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Sarvastivada

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The Physicists of Buddhism

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In the last episode, we mapped out the landscape of Sectarian Buddhism:

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Eighteen schools,

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Four core disputes.

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But I left you with one final question:

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What kind of philosophical edifice did Sarvastivada build?

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Today,

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we step inside that edifice.

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Once inside, you'll find

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it doesn't resemble a Buddhist temple;

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it looks more like a laboratory.

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Hello,

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everyone.

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I'm Wang Lijie.

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Sarvastivada,

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known in Sanskrit as Sarvāstivāda,

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is the most significant branch of Sthavira Buddhism.

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It broke away from the Sthavira school around the 3rd century BCE.

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Its center of activity spanned Gandhara (modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan)

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and Kashmir.

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For several centuries,

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it was the most influential Buddhist school in Northern India.

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Why do I say they are like physicists?

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Because they did something unprecedented in Buddhist history:

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they attempted to compile a complete parts list of the universe.

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The Buddha taught Dependent Origination—

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all phenomena arise from the convergence of causes and conditions;

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nothing has an independent, unchanging nature.

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This doctrine sounds simple enough,

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but have you considered a more specific question?

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"Convergence of conditions:"

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Exactly what is converging with what?

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You say a flower is a product of conditions.

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Fine.

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But what are the specific elements of that convergence?

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Seeds, soil, water, sunlight, air?

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But the seed itself is a product of conditions.

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Then what are the elements of the seed?

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Once this inquiry begins,

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it must go to the very bottom.

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Just as physicists seek the smallest units of matter,

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Sarvastivada sought

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the ultimate units that constitute our empirical world.

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Their answer was the Seventy-five Dharmas.

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In Buddhism, "Dharma" is a catch-all term

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with numerous meanings.

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But in the context of Sarvastivada,

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a "Dharma" is a fundamental element of all empirical phenomena.

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You can compare them to elementary particles in physics.

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Physics says matter consists of quarks and leptons;

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Sarvastivada says experience consists of 75 Dharmas.

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These 75 Dharmas are divided into five categories.

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The first is Rupa (Form),

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consisting of eleven types.

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In Buddhism, "Rupa" doesn't just mean color;

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it refers to material things.

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Anything that has resistance and occupies space counts,

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including the five sense organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body,

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plus their five corresponding external objects:

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sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches.

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Plus something called Avijnapti-rupa (Unmanifest Form).

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What is Unmanifest Form?

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It is a material force that you cannot see or touch,

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yet it truly exists.

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For example, if you take Buddhist precepts,

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after the ceremony concludes,

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a "precept-body" (jie-ti) forms within you.

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It isn't a material form you can observe,

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but it actively influences your behavior and psyche.

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Sarvastivada classifies this as a type of Rupa.

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The second category is Citta (Mind).

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There is only one:

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Mind,

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also called the King of Mind.

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This is the commander-in-chief of all conscious activity.

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Note that

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Sarvastivada posits only one Mind King,

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unlike the later Yogacara school which identified eight consciousnesses.

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In their system,

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Mind is a single entity,

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presenting different functions in different contexts.

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The third category is Mental Concomitants (Caitasika dharmas).

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There are forty-six types,

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making it the largest group among the Seventy-five Dharmas.

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These are mental functions that accompany the King of Mind.

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Think of the Mind King as a phone's processor;

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caitasikas are the apps running on that processor.

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There are both good apps and bad apps.

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These forty-six types are divided into six groups.

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The first group is Universal (Mahābhūmika) dharmas.

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There are ten of them,

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including contact, attention, feeling, perception, volition, desire, wisdom, mindfulness, concentration, and resolve.

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Why are they called Universal?

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Because these ten mental functions are present in every single

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conscious activity.

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Like a band,

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no matter what song is played,

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these ten musicians are always on stage.

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The second group is Virtuous (Kuśalamahābhūmika) dharmas.

