불교학연구 (Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies) 제66호(2021.3) pp. 1∼49 10.21482/jbs.66..20213.1 Why Change Is the Only Constant: The Teachings on Momentariness Found in Xuanzang’s Translation of the Abhidharma Treatises of Saṅghabhadra* Ernest Billings (Billy) Brewster Lecturer, Iona College
[email protected] I. Introduction III. Untangling the Knots in the Theory of II. Saṅghabhadra on the Constancy of the Continuum of Nine Factors Change IV. Conclusion Summary Within the Abhidharma literature, the doctrinal discussions on momentariness composed by the fifth-century C.E. Indic theorist, Saṅghabhadra, and rendered into Chinese by the pilgrim and scholar-monk, Xuanzang (602?–667 C.E.), stand as rigorous and detailed defenses of the Buddhist tenet of momentariness. This paper examines several passages on the doctrine of momentariness that are extant only within Xuanzang’s Chinese translations of two treatises by Saṅghabhadra, the Treatise Conforming to the Correct Logic of Abhidharma (Sanskrit, hereafter Skt. *Abhidharmanyāyānusāraśāstra; Chinese, hereafter Chi. Apidamo shun zhengli lun 阿毘達磨順正理論) and the Treatise Clarifying the Treasury of Abhidharma Tenets (Skt. * I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Jakub Zamorski for numerous comments, suggestions, and corrections on the translations. I thank Dr. John Makeham for commenting on my paper as a panel respondent at the meeting of the European Association for Chinese Philosophy meeting in Ghent in 2019. The three anonymous reviewers also provided invaluable feedback, which I have tried to incorporate wherever possible. Why Change Is the Only Constant: The Teachings on Momentariness Found in Xuanzang’s Translation … 1 *Abhidharmasamayapradīpikāśāstra; Chi. Apidamo zang xianzong lun 阿毘達磨顯宗論).