RLG206H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3.2.2: Pudgala, Personalism, Menander I
Document Summary
Page 101-104: passing away (and arising) from moment to moment, of things, of dharmas. Dharma = basic constituent elements of reality. In any case, the impermanence of life was closely related to the doctrine of no self: doctrine of no self became the hallmark of buddhist doctrine. The notion that there is no abiding self that can be called the self (atman) is not an easy one for westerners to accept, but it caused difficulties or buddhists as well. There was at least one mainstream buddhist sect, the personalists (pudgalavadins) who held that even though there was no self, there is something called a person (pudgala, pali: puggala) which was ineffable (indescribable) It was neither the same nor different from the accumulations of elements (skandhas) that make up human beings and all of its reality. A lot of scholastic energy was used by buddhists of other schools to refute the personalist doctrine.
