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The traditions of Tibetan Buddhism

traditionally follow the

Mlasarvstivda Vinaya

Early

Buddhism

Scriptures

Gandhran textsgamas

Pali Canon

Councils

1st Council2nd Council3rd Council4th Council

Schools

First SanghaMahsghika Ekavyvahrika Lokottaravda Bahurutya Prajaptivda CaitikaSthaviravda Mahsaka Dharmaguptaka Kyapya Sarvstivda

Vibhajyavda Theravda

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SarvastivadaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sarvstivda (Sanskrit: sarvstivda; traditional Chinese:; pinyin:Shu Yqiyu B) were an early school of Buddhism that held to 'the existence of all dharmas inthe past, present and future, the 'three times'. Vasubandhu'sAbhidharmakoa-bhya states:

25c-d. He who affirms the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past,

present and future] is held to be a Sarvastivadin.[1]

The Sarvstivdins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishingthroughout Northwest India, Northern India, and Central Asia. The Sarvstivdins are believedto have given rise to the Mlasarvstivda sect, although the relationship between these twogroups has not yet been fully determined.

Contents

1 Name2 Origination and history3 Appearance and language

3.1 Appearance3.2 Language

4 Doctrinal systems5 Canon

5.1 Vinaya5.2 gamas5.3 Abhidharma

6 Relationship to Mahyna7 Relationship to Mlasarvstivda8 Details of philosophy9 Notes10 See also11 External links

Name

Sarvstivda is a Sanskrit term that can be glossed as: "the

theory of all exists". The Pali equivalent is Sabbatthivda.[2]

Although there is some dispute over how the word"sarvstivda" is to be analyzed, the general consensus is thatit is to be parsed into three parts:sarva "all" or "every" + asti"exist" + vada "speak", "say" or "theory". This equatesperfectly with the Chinese term, Shuyqiyu-b (

),[3] which is literally "the sect that speaks of the existenceof everything," as used by Xuanzang and other translators.

Origination and history

According to scholar Charles Prebish,

There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the rise and early development of the Sarvastivadin school. On the one hand,we have the tradition of Asokas council, stating that the schismatic group in the Sangha was expelled from Magadha,migrating to northwestern India and evolving into the Sarvastivadin school. On the other hand, we have the attempts ofseveral scholars to ascribe the rise of the school to one of Asokas missionsthat sending Majjhantika to Gandhara, anearly seat of the school. This episode corresponds well with one Sarvastivadin tradition stating that Madhyantika (the

Sanskrit counterpart of the Pali Majjhantika) converted the city of Kasmir, which seems to have close ties with Gandhara.Still another tradition established a community of Sarvastivadin monks at Mathura, founded by the patriarch Upagupta. Bethat as it may, until the reign of King Kanishka, around the turn of the Christian era, the history of the school is at best

sketchy.[4]

The Sarvstivda enjoyed the patronage of Kanishka, during which time they were greatly strengthened, and became one of the

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dominant sects of Buddhism for the next thousand years.[4

In Central Asia, several Buddhist monastic groups were historically prevalent. A number of scholars have identified three distinct majorphases of missionary activity seen in the history of Buddhism in Central Asia, which are associated with the following sects,

chronologically:[5]

Dharmaguptaka1.Sarvstivda2.Mlasarvstivda3.

Appearance and language

Appearance

Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which described the color of monastic

robes (Skt. kya) utitized in five major Indian Buddhist sects, calledDa Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi ().[6] Another text

translated at a later date, the ariputraparipcch, contains a very similar passage with nearly the same information.[6] In the earlier

source, the Sarvstivda are described as wearing dark red robes, while the Dharmaguptaka are described as wearing black robes.[7]

However, in the corresponding passage found in the laterariputraparipcch, the Sarvstivda are described as wearing black robesand the Dharmaguptaka as wearing dark red robes.[7] In traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, which follow the Mlasarvstivda Vinaya, redrobes are regarded as characteristic of their tradition.[8]

Language

The Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the Mahsghikas used Prkrit, the Sarvstivdins used Sanskrit, theSthaviravda used Paic, and the Samatya used Apabhraa.[9]

