Tagged: Tṛṣṇā (craving)
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Jurewicz- Playing with Fire (2000)
1In her analysis, Joanna Jurewicz posits that the Buddhist law of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda) is a polemical reinterpretation of Vedic cosmogony, which shares a similar structure and even specific concepts but is stripped of its positive value by the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (anattā). The twelve links of the Buddhist chain are shown to parallel stages of Vedic creation, where concepts like *avidyā* (ignorance) and *saṃskāra* (volition) mirror the Creator's initial state and subsequent will, and later links like *nāmarūpa* (name-and-form) and the sense bases (*ṣaḍāyatana*) map onto the *ātman's* differentiation into the cognized world. The central Vedic metaphor of a creative, divine fire (Agni) is deliberately inverted, with its "thirst" to create becoming the destructive fire of craving (*tṛṣṇā*) and its need for fuel becoming clinging (*upādāna*). By systematically removing the *ātman* as the divine agent, the Buddha reframes the entire desirable Vedic creative process as a meaningless and absurd chain of events that inevitably culminates in suffering through becoming, birth, and death (*bhava, jāti, jarāmaraṇa*).
Sopa - The Special Theory of Pratītyasamutpāda (1986)
2The Buddhist concept of Nirvana is fundamentally a metaphysical experience, defined not as an abstract or rational conclusion but as a direct, immediate, and felt knowledge of ultimate reality or "Being." This experience, which transcends sensory perception, is the goal of Buddhism, aiming for a special wisdom (prajñā) or intuitive understanding of the Ultimate Truth that underlies all phenomena. Evidence from early texts like the *Buddha-carita*, which describes the Buddha's enlightenment as a perfect, intuitive knowledge of all things, and interpretations from scholars like D.T. Suzuki, who characterizes Satori as a profound, non-conceptual awakening, both support the view of Nirvana as an experiential encounter with the metaphysical foundation of existence itself.