According to Pakudha, there are seven eternal "elements": Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Joy, Sorrow and Life. Pakudha further asserted that these elements do not
interact with one another. The
Samannaphala Sutta (
DN 2) represents Pakudha's views as follows: :"'...[T]here are these seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain. Which seven? The earth-substance, the liquid-substance, the fire-substance, the wind-substance, pleasure, pain, and the soul as the seventh. These are the seven substances — unmade, irreducible, uncreated, without a creator, barren, stable as a mountain-peak, standing firm like a pillar — that do not alter, do not change, do not interfere with one another, and are incapable of causing one another pleasure, pain, or both pleasure and pain. :"'And among them there is no killer nor one who causes killing, no hearer nor one who causes hearing, no cognizer nor one who causes cognition. When one cuts off [another person's] head, there is no one taking anyone's life. It is simply between the seven substances that the sword passes.'" In the
Brahmajala Sutta (
DN 1), theories such as Pakudha's are labeled as "
Atomic theory" (
Pali/
Skt.: '
) and "eternalism
" ('). According to
Buddhaghosa, he suffered from many obsessional
rituals with regard to the use of water, avoiding the use of cold water and always using hot; when this was not available, he did not wash. If he crossed a stream he would consider this a sin, and would make expiation by constructing a mound of earth. He did not speak of God, the soul or the other world, which has led some scholars to class him as a materialist. == See also ==