A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[Chapter V.
Thought engaged upon the Higher Ideal (lokuttaram
cittam).
I. The First Path (pathamo maggo.)^
The Twenty Great Methods (visati mahanaya).
1. Rapt Meditation (jhanam).
(i.) The Four Modes of Progress in Purification (sud-
dhika-patipada).]
[277] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth^—and when, that he
^ That is to say, the first stage of the way or course
of life leading to Arahatship or Nirvana. In the answers,
bhumi (Stage) is substituted for Path. And the 'First
Bhumi ' is declared in the Cy. (pp. 214, 215) to be equiva-
lent to the first-fruits (or fruition) of recluseship (c/. D. i.,
second sutta) ; in other words, to the fruit of sotapatti,
or of *
conversion,' as it has been termed.
2 The special kind of Jhana which he who has turned
his back on the three lower ideals of life in the worlds of
sense, form, or the formless, and has set his face steadfastly
toward Arahatship, must '
practise, bring forth and develop,'
is described by Buddhaghosa as being ekacittakkhani-
kam appana-jhan'am—rapt meditation on a concept
induced by the momentary flash of a thought {cf. K. V.,
pp. 620, 458)—and by the text itself as niyyanikam
apacayagamim. The former of these two last terms
is thus commented upon :
'
It is a going forth (down from)
the world, from the cycle of rebirth. Or, there is a going
may attain to the First Stage, he has put away views and
opinions/ and so, aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof
from evil ideas, enters into and abides in the First Jhana,
wherein conception works and thought discursive, which is
born of solitude, is full of joy and ease, progress thereto
being difficult and intuition sluggish—then there is contact,
feeling, perception, thinking, thought, conception, discursive
thought, joy, ease, self-collectedness, the faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, ideation, hap-
piness, vitality, and the faculty of believing^
*
I shall come
to know the unhiowUy'^ right views, right intention, right
speech, right action , right livelihood,^ right endeavour, right
forth by means of it. The man who is filled with it, com-
prehending 111, goes forth, putting away the uprising (of
111) goes forth, realizing the cessation (of 111) goes forth,
cultivating the path (leading to that cessation) goes forth.'
And the latter term : This is not like that heaping together
and multiplying of rebirth effected by the good which
belongs to the three worlds of being. This is even as a
man who, having heaped up a stockade eighteen cubits
high, should afterwards take a great hammer and set to
work to pull down and demolish his work. For so it, too,
sets about pulling down and demolishing that potency for
rebirth heaped up by the three-world-good, by bringing
abont a deficiency in the causes thereof.
^ Ditthigatani, lit. resorting to views. All traditions
or speculations adhered to either without evidence or on in-
sufficient evidence, such as are implied in the states called
'
theory of individuality, perplexity, and the contagion of
mere rule and ritual' (Asl. 214; infra, §§ 1002-1005).
2 The italics show those constituents of consciousness
wherein this Jhana differs from that mentioned in § 160,
the constituents of which are identical with those of the
First Type of Good Thought, § 1.
^ These three factors of the '
Eightfold Path,' which were
not explicitly included in the Eight Types of Good Thoughts,
were, according to the Cy., included implicitly in the '
or-
whatever-states.' See above, p. 5, n. 1. Here the Cy. only
remarks that, whereas these three are now * included in the
Pali ' because the Eightfold Path has Nirvana for its goal,
mindfulness, right concentration; the powers of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, conscientious-
ness, the fear of blame ; the absence of lust, hate, dulness,
covetousness and malice, right views, conscientiousness, the
fear of blame, serenity, lightness, plasticity, facility, fitness
and directness in both sense and thought, mindfulness,
intelligence, quiet, insight, grasp and balance.
Now these—or whatever other incorporeal, causally
induced states there are on that occasion—these are states
that are good.
[278-282] *
Contact,' 'feeling,' 'perception,' 'thinking,'
and *
thought ' are described as in §§ 2-6.
[283] What on that occasion is conception ?
The ratiocination, the conception, which on that occasion
is the disposition, the fixation, the focussing, the application
of the mind, right intention, '
Path-component,' '
contained
in the Path '
^ —this is the conception that there then is.
[284] '
Discursive thought ' is described as in § 8.
[285] What on that occasion is joy?
The joy which on that occasion is gladness, rejoicing
at, rejoicing over, mirth, merriment, felicity, exultation,
transport of heart, the joy which is a factor in the Great
Awakening 2—this is the joy that there then is.
'
pity ' and *
sympathy ' are not included because they have
living beings for their object, and not Nirvana.
1 The Path being the 'Eightfold Path,' 'conception'
(vitakko) is reckoned as included in it, in virtue of its
being approximately equivalent to '
intention '
(sankappo).
2 Piti-sambojjhango. The seven Sambojjhangas are
enumerated in A. iv. 23 ; S. v. 110, 111 ; and also in
Mil. 340, where they are termed '
the jewel of the seven-
fold wisdom of the Arahats.' On the state called sam-
bodhi, see Pihys Davids, 'Dialogues of the Buddha,' i.,
pp. 190-192. It is in the Cy. (217) described as the harmony
of its seven constituent states, and as forming the opposite
to the detrimental compound consisting of the accumula-
tions of adhesion (linam) and excitement, indulgence in
the pleasures and satiety of sensuality, and addiction to the
speculations of Nihilism and Eternalism (below, § 1003).
[286] '
Ease ' is described as in § 10.
[287] What on that occasion is self-collectedness ?
The stability, solidity, absorbed steadfastness of thought
which on that occasion is the absence of distraction,
balance, imperturbed mental procedure, quiet, the faculty
and the power of concentration, right concentration, the
concentration which is a factor in the Great Awakening,
a * Path-component,' 'contained in the Path'—this is the
conception that there then is.
[288] '
Faith '
is described as in § 12.
[289] What on that occasion is the faculty of energy ?
The mental inception of energy which there is on that
occasion, the striving and the onward effort, the exertion
and endeavour, the zeal and ardour, the vigour and forti-
tude, the state of unfaltering effort, the state of sustained
desire, the state of unflinching endurance, the solid grip of
the burden, energy, energy as faculty and as power, right
energy, the energy which is a factor in the Great Awaken-
ing, a Path-component, contained in the Path—this is the
energy that there then is.
[290] What on that occasion is the faculty of mindful-
ness ?
The mindfulness which on that occasion is recollecting,
calling back to mind the mindfulness^ which is remember-
ing, bearing in mind, the opposite of superficiality and of
obliviousness ; mindfulness, mindfulness as faculty and as
power, right mindfulness, the mindfulness which is a factor
in the Great Awakening, a Path-component, contained in
the Path—this is the mindfulness that there then is.
[291] *
Concentration ' is described in the same terms as
'self-collectedness,' § 287.
The verb bujjhati is thus paraphrased: He arises from
the slumber of vice, or discerns the four Noble Truths, or
realizes Nirvana.
^ Sati, repeated as in § 14, has dropped out of the
printed text. K. repeats it.
[292] What on that occasion is the faculty of wisdom ?
The wisdom which there is on that occasion is under-
standing, search, research, searching the Truth, discern-
ment, discrimination, differentiation, erudition, proficiency,
subtlety, criticism, reflection, analysis, breadth, sagacity,
leading, insight, intelligence, incitement, wisdom as faculty
and as power, wisdom as a sword, as a height, as light, as
glory, as splendour, as a precious stone; the absence of
dulness, searching the Truth, right views, that searching
the Truth which is a factor in the Great Awakening,^ a
Path-component, contained in the Path—this is the wisdom
that there then is.
[293-295] The faculties of *
ideation,' *
happiness,' and
* vitality ' are described as in §§ 17-19.
