A History of Indian Philosophy Part 15

[Footnote 3: _Samyutta Nikaya_, III. 130.]

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Avijja and asava.

As to the question how the avijja (ignorance) first started there can be no answer, for we could never say that either ignorance or desire for existence ever has any beginning [Footnote ref 1].

Its fruition is seen in the cycle of existence and the sorrow that comes in its train, and it comes and goes with them all. Thus as we can never say that it has any beginning, it determines the elements which bring about cycles of existence and is itself determined by certain others. This mutual determination can only take place in and through the changing series of dependent phenomena, for there is nothing which can be said to have any absolute priority in time or stability. It is said that it is through the coming into being of the asavas or depravities that the avijja came into being, and that through the destruction of the depravities (_asava_) the avijja was destroyed [Footnote ref 2]. These asavas are cla.s.sified in the [email protected]@ni_ as kamasava, bhavasava, [email protected]@thasava and avijjasava.

Kamasava means desire, attachment, pleasure, and thirst after the qualities a.s.sociated with the senses; bhavasava means desire, attachment and will for existence or birth; [email protected]@thasava means the holding of heretical views, such as, the world is eternal or non-eternal, or that the world will come to an end or will not come to an end, or that the body and the soul are one or are different; avijjasava means the ignorance of sorrow, its cause, its extinction and its means of extinction. [email protected]@ni_ adds four more supplementary ones, viz. ignorance about the nature of anterior mental khandhas, posterior mental khandhas, anterior and posterior together, and their mutual dependence [Footnote ref 3].

Kamasava and bhavasava can as [email protected] says be counted as one, for they are both but depravities due to attachment [Footnote ref 4].

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[Footnote 1: Warren's _Buddhism in Translations_ (_Visuddhimagga_, chap.

XVII.), p. 175.]

[Footnote 2: _M. N._ I.p. 54. Childers translates "asava" as "depravities"

and Mrs Rhys Davids as "intoxicants." The word "asava" in Skr. means "old wine." It is derived from "su" to produce by [email protected] and the meaning that he gives to it is "_cira [email protected]@thena_" (on account of its being stored up for a long time like wine). They work through the eye and the mind and continue to produce all beings up to Indra.

As those wines which are kept long are called "asavas" so these are also called asavas for remaining a long time. The other alternative that [email protected] gives is that they are called asava on account of their producing [email protected] (sorrows of the world), _Atthasalini_, p. 48.

Contrast it with Jaina asrava (flowing in of karma matter). Finding it difficult to translate it in one word after [email protected], I have translated it as "depravities," after Childers.]

[Footnote 3: See [email protected]@ni_, p. 195.]

[Footnote 4: [email protected]'s _Atthasalini_, p. 371.]

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The [email protected]@thasavas by clouding the mind with false metaphysical views stand in the way of one's adopting the true Buddhistic doctrines.

The kamasavas stand in the way of one's entering into the way of [email protected] (_anagamimagga_) and the bhavasavas and avijjasavas stand in the way of one's attaining arha or final emanc.i.p.ation. When the _Majjhima Nikaya_ says that from the rise of the asavas avijja rises, it evidently counts avijja there as in some sense separate from the other asavas, such as those of attachment and desire of existence which veil the true knowledge about sorrow.

The afflictions (_kilesas_) do not differ much from the asavas for they are but the specific pa.s.sions in forms ordinarily familiar to us, such as covetousness (_lobha_), anger or hatred (_dosa_), infatuation (_moha_), arrogance, pride or vanity (_mana_), heresy ([email protected]@thi_), doubt or uncertainty (_vicikiccha_), idleness (_thina_), boastfulness (_udhacca_), shamelessness (_ahirika_) and hardness of heart _anottapa_); these kilesas proceed directly as a result of the asavas.

In spite of these varieties they are often counted as three (lobha, dosa, moha) and these together are called kilesa. They are a.s.sociated with the vedanakkhandha, sannakkhandha, [email protected] and vinnanakkhandha. From these arise the three kinds of actions, of speech, of body, and of mind [Footnote ref 1].

Sila and Samadhi.

