 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2018) |
Vajira, a Buddhist nun mentioned in the Samyutta Nikaya (I.134-55), is one of the earliest women adepts in Buddhist history. She was confronted by Mara while meditating and asked about the origin and creator of her "Being", i.e., her soul. She responded by comparing one's "Being" to a chariot, showing that it had no permanent existence but was made up of constituent parts.
| “Then Mara the Evil One, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in the bhikkhuni Vajira, desiring to make her fall away from concentration, approached her and addressed her in verse: 34. "By whom has this being been created? Where is the maker of the being? Where has the being arisen? Where does the being cease?" Then it occurred to the bhikkhuni Vajira: "Now who is this that recited the verse — a human being or a non-human being?" Then it occurred to her: "This is Mara the Evil One, who has recited the verse desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in me, desiring to make me fall away from concentration." Then the bhikkhuni Vajira, having understood, "This is Mara the Evil One," replied to him in verses: 35. "Why now do you assume 'a being'? Mara, have you grasped a view? This is a heap of sheer constructions: Here no being is found. 36. Just as, with an assemblage of parts, The word 'chariot' is used, So, when the aggregates are present, There's the convention 'a being.' 37. It's only suffering that comes to be, Suffering that stands and falls away. Nothing but suffering comes to be, Nothing but suffering ceases." Then Mara the Evil One, realizing, "The bhikkhuni Vajira knows me," sad and disappointed, disappeared right there.” [1] |
This passage is famous not just for succinctly presenting the Buddha’s teaching of non-self through the simile but also for being one of the earliest depictions of a woman adept at comprehending and practising the Buddha’s dhamma. The person Mara seeks to concede as having a metaphysically substantial or permanent essence is only an aggregation of processes, some of which are material ( rūpa ) and some which are non-material ( arūpin ). These material and immaterial processes make up the five aggregates ( skandhas ) which are body, feeling, perception, disposition to actions and consciousness. Just as the term ‘chariot’ is used to refer to an assemblage of parts, such as the wheels, yokes, axles etc., so too is ‘person’ nothing more than a conventional term employed to denote these five aggregates rather than to a permanent essence which the person holds. Each person, like each chariot, is a compound and no compound can be an individual, a being.
The simile of the chariot in relation to the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (anattā) was popularised in the Milinda Panha (Questions of King Milinda), an important Pali work dating from the first century ce, although most of the text was written in Sri Lanka at a later date. [2] The text takes the form of a dialogue between King Milinda, who likely ruled Sakala in the east Punjab in the 2nd to 1st centuries bce, and a Buddhist monk, Nagasena. The dialogue begins with Nagasena claiming that ‘Nagasena’ is just a designation and that no individual, permanent self exists. Initially, Milinda disputes this and questions the sage on how merits and demerits for thoughts and actions can be attributed to an individual were no self to exist and subsequently asks what it is then that the name Nagasena does denote. Each in turn, he asks whether it is his body or parts of it, his sensations, his ideas or his consciousness that are denoted by ‘Nagasena’ to which the sage replies in the negative. The king then responds by asking who it is he sees before him. Nagasena replies by way of an analogy with a chariot, beginning by asking the King (after having enquired as to how he had arrived at their meeting), ‘What is a chariot? Is it the wheels, the framework, the ropes, the spokes of the wheel?’ The King argues that none of these things are the chariot but the aggregate of such physical parts composed in certain ways is conventionally understood as a chariot. To this Nagasena responds,
Very good! Your Majesty has rightly grasped the meaning of "chariot." And just even so it is on account of all those things you questioned me about (the thirty-two kinds of organic matter in a human body, and the five constituent elements of being) that I come under the generally understood term, the designation in common use, of "Nâgasena. For it was said, Sire, by our Sister Vagirâ in the presence of the Blessed One:
"Just as it is by the condition precedent of the co-existence of its various parts that the word 'chariot' is used, just so is it that when the Skandhas are there we talk of a 'being ." [3]
Individual beings are without a permanent essence and are simply combinations of material and immaterial processes, subject to change at every moment, that are designated a name for matters of convenience.
The simile also relates to other strands within Buddhist thought which are explored further in the Milindapanha such as the idea of dependent origination and impermanence.
Amrita, Amrit or Amata in Pali, is a Sanskrit word that means "immortality". It is a central concept within Indian religions and is often referred to in ancient Indian texts as an elixir. Its first occurrence is in the Rigveda, where it is considered one of several synonyms for soma, the drink of the devas. Amrita plays a significant role in the Samudra Manthana, and is the cause of the conflict between devas and asuras competing for amrita to obtain immortality.