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There are ten types,

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including faith, diligence, pliancy, equanimity, shame,

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remorse, non-attachment, non-hatred, non-harm, and vigor.

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Whenever your mind is doing a good deed,

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these ten are necessarily present.

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The third group is Defiled (Kleśamahābhūmika) dharmas.

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There are six types:

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ignorance, negligence, indolence, lack of faith, torpor, and restlessness.

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Whenever there is affliction in your mind,

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these six will follow.

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The fourth group is Evil (Akuśalamahābhūmika) dharmas.

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There are two types:

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shame-lessness and lack of remorse.

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Whenever you do something unwholesome,

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these two are always present.

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The former means not feeling ashamed;

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the latter means not caring about hurting others.

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The fifth group is Minor Affliction (Upakleśabhūmika) dharmas.

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There are ten types,

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including anger, hostility, concealment, affliction, envy, stinginess, deceit, flattery, pride, and harm.

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These are the trivial afflictions that pop up occasionally.

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The sixth group is Indeterminate (Aniyatabhūmika) dharmas.

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There are eight types,

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including regret, sleep, reasoning, investigation, greed, hatred, conceit, and doubt.

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These functions sometimes align with good

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and sometimes align with evil;

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they are not fixed.

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Let me use an example to show how precise this system is.

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As you listen to me speak,

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Contact:

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Your ears receive the sound wave signals.

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Attention:

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Your focus is drawn here.

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Feeling:

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You develop a sensation—

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perhaps curiosity, or perhaps boredom.

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Perception:

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You are identifying what these sounds mean.

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Volition:

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You begin to judge—

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does this make sense?

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Should I keep listening?

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These five Universal dharmas

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operated simultaneously just now.

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Moreover, if you find it interesting,

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faith and vigor are also active,

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adding two Virtuous dharmas.

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If you feel tired,

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torpor and restlessness might be taking over,

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adding two Defiled dharmas.

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You see,

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the Sarvastivada school breaks down every second of your mental activity

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into these precise components.

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The fourth category is Disassociated (Cittaviprayuktasamskāra) dharmas.

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There are fourteen types.

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These are quite special.

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They are neither material nor mental,

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but rather some abstract regulatory existences.

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For example, 'obtaining' (prāpti),

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which is the condition for attaining a certain state.

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Life-faculty (jīvitendriya);

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the force that sustains life.

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Birth, persistence, change, and extinction;

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the four stages of everything from arising to vanishing.

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Even the concept of impermanence itself,

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in the Sarvastivada view, is a truly existing dharma.

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It's not just a label we attach to things.

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The fifth category is the unconditioned (asamskrta) dharmas.

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There are three types.

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The first four categories are all conditioned,

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created by causes and conditions.

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Unconditioned dharmas are not created by such causes.

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What are these three?

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First,

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extinction through deliberation (pratisamkhya-nirodha);

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the cessation of afflictions achieved through wisdom,

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which is Nirvana.

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Second,

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extinction not through deliberation (apratisamkhya-nirodha);

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cessation that isn't from active practice,

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but because the necessary conditions simply aren't present.

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The third is space (akasa).

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Space itself isn't something produced;

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it has always been there.

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If you add these five categories up:

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11 plus 1 plus 46 plus 14 plus 3,

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it equals 75.

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This is the Sarvastivada's universal inventory.

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They believe

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everything you experience,

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no matter how complex,

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is ultimately reducible to these 75 basic elements

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operating in different combinations.

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Does this remind you of anything?

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It's essentially a periodic table from 2,000 years ago.

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Chemists explain matter with 100+ elements;

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Sarvastivada explains all experience with 75 dharmas.

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The methodology is almost identical:

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reduce complexity to basic units,

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then analyze how they combine.

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That's why I call them the physicists of Buddhism.

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Their core worldview isn't intuitive or mystical;

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it's analytical.

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It's not about closing your eyes to feel emptiness,

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but opening your eyes to slice reality as thin as possible,

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until it can't be sliced anymore,

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and seeing exactly what each slice is.

