ABSTRACT
Having described the conditioned, we now turn to the Unconditioned. The Absolute occurs in an impersonal form as the ‘Unconditioned’ or ‘Nirvana’, and in an apparently personal form as the ‘Buddha’ or ‘Tathāgata’ (cf. pp. 171 sq.). The Sūtras had spoken of the transcendence of Nirvana in deeply felt poetical language. The bulk of the Abhidharma literature is concerned with an analysis of the conditioned. Statements about the Unconditioned are fairly rare and in the main deal with three themes. The first of these has been discussed at length in part I, where Nirvana was defined in relation to the three marks of all conditioned things (cf. pp. 71 sq.). The second and third concern its relation to causality and existence, and require a few words here. It is only with the Mahāyāna that interest definitely shifts to the Unconditioned which becomes the almost exclusive topic of discussion, its transcendence being guarded against misunderstandings not only by piling negation upon negation, but also by continuous attempts at defining the exact significance of the negative sentences employed.
