- Attainment of cessation (of notions and feeling,
nirodhasamapatti), the highest state of trance - Life force (jlvitendriya)
- Birth or origination (jati)
- Duration (sthiti)
- Old age or decay (jara)
- Impermanence or extinction (anityata)
The last three factors are the characteristics of a con-
ditioned factor:
- Force imparting meaning to letters (vyañjana-
kaya) - Force imparting meaning to words (namakaya)
- Force imparting meaning to phrases (padakaya)
Finally, there are three unformed factors. They are:
- Space (aka ́as)
- Extinction through discernment (pratisamkhya-
nirodha), namely through comprehension of the
truths and separation from impure factors - Extinction not through discernment (aprati-
samkhyanirodha), owing to a lack of a produc-
tive cause
Some Sautrantikas asserted that these factors are not
real. They count forty-three factors. All factors exist in
all three time periods of past, present, future. This be-
lief explains the term Sarvastivada,which means “the
teaching that all exists.” The Mahs ́asakas, who split
from the Sarvastivada, supported the Sarvastivada in
this thesis.
A general classification of all factors could be: (1)
impure (sasrava) factors, chiefly influenced by igno-
rance, and (2) pure (anasrava) factors, tending toward
appeasement under the influence of wisdom.
Theravada dhammatheory
The Theravada dhammatheory is outlined in the
school’s Abhidhammapitaka,primarily in the Dham-
masan ̇gani(Enumeration of Dhammas) and in the
Dhatukatha(Discussion of Elements). The ethical clas-
sification of dhammasas wholesome, unwholesome,
and neutral (avyakata) is central. The last category has
four divisions:
- Resultant consciousness or thinking (vipakacitta)
- Functional consciousness (kriyacitta)
- Matter
- The unconditioned factor nibbana(nirvana)
Some factors are not found in the traditional three-
fold classification. For example, matter contains the
faculty “femininity” (itthindriya). The final Theravada
dhammatheory is found in manuals dating from the
fifth century on. Knowing that they belong to the
Sthaviravada group, it is not surprising that there is
Sarvastivada (Sautrantika) influence. Buddhadatta, a
fifth-century contemporary of Skandhila, makes a
fourfold classification in his Abhidhammavatara(In-
troduction to Scholasticism): form, thought, mentals,
nibbana.BUDDHAGHOSA, in the fifth century, defines
factors as “those which maintain their own specific
nature,” while Buddhadatta says factors possess spe-
cific and general characteristics. Theravada typically
uses a classification of 170 factors and four categories,
but there are other classifications, such as eighty-one
conditioned factors (matter 28, thought 1, mental 52)
and one unconditioned factor, nibbana.Analysis of dharmas in the
Madhyamaka school
The MAHASAMGHIKA SCHOOL, rival of the Sarvastivada
ever since the first schism, multiplied the number of
unconditioned factors, even adding dependent origi-
nation itself to the list. One Mahasamghika subschool,
the Prajñaptivada, taught that conditioned factors are
only denominations (prajñapti) and the twelve bases
are the products of the aggregates, the only real enti-
ties. Another subschool, the Lokottaravada, held that
only the unconditioned factors are real. The ideas of
the Mahayana MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL may have
started within the Mahasamghika milieu in north-
western India, in opposition to the dominant Sar-
vastivada school. The Madhyamaka school itself was
organized in southern India (Andhra) around 200 C.E.,
at the same time that the Vaibhasikas were organizing
in Kashmir to the north. The Madhyamaka school re-
jected the reality of any factor and claimed that all con-
ceptual thinking was empty (s ́unya). The real is devoid
of thought-construction (vikalpa) and can be realized
only through nondual wisdom (prajñaa). NAGARJUNA
(ca. second century C.E.) interpreted the law of de-
pendent origination to mean relativity or S ́UNYATA
(EMPTINESS). According to Nagarjuna, nothing is
real when taken separately. He was not interested inDHARMA ANDDHARMAS