[296] What on that occasion is the faculty of be-
lieving, *I shall come to know the unknown' (ananna-
taniiassamitindriyam)?^
The wisdom that makes for the realization of those
Truths^ that are unrealized, uncomprehended, unattained
^ Under the name of Dhammavicayo, searching the
truth, or doctrine, or religion.
2 According to Buddhaghosa (216), the inspiring sense
of assurance that dawns upon the earnest, uncompromising
student that he will come to know the doctrine of the great
truths—that Ambrosial Way unknown in the cycle of
worldly pursuits and consequences where the goal is not
ambrosial—is to him as the upspringing of a new faculty
or moral principle.
^ Tesam dhammanam . . . sacchikiriyaya paiina,
etc., which may more literally be rendered the wisdom (or
understanding, etc.) of, for, or from, the realization of,
etc. '
Bringing right opposite the eyes '
is the paraphrase
(Asl. 218). The student while 'in the First Path' learns
the full import of those concise formulae known as the
Four Noble Truths, which the Buddha set forth in his first
authoritative utterance. Previously he will have had mere
second-hand knowledge of them ; and as one coming to a
dwelling out of his usual beat, and receiving fresh garland
and raiment and food, realizes that he is encountering new
to, undiscerned, unknown—the wisdom that is understand-
ing, search, research, searching the Truth, etc.
[Continue as in § 292.]
[297] What on that occasion are right views ?
Anstver as for *
wisdom,' § 292.
[298] * Eight intention ' is described in the same terms as
' conception,' § 283.
[299] What on that occasion is right speech (samma-
Vaca) ?
To renounce on that occasion, abstain and refrain from,
and feel averse to, the four errors of speech,^ to leave them
uncommitted and undone, to incur no guilt, nor to trespass
nor transgress with respect to them, to destroy the causeway-
leading to them^—right speech, a Path-component, contained
in the Path—this is the right speech that there then is.
[300] What on that occasion is right action (samma-
kammanto)?
To renounce on that occasion, abstain and refrain from,
and feel averse to, the three errors of conduct,^ to leave them
uncommitted and undone, to incur no guilt, nor to trespass
nor transgress with respect to them, to destroy the causeway
leading to them—right conduct, a Path-component, contained
in the Path—this is the right conduct that there then is.
[301] What on that occasion is right livelihood (samma-
ajiVo) ?
To renounce on that occasion, abstain and refrain from,
and feel averse to, wrong modes of livelihood, to leave them
experiences, so are these truths, not known hitherto by
him, spoken of as '
unknown '
(Asl. 218).
^ That is, lying, slander, rude speech and frivolous talk.
See the Cula Sila, e.g., in D. i. 4.
^ Setughato, i.e., the cause or condition of evil speak-
ing—namely, lust, hate and dulness (Asl. 219). The
metaphor occurs in A. i. 220, 221, 261 ; ii. 145, 146.
^ That is, murder (of any living thing), theft and un-
chastity. D. i. 4.
unpractised and undone, to incur no guilt, nor to trespass
nor transgress with respect to them, to destroy the cause-
way leading to them—right livelihood, a Path-component,
contained in the Path—this is the right livelihood that
there then is.
[302-304] ' Eight endeavour,' ' right mindfulness,' 'right
concentration,'^ are described as in §§ 289-291.
[305-311] The 'powers' of 'faith,' 'energy,' 'mindful-
ness,' '
concentration ' and '
wisdom ' are described as in
§§ 288-292; those of 'conscientiousness' and 'the fear of
blame' as in §§ 30, 31.
[312-319] 'The absence of lust' and 'the absence of
,hate ' are described as in §§ 32, 33 ;
*
the absence of dulness '
as in § 309 (' wisdom ') ;
'
the absence of covetousness '
and
'the absence of malice' are described as in §§ 35, 36;
'conscientiousness' and 'the fear of blame 'as in §§ 38,
39 ;
* right views '
as in § 292 or 309 (' wisdom ').
[320] What on that occasion is serenity of sense ?
The serenity, the composure which there is on that
occasion, the calming, the tranquillizing, the tranquillity
of the skandhas of feeling, perception and syntheses, the
serenity which is a factor in the Great Awakening—this
is the serenity of sense that there then is.
[321] What on that occasion is serenity of thought ?
The serenity, the composure which there is on that
occasion, the calming, the tranquillizing, the tranquillity
of the skandha of intellect, the serenity which is a factor
in the Great Awakening—this is the serenity of thought
that there then is.
[322-331] The remaining five attributes characterizing both
sense and thought '
on that occasion ' :
—' buoyancy,' 'plas-
ticity,' etc.
—
are described as in §§ 42-51.
[332-337] 'Mindfulness,' 'intelligence," quiet,' 'insight,'
'
grasp ' and '
balance ' are described as in § § 290, 292
(' wisdom '), 291, 292, 289 (' energy ') and 291 respectively.
^ Samadhi, before samboj jhango, has dropped out
of the printed text.
These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced
states there are on that occasion—these are states that are
good.
[Summary.]
[SSla] Now at that time
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are nine,
the Jhana is fivefold,
the Path is eightfold,
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact, \
feeling,
perception,
thinking,
thought,
the skandhas of
feeling,
perception,
syntheses,
intellect,
the sphere of ideation,
the faculty of ideation,
the element of representative in-
tellection,
the sphere of a [representative]
state,
the element of a [representative]
state.
are each single [factors].
These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced
states there are on that occasion—these are states that are
good.
[Here the questions and answers concerning the first two,
of the four skandhas enumc^'ated are to he understood to
follow as in §§ 59-61.]
[338] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Contact,
thinking,^
conception,
discursive thought,
joy,
self-collectedness,
the faculties of
faith, concentration,
energy, wisdom,
mindfulness, vitality,
believing *
I shall come to know the unknown ;'
right views, right livelihood,
right intention, right endeavour,
right speech, right mindfulness,
right action, right concentration
;
the seven powers f
the absence of
lust, hate and dulness ;
the absence of
covetousness and malice,
right views
;
conscientiousness, the fear of blame
;
serenity, wieldiness,
buoyancy, fitness,
plasticity, directness
of sense and thought
;
mindfulness and intelligence
;
quiet and insight
;
grasp and balance.
^ The printed text has vedana instead of ce tan a, which
is obviously wrong.
^ These are set out in the original as in § 277.
These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced
states there are on that occasion, exclusive of the skandhas
of feeling, perception and intellect—these are the skandha
of syntheses.
* -if- -x- -x- * *
[Questions on the remaining items in the *
Summary ' ar^
understood to follow,]
[340]^ Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth—and when, that he
may attain to the First Stage, he has put away views and
opinions, and so, aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof from
evil ideas, enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . .
progress thereto being difficult, but intuition quick . . .
[or] [341] . . . progress thereto being easy, but intuition
sluggish . . .
[or] [342] . . . progress thereto being easy and intuition
quick—then the contact . . . the balance that arises
—
these . . . are states that are good.
[343] Repeat the Four Modes in the case of the 2nd to the
4th Jhana on the Fourfold System, and of the \st to the 5th
Jhana on the Fivefold System,
[Here end] the Modes of Progress in Purification.
[(ii.) The Section on Emptiness (sunnatam).^]
(a and h,)
[344] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
^ The answer marked [339] in the text is merely a repeti-
tion of lokuttara-jhanam as dukkhapatipadam dan-
dhabhifinam, i.e., of the first '
Mode of Progress '
given in
[277]. I have therefore omitted it. No repetition is noticed
in this connexion by the Cy. K. has no such repetition.
^ Called in the Cy. (221) sunfiata-varo, with the sub-
sections suddhika-sunnata, or *
Emptiness applied to
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth—and when, that he
may attain to the First Stage, he has put away views and
opinions, and so, aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof from
evil ideas, enters into and abides in the First Jhana,
wherein conception works and thought discursive, which
is born of solitude, is full of joy and ease, and which is
Empty—then the contact . . . the balance that arises
—
these . . . are states that are good.
