nirvāṇa must be in and through life, not in annihilation or abstention from its activities. Hence in Asaṅga’s *Mahāyānasaṃparigrahaśāstra* we have the character of a Buddha including superiority to attachment and defilement and yet connected with the passions of mankind, since depraved souls are to be rescued by the compassion of the Buddha. It is wrong, Vasubandhu explains, to see either the transitoriness of existence alone or the eternity of Nirvāṇa; from the standpoint of suchness the implications of both are essentially connected.

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² Cf. Ç., pp. 325 f. (as courtesans); *Ratnolkadhāraṇī*, Ç., pp. 330 ff.

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The advantage of this metaphysical conception of existence and release as inseparably connected is that it affords a moderately sound foundation on which to base the importance both of intuition and compassion in the process of attainment of the end. Intuition destroys egoistic thought, compassion encourages altruism; intuition destroys the attachments to self inherent in ordinary minds, compassion uproots the intellectual attachment of the Śrāvakas and solitary Buddhas which lead to seeking annihilation in Nirvāṇa; by virtue of intuition Nirvāṇa in its transcendental sense is not rejected, by virtue of compassion existence with its round is not rejected; by virtue of insight the truth of Buddhism is attained, by virtue of compassion other beings are made ripe for its attainment also. It is not difficult hence to rise to a more complete conception of Nirvāṇa as the absolute and to insist on the importance of compassion as bringing about the realization of that absolute which is the true Nirvāṇa.

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