ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we saw that the nirvana concept found in the later Theravada exegeses was of cessation consisting in non-arising and of existing separately (pAMiyekka) from the mere destruction of passion, hatred and delusion. Apart from numbers, their concept seems to come close to that of the Sarvastivadins that had been established from their unique position: insisting on the existence of all dharmas in the three time periods while accepting the momentariness of conditioned dharmas.1 As seen briefly in Chapter 3, under ‘The Chinese abhidharma works’, their equivalent of nirvana was called extinction through knowledge (pratisaNkhyAnirodha), which was a single perpetual separation of an impure dharma from a series of aggregates through the antidote, ‘acquisition of disjunction’ (visaNyogaprApti ).
