Sassatavada (
Pali
Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...
), also śāśvata-dṛṣṭi (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
), usually translated "eternalism", is a kind of thinking rejected by the Buddha in the
nikayas (and
agamas). One example of it is the belief that the individual has an unchanging
self
In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes.
The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...
. Views of this kind were held at the Buddha's time by a variety of groups.
The Buddha rejected this and the opposite concept of ''ucchedavada'' (
annihilationism) on both logical and epistemic grounds. He proposed a
Middle Way
The Middle Way (; ) as well as "teaching the Dharma by the middle" (''majjhena dhammaṃ deseti'') are common Buddhist terms used to refer to two major aspects of the Dharma, that is, the teaching of the Buddha. The first phrasing, the Middle ...
between these extremes, relying not on
ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...
but on
causality.
Eternalism included the belief that the extinction of things means their latency and the production of things means their manifestation — this violates the Buddha's principle of the middle way.
[K. Venkata Ramanan, ''Nagarjuna's Philosophy: As Presented in the Maha-Prajnaparamita-Sastra.'' Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1993, page 60.]
References
Buddhist philosophical concepts
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