[345] liepeat the 2nd to the 4th Jhanas on the Fourfold
System, and the 1st to the 5th on the Fivefold System, ivith
the addition in each case of the phrase *
and which is Empty.'
[Here ends] the *
Emptiness '
Section.
the purijfication-formula,' i.e., the group marked (a and h),
and suiinata-patipada, or 'the Modes of Progress taken
in connexion with Emptiness,' i.e., the group marked (c).
On the technical term '
emptiness,' see above, § 121, and
Khys Davids, *
Yogavacara's Manual,' pp. xxvii, xxviii. Of
the three '
riddles ' there discussed—' the empty, the aimless
and the signless'—only the first two are here prescribed
for cultivation. Buddhaghosa argues on the subject at
some length (Asl. 221-225). He explains that the three
terms are so many names for the way to the Ideal
(lokuttara-maggo), each throwing a special aspect of
it into greater relief than the other two, while yet no
advance can be made without all three concepts. The
advent of the Path as a conscious ideal is especially char-
acterized by insight into the fact that the sanskaras are
void of a permanent soul, and of all that conduces to happi-
ness. The virtue or quality of the Path, again, is wholly
emjity of lust, hate and dulness. So also is its object,
namely, Nirvana. But the chief import of * empty '
is said
to relate to the fact first named—the nonentity of any
substratum or soul in anything. The *
aimless ' applies
chiefly to the insight into dukkham, or the nature of pain
or ill. All aspiration or hankering after sanskaras withers
up under the penetration of such insight. By it, too, the
path of the Ideal becomes revealed. The third 'riddle,'
the *
signless '
—
i.e., the path conceived as free from the
three signs or false tenets of Permanence, Sorrow and Soul
—comes up for meditation later (§§ 506, 511, etc.).
[(c) The Modes of Progress, with *
Emptiness ' as the
Basis (sunnata-mulaka-patipada).]
[346] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal . . .
and when, that he may attain to the First Stage, he . . .
enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . . progress
thereto being difficult and intuition sluggish, the method
being the concept of Emptiness—then the contact . . .
the balance that arises—these . . . are states that are
good.
[347-349] Repeat the same formula^ substituting in suc-
cession the three remaining Modes of Progress (§§ 176-179),
with the addition in each case of the plirase *
the method
being the concept of Emptiness.'
[350] Repeat the same formula, substituting in succession
the remaining Jhdnas on the Fourfold System and those on
the Fivefold System, and applying in each case the Four
Modes of Progress, ivith the additional phrase on *
Empti-
ness.'
[(ii.) The Aimless (appanihitam).
(a and b)].^
[351] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal . . .
and when, that he may attain to the First Stage, he . . .
enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . . which is
born of solitude, is full of joy and ease, and which is
Aimless—then the contact . . . the balance that arises
—
these . . . are states that are good.
[352] Repeat the same formida, substituting the remaining
three, and the five Jhdnas in succession, with the addition in
each case of the phrase '
and which is Aimless.'
^ As in the foregoing, the Cy. {ihid.) co-ordinates this,
and the following section, with the two on *
emptiness,'
calling (a and b) suddhika-appanihita, and the next
group appanihita-patipada.
[(c) The Modes of Progress, with Aimlessness as the
Basis (appanihita-mulaka-patipada).]
[353] When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal
. . . and when, that he may attain to the First Stage of
it, he . . . enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . .
progress whereto is difficult and intuition sluggish, the
method being the concept of Aimlessness—then the contact
. . . the balance that arises—these . . . are states that
are good.
[354-356] Repeat the same formula, substituting in suc-
cession the three remaining Modes of Progress, with the
addition in each case of the phrase *
the method being the
concept of Aimlessness.'
[357] Repeat the same formula, substituting in succession
the remaining three, and the five Jhanas, and applying in
each case the Four Modes of Progress, ivith the additional
phrase on *
Aimlessness.'
[2-20. The Eemaining Nineteen Great Methods.]
[358] Which are the states that are good ?
Here folloiv nineteen concepts, each of which can be sub-
stituted for *
the Jhana of the Higher Ideal ' in the precedhig
81 answers [§§ 277-357], as a vehicle in training the mind
for Arahatship. They are as follows
:
2. The Path of the Higher Ideal.
3. The Advance in Mindfulness^ toward the Higher
Ideal.
4. The System of Eight Efforts^ toward the Higher
Ideal.
5. The Series of Mystic Potencies^ applied to the Higher
Ideal.
6. The Faculty relating to the Higher Ideal.
7. The Power relating to the Higher Ideal.
^ Satipatthana. M. i. 56.
^ Sammappadhana. See below, § 1367.
^Iddhipada. See above, § 273 et seq.
8. The Great Awakening to the Higher Ideal.
9. The Truth of the Higher Ideal.
10. The Peace! ^f the Higher Ideal.
11. The Doctrine of the Higher Ideal.
12. The Skandha related to the Higher Ideal.
13. The Sphere of the Higher Ideal.
14. The Element of the Higher Ideal.
15. The Nutriment of the Higher Ideal.
16. Contact with the Higher Ideal.
17. Feeling relating to the Higher Ideal.
18. Perception relating to the Higher Ideal.
19. Thinking relating to the Higher Ideal.
20. Thought relating to the Higher Ideal.
[The Dominant Influences in the Modes of Progress
(adhipati).]
[359] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal
. . . and when, that he may attain to the First Stage,
he . . . enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . .
progress whereto is painful and intuition sluggish, and the
dominant influence in which is desire, energy, a thought,
or investigation, then the contact . . . the balance that
arises—these are states that are good.
[360] Repeat this formula in the case of the remaining
three and five Jhanas.
[361] Repeat the foregoing [§§ 359, 360] in the case of
each of the nineteen remaining *
Great Methods.'
[Here ends] the First Path.
II. The Second Path.
[362] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth—and when, that he may
! Samatho. See above, § 54.
attain to the Second Stage, he has diminished the strength
of sensual passions and of maKce,^ and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress whereto is difficult
and intuition sluggish—then the contact . . . the faculty
of knowledge made perfect^ . . . the balance that arises
—
these . . . are states that are good.
•X- * * * * -x-
[Here ends] the Second Path.
m. The Third Path.
[363] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth—and when, that he
may attain to the Third Stage, he has put away the
entire residuum of sensual passions and of malice,^ and so,
1 Cf. D. i. 156 and M. P. S. 16, 17. It is striking that
here and in the following answer no diminution of moho
(dulness) is included. Cf., however, below, § 1134. Ignor-
ance ( = dulness) is only really conquered in the Fourth Path.
The diminution is described (Asl. 238) as coming to pass
in two ways : vicious dispositions arise occasionally and no
longer habitually, and when they do arise it is with an
attenuated intensity. They are like the sparse blades of
grass in a newly-mown field, and like a flimsy membrane
or a fly's wing.
2
Cf. § 296. The faith and hope of the Sotiipatti, or
student of the First Path, while struggling with the limita-
tions of his stage of knowledge (natamariyadam, the
Cy. calls them, p. 239), are now rewarded by his attain-
ment, as a Sakadagami, of that deepening philosophic
insight into the full implication of the * Four Truths
'
termed anna, or knowledge j^ar excellence, and applied,
in Buddhist writings, only to evolving or evolved Arahat-
ship. Cf. below, § 555.
^ These, which the Cy., in connexion with the Second
Path, termed collectively kilesa, are now referred to as
sannojanani. See § 1229 et scq. and § 1113 et seq.
aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters
into and abides in the First Jhana . . . progress whereto
is difficult and intuition sluggish—then the contact . . .
the faculty of knowledge made perfect . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . states that are good.
[Here ends] the Third Path.
IV. The Fourth Path.
[364] Which are the states that are good ?
