them; the mutual attraction of things is due to moisture or the quality of water, and so forth.  The four elements are to be observed from three aspects, namely, (1) as things, (2) from the point of view of their natures (such as activity, moisture, etc.), and (3) function (such as dh@rti or attraction, sa@mgraha or cohesion, pakti or chemical heat, and vyuhana or clustering and collecting).  These combine together naturally by other conditions or causes.  The main point of distinction between the Vaibha@sika Sarvastivadins and other forms of Buddhism is this, that here the five skandhas and matter are regarded as permanent and eternal; they are said to be momentary only in the sense that they are changing their phases constantly, owing to their constant change of combination.  Avidya is not regarded here as a link in the chain of the causal series of pratityasamutpada; nor is it ignorance of any particular individual, but is rather identical with “moha” or delusion and represents the ultimate state of immaterial dharmas.  Avidya, which through sa@mskara, etc., produces namarupa in the case of a particular individual, is not his avidya in the present existence but the avidya of his past existence bearing fruit in the present life.

“The cause never perishes but only changes its name, when it becomes an effect, having changed its state.”  For example, clay becomes jar, having changed its state; and in this case the name clay is lost and the name jar arises [Footnote ref 1].  The Sarvastivadins allowed simultaneousness between cause and effect only in the case of composite things (sa@mprayukta hetu) and in the case of

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[Footnote 1:  Sogen’s quotation from Kumarajiva’s Chinese version of Aryyadeva’s commentary on the Madhyamika s’astra (chapter XX.  Karika 9).]

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the interaction of mental and material things.  The substratum of “vijnana” or “consciousness” is regarded as permanent and the aggregate of the five senses (indriyas) is called the perceiver.  It must be remembered that the indriyas being material had a permanent substratum, and their aggregate had therefore also a substratum formed of them.

The sense of sight grasps the four main colours of blue, yellow, red, white, and their combinations, as also the visual forms of appearance (sa@msthana) of long, short, round, square, high, low, straight, and crooked.  The sense of touch (kayendriya) has for its object the four elements and the qualities of smoothness, roughness, lightness, heaviness, cold, hunger and thirst.  These qualities represent the feelings generated in sentient beings by the objects of touch, hunger, thirst, etc., and are also counted under it, as they are the organic effects produced by a touch which excites the physical frame at a time when the energy of wind becomes active in our body