The Vaibhâ@sikas are identified with the Sarvâstivâdins who according to _Dîpava@msa_ V. 47, as pointed out by Takakusu, branched off from the Mahîs'âsakas, who in their turn had separated from the Theravâda school. From the _Kathâvatthu_ we know (1) that the Sabbatthivâdins believed that everything existed, (2) that the dawn of right attainment was not a momentary flash of insight but by a gradual process, (3) that consciousness or even samâdhi was nothing but ________________________________________________________________________ [Footnote 1: This account is based on the translation of _A@s@tamakos'asthânanibaddha@h pudgolavinis'caya@h_, a special appendix to the eighth chapter of Abhidharmakos'a, by Prof Th. Stcherbatsky, _Bulletin de l' Académie des Sciences de Russie_, 1919.] [Footnote 2: Professor De la Vallée Poussin has collected some of the points of this doctrine in an article on the Sammitîyas in the _E. R.E._ He there says that in the _Abhidharmakos'avyâkhyâ_ the Sammitîyas have been identified with the Vâtsîputtrîyas and that many of its texts were admitted by the Vaibhâ@sikas of a later age. Some of their views are as follows: (1) An arhat in possession of nirvâna can fall away; (2) there is an intermediate state between death and rebirth called _antarâbhava_; (3) merit accrues not only by gift (_tyagânvaya_) but also by the fact of the actual use and advantage reaped by the man to whom the thing was given (_paribhogânvaya pu@nya_); (4) not only abstention from evil deeds but a declaration of intention to that end produces merit by itself alone; (5) they believe in a pudgala (soul) as distinct from the skandhas from which it can be said to be either different or non-different. "The pudgala cannot be said to be transitory (_anitye_) like the skandhas since it transmigrates laying down the burden (_skandhas_) shouldering a new burden; it cannot be said to be permanent, since it is made of transitory constituents." This pudgala doctrine of the Sammitîyas as sketched by Professor De la Vallée Poussin is not in full agreement with the pudgala doctrine of the Sammitîyas as sketched by Gu@naratna which we have noticed above.] 120