At
the time of rise of Buddhism there were many views about the nature of the
living being. The main view was that living being is a creation of the Supreme
Creator God. This was a part of the theistic teaching of the early Vedic
religion. Then in the Upaniṣads living being was regarded as originating from Brāhman,
the Universal Soul, a metaphysical concept. Such teaching considered part of
the living being as permanent and another part as impermanent. Pakuddha
Kaccāyana presented a theory of seven absolute static factors, namely: the four
great elements, sukha, dukkha and jīva as constituent factors of the being.
Jainas presented a mixed theory. As against these views, which the Buddha
rejected, He presented a number of analyses of the living being, specially the
human being. Among these are: nāma-rūpa (name and form), pañcakkhandha (five
aggregates), cha-dhātu (six elements), dvādasāyatana (12 bases) and aṭṭhārasadhātu
(18 dhātus). All these analyses could be included in the name of nāma-rūpa
analysis, which is very general and broad. Nāma-rūpa analysis is a very broad
division of the being into name and form or mind and matter. This basically
differentiates living beings from non-living beings. Non-living things have
only material components - the four great elements – paṭhavī, āpo, tejo and
vāyo. The nāma-rūpa analysis is a well-balanced analysis for it clearly
emphasized the physical aspects of the living being. Hence, it presented
Buddhism from becoming either a rigid kind of materialism and from becoming an
absolute kind of idealism. Besides, it also brought out the interdependence and
interrelation of these two aspects. Interrelation and interdependence closely
indicate the absense of any permanent factor. Both aspects are mutually
dependent and hence have no independent existence. This helped to completely
reject the belief in a permanent entity called a soul, attā (ātman). Thus
Buddhism was able to reject the divine creation theory of the living being and
explain its nature according to the theory of causality, Paṭiccasamuppāda.
Buddhism explains that whatever in Paṭiccasamuppāda is arising due to causes
and conditions is bound to cease with the break down of these causes and
conditions
Ye
dhammā hetuppabhavā,
tesaṃ hetuṃ tathāgato āha.
tesañca yo nirodho
evaṃ
vādī mahāsamaṇo.
Hetuṃ
paṭicca sambhūtaṃ, hetubhaṅgā nirujjhati. Thus the living being is presented in
Buddhism as a collection of dynamic forces explained differently as khandhas,
āyatanas, dhātus, dhammās etc. In the name nāma-rūpa analysis nāma is
constituted of the psychological aspect of man. This is explained in the
pañcakkhandha analysis as vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā and viññāṇa. The rūpa
repsresents the corporal aspect. Thus the living being in Buddhism is
represented as a combination of psychophysical and physical forces.
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