Chapter 3: Seeds and the distinctive transformation of the continuum¶

How actions and their results span time is a question no Buddhist metaphysics can avoid. The Sarvāstivādins entrust it to two entities, acquisition and nonmanifest material form. Vasubandhu entrusts it to a formulation, seeds and the distinctive transformation of the continuum. This chapter sets that formulation out as a complete doctrine, then tests the verdict left by Essay 15. After simplification, the problem has not disappeared; it is merely borne by the seed alone. Whether that verdict holds depends on whether the seed is another formal entity or a truly different path.

The division of labor among the terms. The six characters 相續轉變差別, "distinctive transformation of the continuum," occur fifteen times in the thirty fascicles. They form a precise set of technical terms. "Continuum" is the flow of mind and mental factors arising in successive moments without an interval. "Transformation" is the difference between earlier and later states of this flow. "Distinction" is the superior capacity to produce a result attained when the transformation reaches a particular moment.¹ "Seed" is the name given to this set of capacities. A dharma with the capacity to produce a result within its own continuum is called a seed. One point must be remembered from the outset. This entire set of terms is nominally established. Continuum is not a dharma, transformation is not a dharma, and distinction is not a dharma. They are ways of describing moments. The Sarvāstivādins posit entities; Vasubandhu supplies descriptions. This asymmetry is the chapter's starting point.

The mechanism of replacement. The passage in fascicle 4 is crucial. The Sarvāstivādins ask how, without acquisition, one can distinguish defilements already abandoned from those not yet abandoned. Vasubandhu answers, "Whether defilements have been abandoned is established through a difference in the support. Through the power of the paths of seeing and cultivation, noble persons transform their supporting bodies so that they differ from before. Their supporting bodies no longer have the capacity to bring forth the defilements abandoned by those two paths. It is like a seed burned by fire, transformed from its earlier state and no longer capable of producing a result. When a noble person's supporting body thus has no capacity to produce defilements, this is called abandoning defilements." The conclusion follows immediately. "Those not yet abandoned are spoken of as possessed; those already abandoned as not possessed. These two are merely nominal, not real."¹ One passage completes three steps. Change is brought back from acquisition outside the dharma's substance to the supporting body's own capacities. Abandonment changes from replacing a relation of belonging to burning away an ability. Acquisition and nonacquisition are then declared to be mere names for these two states. Once the replacement is established, what it replaces is no longer needed. Chapter 4 of Essay 15 said that Vasubandhu's refutation of acquisition was his most thorough. Here is why. He does not merely regard acquisition as redundant. He already has something that can replace it.

The weight of this passage, an early form of transformation of the basis. The Vibhāṣā line describes abandonment in fascicle 157 as neither cutting with a knife nor grinding with a stone. One merely abandons the acquisition of bondage and acquires the acquisition of disjunction. The substances of defilements continue to exist eternally. Only the relation of belonging changes.² Vasubandhu's formulation is "the supporting body transforms and differs from before." Change falls on the continuum's own capacities. The difference between the two paths concerns the bearer, not the conclusion. The Sarvāstivādins place change in a formal entity because their ontology does not allow a dharma's substance to change. Vasubandhu puts change back into the continuum and therefore has no need for that entity. The seven characters 所依身轉變異本, "the supporting body transforms and differs from before," are an early form of the later Yogācāra term "transformation of the basis." This passage is the book's turning point away from Sarvāstivāda and the first step toward the next major system. "Seed" occurs twenty-six times in the thirty fascicles, always with this use.¹

Testing the verdict. Now return to the statement in Essay 15. The problem has not disappeared; it is merely borne by the seed. The test finds it half right and half wrong. The right half is that explanation across time does indeed fall entirely on seeds. Why is action not lost from one life to the next? The answer shifts from acquisition's constant accompaniment to the successive transmission of capacity within the continuum. The question has been postponed, not ended. Chapter 7 of Essay 15 said that both sides leave the same explanatory task unfinished. That verdict stands. The other half is wrong because the two sides leave it unfinished in different ways. Acquisition is a real dharma. It leaves a new entity, and that entity generates further problems, as acquisition of acquisition shows. A seed is nominally established. It leaves a description that has not yet been completed. The description can continue without making more things. Both are unfinished, but on one side the unfinished items keep accumulating, while on the other no more are added. The simplification is real. What remains unresolved is still unresolved, but it no longer generates new unresolved problems of its own.

On to Chapter 4. The replacement is in place. The next chapter examines the row of things it replaces, acquisition, nonacquisition, the life faculty, the commonality of sentient beings, and nonmanifest material form. How are they struck from the list one by one, and what new criterion is used to strike them out?

References¶