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But the 75 dharmas are just their toolbox.

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The core proposition they use this toolbox to prove

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is what truly caused an uproar.

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Real existence across the three times;

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the eternal persistence of the dharma-essence.

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We touched on this concept in the last episode.

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Dharmas in the past, present, and future

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all truly exist.

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The essence of a dharma is always there;

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only its state of function changes.

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Let me use a concrete example to help you understand.

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Imagine a row of 75 switches in front of you.

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Each switch represents a dharma.

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At any given moment,

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some switches are on,

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and some are off.

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The "on" state means the dharma is currently functioning;

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that is the "present."

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The "off" state means it isn't functioning;

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it has either already passed

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or has not yet arrived.

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But whether a switch is on or off,

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the switch itself is always there.

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This is what "real existence in the three times" means.

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The dharma-essence exists throughout all three times;

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it's just sometimes running in the foreground

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and sometimes on standby in the background.

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You might immediately have a sharp rebuttal:

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one of Buddha's core teachings is impermanence.

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Everything changes;

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nothing is eternal.

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If you tell me the dharma-essence is eternal,

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isn't that openly contradicting impermanence?

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The Sarvastivada school responded like this:

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When we speak of "eternal existence,"

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we aren't saying that dharmas never change.

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The states of their function are always changing—

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moving from future to present,

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and from present to past.

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This is impermanence.

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But for a dharma to move from one state to another,

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it must first exist in its own right.

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If a dharma vanished completely in the past,

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how could it produce subsequent causal effects?

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If a dharma didn't yet exist in the future,

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how could a practitioner strive toward a goal that doesn't exist?

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Does this argument make sense?

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To be honest,

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it has an unsettling kind of logic.

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The law of causality requires a connection between cause and effect.

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If the cause no longer exists when the effect is produced,

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on what basis can the effect arise?

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The Sarvastivada answer is:

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The cause has not vanished;

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00:10:15,942 --> 00:10:19,062
it has merely shifted from an active state to an inactive one.

263
00:10:19,062 --> 00:10:20,515
But it remains there,

264
00:10:20,543 --> 00:10:22,956
so the causal link is real.

265
00:10:23,383 --> 00:10:24,596
Interestingly, however,

266
00:10:24,663 --> 00:10:26,822
even within the Sarvastivada school,

267
00:10:26,822 --> 00:10:29,261
precisely how the "three times" truly exist

268
00:10:29,263 --> 00:10:30,716
was a subject of fierce debate.

269
00:10:31,062 --> 00:10:32,422
According to the Abhidharmakośa,

270
00:10:32,423 --> 00:10:35,676
four great masters provided four different explanations.

271
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Dharmatrata said

272
00:10:36,863 --> 00:10:39,635
it is the nature of the dharma that changes through the three times,

273
00:10:39,702 --> 00:10:41,676
much like milk turning into yogurt;

274
00:10:41,702 --> 00:10:43,916
the substance remains, but the nature changes.

275
00:10:44,062 --> 00:10:44,696
Ghosa suggested

276
00:10:45,062 --> 00:10:46,875
it is the characteristics of the dharma that change,

277
00:10:46,942 --> 00:10:50,556
just as a person looks different at various stages of life.

278
00:10:50,903 --> 00:10:51,456
Vasumitra argued

279
00:10:51,743 --> 00:10:53,515
it is the position of the dharma that changes,

280
00:10:53,543 --> 00:10:56,956
like a game piece moving from one square to another;

281
00:10:57,023 --> 00:10:58,475
the piece itself doesn't change,

282
00:10:58,503 --> 00:11:00,676
only its position on the board.

283
00:11:01,263 --> 00:11:01,855
Buddhadeva proposed

284
00:11:02,302 --> 00:11:04,182
it is the relation or status of the dharma that changes,

285
00:11:04,182 --> 00:11:06,556
like a person interacting with two people simultaneously;

286
00:11:06,582 --> 00:11:08,621
they have one relationship with person A,

287
00:11:08,623 --> 00:11:10,796
and a different one with person B.

