Pudgalavada

The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; English: "Personalism"; Pali: Puggalavāda; ) was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of Nikaya Buddhist schools (mainly known as Vātsīputrīyas) that arose from the Sthavira nikāya. The school is believed to have been founded by the elder Vātsīputra in the third century BCE. They were a widely influential school in India and became particularly popular during the reign of emperor Harshavadana (606–647 CE). Harsha's sister Rajyasri was said to have joined the school as a nun. According to Dan Lusthaus, they were "one of the most popular mainstream Buddhist sects in India for more than a thousand years." The Pudgalavādins asserted that while there is no ātman, there exists a pudgala (person) or sattva (being) which is neither a conditioned dharma nor an unconditioned dharma. This doctrine of the person was their method of accounting for karma, rebirth, and nirvana. For the Pudgalavādins, the pudgala was what underwent rebirth through successive lives in samsara and what experiences nirvana. They defended this view through philosophical argument as well as scriptural citation. According to Thiện Châu and Richard Gombrich, they used the Bharaharasutta as a major reference for their view. This text states that the person (pudgala) is the bearer of the five aggregates, and that the taking up of them is craving and suffering: Bhārā have pañcakkhandhā, bhārahāro ca puggalo; Bhārādānaṁ dukhaṁ loke, bhāranikkhepanaṁ sukhaṁ.The five aggregates are truly burdens, and the burden-carrier is the person. Taking up the burden is suffering in the world, Laying the burden down is blissful. The Kathavatthu also mentions that the Pudgalavādins relied on the following statements by the Buddha: "there is a person who exerts for his own good" and "there appears a person who is reborn for the good and happiness of many, for showing compassion to the world of beings". The Pudgalavādins held that this person was "inexpressible" and indeterminate in its relation to the five aggregates and could not be said to be neither the same as the aggregates nor different.