When he cultivates the Jhana of the Higher Ideal (the
rapt meditation), whereby there is a going forth and onward,
making for the undoing of rebirth, and when, that he may
attain the Fourth Stage, he has put away absolutely and
entirely all passion for Form, all passion for the Formless,
all conceit, excitement and ignorance, and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress whereto is difficult
and intuition sluggish—then the contact . . . the faculty of
knowledge made perfect . . . the balance that arises—these
. . . are states that are good.
[364a] What on that occasion is the faculty of knowledge
made perfect (annindriyam) ?
The wisdom that makes for the realization of those
truths that have been realized, comprehended, attained
to, discerned and known—the wisdom that is understand-
ing, search, research, searching the Truth, etc.
[Continue as in § 292.]
* * -x- * * *
These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced
states there are on that occasion, these are states that are
good.
[Here ends] the Fourth Path.
[Here ends] Thought engaged upon the Higher Ideal.
Showing posts with label Kusala Citta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kusala Citta. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Dhamma-Sangani - THE GENESIS OF THOUGHTS - Degrees of Efficacy in Good relating to the Three Kealms.
A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[Chaptek IV.
Degrees of Efficacy in Good relating to the Three
Kealms.
1. Good in relation to the Universe of Sense (kama-
Vacarakusalam).]
[269] Which are the states that are good ?
When a good thought concerning the sensuous universe
has arisen, which is (I.) accompanied by happiness and
associated with knowledge—a thought which is
of inferior, or
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy,^
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
^ The effective power or karma of all the foregoing
thoughts and exercises to modify the individual's existence
in one universe or another for good seems to have been,
for practical purposes, distinguished under three grades of
efficacy. So I gather, at least, from the comment on this
curious section (pp. 211, 212) :
' " inferior " (hinam) must
be understood to mean paltry in respect of heaping up.'
'
Heaping up ' is in later books almost always associated
with karma. Meaning to toil, more specifically to dig up,
pile up, it is used to express the metaphorical notion of
ever accumulating merit or demerit constituting the indi-
vidual's potentiality in the way of rebirth. Cf. Mil. 109
;
also below, § 1059, n. 9, on '
she who toils.' The Patthana
may throw more light on the subject (AsL, ibid.).
[another] thought, or
investigation ;^
or the dominant influence in which is
desire of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
energy of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
[another] thought of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
^ An explanation is also needed, it seems to me, for this
association of the Four Iddhipadas (M. i. 103 ; A. iii. 82
;
S. V. 264-266) with this special aspect of karma ; for they
lead to Arahatship rather than to rebirth in some other
plane. The Cy. only states that when anyone, in the act
of accumulating, relinquishes desire or the rest, '
that ' is
called inferior [in efficacy] ; that when these four states
are moderately or superlatively efficacious they are called
accordingly ; and that *
when anyone has accumulated,
having made desire (chando), i.e., the wishing-to-do, his
sovereign, chief and leader,' then the procedure is said to
be under the dominant influence of desire. So for the
other three.
It is to be regretted that the Cy. does not discuss the
term vimamsa (investigation), or the propriety of its
position in this series of four. It would be interesting to
have learnt its psychological import in relation to vitakko
and vicar 0. There is a suggestion of dual symmetry
about the series: as chando is to viriyarn (conation
passing into action), so is cittam (the idea) to the dis-
cursive re-representative intellection of vimamsa. I have
rendered cittadhipateyyam by the influence of another
thought in accordance with the Cy. (213), where it is said
to be an associated thought, or states associated with the
original '
good thought.'
There is another brief comment on the adhipateyyas
below, § 1034, n. 2.
or the dominant influence in which is
investigation of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy,^
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[270] Which are the states that are good ?
When a good thought concerning the sensuous universe
has arisen which is (II.) accompanied by happiness,
associated with knowledge, and prompted by a conscious
motive . . .
or (III.) accompanied by happiness, and disconnected with
knowledge . . .
or (IV.) accompanied by happiness, disconnected with
knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive . . .
or (V.) accompanied by disinterestedness, and associated
with knowledge . . .
or (VI.) accompanied by disinterestedness, associated with
knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive . . .
or (VII.) accompanied by disinterestedness, and discon-
nected with knowledge ...
or (VIII.) accompanied by disinterestedness, disconnected
with knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive—
a
thought which is of inferior . . .
or of medium ...
or of superlative efficacy ...
^ The tabulated form adopted in this and following
replies is intended not only to facilitate a conspectus of
the system, but also to indicate the elision in the Pali
(expressed by . . . pe . . . ) of the repetition of the
unvarying framework of the reply before and after each
tabulated term. The Koman numerals in this and the
next reply refer to the original statement of the 'Eight
Main Types of Thought' in Chapter I. Apparently the
sensuous basis of the arammanam of each thought is not
intended to be here rehearsed.
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
another thought ;
or the dominant influence in which is
desire of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
energy of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
[another] thought of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.^
2. Good in relation to the Universe of Form.
[271] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, aloof from sensuous appe-
tites, aloof from evil ideas, by earth-gazing enters into and
abides in the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation) . . .
which is
of inferior,
or of medium,
or of superlative efficacy
;
^ In accordance with the usual procedure in the Dhamma
Sangani, when combining several subjects in one sentence,
the final details apply only to the last subject in the
series. Hence '
investigation ' is omitted in connexion
with Thought VIII., because, presumably, the latter is
'
disconnected with knowledge.' And it would likewise have
been omitted in connexion with Thoughts III., IV. and VII.,
but not in connexion with the others.
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
a thought, or
investigation
;
or the dominant influence in which is
desire . . . energy ... a thought . . . investigation
of inferior,
of medium,
or of superlative efficacy
—
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[272] Repeat in the case of the other Jhanas, both of
(a) and (b).
• 3. Good in relation to the Formless Universe.
[273] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, by passing wholly beyond
all consciousness of form, by the dying out of the conscious-
ness of sensory reaction, by turning the attention from any
consciousness of the manifold, he enters into and abides
in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the con-
sciousness of a sphere of unbounded space—even into the
Fourth Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have
been put away, etc.—(the rapt meditation) where there is
neither ill nor ease, but only the perfect purity that comes
of mindfulness and disinterestedness, and which is of
inferior . . .
medium . . .
or superlative efficacy . . .
or the dominant influence in which is
desire ...
or energy ...
or a thought . . .
or investigation . . .
or the dominant influence in which is
desire . . . energy ... a thought . . . investigation
of inferior . . .
medium ...
superlative efficacy
—
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[274-276] Here folloiv the three remaining *
Jhanas con-
nected with Formless Existence,' each modified hy the
characteristics enumerated in the foregoing ansiver. Cf.
§§ 266-268.1
1 In § 275 the text inadvertently omits majjhimam
. . . pe . . . panitam . . . pe . . . before vimam-
sadhipateyyam.
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[Chaptek IV.
Degrees of Efficacy in Good relating to the Three
Kealms.
1. Good in relation to the Universe of Sense (kama-
Vacarakusalam).]
[269] Which are the states that are good ?
When a good thought concerning the sensuous universe
has arisen, which is (I.) accompanied by happiness and
associated with knowledge—a thought which is
of inferior, or
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy,^
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
^ The effective power or karma of all the foregoing
thoughts and exercises to modify the individual's existence
in one universe or another for good seems to have been,
for practical purposes, distinguished under three grades of
efficacy. So I gather, at least, from the comment on this
curious section (pp. 211, 212) :
' " inferior " (hinam) must
be understood to mean paltry in respect of heaping up.'
'
Heaping up ' is in later books almost always associated
with karma. Meaning to toil, more specifically to dig up,
pile up, it is used to express the metaphorical notion of
ever accumulating merit or demerit constituting the indi-
vidual's potentiality in the way of rebirth. Cf. Mil. 109
;
also below, § 1059, n. 9, on '
she who toils.' The Patthana
may throw more light on the subject (AsL, ibid.).
