Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c22.s3.1

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.