[Buddha-l] Pudgalavada #3b

[Dan Lusthaus]

(Longer version, pt. 2)



[To speak of] "past, future and present" is to practice the heuristics for metaphorical device. This is the heuristics for metaphorical device by naming. [i.e., past, present and future are only nominally real.] This is the association of the three times (past, present and future). Such as: "In the past, I was King Kuśa" (The Sanskrit word quxia has ten names: sheep, eye, earth, sky, water, expression, space, diamond, light, and severed. These ten are figures of speech [比 bi]. And a person doesn't understand what it is that is in ten lives [that is continuous].) 

 

[The ten terms listed by Dao'an are not clear correlates of kuśa, though some work. MW lists these meanings for kuśa: m. grass; the sacred grass used at certain religious ceremonies (Poa cynosuroides , a grass with long pointed stalks); a rope (made of Kuśa grass) used for connecting the yoke of a plough with the pole; one of the great Dvīpas or divisions of the universe (surrounded by the sea of liquified butter); a small pin or piece of wood (used as a mark in recitation); a cord; a horse's bridle; a small pin (used as a mark in recitation and consisting of wood [MaitrS. iv] or of metal [TBr. i ŚBr. iii]; a ploughshare; a pod of cotton; n. water; wicked , depraved; mad , inebriate.  Among the overlaps: Dvīpa (天, 方, 地), water (水), metal (金剛), depraved (剪), pin used in recitation (說), plowshare (地, 剪), etc.] 

 

"In the future I will have the name Ajita." "At present I work at mastering an understanding (by means of mantric arts) of what's important[roles I] have not yet assumed or have already assumed, [such as] merchant (in the three times)." Such conventional roles are numerous, hence they are heuristically adopted [by assuming their] annihilation and permanence. If Kuśa has ceased, in what sense am I he? If he has not ceased, in what sense can one say he is I? It is by means of conventionalisms (vyavahāra) that one says so; it is a heuristic metaphorical device.

 

(to be continued)

Dan Lusthaus
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