[another] thought, or
investigation ;^
or the dominant influence in which is
desire of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
energy of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
[another] thought of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
^ An explanation is also needed, it seems to me, for this
association of the Four Iddhipadas (M. i. 103 ; A. iii. 82
;
S. V. 264-266) with this special aspect of karma ; for they
lead to Arahatship rather than to rebirth in some other
plane. The Cy. only states that when anyone, in the act
of accumulating, relinquishes desire or the rest, '
that ' is
called inferior [in efficacy] ; that when these four states
are moderately or superlatively efficacious they are called
accordingly ; and that *
when anyone has accumulated,
having made desire (chando), i.e., the wishing-to-do, his
sovereign, chief and leader,' then the procedure is said to
be under the dominant influence of desire. So for the
other three.
It is to be regretted that the Cy. does not discuss the
term vimamsa (investigation), or the propriety of its
position in this series of four. It would be interesting to
have learnt its psychological import in relation to vitakko
and vicar 0. There is a suggestion of dual symmetry
about the series: as chando is to viriyarn (conation
passing into action), so is cittam (the idea) to the dis-
cursive re-representative intellection of vimamsa. I have
rendered cittadhipateyyam by the influence of another
thought in accordance with the Cy. (213), where it is said
to be an associated thought, or states associated with the
original '
good thought.'
There is another brief comment on the adhipateyyas
below, § 1034, n. 2.
or the dominant influence in which is
investigation of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy,^
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[270] Which are the states that are good ?
When a good thought concerning the sensuous universe
has arisen which is (II.) accompanied by happiness,
associated with knowledge, and prompted by a conscious
motive . . .
or (III.) accompanied by happiness, and disconnected with
knowledge . . .
or (IV.) accompanied by happiness, disconnected with
knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive . . .
or (V.) accompanied by disinterestedness, and associated
with knowledge . . .
or (VI.) accompanied by disinterestedness, associated with
knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive . . .
or (VII.) accompanied by disinterestedness, and discon-
nected with knowledge ...
or (VIII.) accompanied by disinterestedness, disconnected
with knowledge, and prompted by a conscious motive—
a
thought which is of inferior . . .
or of medium ...
or of superlative efficacy ...
^ The tabulated form adopted in this and following
replies is intended not only to facilitate a conspectus of
the system, but also to indicate the elision in the Pali
(expressed by . . . pe . . . ) of the repetition of the
unvarying framework of the reply before and after each
tabulated term. The Koman numerals in this and the
next reply refer to the original statement of the 'Eight
Main Types of Thought' in Chapter I. Apparently the
sensuous basis of the arammanam of each thought is not
intended to be here rehearsed.
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
another thought ;
or the dominant influence in which is
desire of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
energy of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
or the dominant influence in which is
[another] thought of inferior,
of medium, or
of superlative efficacy
;
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.^
2. Good in relation to the Universe of Form.
[271] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, aloof from sensuous appe-
tites, aloof from evil ideas, by earth-gazing enters into and
abides in the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation) . . .
which is
of inferior,
or of medium,
or of superlative efficacy
;
^ In accordance with the usual procedure in the Dhamma
Sangani, when combining several subjects in one sentence,
the final details apply only to the last subject in the
series. Hence '
investigation ' is omitted in connexion
with Thought VIII., because, presumably, the latter is
'
disconnected with knowledge.' And it would likewise have
been omitted in connexion with Thoughts III., IV. and VII.,
but not in connexion with the others.
or the dominant influence in which is
desire, or
energy, or
a thought, or
investigation
;
or the dominant influence in which is
desire . . . energy ... a thought . . . investigation
of inferior,
of medium,
or of superlative efficacy
—
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[272] Repeat in the case of the other Jhanas, both of
(a) and (b).
• 3. Good in relation to the Formless Universe.
[273] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, by passing wholly beyond
all consciousness of form, by the dying out of the conscious-
ness of sensory reaction, by turning the attention from any
consciousness of the manifold, he enters into and abides
in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the con-
sciousness of a sphere of unbounded space—even into the
Fourth Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have
been put away, etc.—(the rapt meditation) where there is
neither ill nor ease, but only the perfect purity that comes
of mindfulness and disinterestedness, and which is of
inferior . . .
medium . . .
or superlative efficacy . . .
or the dominant influence in which is
desire ...
or energy ...
or a thought . . .
or investigation . . .
or the dominant influence in which is
desire . . . energy ... a thought . . . investigation
of inferior . . .
medium ...
superlative efficacy
—
then the contact . . . the balance that arises—these . . .
are states that are good.
[274-276] Here folloiv the three remaining *
Jhanas con-
nected with Formless Existence,' each modified hy the
characteristics enumerated in the foregoing ansiver. Cf.
§§ 266-268.1
1 In § 275 the text inadvertently omits majjhimam
. . . pe . . . panitam . . . pe . . . before vimam-
sadhipateyyam.
Dhamma-Sangani - THE GENESIS OF THOUGHTS - Good in relation to the Universe of the Formless
A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[Chapter III.
Good in relation to the Universe of the Formless
(arupavacara-kusalam).
The Four Jhanas connected with Formless Existence
(cattari arupajjhanani).^
1. The Sphere of Unbounded Space (akasananca-
yatanam).]
[265] "Which are the states that are good?
^ These often appear in the Nikayas as the fourth to the
seventh of the Eight Vimokhas or Deliverances {cf. §§ 248-
250 ; Maha Par. Sutta, p. 30 ; A. iv. 306). Though treated
of in the Visuddhi Magga (chap, iii.), Buddhaghosa only
makes comparison with the account of them given in the
Vibhanga. In S. iii. 237, and frequently in the Majjhima,
they occur in immediate sequence to the four Jhanas
without any collective title, and not as concomitants of the
Fourth Jhana. There, too, the formulae also have this slight
variation from those in the present work, that the conscious
attainment of each stage of abstraction is expressed by a
brief proposition of identification, e.g., ananto akaso ti
. . . n'atthi kinci ti (It is boundless space! . . . There
is nothing whatever !). The Cy. explains this by a curious
quibble which is incidentally of interest (p. 204). It was
the wish of the Buddha to carry out, as in previous pro-
cedure so in this, the study of the Four Objects of Thought
[arammanani; see above, jp^issim, under {d)\. And the
first of these is that one's object is 'limited.' But if the
student, in attaining to an undifferentiated consciousness
of unbounded space, realize its nature by the, so to speak,
exclamatory thought, 'It is boundless!' he cannot logically
proceed to consider it as limited. If I interpret Buddha-
hen, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and so, by passing wholly
beyond all consciousness of form, by the dying out of the
consciousness of sensory reaction,^ by turning the attention
from any consciousness of the manifold,^ he enters into
and abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied
by the consciousness of a sphere of unbounded space
—
ghosa aright, an interesting significance is hereby added to
these parenthetical exclamations, which are not unfrequent
in Buddhist philosophy. They seem to imply an act of
conscious recognition.
^ The student is to withdraw all interest in and attention
to the world of rupa, to cease so entirely to differentiate
the ;plenu7n of external phenomena (including his own form)
which impinge on his senses, that sensations cease, or
resolve themselves into a homogeneous sense of extended
vacuum. Patigho, rendered by sensory reaction, is ex-
plained to be sight-perception, sound-perception, smell, taste,
and touch-perception. '
Thought is (here) not sustained
by way of the five doors ' (Asl. 201, 202). Hardest of all
was it to abstract all attention from sounds. Alara Kalama,
one of Gotama's teachers, and proficient in these rapt states,
at least so far as the sixth Vimokha (M. i. 164), was credited
with the power of becoming so absorbed that he failed to
see or hear hundreds of carts passing near him (Asl. 202).
