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[Full title: Unorthodox Systems of philosophy (1): Buddhism]

Buddhism is the religion practiced by the Buddhists, the followers of the Buddha. Lord Buddha delivered his sermons in Pali by going round the country in the sixth or the fifth cen. B.C. He conveyed his message only verbally and did not commit anything to writing. His disciples collected his sermons in the form of three different texts called collectively Ti (Tri) pitaka, meaning literally the three boxes, pitaka-box, each representing a particular type of knowledge under the names of Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma of which the first deals with the matter relating to discipline, the second contains Buddha's sermons and the third the philosophical matter. These Pitakas were revised from time to time in congregations of the Bhikkhus called Sangitis held at Rajagrha, Vaisali and Pataliputra. It is at the last one that a final shape was given to the Tripitaka. Since the Lord had spoken and not committed anything to writing, his sermons were interpreted differently by his different disciples. These different interpretations led to the appearance of two main Schools in Buddhism called Hinayana, the Lower Vehicle and the Mahayana, the Higher Vehicle. The kernel of Lord Buddha's sermons is represented by four noble atruths, Arya Satyas, whichgized by S 3 Foundation USA are

i. The world is full of sorrows ii. There is a cause which is responsible for them iii. They can be ended iv. There are means of ending them, duhkhanirodhamarga The oldest text of Hinayana is the Tripitaka which is in Pali. That represents the oldest form of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the principle of momentariness, ksanikavada. Every created thing exists only for a moment. The next moment it is a different thing which is called by the name dharma. The Buddha is accepted in this School as the instructor, not Bhagavan or Isvara. According to it the world exists through kamma and dhamma. The actions performed in this life yield fruit in the next. So there is no need for Isvara. Buddhism thus is an atheistic religion. The state of Arhathood is the state of perfection. With non-attachment to worldly objects there is no action. Since there is no action, there is no re-birth. The Hinayana preaches full control over Vasanas, the impressions unconsciously left on the mind by the past good or bad actions that produce pleasure or pain, which is rather difficult to practice. That was the reason another School, the Mahayana, arose. Mahayana (The Higher Vehicle) To ap The main thrust of this School is that after attaining Nirvana, emancipation, one should not close one's eyes towards the world but should spread such light as may lead to disappearance of the darkness of ignorance. This view is more liberal and is actuated with the thought of helping humanity to shake off the shackles of ignorance. It accepts Isvara. The aim of every human being should be to attain Buddha-hood. So there could be many Buddhas. Gautama Buddha is also also one of them. According to Hinayana to attain Arhat-hood is the ideal. According to Mahayana it is to attain first the state of Bodhisattva-hood and from there to attain Buddha-hood is the

ideal. Bodhisattva is that person who is on the way to attain true knowledge by way of engaging himself in pious deeds that may result, in his next birth, in attaining of the state of Buddha-hood. Hinayana has two principal branches Vaibhasika and Sautrantika, also called Sarvastivada. Mahayana also has the two branches called Madhyamika and Yogacara. Vaibhasikas accept the existence of only the two; consciousness, cetana and the material objects which are a matter of direct perception (pratyaksa). They do not accept the existence of even Akasa. The material objects like earth, water, fire and wind owe their origination to the aggregation of their constituent atoms which cannot be seen but their aggregates can be. Finally all objects turn into atoms which are imperishable. Being just the aggregate of atoms the materal objects also in the ultimate analysis are imperishable. Dharmakirti and Dinnaga uphold this view. The Sautrantikas also accept consciousness, cetana and the material world but according to them they are known through inference. Of the Tripitakas the Sautrantikas accept the authority of the Suttapitaka only and not the other two. Kumaralaghva was the first to propound the view. He and the followers of his view believe that the worldly objects exist just for a moment, The next moment they change. The change is so quick that it eludes our cognition and we think that it is the same object while the fact is that the object of a moment before has disappeared already and it is a new object that we are viewing now. The Madhyamika School of Mahayana started with Nagarjuna. This School believes in nihilism (sunya-vada). This nihilistic or negativistic doctrine accepts two truths, the higher that ends in the vacuity of all conceptions and the other that allows ordinary life. The Yogacara School accepts only the existence of consciousness (cetana). All objects that are visible and are outside the mind reside in the ultimate analysis in consciousness Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

