The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle - The Prajñaptivādins

Textual analysis and comparative discussion on early Buddhist sects and scriptures.
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Ceisiwr
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The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle - The Prajñaptivādins

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Prajñaptivāda

According to northern traditions the Prajñaptivādins broke away from the main Mahāsāṃghika tradition immediately after the Bahuśrutīyas. Their name means "the designators", those who uphold the doctrine of designation. They are said to have still been existence in the 9th and 10th centuries, before dying out.

Texts
Nothing is known about their literature.

Doctrines
1) Suffering is neither an aggregate nor exists outside of the aggregates.

2) The 12 ayatana are not finished and complete realities. Since things are merely an accumulation of elements they do not exist, and since their nature varies with time they are not finished realities.

3) Conditioned things, which evolve interpedently, being mere designations (prajñapti) are suffering.

4) Suffering is an absolute reality.

5) A man is not an agent.

6) There is no untimely death. Previous actions cause death.

7) All suffering comes from actions.

8) The Path is not a mental factor.

9) Because of accumulation of actions, development of the fruit of fruition occurs.

10) The Noble Path is attained through merit. Virtuous conduct and the merit this entails are the reason why undefiled knowledge is acquired.

11) The Path cannot be cultivated.

12) The Path cannot be destroyed. When one has attained the Noble Path, one remains there definitively.

Up next: The Caitīyas/Caitikas.
“The teacher willed that this world appear to me
as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial.
Mind, let me leap into the victor’s teaching,
carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass.”
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