On the psycho-physiological use of patigho, see the theory
of sense in the book on form, infra, § 597 e^ seq.
^ Nanattasannanam amanasikara. On the latter
term, see above, p. 5, n. 1. Nanattam is of rare occur-
rence in the Nikayas ; but see M. i. 3, where, in a series
of concepts, it follows '
unity ' and precedes *
the whole
'
(Neumann renders by Vielheit); also S. iv. 113, 114,
where it is explained to refer to the various kinds of sensa-
tion, the corresponding viiiiiana, and the resulting feeling.
In the Vibhanga, quoted by Buddhaghosa (p. 202), it is
explained to mean cognition of the mutual diversity or
dissimilarity (aiinamannam asadisa) of nature in the
eight kinds of good thoughts, the twelve bad thoughts
(below, § 365), as well as in those ideas of good and bad
results which are taken next to these. For cittani,
however, sanna is substituted, possibly limiting the appli-
cation of the discernment of diversity to the sensuous basis
even the Fourth Jhana, to gain which^ all sense of ease
must have been put away, and all sense of ill must have
been put away, and there must have been a dying out of
the happiness and misery he was wont to feel—(the rapt
meditation) which is imbued with disinterestedness, and
where no ease is felt nor any ill, but only the perfect
purity that comes of mindfulness and disinterestedness
—
then the contact, etc. . . . [c/. § 165] the balance that
arises, these . . . are states that are good.
[2. The Sphere of Inlinite Intellection (vinnananca-
yatanam).^]
[266] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed^ wholly
beyond the sphere of boundless space, enters into and
abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the
of all those '
thoughts.' The context, nevertheless, seems
to point to a certain general, abstract, '
re-representative
'
import in saniia as here applied. It is said to be the
consciousness of one who is occupied with manodhatu or
with manovinfianadhatu—with, let us say, representa-
tive or with re-representative cognition—with ideas or with
cognition of those ideas. The ideation in this case is about
sensuous phenomena as manifold, and the abstract nature
of it lies, of course, in considering their diversity as such.
^ In the text the formula of the Fourth Jhana remains
unaltered (c/. § 165). But it is sandwiched between the
cumbrous adjectival compounds referring to space and to
disinterestedness. Hence some modification was necessary
to avoid uncouthness of diction.
^ Strictly viiinananancayatanam. The usually elided
syllable (rulhi-saddo) is noticed in the Cy. (205).
^ K., here and in the two following replies, has the gerund
samatikkamma, following the usage in the Nikayas (see,
e.g.,!)., M. P. S., 30; M. i. 174, 209; S. iii. 237, 238;
A. iv. 306). Buddhaghosa apparently reads samatik-
kama (2^5), as is the unvarying case in the first only of
these four arupajjhanas.
consciousness of a sphere of infinite intellection ^
—even the
Fourth Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have
been put away, etc.
[Continue as in previous section.^
[3. The Sphere of Nothingness (akincannayata-
nam).]
[267] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed wholly
beyond the sphere of infinite intellection, enters into and
abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the
consciousness of a sphere of nothingness—even the Fourth
Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have been put
away, etc.
[Continue as in § 265.]
[4. The Sphere where there is neither Perception nor
Non-perception (neva-sanna-nasannayatanam).]
[268] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed wholly
beyond the sphere of nothingness, enters into and abides
in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the con-
sciousness of a sphere where there is neither perception
nor non-perception 2
—even the Fourth Jhana, to gain which
all sense of ease must have been put away, etc.
[Contifiue as in § 265.]
^ The only explanation given of a term on which one
would gladly have heard Buddhaghosa expatiate is, *
There
is no end for him in respect to that which has to be cogi-
tated' (^t^., minded ; manasikatabba-vasena) (Asl. 205).
On the next stage, too (§ 267), no light at all is thrown
(p. 206).
^ Buddhaghosa explains this mental state as the cultiva-
tion of the functioning of the subtle residuum of conscious
The Four Jhanas connected with Formless Existence
may be developed in sixteen combinations.
syntheses (sankharavasesa-sukhuma-bhavam). In
so far as perception (presumably understood as being wholly
introspective) has become incapable of effective functioning
(patu-saniia-kiccam), the state is non-perceptual. In so
far as those faint, fine conscious reactions are maintained,
the state is '
not non-perceptual.' This oscillation about
a zero-point in consciousness is illustrated by the similes
quoted (not from this Cy.) by Hardy {oj). cit., 264), namely,
of the bowl containing just so much oil as suffices for
cleansing purposes, but not to be poured out ; also, of the
little pool, sufficient to wet the feet, but too shallow for a
bathe. Both oil and water exist, or do not exist, according
to what action can be taken with respect to them. The
Cy. adds that this liminal point obtains not only in sanna,
but also in feeling, thought, and contact (208). The study
of the '
threshold ' of consciousness, and of the supra- and
sub-liminal grades clustering about it, is familiar enough
to the investigator in psychophysics. What is unfamiliar
to us is the exploitation of the borderland of consciousness
in the interests of ethical growth. Leibnitz might have
found in the neva-sanna-nasannayatanam, had he
had opportunity, the inspiration for his theory of petites
perceptions.
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[Chapter III.
Good in relation to the Universe of the Formless
(arupavacara-kusalam).
The Four Jhanas connected with Formless Existence
(cattari arupajjhanani).^
1. The Sphere of Unbounded Space (akasananca-
yatanam).]
[265] "Which are the states that are good?
^ These often appear in the Nikayas as the fourth to the
seventh of the Eight Vimokhas or Deliverances {cf. §§ 248-
250 ; Maha Par. Sutta, p. 30 ; A. iv. 306). Though treated
of in the Visuddhi Magga (chap, iii.), Buddhaghosa only
makes comparison with the account of them given in the
Vibhanga. In S. iii. 237, and frequently in the Majjhima,
they occur in immediate sequence to the four Jhanas
without any collective title, and not as concomitants of the
Fourth Jhana. There, too, the formulae also have this slight
variation from those in the present work, that the conscious
attainment of each stage of abstraction is expressed by a
brief proposition of identification, e.g., ananto akaso ti
. . . n'atthi kinci ti (It is boundless space! . . . There
is nothing whatever !). The Cy. explains this by a curious
quibble which is incidentally of interest (p. 204). It was
the wish of the Buddha to carry out, as in previous pro-
cedure so in this, the study of the Four Objects of Thought
[arammanani; see above, jp^issim, under {d)\. And the
first of these is that one's object is 'limited.' But if the
student, in attaining to an undifferentiated consciousness
of unbounded space, realize its nature by the, so to speak,
exclamatory thought, 'It is boundless!' he cannot logically
proceed to consider it as limited. If I interpret Buddha-
hen, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and so, by passing wholly
beyond all consciousness of form, by the dying out of the
consciousness of sensory reaction,^ by turning the attention
from any consciousness of the manifold,^ he enters into
and abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied
by the consciousness of a sphere of unbounded space
—
ghosa aright, an interesting significance is hereby added to
these parenthetical exclamations, which are not unfrequent
in Buddhist philosophy. They seem to imply an act of
conscious recognition.
^ The student is to withdraw all interest in and attention
to the world of rupa, to cease so entirely to differentiate
the ;plenu7n of external phenomena (including his own form)
which impinge on his senses, that sensations cease, or
resolve themselves into a homogeneous sense of extended
vacuum. Patigho, rendered by sensory reaction, is ex-
plained to be sight-perception, sound-perception, smell, taste,
and touch-perception. '
Thought is (here) not sustained
by way of the five doors ' (Asl. 201, 202). Hardest of all
was it to abstract all attention from sounds. Alara Kalama,
one of Gotama's teachers, and proficient in these rapt states,
at least so far as the sixth Vimokha (M. i. 164), was credited
with the power of becoming so absorbed that he failed to
see or hear hundreds of carts passing near him (Asl. 202).