Menander I Soter, was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King who administered a large territory in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent from his capital at Sagala. Menander is noted for having become a patron and convert to Greco-Buddhism and he is widely regarded as the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings.
Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a key doctrine in Buddhism shared by all schools of Buddhism. It states that all dharmas (phenomena) arise in dependence upon other dharmas: "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist". The basic principle is that all things arise in dependence upon other things.
In Buddhism, the three marks of existence are three characteristics of all existence and beings, namely aniccā (impermanence), dukkha, and anattā. That humans are subject to delusion about the three marks, that this delusion results in suffering, and that removal of that delusion results in the end of dukkha, is a central theme in the Buddhist Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path.
The Pudgalavāda was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of Nikaya Buddhist schools that arose from the Sthavira nikāya. The school is believed to have been founded by the elder Vātsīputra in the third century BCE. They were a widely influential school in India and became particularly popular during the reign of emperor Harshavadana. Harsha's sister Rajyasri was said to have joined the school as a nun. According to Dan Lusthaus, they were "one of the most popular mainstream Buddhist sects in India for more than a thousand years."
The Milindapañha is a Buddhist text which dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD. It purports to record a dialogue between the Indian Buddhist sage Nāgasena, and the 2nd century BC Indo-Greek king Menander I of Bactria, in Sāgalā, present-day Sialkot.
Ātman, attā or attan in Buddhism is the concept of self, and is found in Buddhist literature's discussion of the concept of non-self (Anatta).
Āyatana is a Buddhist term that has been translated as "sense base", "sense-media" or "sense sphere". In Buddhism, there are six internal sense bases and six external sense bases.
Nāmarūpa is used in Buddhism to refer to the constituents of a living being: nāma is typically considered to refer to the mental component of the person, while rūpa refers to the physical.
Upāsaka (masculine) or Upāsikā (feminine) are from the Sanskrit and Pāli words for "attendant". This is the title of followers of Buddhism who are not monks, nuns, or novice monastics in a Buddhist order, and who undertake certain vows. In modern times they have a connotation of dedicated piety that is best suggested by terms such as "lay devotee" or "devout lay follower".
Upādāna is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "fuel, material cause, substrate that is the source and means for keeping an active process energized". It is also an important Buddhist concept referring to "attachment, clinging, grasping". It is considered to be the result of taṇhā (craving), and is part of the dukkha doctrine in Buddhism.
Saṅkhāra is a term figuring prominently in Buddhism. The word means 'formations' or 'that which has been put together' and 'that which puts together'.
The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta is a Buddhist sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya of the Tripitaka. This sutta is number 72 in the Third Division on Wanderers [Paribbajakavagga], and has an alternate spelling of [Aggivacchagotta] by the Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. In this sutta, Gautama Buddha clarifies his views on the nature of existence and explains the nature of Nibbana to Vacchagotta by means of a simile. A sentient being which is composed of Skandha who realized Nibbana is compared to an extinguished fire.
Mahābhūta is Sanskrit and Pāli for "great element". However, very few scholars define the four mahābhūtas in a broader sense as the four fundamental aspects of physical reality.
In Buddhism, acinteyya (Pali), "imponderable" or "incomprehensible," avyākṛta, and atakkāvacara, "beyond the sphere of reason," are unanswerable questions or undeclared questions. They are sets of questions that should not be thought about, and which the Buddha refused to answer, since this distracts from practice, and hinders the attainment of liberation. Various sets can be found within the Pali and Sanskrit texts, with four, and ten or fourteen unaswerable questions.
The Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (Pali) or Anātmalakṣaṇa Sūtra (Sanskrit), is traditionally recorded as the second discourse delivered by Gautama Buddha. The title translates to the "Not-Self Characteristic Discourse", but is also known as the Pañcavaggiya Sutta (Pali) or Pañcavargīya Sūtra (Skt.), meaning the "Group of Five" Discourse.
The Anupitaka is the collected non-canonical or extra-canonical Pāli literature of Buddhism.
"Paracanonical texts" is used by Western scholars to refer to various texts on the fringes of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, usually to refer to the following texts sometimes regarded as included in the Pali Canon's Khuddaka Nikaya:
Skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pāḷi) means "heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings". In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging, the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging.
The philosophy of self examines the idea of the self at a conceptual level. Many different ideas on what constitutes self have been proposed, including the self being an activity, the self being independent of the senses, the bundle theory of the self, the self as a narrative center of gravity, and the self as a linguistic or social construct rather than a physical entity. The self is also an important concept in Eastern philosophy, including Buddhist philosophy.