Selfless Person in Vaibhāṣika: Refutation of Pudgalavādins and Tirthikas Theory of Self

Abstract

Vaibhaṣika developed a selfless concept of person which is a collection of aggregates. That person is not a distinct entity, but a collection of aggregates. For them self is only an idea (vijñaptisat) that is compound of skandhas and has no reality apart from them. Rejecting the Pudgalvādins and Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika view about self, Vaibhāṣika holds that all phenomena are selfless. They argue that if self is conceived as person, it has to independently identified, but there is nothing exist apart from the aggregates. Suffering arises from the mistaken view of the collection of impermanent aggregates.