Vaibhāṣika

Brief definition

Vaibhāṣika is a realist Abhidharma school (associated especially with the Sarvāstivādins of Kaśmīr) that holds that external objects and dharmas exist in all three times (past, present, and future), and that many of these dharmas are directly knowable through perception.

Contrast with Sautrāntika

Sautrāntika largely accepts the Abhidharma dharma-theory but rejects the Vaibhāṣika claim that dharmas exist in all three times, insisting instead on the strict momentariness of dharmas. It is also more critical of the range of what can be known directly by perception, emphasizing inference for many objects that Vaibhāṣika treats as perceptible.

Contrast with Cittamātra (Yogācāra)

In contrast to Cittamātra’s “mind-only” stance, Vaibhāṣika is a strong external realist: external objects and material dharmas exist independently of consciousness and can be directly known. Whereas Cittamātra questions or denies the existence of independently existent external objects, Vaibhāṣika treats them as ultimately real constituents of the world.

Contrast with Madhyamaka

Compared with Madhyamaka, which claims that all phenomena are empty (śūnya) of inherent existence even at the ultimate level, Vaibhāṣika affirms that dharmas have intrinsic natures (svabhāva) and are ultimately real. Madhyamaka thus radicalizes the critique of intrinsic nature that Vaibhāṣika never accepts, relegating Abhidharma categories to the level of conventional designation.

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Chandrakīrti’s critique (very brief)

From Chandrakīrti’s Prāsaṅgika standpoint, Vaibhāṣika realism mistakes the analytic project of Abhidharma for an ultimate ontology. By treating dharmas (especially material ones) as intrinsically existent building blocks of reality, it fails to see that even these most basic entities are empty of svabhāva. For Chandrakīrti, Vaibhāṣika’s appeal to directly perceived ultimately real dharmas is precisely what Madhyamaka undercuts through prasaṅga reasoning about dependent origination.

Vaibhāṣika

See also