This paper is the third part of an annotated Japanese translation of Louis de la Valée Poussin’s French translation of Nyāyānusāra 50-52 (Taisho 29, pp.621-636), an Abhidharma text discussing the Sarvāstivādin theory of the real existence of dharmas in the three time periods. First, the Sarvāstivādin theorist Saṃghabhadra considers the real existence of dharmas in the three time periods by examining the Paramārthaśūnyatāsūtra and the Lāguḍaśikhīyakasūtra. Referring to these two sūtras, Saṃghabhadra refutes the assertion of no real existence of past and future dharmas established by Sautrāntika Vasubandhu and Sthavira Śrīlāta and insists on the real existence of past and future dharmas. For instance, he refers to the following passage of the Paramārthaśūnyatāsūtra saying “When an eye organ arises, there is no place from which it comes, and when it disappears, there is no place to store it. It does not exist previously, but it exists now. When it terminates its existence, it goes away.” Saṃghabhadra interprets this passage as follows: “The eye organ does not exist in any particular place in future time. But it does have some kind of reality and exists as a future thing. It arises with causes and conditions, and arrives at a position in the present time, then causes actions, produces effects, goes away, and attain a state of inactivity in the past time. According to Saṃghabhadra, this passage in the Paramārthaśūnyatāsūtra is expounded not in order to deny the real existence of dharmas in the future and past times but simply to demonstrate the causal relationships between past dharmas and their actions and future dharmas and their actions as real existences, and thereby shows that there are no such things as ̄atmans as the subject of actions. As shown above, Saṃghabhadra interprets the sutra passages from the standpoint of the theory of the real existence of dharmas in the three time periods, and refutes the theory of no real existence of the past and future dharmas established by Vasubandhu and Śrīlāta.