We are intertwined all through outside and inside by the tangles of desire ([email protected] [email protected]_), and the only way by which these may be loosened is by the practice of right discipline (_sila_), concentration (_samadhi_) and wisdom (_panna_). Sila briefly means the desisting from committing all sinful deeds (_sabbapapa.s.sa [email protected]_). With sila therefore the first start has to be made, for by it one ceases to do all actions prompted by bad desires and thereby removes the inrush of dangers and disturbances.

This serves to remove the kilesas, and therefore the proper performance of the sila would lead one to the first two successive stages of sainthood, viz. the sotapannabhava (the stage in which one is put in the right current) and the sakadagamibhava (the stage when one has only one more birth to undergo). Samadhi is a more advanced effort, for by it all the old roots of the old kilesas are destroyed and the [email protected] or desire is removed and

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[Footnote 1: [email protected]@ni,_ p. 180.]

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by it one is led to the more advanced states of a saint. It directly brings in panna (true wisdom) and by panna the saint achieves final emanc.i.p.ation and becomes what is called an arhat [Footnote ref 1]. Wisdom (_panna_) is right knowledge about the four ariya saccas, viz. sorrow, its cause, its destruction and its cause of destruction.

Sila means those particular volitions and mental states, etc.

by which a man who desists from committing sinful actions maintains himself on the right path. Sila thus means 1. right volition (_cetana_), 2. the a.s.sociated mental states (_cetasika_), 3. mental control ([email protected]_) and 4. the actual non-transgression (in body and speech) of the course of conduct already in the mind by the preceding three silas called avitikkama. [email protected] is spoken of as being of five kinds, 1. [email protected]@mvara (the control which saves him who abides by it), 2. [email protected] (the control of mindfulness), 3. [email protected] (the control of knowledge), 4. [email protected] (the control of patience), 5. [email protected] (the control of active self-restraint). [email protected]@mvara means all self-control in general. [email protected] means the mindfulness by which one can bring in the right and good a.s.sociations when using one's cognitive senses. Even when looking at any tempting object he will by virtue of his mindfulness (_sati_) control himself from being tempted by avoiding to think of its tempting side and by thinking on such aspects of it as may lead in the right direction. [email protected] is that by which one can remain unperturbed in heat and cold. By the proper adherence to sila all our bodily, mental and vocal activities (_kamma_) are duly systematized, organized, stabilized (_samadhanam, [email protected]@m, [email protected]@tha_) [Footnote ref 2].

The sage who adopts the full course should also follow a number of healthy monastic rules with reference to dress, sitting, dining, etc., which are called the [email protected] or pure disciplinary parts [Footnote ref 3]. The practice of sila and the dhutangas help the sage to adopt the course of samadhi. Samadhi as we have seen means the concentration of the mind bent on right endeavours (_kusalacittekaggata [email protected]_) together with its states upon one particular object ([email protected]_) so that they may completely cease to shift and change (_samma ca avikkhipamana_) [Footnote ref 4].

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[Footnote 1: _Visuddhimagga Nidanadikatha_.]

[Footnote 2: _Visuddhimagga-silaniddeso_, pp. 7 and 8.]

[Footnote 3: _Visuddhimagga_, II.]

[Footnote 4: _Visuddhimagga_, pp. 84-85.]

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The man who has practised sila must train his mind first in particular ways, so that it may be possible for him to acquire the chief concentration of meditation called jhana (fixed and steady meditation). These preliminary endeavours of the mind for the acquirement of jhanasamadhi eventually lead to it and are called upacara samadhi (preliminary samadhi) as distinguished from the jhanasamadhi called the appanasamadhi (achieved samadhi) [Footnote ref 1]. Thus as a preparatory measure, firstly he has to train his mind continually to view with disgust the appet.i.tive desires for eating and drinking (_ahare [email protected]_) by emphasizing in the mind the various troubles that are a.s.sociated in seeking food and drink and their ultimate loathsome transformations as various nauseating bodily elements. When a man continually habituates himself to emphasize the disgusting a.s.sociations of food and drink, he ceases to have any attachment to them and simply takes them as an unavoidable evil, only awaiting the day when the final dissolution of all sorrows will come [Footnote ref 2]. Secondly he has to habituate his mind to the idea that all the parts of our body are made up of the four elements, [email protected] (earth), ap (water), tejas (fire) and wind (air), like the carcase of a cow at the butcher's shop. This is technically called catudhatuvavatthanabhavana (the meditation of the body as being made up of the four elements) [Footnote ref 3]. Thirdly he has to habituate his mind to think again and again (_a.n.u.ssati_) about the virtues or greatness of the Buddha, the [email protected] (the monks following the Buddha), the G.o.ds and the law (_dhamma_) of the Buddha, about the good effects of sila, and the making of gifts (_caga.n.u.ssati_), about the nature of death ([email protected]_) and about the deep nature and qualities of the final extinction of all phenomena (_upasama.n.u.ssati_) [Footnote ref 4].

