Teachers & Sects Contemporary of the Buddha

In India, at the time that the ascetic Gautama set out on his quest for Truth, there were many that were no longer content with the perfunctory rituals of Brahmanic religion. There were ascetics in northwestern India who tried to extend beyond the Vedic scriptures and as a consequence the Upanishads developed out of this movement with a new emphasis on renunciation and transcendental knowledge. Northeastern India, however, was even less influenced by the Aryans who had developed the main tenets and practices of the Vedic religion and this became the breeding ground of many unorthodox sects.

Eternalistic Theories - sassata v±da:

• Pakudha Kacc±yana, held the view that there were seven eternal elements i.e. apodh±tu (element of cohesion - fluidity), tejodhatu (element of heat - fire), v±yodhatu (element of mobility - wind), paµhavidh±tu (element of earth), sukha (pleasures), dukkha (pain), and jiva (soul). These elements are neither created nor molded. They are immutable. Hence a person cannot be killed. If a person is pierced with a sword it only passes through the interspace of the elements forming the body. At death the body is dissolved into the seven eternal elements.

• Makkhali Gosala, founder of the ¾jivaka sect, which emphasized a law of fate, posited the theory called ‘sa½sara visuddhi’ i.e. that all beings are subject to a fixed series of existences (sa½s±ra), ranging from the lowest to the highest. He believed that sa½s±ra was a cycle of reanimation, a process by which all beings had to pass until thoroughly purified and freed from suffering when the cycle completed. Like unraveling a ball of thread, sa½sara has a fixed terminus when the process is completely played out. Also, this process of purification cannot be altered; good or bad deeds have no effect on ones destiny.

• Jainism, founded by Mahavira, has often been misunderstood as similar to Buddhism because it advocates the principles of ahi½s± ‘nonviolence’ and the absence of belief in a creator god. Jain metaphysics, however, is vastly different, its cosmology dividing into two ultimate and independent categories of 1) soul or living substance (j²va), which permeates the natural forces of wind and fire as well as living organisms such as plants, animals, and human beings, and 2) non-soul, or inanimate factors (aj²va), which includes space, time and matter.

The most important tenet of Jain doctrine is that of karma, which contrasts differently to the traditional Vedic or even contemporary Buddhist conception of the principle; in Jainism it is regarded as a substance that is subtle and invisible, although material, which flows into and impedes the j²va, causing the entanglement of life to the process of transmigration. This ‘inflow’ of karmic-matter can be stopped by many lives of penance and discipline, resulting in the final moksha ‘liberation’ the ultimate goal. Souls are divided into those that have attained perfection and those still in bondage.

• A pre-S±½khya sect (a sect founded by Kapila) had already been established in the region, which taught that the individual soul was limitless (na antav± – without limit) on the one hand, and of an all-pervasive substantial matter on the other.

Annihilationist Theories - uccheda v±da:

• Ajita Kesakambali, held a nihilistic view. He taught that there is no life after death, that man consists of four elements and when he dies that these elements return to their respective origin, at which time he is completely annihilated. Consequently, because nothing remains after death, there is no purpose in trying to cultivate merit through good deeds to others, sacrifices or filial piety.

• Still others presented an amoral view. Purana Kassapa taught inaction; that because nothing survived death, that merit or demerit had no lasting consequence. These schools were known as Akiriyav±din, which completely disregarded morality, a consequence of these teachings led to a hedonic lifestyle (k±masukhallikanuyoga).
While some annihilationists denied the existence of the soul (±tman), still others claimed that even if it did exist it was temporary and if not annihilated at the terminus of this world, then in the world of sense (k±ma-loka), or the world of form (r³pa-loka), or in one of the formless states (arup±-loka). And although they allowed for the dualism of a mutually-exclusive body and soul, they insisted that although the soul may continue after the death of the body, that eventually it would be completely destroyed.