itself. No object can exist outside consciousness or knowledge (Jnana). This supreme truth can be realized only through Yoga. The prominent exponents of this School were Asanga and Vasubandhu. The Buddhists are of the view that the cause of sorrow in the world is ignorance, avijja (avidya) which can be removed by following the eightfold path like engaging in proper actions, samyak karya, proper knowledge, samyag jnana and so on. It is only then that a person can achieve Nibbana, salvation, a state by achieving which all sorrows disappear. The evolution of Mahayana in Buddhism was a turning point. Just three or four centuries after his Mahaparinibbana, the Buddha himself came to be accepted as the controller of human destiny, as the bestower of boon whereby, much against his teachings, worship of him in utmost devotion in the form of installation of idols in temples became a regular practice. He took the place of Isvara in Brahmanism. Such a large number of his idols came up, particularly in the Middle East that his name in the changed form of But (Buddha) came to signify idol. his the The first sermon that the Buddha delivered at Varanasi put the spotlight on the Middle Path from where developed the Madhyamika School. Nagarjuna gave it the form of a doctrine through path-breaking works Satasahasrikaprajnaparamita and the Madhyamikakarika with its twenty-seven chapters comprising 400 verses with the autocommentary Akutobhaya. His pupil Aryadeva carried it forward through his work the Catuhsataka, accepted on all fours as a great work of this School. Candrakirti of the 6 th or the 7 th cen. wrote a commentary on it As said above, the doctrine propounded by Maitreyanatha was given the name Yogacara by his pupil Asanga, placed by some in the 3 rd cen. A.D. and by others in the 4 th or the 5 th cen. A.D. who expounded it. His brother Vasubandhu gave a philosophical explanation of his doctrines under the name Vrat

Vijnanavada. Among other important scholars of this School could be mentioned Asvaghosa who wrote the work Mahayanasraddhotpada-sutra. Asanga and Vasubandhu occupy a prominent place in Buddhist literature. Vasubandhu wrote the Abhidharmakosa which in its original Sanskrit form is not available now. It was translated in Chinese in the 6 th cen. A.D. It refutes the Vaisesika doctrines. The Sammkhya doctrines Vasubandhu refutes in his work the Paramarthasaptati. Vijnaptimatrkasiddhi is another of Vasubandhu's well-known works. Sthiramati, Dinnaga, Dharmapala and Silabhadra are his more noteworthy followers. Sthiramati wrote a commentary on Vasubandhu's Trimsikavijnapti and Dharmapala on Vimsatikavijnapti. Dinnaga was pupil of Vasubandhu. There is no unanimity about his date. Some place him in 5 th cen. A.D. while others between the period 520-600 A.D. and believe him to have been a contemporary of Kanyakubja ruler Sriharsa's Guru Gunaprabha. Mallinatha while commenting on the Meghaduta verse dinnaganam pathi pariharan sthulahastavalepan takes dinnaganam to be an oblique reference to this Buddhist philosopher which would make him preKalidasan. His works the Pramanasamuccaya, the Pramanasastrapravesa and so on are available in Tibetan translation and are very popular in Japan. Dharmakirti (6 th or 7 th cen. A. D.) wrote an highly acclaimed work the Nyayabindu. Dharmottara of the 9 th cen. A.D. wrote a commentary on it under the title Nyayabinduika. Silabhadra (7 th cen. A.D.) was the head of the Nalanda Buddhist monastery. Hieun Tsang studied Buddhist philosophy under him. Coming to the Vaibhasika School of Hinayana a conclave, Sangiti, organized under the patronage of Emperor Asoka of 500 Buddhist Bhiksus headed by Vasumitra had prepared a commentary titled Vibhasa on the Jnanaprasthana of Arya Katyayani that gave the name to the School. Emperor Kanishka was its great supporter. So were Bhadanta Dharmajata and

Ghosaka. Udanavagga, Dhammapada, Ekottaragama, the Buddhacarita of Asvaghosa and the Jatakamala of Aryasura seem to be connected with this School. Of the Sautrantikas no work has survived.