Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c19.s2.5

c19.s2.5

inessential.¹⁴⁵ A kind of dualism appears to have sprung up between Samathabhāvanā and Vipassanā. As Buddhist dogmatics grew and Buddhists came to believe in theories and speculation with a zeal paralleled only by the Master's condemnation of them, intellectual understanding came to be regarded as the primary way to the knowledge of truth.¹⁴⁶ To Samatha was now attributed the purely negative function of suppressing (Nirodha) this or that element (Saṅkhāra).¹⁴⁷ This trend, however, did not go unchallenged. The Mādhyamikas relegated all theories to the realm of Saṃvṛti, stressing the utterly ineffable and non-intellectual nature of