The text after each quoted text are my notes to used to better understand the quoted material.
Out of respect for the fact that Stcherbatsky is referring to Dharmakirti and Buddhist atomism, I have refrained from including in my notes any reference to quantum physics including specific terms for atomic energies and intra-atomic energies.
This is because Buddhist philosophy and specifically Buddhism atomism is still based on the Buddhist notion of non-self i.e. the transitory nature of things.
I also wish to express my disclaimer that I am not an expert on Buddhist atomism. Rather, this note was made to better understand what the quoted author means.
... The Buddhists denied the existence of substantial matter altogether. - If substantial matter is transitory, then substantial matter does not exist in a permanent state. Likewise, reality is nonexistent because it does not exist in a permanent state. Since nothing at all exists in a permanent state, then everything is transitory i.e. the ebb and flow of consciousness.
Movement consists for them of moments, it is a staccato movement, momentary flashes of a stream of energy... Movement, thus, consists of distinct but brief moments of change. Visualize movement of an object before a strobe light, which shows movement of that object "frozen" in separate instances.
"Everything is evanescent," ... says the Buddhist, because there is no stuff ... - Nothing lasts forever. Paraphrased, everything is liable to vanish or pass away like vapor. Thus, everything in life is fleeting. Yet even distinct change is imperceptible.
Both systems [Sānkhya and later Indian Buddhism] share in common a tendency to push the analysis of Existence up to its minutest, last elements which are imagined as absolute qualities, or things possessing only one unique quality. - In analyzing Existence to its smallest detail, Indian Buddhism exposes the "atoms" of existence itself.
They are called "qualities" (guna-dharma) in both systems in the sense of absolute qualities, a kind of atomic, or intra-atomic, energies of which the empirical things are composed. - Guna-Dharma are absolute qualities, and each quality, an intra-atomic energy. Things that we observe are thus composed of intra-atomic energies. Likewise, things that we experience are composed of intra-atomic qualities known as events and moments of feelings and thoughts.
Both systems, therefore, agree in denying the objective reality of the categories of Substance and Quality, ... and of the relation of Inference uniting them. - Substance refers to that which underlies all outward manifestations beiong the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or physical. Quality refers to the distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute of any particular thing in relation to the substance of that thing. Inference refers to the association between substance and quality determined by the act of infering by deduction or induction what qualities make up a thing and what substance that thing is. By denying the objective reality of the categories of Substance and Qualities and of the relation of Inference, it is possible to contemplate things in terms of intra-atomic energies.
There is in Sānkhya philosophy no separate existence of qualities. What we call quality is but a particular manifestation of a subtle entity. - Yet these qualities do not exist separately on their own. Even when we describe the qualities of matter in terms of intra-atomic energies, they lack an independent existence as a permanent quality that lasts forever.
To every new unit of quality corresponds a subtle quantum of matter which is called guna "quality", but represents a subtle substantive entity. The same applies to early Buddhism where all qualities are substantive ... or, more precisely, dynamic entities, although they are also called dharmas ("qualities"). - All qualities which are substantive are dynamic entities called dharmas. Every new unit of quality which corresponds to a subtle quantum of matter is called guna.
References:
Stcherbatsky 1962 (1930). P. 19, Buddhist Logic. Volume 1. New York: Dover.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Buddhist atomism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_atomism
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