The History of Buddhist Thought c25.s1.10

c25.s1.10

The later we go the clearer become the traces in Buddhist literature of contact with the orthodox Hindu schools. There is a passage in Chandrakīrti's commentary on Nāgārjuna which gives us an interesting glimpse of the state of philosophical parties in the seventh century A.D.¹ He refers to the different ways in which reality is asserted. (1) There are those who imagine the real existence of entities, and they are said to be the three Hindu schools of Karma-mīmāmsā, Vaiśeshika, and Sānkhya, and the Vaibhāshikas. (2) Those who deny existence are the Nāstikas, the materialists or nihilists. (3) Those who are those who deny the existence of past and future, of moral character (avijñapti),² of unconscious mental elements, but assert it of the rest. These appear to be the Sautrāntikas. (4) There are those who deny the real existence of the falsely known (parikalpita), but assert it of that which exists (relatively) through conditions (paratantra), and of that which is thought in its true nature (parinishpanna). These are the Yogāchāras, who had already become an important school. There appears to be no recognition here of the holders of upanishadic doctrine, nor of the form which it finally took as the Vedānta.