Doctrinal systems

The Sarvstivda comprised two subschools, the Vaibhika and the Sautrntika .The pioneering work about the subject was undertakenby Ch. Willemen ever since 1975,and more recently in 2006 (Abhidharmahdaya) and in 2008 in the Journal of the InternationalCollege for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (Tokyo). The Vaibhika was formed by adherents of theMahvibha stra, comprisingthe orthodox Kasmiri branch of the Sarvstivda school. The Vaibhika-Sarvstivda, which had by far the most "comprehensiveedifice of doctrinal systematics" of the early Buddhist schools,[10] was widely influential in India and beyond.[11] Regarding divisions ofpractice, the Vaibhika Sarvstivdins are known to have employed the outlook of Buddhist practice as consisting of the ThreeVehicles:[12]

rvakayna1.Pratyekabuddhayna2.Bodhisattvayna3.

In contrast to the Vaibhikas, the Sautrntika Sarvstivdins did not uphold the Mahvibha stra, but rather emphasized theBuddhist stras. The name Sautrntika means "those who uphold the stras." According to theAbhidharmakoa-bhya, theSautrntikas held the doctrine that there may be many contemporaneous buddhas.[13]

According to A.K. Warder, the Sarvstivdins held the same position as the Mahsghika branch regarding arhats, considering them tobe imperfect and fallible.[14] In the SarvstivdinNgadatta Stra, the Mahsaka view of women is criticized in a narrative about abhiku named Ngadatta. Here, the demon Mra takes the form of her father, and tries to convince her to work toward the lower stageof an arhat, rather than that of a fully enlightened buddha (Skt.samyaksabuddha).[15]

Mra therefore took the disguise of Ngadatta's father and said thus to Ngadatta: "Your thought is too serious.Buddhahood is too difficult to attain. It takes a hundred thousand nayutas ofkois of kalpas to become a Buddha. Since fewpeople attain Buddhahood in this world, why don't you attain Arhatship? For the experience of Arhatship is the same asthat ofnirva; moreover, it is easy to attain Arhatship...."

In her reply, Ngadatta rejects arhatship as a lower path, saying, "A Buddha's wisdom is like empty space of the ten quarters, which canenlighten innumerable people. But an Arhat's wisdom is inferior."[15]

Canon

Vinaya

The Dharmaguptaka are known to have rejected the authority of the Sarvstivda pratimoka rules on the grounds that the original


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teachings of the Buddha had been lost.[16

The complete Sarvstivda Vinaya is extant in the Chinese Buddhist canon. In its early history, the Sarvstivda Vinaya was the mostcommon vinaya tradition in China. However, Chinese Buddhism later settled on the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya.

gamas

Scholars at present have "a nearly complete collection of stras from the Sarvstivda school"[17] thanks to a recent discovery inAfghanistan of roughly two-thirds of Drgha gama in Sanskrit. The Madhyama gama (T26, Chinese trans. Gotama Saghadeva) and

Sayukta gama (T99, Chinese trans. Guabhadra) have long been available in Chinese translation. The Sarvstivda is therefore theonly early school besides the Theravada for which we have a roughly complete sutra collection, although unlike the Theravada it hasnot all been preserved in the original language.

Abhidharma

The Sarvstivda Abhidharma consists of seven texts. The texts of the Sarvstivdin Abhidharma are:

Sangitiparyaya ('Discourses on Gathering Together')Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas')Prajnaptisastra ('Treatise on Designations')Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements')Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness')

Prakaranapada ('Exposition')Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge')

Following these, are the texts that became the authority of the Vaibhashikas, the Kasmiri Sarvastivada Orthodoxy:

Mahavibhasa ("Great Commentary", on the Jnanaprasthana)

Little research on these texts has been published in English.

Relationship to Mahyna

The Sarvstivdins of Kmra held theMahvibh stra as authoritative, and thus were given the moniker of being Vaibhikas.TheMahvibh is thought to have been authored around 150 CE, around the time ofKanika (127151 CE) of the Kua

Empire.[18] This massive treatise of Abhidharma (200 fascicles in Chinese) contains a great deal of material with what appear to bestrong affinities to Mahyna doctrines.[19] TheMahvibh is also said to illustrate the accommodations reached between theHnayna and Mahyna traditions, as well as the means by which Mahyna doctrines would become accepted.[20] TheMahvibhalso defines the Mahyna stras and the role in their Buddhist canon. Here they are described as Vaipulya doctrines, with "Vaipulya"being a commonly used synonym for Mahyna. TheMahvibh reads:[21]

What is the Vaipulya? It is said to be all the stras corresponding to elaborations o n the meanings of the exceedinglyprofound dharmas.