On the psycho-physiological use of patigho, see the theory
of sense in the book on form, infra, § 597 e^ seq.
^ Nanattasannanam amanasikara. On the latter
term, see above, p. 5, n. 1. Nanattam is of rare occur-
rence in the Nikayas ; but see M. i. 3, where, in a series
of concepts, it follows '
unity ' and precedes *
the whole
'
(Neumann renders by Vielheit); also S. iv. 113, 114,
where it is explained to refer to the various kinds of sensa-
tion, the corresponding viiiiiana, and the resulting feeling.
In the Vibhanga, quoted by Buddhaghosa (p. 202), it is
explained to mean cognition of the mutual diversity or
dissimilarity (aiinamannam asadisa) of nature in the
eight kinds of good thoughts, the twelve bad thoughts
(below, § 365), as well as in those ideas of good and bad
results which are taken next to these. For cittani,
however, sanna is substituted, possibly limiting the appli-
cation of the discernment of diversity to the sensuous basis
even the Fourth Jhana, to gain which^ all sense of ease
must have been put away, and all sense of ill must have
been put away, and there must have been a dying out of
the happiness and misery he was wont to feel—(the rapt
meditation) which is imbued with disinterestedness, and
where no ease is felt nor any ill, but only the perfect
purity that comes of mindfulness and disinterestedness
—
then the contact, etc. . . . [c/. § 165] the balance that
arises, these . . . are states that are good.
[2. The Sphere of Inlinite Intellection (vinnananca-
yatanam).^]
[266] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed^ wholly
beyond the sphere of boundless space, enters into and
abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the
of all those '
thoughts.' The context, nevertheless, seems
to point to a certain general, abstract, '
re-representative
'
import in saniia as here applied. It is said to be the
consciousness of one who is occupied with manodhatu or
with manovinfianadhatu—with, let us say, representa-
tive or with re-representative cognition—with ideas or with
cognition of those ideas. The ideation in this case is about
sensuous phenomena as manifold, and the abstract nature
of it lies, of course, in considering their diversity as such.
^ In the text the formula of the Fourth Jhana remains
unaltered (c/. § 165). But it is sandwiched between the
cumbrous adjectival compounds referring to space and to
disinterestedness. Hence some modification was necessary
to avoid uncouthness of diction.
^ Strictly viiinananancayatanam. The usually elided
syllable (rulhi-saddo) is noticed in the Cy. (205).
^ K., here and in the two following replies, has the gerund
samatikkamma, following the usage in the Nikayas (see,
e.g.,!)., M. P. S., 30; M. i. 174, 209; S. iii. 237, 238;
A. iv. 306). Buddhaghosa apparently reads samatik-
kama (2^5), as is the unvarying case in the first only of
these four arupajjhanas.
consciousness of a sphere of infinite intellection ^
—even the
Fourth Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have
been put away, etc.
[Continue as in previous section.^
[3. The Sphere of Nothingness (akincannayata-
nam).]
[267] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed wholly
beyond the sphere of infinite intellection, enters into and
abides in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the
consciousness of a sphere of nothingness—even the Fourth
Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease must have been put
away, etc.
[Continue as in § 265.]
[4. The Sphere where there is neither Perception nor
Non-perception (neva-sanna-nasannayatanam).]
[268] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the Formless heavens,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, having passed wholly
beyond the sphere of nothingness, enters into and abides
in that rapt meditation which is accompanied by the con-
sciousness of a sphere where there is neither perception
nor non-perception 2
—even the Fourth Jhana, to gain which
all sense of ease must have been put away, etc.
[Contifiue as in § 265.]
^ The only explanation given of a term on which one
would gladly have heard Buddhaghosa expatiate is, *
There
is no end for him in respect to that which has to be cogi-
tated' (^t^., minded ; manasikatabba-vasena) (Asl. 205).
On the next stage, too (§ 267), no light at all is thrown
(p. 206).
^ Buddhaghosa explains this mental state as the cultiva-
tion of the functioning of the subtle residuum of conscious
The Four Jhanas connected with Formless Existence
may be developed in sixteen combinations.
syntheses (sankharavasesa-sukhuma-bhavam). In
so far as perception (presumably understood as being wholly
introspective) has become incapable of effective functioning
(patu-saniia-kiccam), the state is non-perceptual. In so
far as those faint, fine conscious reactions are maintained,
the state is '
not non-perceptual.' This oscillation about
a zero-point in consciousness is illustrated by the similes
quoted (not from this Cy.) by Hardy {oj). cit., 264), namely,
of the bowl containing just so much oil as suffices for
cleansing purposes, but not to be poured out ; also, of the
little pool, sufficient to wet the feet, but too shallow for a
bathe. Both oil and water exist, or do not exist, according
to what action can be taken with respect to them. The
Cy. adds that this liminal point obtains not only in sanna,
but also in feeling, thought, and contact (208). The study
of the '
threshold ' of consciousness, and of the supra- and
sub-liminal grades clustering about it, is familiar enough
to the investigator in psychophysics. What is unfamiliar
to us is the exploitation of the borderland of consciousness
in the interests of ethical growth. Leibnitz might have
found in the neva-sanna-nasannayatanam, had he
had opportunity, the inspiration for his theory of petites
perceptions.
Dhamma-Sangani - THE GENESIS OF THOUGHTS - The Stations of Mastery
A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[11.
The Stations of Mastery^ (abhibhayatanani).
1. *
Forms as Limited '(rupani parittani).
{a and h) Fourfold and Fivefold Jhana.]
[204] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
separately dwelt upon. See '
Yogavacara's Manual, 1896,'
pp. 48-52.
^ Eight '
stations ' or '
positions of mastery ' are given
in the Maha-parinibbana-Sutta (pp. 28, 29; see S. B. E.
xi. 49, 50, and in A. iv. 305), but the formulae of the first
four differ slightly from those in our text. The Cy. draws
attention to this discrepancy (Asl. 189). In the Suttanta
the esthetic aspect of the objects perceived is taken into
account in all four stations, the specific difference replacing
it in two of them being the conscious dwelling on some
part of one's own bodily frame orriipaskandha. In the
Dhammasangani this consciousness is excluded from all the
stations. To teach by way of its inclusion and exclusion
is called * merely a jeii d'esprit in the Master's discourse '
(desana-vilasa-mattam eva). See following note.
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self,^ but seeing external objects to be
limited, gets the mastery over them with the thought 'I
know, I see !'^ and so, aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof
from evil ideas, enters into and abides in the First Jhana,
etc. . . . then the contact, etc., that arises—these . . . are
states that are good.
[205] [Repeat in the case of the 2nd to the 4ih Jhana on
the Fourfold System^ and of the 2nd to the 5th Jhana on the
Fivefold System,^
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress.]
[206-210] Repeat the four combinations of progress as
painful or easy, and of intuition as sluggish or quick set
out in §§ 176-180, substituting for '
earth - gazing ' the
Masteryformula just stated.
^Ajjhattam arupasaniii ( = na rupasafini). This
rendering is in accordance with Buddhaghosa's comments
(Asl. 188, 189, 191). The student, either because he has
tried and failed, or because he did not wish to try, has not
induced Jhana by way of fixing attention on his own hair
or the rest. Cf. the Maha Eahulovada-Sutta (M. i. 62),
where the individual's rupa-skandha is fully set forth with
reference to the four elements, ajjhattika pathavid-
hatu, etc., beginning with '
hair '
and the rest. Cj. § 248 n.