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[Footnote 1: As it is not possible for me to enter into details, I follow what appears to me to be the main line of division showing the interconnection of jhana (Skr. _dhyana_) with its accessory stages called parikammas (_Visuddhimagga,_ pp. 85 f.).]

[Footnote 2: _Visuddhimagga_, pp. 341-347; mark the intense pessimistic att.i.tude, "_Iman ca pana ahare [email protected]@m anuyutta.s.sa [email protected] [email protected] cittam [email protected], [email protected]@[email protected], [email protected]@[email protected]; so, [email protected]@[email protected] viya [email protected]@m vigatamado [email protected] ahareti yavad eva dukkha.s.sa [email protected]@[email protected]_," p. 347. The mind of him who inspires himself with this supreme disgust to all food, becomes free from all desires for palatable tastes, and turns its back to them and flies off from them. As a means of getting rid of all sorrow he takes his food without any attachment as one would eat the flesh of his own son to sustain himself in crossing a forest.]

[Footnote 3: _Visuddhimagga_, pp. 347-370.]

[Footnote 4: _Visuddhimagga_, pp. 197-294.]

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Advancing further from the preliminary meditations or preparations called the upacara samadhi we come to those other sources of concentration and meditation called the appanasamadhi which directly lead to the achievement of the highest samadhi.

The processes of purification and strengthening of the mind continue in this stage also, but these represent the last attempts which lead the mind to its final goal Nibbana. In the first part of this stage the sage has to go to the cremation grounds and notice the diverse horrifying changes of the human carcases and think how nauseating, loathsome, unsightly and impure they are, and from this he will turn his mind to the living human bodies and convince himself that they being in essence the same as the dead carcases are as loathsome as they [Footnote ref.1] This is called [email protected]@thana or the endeavour to perceive the impurity of our bodies. He should think of the anatomical parts and const.i.tuents of the body as well as their processes, and this will help him to enter into the first jhana by leading his mind away from his body.

This is called the kayagatasati or the continual mindfulness about the nature of the body [Footnote ref 2]. As an aid to concentration the sage should sit in a quiet place and fix his mind on the inhaling (_pa.s.sasa_) and the exhaling (_a.s.sasa_) of his breath, so that instead of breathing in a more or less unconscious manner he may be aware whether he is breathing quickly or slowly; he ought to mark it definitely by counting numbers, so that by fixing his mind on the numbers counted he may fix his mind on the whole process of inhalation and exhalation in all stages of its course.

This is called the anapanasati or the mindfulness of inhalation and exhalation [Footnote ref 3]

Next to this we come to Brahmavihara, the fourfold meditation of metta (universal friendship), [email protected] (universal pity), mudita (happiness in the prosperity and happiness of all) and upekkha (indifference to any kind of preferment of oneself, his friend, enemy or a third party). In order to habituate oneself to the meditation on universal friendship, one should start with thinking how he should himself like to root out all misery and become happy, how he should himself like to avoid death and live cheerfully, and then pa.s.s over to the idea that other beings would also have the same desires. He should thus habituate himself to think that his friends, his enemies, and all those with whom he is not

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[Footnote 1: _Visuddhimagga,_ VI.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._ pp. 239-266.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._ pp. 266-292.]

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connected might all live and become happy. He should fix himself to such an extent in this meditation that he would not find any difference between the happiness or safety of himself and of others.