288
00:11:11,023 --> 00:11:11,855
Four explanations,

289
00:11:12,222 --> 00:11:13,235
four analogies,

290
00:11:13,302 --> 00:11:15,556
and none could satisfy everyone.

291
00:11:15,822 --> 00:11:18,836
Vasumitra's explanation was later considered the most orthodox,

292
00:11:18,903 --> 00:11:20,155
but even so,

293
00:11:20,182 --> 00:11:22,355
the internal debates never fully subsided.

294
00:11:22,543 --> 00:11:24,895
When a school generates four incompatible explanations

295
00:11:25,062 --> 00:11:27,475
for its core doctrine,

296
00:11:27,582 --> 00:11:29,556
it reveals one thing:

297
00:11:29,702 --> 00:11:33,155
the inherent tension in the premise of "existence across three times" is real.

298
00:11:33,342 --> 00:11:36,155
But external critics were even sharper in their attacks.

299
00:11:36,462 --> 00:11:37,135
The Sautrantika school asked,

300
00:11:37,503 --> 00:11:39,995
"If you say the essence of a dharma is eternal,

301
00:11:40,023 --> 00:11:42,735
how is that different from the Brahmanical concept of a permanent Self?"

302
00:11:43,182 --> 00:11:46,515
The Buddha's very mission was to oppose this clinging to permanent entities.

303
00:11:46,663 --> 00:11:48,942
You've built a sophisticated classification system,

304
00:11:48,942 --> 00:11:53,196
yet your foundational assumption is exactly what the Buddha told you to let go of.

305
00:11:53,702 --> 00:11:55,995
The later Madhyamaka school was even more direct.

306
00:11:56,462 --> 00:12:01,475
In his Madhyamakakarika, Nagarjuna dismantle the logic of Sarvastivada point by point.

307
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He said:

308
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"If the essence of a dharma is eternal,

309
00:12:05,023 --> 00:12:06,576
then it exists independently;

310
00:12:06,863 --> 00:12:08,196
it would therefore have a 'self-nature' (svabhava).

311
00:12:08,423 --> 00:12:09,576
If it has a self-nature,

312
00:12:09,863 --> 00:12:11,836
it cannot participate in dependent origination.

313
00:12:12,023 --> 00:12:15,662
Because the definition of dependent origination is that everything arises based on conditions;

314
00:12:15,663 --> 00:12:17,395
nothing has an independent self-nature.

315
00:12:17,822 --> 00:12:19,422
You cannot speak of dependent origination

316
00:12:19,423 --> 00:12:22,475
while ascribing self-nature to the very elements that are supposed to be dependent.

317
00:12:22,702 --> 00:12:24,995
This is a logical contradiction."

318
00:12:25,222 --> 00:12:27,076
This critique was almost fatal.

319
00:12:27,462 --> 00:12:30,475
It pointed out the deepest internal tension of Sarvastivada:

320
00:12:30,743 --> 00:12:33,836
they tried to analyze the world using the Buddha's framework of dependent origination.

321
00:12:34,023 --> 00:12:35,916
But their analytical tools themselves,

322
00:12:35,942 --> 00:12:38,155
the seventy-five dharmas with inherent existence,

323
00:12:38,342 --> 00:12:40,755
directly violate the premise of dependent origination.

324
00:12:41,102 --> 00:12:42,916
It's like a physicist saying,

325
00:12:42,982 --> 00:12:45,076
"I study the universe through reductionism,"

326
00:12:45,383 --> 00:12:48,475
but when asked what the fundamental particles are,

327
00:12:48,663 --> 00:12:52,316
claims they are unanalyzable, eternal, ultimate entities.

328
00:12:52,663 --> 00:12:55,076
Modern physics has already moved past this stage.

329
00:12:55,623 --> 00:12:56,436
We know that

330
00:12:56,462 --> 00:12:59,436
even fundamental particles are not truly solid entities.