According to a number of scholars, Mahyna Buddhism flourished during the time of the Kua Empire, and this is illustrated in theform of Mahyna influence on theMahvibh stra.[22] TheMajurmlakalpa also records that Kanika presided over theestablishment ofPrajpramit doctrines in the northwest of India.[23] tienne Lamotte has also pointed out that a Sarvstivda master

is known to have stated that the Mahyna Praj stras were to be found amongst their Vaipulya stras.[21]

According to PaulWilliams, the similarly massiveMahprajpramit stra also has a clear association with the Vaibhika Sarvstivdins.[24]

Regarding divisions of practice, theMahvibh stra is known to employ the outlook of Buddhist practice as consisting of the Three

Vehicles.[12] References to Bodhisattvayna and the practice of the Six Pramits are commonly found in Sarvstivda works aswell.[25] The Sarvstivdins also did not hold that it was impossible, or even impractical to strive to become a fully enlightened buddha(Skt.samyaksabuddha), and therefore they admitted the path of a bodhisattva as a valid one.[26]

Relationship to Mlasarvstivda

A number of theories have been posited by academics as to how the two are related, which Bhikkhu Sujato summaries as follows:

The uncertainty around this school has led to a number of hypotheses. Frauwallners theory holds that theMlasarvstivda Vinaya is the disciplinary code of an early Buddhist community based in Mathura, which was quiteindependent in its establishment as a monastic community from the Sarvstivdins of Kamir (although of course this doesnot mean that they were different in terms of doctrine). Lamotte, opposing Frauwallner, asserts that the MlasarvstivdaVinaya was a late Kamr compilation made to complete the Sarvstivdin Vinaya. Warder suggests that theMlasarvstivdins were a later development of the Sarvstivda, whose main innovations were literary, the compilation of


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the large Vinaya and the Saddharmasmtyupasthna Stra, which kept the early doctrines but brought the style up to datewith contemporary literary developments. Enomoto pulls the rug out from all these theories by asserting that Sarvstivdinand Mlasarvstivdin are really the same. Meanwhile, Willemen, Dessein, and Cox have developed the theory that theSautrantikas, a branch or tendency within the Sarvstivdin group of schools, emerged in Gandhra and Bactria around 200CE. Although they were the earlier group, they temporarily lost ground to the Kamr Vaibhika school due to the politicalinfluence of Kaika. In later years the Sautrantikas became known as Mlasarvstivdins and regained the ascendancy. Ihave elsewhere given my reasons for disagreeing with the theories of Enomoto and Willemen et al. Neither Warder norLamotte give sufficient evidence to back up their theories. We are left with Frauwallners theory, which in this respect has

stood the test of time.[27]

Details of philosophy

Though the sarvastivadins would themselves claim that their teaching of all exists (sarvasti) is a direct teaching of the Buddha himself,as shown by their attributing the earliest abhidharma texts to direct disciples of the Buddha, notably to Sariputra and constant referenceto the sutras throughout, the school in its entirety is more rightly to be considered as part of the age of scholastic Buddhism. It was themost influential school in the northwestern part of India. In a Chinese context, the word abhidharma refers to the sarvastivadaabhidharma, although at a minimum the Dharmaguptaka, Pudgalavada and Theravada also had abhidharmas.

During the first century BC, in the Gandharan cultural area (consisting of Oddiyana, Gandhara and Bactria, Tokharistan, across theKhyber Pass), the sthaviriyas used Gandhari to write their literature in the Kharohscript. During this time, the sarvastivadaabhidharma primarily consisted of theAbhidharmahrdaya authored by Dharmashresthin, a native from Tokharistan, and theAshtagrantha authored/compiled by Katyayaniputra. Both texts were translated by Samghadeva in 391 AD and in 183 AD.respectively, but they were not completed until 390 in Southern China.

