Note (return) — SA@NKARA'S INTRODUCTION (continued 4)

That doctrine is presented in a variety of forms, due either to the difference of the views (maintained by Buddha at different times), or else to the difference of capacity on the part of the disciples (of Buddha). Three principal opinions may, however, be distinguished; the opinion of those who maintain the reality of everything (Realists, sarvâstitvavâdin); the opinion of those who maintain that thought only is real (Idealists, vijñànavâdin); and the opinion of those who maintain that everything is void (unreal; Nihilists, sûnyavâdin384).—We first controvert those who maintain that everything, external as well as internal, is real. What is external is either element (bhûta) or elementary (bhautika); what is internal is either mind (kitta) or mental (kaitta). The elements are earth, water, and so on; elemental are colour, &c. on the one hand, and the eye and the other sense-organs on the other hand. Earth and the other three elements arise from the aggregation of the four different kinds of atoms; the atoms of earth being hard, those of water viscid, those of fire hot, those of air mobile.:—The inward world consists of the five so-called 'groups' (skandha), the group of sensation (rûpaskandha), the group of knowledge (vijñânaskandha), the group of feeling (vedanâskandha), the group of verbal knowledge (samjñâskandha), and the group of impressions (samskâraskandha)385; which taken together constitute the basis of all personal existence386.