331
00:12:59,623 --> 00:13:01,716
They are just excited states of quantum fields,

332
00:13:01,783 --> 00:13:03,015
relationships and processes,

333
00:13:03,342 --> 00:13:04,596
not fixed objects.

334
00:13:05,023 --> 00:13:07,515
As we said when discussing cosmic emergence,

335
00:13:07,623 --> 00:13:11,062
particles are more like a melody hummed by spacetime geometry

336
00:13:11,062 --> 00:13:12,916
than tiny hard balls.

337
00:13:13,543 --> 00:13:17,022
The philosophical dilemma Sarvastivada faced 2,000 years ago

338
00:13:17,023 --> 00:13:19,836
is strikingly similar to that of modern physics.

339
00:13:20,182 --> 00:13:21,535
The deeper you analyze,

340
00:13:21,822 --> 00:13:22,836
the more you realize

341
00:13:22,863 --> 00:13:25,755
that the foundation you thought was solid is not.

342
00:13:26,342 --> 00:13:28,076
Particles are not the ultimate existence,

343
00:13:28,182 --> 00:13:30,275
and neither are the dharmas.

344
00:13:30,783 --> 00:13:34,755
But this discovery only begins when you start analyzing seriously.

345
00:13:34,942 --> 00:13:38,916
If Sarvastivada hadn't questioned the nature of dharmas,

346
00:13:39,143 --> 00:13:41,115
Nagarjuna would have had nothing to deconstruct.

347
00:13:41,503 --> 00:13:44,115
This is the strangest part of intellectual history.

348
00:13:44,462 --> 00:13:46,596
Some mistakes are great mistakes.

349
00:13:46,743 --> 00:13:51,035
Only because someone walked a path to its very end

350
00:13:51,222 --> 00:13:54,422
could those who followed see where it leads,

351
00:13:54,423 --> 00:13:56,355
and where it doesn't.

352
00:13:56,663 --> 00:13:58,316
Returning to our calibration anchor:

353
00:13:58,702 --> 00:14:02,355
Is Sarvastivada closer to or further from

354
00:14:02,582 --> 00:14:03,975
what the Buddha saw under the Bodhi tree?

355
00:14:04,543 --> 00:14:06,635
I think it’s a two-sided answer.

356
00:14:06,863 --> 00:14:07,895
Methodologically,

357
00:14:08,222 --> 00:14:09,235
it moved closer.

358
00:14:09,462 --> 00:14:11,916
The Buddha said all things are dependently originated;

359
00:14:12,062 --> 00:14:15,796
Sarvastivada asked what the units of that origination are.

360
00:14:15,982 --> 00:14:17,995
This direction of inquiry is correct.

361
00:14:18,222 --> 00:14:21,316
You can't stay on the macro-narrative of dependent origination forever;

362
00:14:21,462 --> 00:14:24,155
someone has to do the micro-deconstruction.

363
00:14:24,582 --> 00:14:25,975
But in terms of its core spirit,

364
00:14:26,302 --> 00:14:27,355
it moved further away.

365
00:14:27,582 --> 00:14:29,916
The Buddha's dependent origination is absolute;

366
00:14:29,982 --> 00:14:33,155
nothing can escape the web of interdependence.

367
00:14:33,423 --> 00:14:37,956
By placing dharmas with inherent existence at the bottom,

368
00:14:38,102 --> 00:14:41,676
Sarvastivada laid a foundation of independent existence beneath it.

369
00:14:41,942 --> 00:14:44,596
This is exactly the illusion the Buddha wanted us to see through.

370
00:14:44,942 --> 00:14:46,995
You think you've seen the ultimate reality,

371
00:14:47,102 --> 00:14:49,796
but that reality itself is dependently originated.

372
00:14:49,942 --> 00:14:51,556
Yet it was this very deviation

373
00:14:51,582 --> 00:14:53,836
that sparked an even more powerful return.