Although the sarvastitva was the central thesis, there were different theories on how sarvam and even asti were actually to beexplained and understood among the Gandharan diverse sarvastivadins. VasubandhusKoshabhasya, an elaborate yoga manual basedon the Hrdaya, describes four main theses on sarvasti:

There are four types of sarvastivadins accordingly as they teach a difference in existence (bhavanyathatva), a difference incharacteristic (laksananyathatva), a difference in condition (avasthanyathatva), and mutual difference (anyonyathatva).

Later sarvastivada takes a combination of the first and third theses as its model. It was on this basis that the schools doctrines weredefended in the face of growing external, and sometimes even internal, criticism.

The doctrines of sarvastivada were not confined to all exists, but also include the theory of momentariness (ksanika), conjoining

(samprayukta) and simultaneity (sahabhu), conditionality (hetu andpratyaya), the culmination of the spiritual path (marga), and others.These doctrines are all inter-connected and it is the principle of all exists that is the axial doctrine holding the larger movementtogether when the precise details of other doctrines are at stake.

The sarvastivada was also known by other names, particularly hetuvada andyuktivada. Hetuvada comes from hetu cause, whichindicates their emphasis on causation and conditionality. Yuktivada comes from yukti reason or even logic, which shows their useof rational argument and syllogism.

When the sarvastivada school held a synod in Kashmira during the reign of Kanishka II (c. 158-176), the Gandharan most importanttext, the Astagrantha of Katyayaniputra was rewritten in Sanskrit making necessary revisions. This revised text was now known asJnanaprasthana, Course of Knowledge. Though the Gandharan Astagrantha had many vibhasas, the new Kashmira Astagrantha i.e. theJnanaprasthana had a Sanskrit Mahavibhasa, compiled by the Kashmira sarvastivada synod. The Jnanaprasthana and its Mahavibhasa,which took more than a generation to complete, were then declared the Vaibhasika orthodoxy, said to be Buddhas word,Buddhabhasita. This new Vaibhasika orthodoxy, however, was not readily accepted by the Gandharan sarvastivadins, though graduallythey adapted their views to the new Kasmira orthodoxy. The Gandharan sarvastivadins used the same Vinaya from Mathura. As amatter of fact, their abhidharma was meant for meditational practices. They made use of the Hrdaya which is a manual for attainingarhat. However, the long Gandharan Vinaya was abridged to a Sanskrit Dashabhanavara in the Kashmira synod by removing theavadanas and jatakas, stories and illustrations. After the declaration of the Vaibhasika orthodoxy, the Gandharan non-vaibhasikasarvastivadins, the majority, were called sautrantikas(those who uphold the sutras).

Interestingly, the Kasmira orthodoxy, the Vaibhasikas disappeared in the later part of the 7th century. Subsequently, the old Gandharansarvastivadins, the non-vaibhasika sautrantikas, were named mulasarvastivadins, who then at a later date went to Tibet. It has beensuggested that the minority Vaibhasikas were absorbed into the majority sautrantika sarvastivadins as a possible result of the lattersadaptations.

Moreover, Mishrakabhidharmahrdaya, a title which means that sautrantika views were mixed with vaibhasika views was composed byDharmatrata in the 4th century in Gandharan area. Vasubandhu (ca.350-430), a native from Purusapura in Gandhara, composed his

Kosa based on this text and the Astagrantha. While in Kasmira, he wrote his karikas which were well received there but he facedintense opposition, notably from Samghabhadra, a leading sarvastivada pundit, when he composed his bhasya. By his bhasya,Vasubandhu made it clear to the Vaibhasikas that he was a sautrantika, which is why he was fiercely opposed by the sarvastivadavaibhasikas in Kasmira.


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In reply to Vasubhandhus bhasya, Samghabhadra wrote a text, the Nyayanusara according to reason. This work is presently onlyextant in Chinese (from Xuanzangs translation and little is known of it in English).

