we say which of the two is right? Both equally conform to truth and
lead us to Nirvana" and so on. But he does not say that the other two
systems are also aspects of the truth. This is the more remarkable
because he himself followed the Mula-sarvastivadins. Apparently
Sarvastivadin and Vaibhashika were different names for the same
school, the latter being applied to them because they identified
themselves with the commentary (Vibhasha) already mentioned whereas
the former and older designation came to be used chiefly with
reference to their disciplinary rules. Also there were two groups of
Sarvastivadins, those of Gandhara and those of Kashmir. The name of
Vaibhashika was applied chiefly to the latter who, if we may find a
kernel of truth in legends which are certainly exaggerated,
endeavoured to make Kashmir a holy land with a monopoly of the pure
doctrine. Vasubandhu and Asanga appear to have broken up this
isolation for they first preached the Vaibhashika doctrines in a
liberal and eclectic form outside Kashmir and then by a natural
transition and development went over to the Mahayana. But the
Vaibhashikas did not disappear and were in existence even in the
fourteenth century.[232] Their chief tenet was the real existence of
external objects. In matters of doctrine they regarded their own
Abhidharma as the highest authority.[233] They also held that Gotama
had an ordinary human body and passed first into a preliminary form of
Nirvana when he attained Buddhahood and secondly into complete Nirvana
at his death. He was superhuman only in the sense that he had
intuitive knowledge and no need to learn. Their contempt for sutras
may have been due to the fact that many of them discountenance the
Vaibhashika views and also to a knowledge that new ones were
continually being composed.

I-Ching, who ends his work by asserting that all his statements are
according to the Arya-mula-sarvastivada-nikaya and no other, gives an
interesting summary of doctrine.

"Again I say: the most important are only one or two out of eighty
thousand doctrines of the Buddha: one should conform to the worldly
path but inwardly strive to secure true wisdom. Now what is the
worldly path? It is obeying prohibitive laws and avoiding any crime.
What is the true wisdom? _It is to obliterate the distinction between
subject and object_, to follow the excellent truth and to free oneself
from worldly attachments: to do away with the trammels of the chain