Pakudha Kaccayana

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Pakudha Kaccāyana was an Indian Brahmin^[1] ascetic teacher who lived around the 5th or 4th c. BCE, contemporaneous with Mahavira and the Buddha.

*The Views of Six Samana* in the Pali Canon** (based on the Sāmaññaphala Sutta¹)
Question: "Is it possible to point out the fruit of the contemplative life, visible in the here and now?"¹
samaṇa	view (diṭṭhi)
Pūraṇa Kassapa	Amoralism: denies any reward or punishment for either good or bad deeds.
Makkhali Gosāla	Fatalism: we are powerless; suffering is pre-destined.
Ajita Kesakambalī	Materialism: with death, all is annihilated.
Pakudha Kaccāyana	Eternalism: Matter, pleasure, pain and the soul are eternal and do not interact.
Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta	Restraint: be endowed with, cleansed by and suffused with the avoidance of all evil.²
Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta	Agnosticism: "I don't think so. I don't think in that way or otherwise. I don't think not or not not."
Notes:	1. DN 2 (Thanissaro, 1997; Walshe, 1995, pp. 91-109). 2. DN-a (Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi, 1995, pp. 1258-59, n. 585).

According to Pakudha, there are seven eternal "elements": Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Joy, Sorrow and Life. Pakudha further asserted that these elements do not interact with one another.

The Samannaphala Sutta (DN 2) represents Pakudha's views as follows:

"'...[T]here are these seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain. Which seven? The earth-substance, the liquid-substance, the fire-substance, the wind-substance, pleasure, pain, and the soul as the seventh. These are the seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, and are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain.

"'And among them there is no killer nor one who causes killing, no hearer nor one who causes hearing, no cognizer nor one who causes cognition. When one cuts off [another person's] head, there is no one taking anyone's life. It is simply between the seven substances that the sword passes.'"^[2]

In the Brahmajala Sutta (DN 1), theories such as Pakudha's are labeled as "non-action" (Pali/Skt.: akiriyavāda)^[3] and "eternalism" (sassatavādā).^[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

^ P. 90, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names By George Peiris Malalasekera
^ Thanissaro (1997).
^ Bhaskar (1972). Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 215, entry for "Kiriya" defines akiriyavāda as: "denying the difference between merit & demerit."
^ Bhaskar (1972).Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 700, entry for "Sassata" defines sassata-vāda as: "an eternalist, eternalism."

[edit] Sources

Bhaskar, Bhagchandra Jain (1972). Jainism in Buddhist Literature. Alok Prakashan: Nagpur. Available on-line at http://jainfriends.tripod.com/books/jiblcontents.html.
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) and Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2001). The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-072-X.
Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life (DN 2). Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html.
Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (trans.) (1995). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Somerville: Wisdom Publications. ISBN: 0-86171-103-3.