For a critical examination of the Sarvastivadin interpretation of the Samyuktagama, see David Kalupahana, Causality: The Central

Philosophy of Buddhism.[28] For a Sautrantika refutation of the Sarvastivadin use of the Samyuktagama, see Theodore Stcherbatsky,

The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word Dharma.[29]

Notes

^ de La Valle Poussin, Pruden: Abhidharma-koa-bhym, Asian Humanities Press, 1988. Pg. 8071.^ While the Pali term,sabbatthivda, is not found in the Pli canon's Vinaya or Sutta Pitaka, an antonymous Pali term, natthivd (SLTP,retrieved Sept. 19, 2010 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sltp/MN_III_utf8.html#pts.078), translated as"no-existence" (Thanissaro, "Maha-cattarisaka Sutta: The Great Forty " [MN 117], 1997, retrieved Sept. 19, 2010 from "Access to Insight" athttp://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.117.than.html) and "nihilism" (Nanamoli & Bodhi, trans., 1995/2001, "The Middle LengthDiscourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya," p. 940, para. 38), can be found in MN 117. Inflections of the Pali term,

sabbatthivd, can be found in the Abhidhamma's Kathavatthu and the post-canonical Mahavamsa (based on a search of the Pali literaturedone on Sept. 19, 2010, at http://www.bodhgayanews.net/pali.htm, see http://bodhgayanews.net/pitakaresults.php?title=&start=0&to=10&searchstring=sabbatthiv).

2.

^ Taisho 27, n15453.^ abBuddhism: A Modern Perspective. Charles S. Prebish. Penn State Press: 1975. ISBN 0-271-01195-5 pg 42-434.^ Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. 1997. p. 1265.^ ab Hino, Shoun. Three Mountains and Seven Rivers. 2004. p. 556.

^

a

b

Hino, Shoun. Three Mountains and Seven Rivers. 2004. pp. 55-567. ^ Mohr, Thea. Tsedroen, Jampa.Dignity and Discipline: Reviving Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns. 2010. p. 2668.^ Yao, Zhihua. The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition. 2012. p. 99.^ "one does not find anywhere else a body of doctrine as organized or as complete as theirs" . . ."Indeed, no other competing schools haveever come close to building up such a comprehensive edifice of doctrinal systematics as the Vaibhika." The Sautrantika theory of seeds(bija ) revisited: With special reference to the ideological continuity between Vasubandhu's theory of seeds and its Srilata/Darstantika

precedents by Park, Changhwan, PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2007 pg 2

10.

^A Study of the Abhidharmahdaya: The Historical Development of the Concept of Karma In The Sarvstivda Thought. PhD thesis byWataru S. Ryose. University of Wisconsin-Madison: 1987 pg 3

11.

^ ab Nakamura, Hajime.Indian Buddhism: A Survey With Bibliographical Notes. 1999. p. 18912.^ Guang Xing. The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory. 2004. p. 6613.^ Warder, A.K.Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 27714.^ ab Kalupahana, David.Buddhist Thought and Ritual. 2001. p. 10915.^ Baruah, Bibhuti.Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 5216.

^ [1] (http://santipada.googlepages.com/whatthebuddhareallytaught)17. ^ Potter, Karl.Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D. 1998. p. 11218.^ Potter, Karl.Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D. 1998. p. 11719.^ Potter, Karl.Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D. 1998. p. 11120.^ ab Walser, Joseph.Ngrjuna in Context: Mahyna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 15621.^ Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. 1997. p. 12322.^ Ray, Reginald.Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. 1999. p. 41023.^ Williams, Paul, and Tribe, Anthony.Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. 2000. p. 10024.^ Baruah, Bibhuti.Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 45625.^ Baruah, Bibhuti.Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 45726.^ Sects & Sectarianism BETA: The origins of Buddhist Schools [2] (http://sectsandsectarianism.googlepages.com/9.themulasarvastivadinsofmathura)27.^ David Kalupahana, Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. The University Press of Hawaii, 1975, pages 76-78.28.^ Theodore Stcherbatsky, The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word Dharma. Asian Educational Services, 2003,

page 76. This is a reprint of a much earlier work and the analysis is now quite dated; the first appendix however contains translations of

polemical materials.

29.

See also

Early Buddhist SchoolsSchools of BuddhismPratimoksha

External links

Sects & Sectarianism - The origins of Buddhist Schools (http://sectsandsectarianism.googlepages.com/home)

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