374
00:14:54,222 --> 00:14:56,475
When Nagarjuna later wielded the sword of Madhyamaka,

375
00:14:56,663 --> 00:15:00,515
his first target was the Sarvastivada idea of eternal dharma-essence.

376
00:15:00,783 --> 00:15:01,696
Without this target,

377
00:15:01,982 --> 00:15:03,875
that sword would have had nothing to strike.

378
00:15:04,423 --> 00:15:06,916
Intellectual progress is never a straight line;

379
00:15:07,302 --> 00:15:08,875
it's more like a spiral.

380
00:15:09,182 --> 00:15:12,035
Moving forward seems like drifting from the start,

381
00:15:12,222 --> 00:15:13,576
but it's that very deviation

382
00:15:13,903 --> 00:15:15,716
that creates new perspectives,

383
00:15:15,783 --> 00:15:19,316
allowing the next generation to look back from a higher vantage point.

384
00:15:19,543 --> 00:15:23,596
Sarvastivada left two legacies for Buddhist thought.

385
00:15:24,143 --> 00:15:25,995
First is the methodological legacy.

386
00:15:26,462 --> 00:15:31,515
It proved Buddha-dharma can be studied with rigorous analytical tools.

387
00:15:32,102 --> 00:15:35,676
This tradition reached its peak in the Abhidharma system.

388
00:15:36,302 --> 00:15:37,296
What is Abhidharma?

389
00:15:37,903 --> 00:15:40,816
Why is it called the source code of the Buddhist operating system?

390
00:15:41,423 --> 00:15:44,096
How shockingly sophisticated is this system?

391
00:15:44,822 --> 00:15:45,375
In the next episode,

392
00:15:45,663 --> 00:15:46,956
we'll break it down.

393
00:15:47,503 --> 00:15:49,836
The second is the legacy of a negative example.

394
00:15:50,182 --> 00:15:52,275
Its dilemma showed later generations that

395
00:15:52,302 --> 00:15:54,196
reductionism has its limits.

396
00:15:54,423 --> 00:15:57,275
Once you slice the universe into its smallest parts,

397
00:15:57,302 --> 00:16:00,395
you find the parts themselves require explanation.

398
00:16:00,822 --> 00:16:03,316
The knife of analysis cannot cut down forever,

399
00:16:03,342 --> 00:16:04,556
because in the end,

400
00:16:04,582 --> 00:16:06,716
the knife itself is dependently originated.

401
00:16:07,023 --> 00:16:09,875
If this story sounds familiar,

402
00:16:09,903 --> 00:16:13,115
it is because modern science is undergoing the same journey.

403
00:16:13,383 --> 00:16:15,416
From atoms to protons and neutrons,

404
00:16:15,663 --> 00:16:17,316
from quarks to string theory,

405
00:16:17,383 --> 00:16:19,981
every time we think we have found the fundamental unit,

406
00:16:19,982 --> 00:16:23,155
we discover that it can be further deconstructed.

407
00:16:23,462 --> 00:16:26,436
Physicists have yet to break out of this cycle,

408
00:16:26,903 --> 00:16:31,155
but the Buddha offered a possible exit 2,500 years ago.

409
00:16:31,702 --> 00:16:34,035
Perhaps there is no ultimate fundamental unit.

410
00:16:34,462 --> 00:16:37,035
Perhaps relationship itself is everything.

411
00:16:37,062 --> 00:16:41,796
Perhaps searching for an ultimate entity that exists independently,

412
00:16:42,023 --> 00:16:45,035
is in itself the deepest form of attachment.

413
00:16:45,462 --> 00:16:46,096
What do you think?

414
00:16:46,783 --> 00:16:47,775
At the end of reductionism,

415
00:16:48,062 --> 00:16:49,296
where do we truly arrive?

416
00:16:49,822 --> 00:16:50,535
I am Leo Wang.

417
00:16:50,903 --> 00:16:51,970
See you next time.