Pudgalavada
Religion portal The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; English: "Personalism"; Pali: Puggalavāda; Chinese: 補特伽羅論者; pinyin: Bǔtèjiāluō Lùnzhě; Vietnamese: Bổ-đặc-già-la Luận giả) was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of Nikaya Buddhist schools (mainly known as Vātsīputrīyas) that arose from the Sthavira nikāya.
This text states that the person (pudgala) is the bearer of the five aggregates, and that the taking up of them is craving and suffering: Bhārā have pañcakkhandhā, bhārahāro ca puggalo; Bhārādānaṁ dukhaṁ loke, bhāranikkhepanaṁ sukhaṁ.
[8]Thus this pudgala was the subject of experiences, the doer of wholesome and unwholesome actions, and the experiencer of karma, transmigration and nirvana.
[9] However, as Thiện Châu notes in his survey of their literature, the Pudgalavādins carefully developed this theory especially to be compatible with anatman and the middle way and thus the pudgala is "not an absolute reality totally separated from compounded things.
[7] For the Pudgalavadins, If one says that the person is the same as the aggregates (the reductionist Buddhist view of other schools), this is like saying fire and fuel are the same thing, which is one mistake.
It is a heuristic fiction that avoids these unwarranted consequences and lends coherence by also corresponding to how actual persons experience themselves—that is, as distinct individuals continuous with, but not absolutely identical to or reducible to, their own pasts and futures.
[17]Lusthaus also explains their reasoning for the second and third designations as follows:But what remains constant or continuous between such [past and future] lives?
[18]With this system, Pudgalavādins held that they could explain karmic moral retribution and personal identity by positing an ineffable (avaktavya) dharma that avoids falling into the extremes of annihilation (ucceda) and eternity (sasvata).
[16] One Pudgalavada text affirms that this doctrine is a middle way thus:If the pudgala could be described in terms of existence or non-existence, one would fall into nihilism (ucchedadristi) or eternalism (sasvatadrsti), but the Buddha does not allow us to uphold there two opinions.
[20] The earliest source for the pudgala doctrinal controversy is the puggalakatha of the Kathavatthu, attributed to Moggaliputtatissa (c. third century BCE).
[1] Another Pudgalavada text, the Sammatiyanikayasastra, put forth various arguments for and against the following propositions:[24] All of these views are ultimately rejected.
[20] Peter Harvey agrees with criticisms leveled against the Pudgalavadins by Moggaliputta-Tissa and Vasubandhu, and finds that there is no support in the Pali Nikayas for their pudgala concept.
[16]Furthermore, Thiện Châu in his analysis of their doctrine adds:The Pudgalavadins were probably not satisfied with the interpretation according to which a man is merely the result of a combination of psych~physical factors.
[27] Lusthaus argues that, far from promoting the view of a self (atmavada), the Vātsīputrīya position which can be seen in their surviving texts is that the pudgala is "a prajñapti (only a nominal existent) that is neither identical to nor different from the skandhas.
[22]Lusthaus notes that for the Vātsīputrīyas, their theory is simply an attempt to explain what other Buddhist traditions leave unsaid and assumed, mainly what it is that undergoes rebirth, has moral responsibility and attains enlightenment.
According to Lusthaus, for the Vātsīputrīyas, "while other Buddhists might leave the word "pudgala" unsaid, the narratives presupposed in their doctrines require it.
[33] Their most influential center of learning was at Valabhi University in Gujarat, which remained an important place for the study of Nikaya Buddhism until the 8th century CE.
[34] I-tsing, who visited Gujarat in 670 CE, noted that the Sammitiyas had the greatest number of followers in western India and that the learning center at Valabhi rivaled that of Nalanda.
Ancient sources such as Xuanzang and Tibetan historian Tāranātha reported that the Saṃmitīyas were staunch opponents of Mahāyāna.
[38] According to Tāranātha, Saṃmitīya monks from the Sindh burned tantric scriptures and destroyed a silver image of Hevajra at Vajrāsana monastery in Bodh Gaya.
[39] In the biography of Xuanzang, it is recounted that an elderly brahmin and follower of the Saṃmitīya sect named Prajñāgupta composed a treatise in 700 verses which opposed the Mahāyāna teachings.
[40] In response, while living at Nālandā, Xuanzang wrote a Sanskrit work in 1600 verses to refute this text, called The Destruction of Heresy.