^ The external objects in question are contemplated on
the kasina system (Asl. 188). And just as a man of
vigorous digestion bolts a spoonful of rice, so the aspirant
after sublime truth swiftly and easily transcends the initial
act of external perception when the object is insignificant,
and brings forth the desiderated concept (appana). The
judgments by which he registers the consciousness of in-
tellectual mastery have reference, according to Buddhaghosa,
to past experience of enlightenment, and indicate simply
a recognition, or, in terms of syllogism, a minor premise
identified. But he states that, in the Sinhalese commentary
on the Nikayas, they are interpreted as implying a present
access of new light, a fresh moral attainment, gained after
the thinker transcends perceptual consciousness {ibid.).
[(d) The Two Objects of Thought.]
[211-213] Repeat, substituting for '
earth - gazing '
the
Mastery-formulaf § 181, where the Jhana *
is limited, and
has a Hmited object of thought,' and § 183, where the Jhana
*
is capable of infinite extension, but has a limited object of
thought.'!
[(e = c and d) The Eightfold Combination (atthak-
khattuka m.]'^
[214-221] Repeat, with the same substitution, §§ 186, 188,
190, 192, 194, 196, 198, and 200 of the Sixteenfold Com-
bination.
[222] Repeat these eight combinations in the case of each
of the remaining Jhclnas.
[2. *
Forms as limited and as beautiful or ugly'^
(rupani parittani suvann a-d ubbannani).
! The '
objects of thought' are here the kasinas, essentially
discerned to be '
limited '
or insignificant. Hence two, not
four varieties ; and hence eight, not sixteen combinations.
The term appamanain connoting merely a relative, not
an absolute infinitude, there is only a difference of degree
in the depth, purifying efficacy, or what not, of the Jhana
attained to. The same illustrative figure is accordingly
used, varied in degree. The gourmand, discontented with
a small dish of rice, demands more and more. So the
aspirant (now iianuttaro, not nanuttariko), aiming
at perfect self-concentration, refuses to call that infinite
which seems so (ibid.).
2 So K.
^ The general aesthetic designations of suvann arn and
dubbanam are in the Cy. paraphrased by parisuddhaiii
and its negative. Just as the limited nature of visible
things was held to be an efficacious consideration for con-
ceptual efforts, and the notion of 'infinite' helpful for
dulness, so the beautiful and the ugly were prescribed for
inimical conduct and for indulgence in passion respectively.
The appropriateness of it all is said to be discussed in the
Cariya-niddesa of the Visuddhi Magga (Asl. 189).
(a) and (h)]
[223] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects to be
limited, and to be beautiful or ugly, gets the mastery over
them with the thought, *I know, I see!' and so, aloof
from sensuous appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana, etc. . . . then the contact,
etc., that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[224] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas,
Develop in eightfold combination.
[3. '
Forms as infinite '( rupaniappamanani).^
{a) and (/>)]
[225] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects to be
infinite, gets the mastery over them with the thoughts
*I know, I see!' and so, aloof from sensuous appetites,
etc.
[Continue as in § 204.]
[226] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas.
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress.]
[227-231] Repeat §§ 206-210, substituting *
infinite '/or
' limited.'
1 See note on §§ 211-213. Taken in order, Buddha-
ghosa's comment there reproduced applies to that part of
the text. According to the context, it might better apply
here, where the external forms or kasina-objects are now
contemplated as *
infinite.' The reflection, however, appHes
to either passage.
[(d) The Two Objects of Thought.]
[232-234] Repeat, with the same substitution as in (c),
§§ 211-213.
[(e = ca.ndd) The Eightfold Combination.]
[235-242] Develop, icith the same substitution as in (c) and
(d), after the manner o/ §§ 187, 189, and so on to § 201.
[243] Repeat these eight combinations in the case of each of
the remaining Jhdnas.
[4. ' Forms as infinite and as beautiful or ugly '
(rupani
appamanani suvanna-dubbannani).
(a) and (b)]
[244] Repeat § 223, substituting * infinite ' /o^' * limited.'
[245] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas.
Develop in eightfold combination.
[5. *
Forms as blue-black,' etc. (rupaninilani).^
^ It is well known that it is as difiicult to determine
the range of colour indicated by nil am as to decide the
colour-value of the word ryXavKo^;, Like the latter term,
nilam may originally have referred more to lustre than
to tinge, meaning darkly lustrous, jetty, or nigrescent.
Any way, it is not plausible to render the term by *
blue
'
when one is referred to human hair or bile (pit tarn) as
instances of it in the human body. See note 2 to § 248.
In Jat. iii. 138 hair-dye or hair-wash is called niliyam
—
much, perhaps, as we speak of *
blacking ' or '
russet polish '
for shoes. This implies that the colour called nil am
was, if not the usual, at least the desiderated colour of
human hair.
If it were what we understand by a typical blue, the
term would be applied to sky and sea, or the violet band
of the rainbow, which is, I believe, never the case. Pos-
sibly our own colour -parallels in these respects are a
modern development. Cf. Havelock Ellis in Contemporary
Revieiv, vol. Ixix., p. 727. Modern Hindu colour-terms are,
I am told, largely of Persian origin.
(«)]
[246] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects which
are blue-black, blue-black in colour, blue-black in visible
expanse,^ blue-black in luminousness, gets the mastery over
them with the thought, *I know, I see !'
and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, etc.
[Continue as in § 204.]
* -^ -x- * -K-
[6-8. 'Forms as yellow,' etc. (rupani pitani).
[247] Repeat § 246, substituting for *
blue-black, blue-black
in colour,' etc., * yellow,' '
red,' and '
white '^ successively.
Develop these Stations of Mastery in the Sixteenfold
Combination.
[TIL
The Three First Deliverances (tini vimokkhani.^]
1.
[248] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, conscious of his bodily
^ Nilanidassanam, indicating, according to the Cy.
(190), a uniform sheet of blue without break. The colours
in this and following sections may reside in a flower, a
piece of cloth, or some other basis.
^ The remaining three English colour-names may match
the Pali terms as loosely as in the previous case. Cf.
S. B. E. xi., loc, cit. In the Sutta there translated in-
stances of the colours are given, and, curiously enough,
'
white ' is illustrated, not by milk, or the distant Himalaya
snows, but by the morning star.
^ Followed by four more of the Eight Deliverances in
the next chapter, §§ 265-268. The eighth alone is not
given in the present work. See Maha Parinibbana Sutta,
p. 30 ; A. iv. 306. According to the Cy. (190), the term
'
deliverance '
(vimokkham, or adhimuccanam) is used
form,^ sees bodily forms, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in
the First Jhana, etc. . . . then the contact, etc., which
arises, these . . . are states that are good.
2.
[249] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of his cor-
poreal self, sees external bodily forms, and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, etc.
[Continue as in preceding section.]
3.
[250] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, with the thought,
* How fair it is !'^ aloof from sensuous appetites, etc.
to denote the being set free from '
adverse conditions ' and
their seductive fascinations, so that the attention is sus-
tained with all the detachment and confidence that the
child feels who is borne on his father's hip, his little limbs
dangling, their clutch unneeded.
^ Rupi. Judging by the Cy. (190), this is equivalent
to ajjhattam rupasaiiiii—that is, to the opposite of the
term *
unconscious of any part of his corporeal self,' the
attitude prescribed in the Stations of Mastery, supra,
§ 204 et seq. The parikammam selected is *
one's own
hair and the rest.' If a nila-parikammam is sought,
attention is fixed on the hair or bile (pit tarn) or the pupil
of the eye. If the induction is to be by way of yellow, fat
or skin may be taken ; if red, flesh, blood, or the tongue,
or the palms of the hands or feet, etc. ; if white, the teeth,
nails, or white of the eye. At the same time '
he sees
external bodily forms in the nila or other kasina ivith the
Jhana-vision '
(jhanacakkhuna passati).
How this dual effort of intense attention was effected I
do not pretend to understand, but Buddhaghosa more than
once refers us for a more detailed account to the Yisuddhi
Magga.
2 That is to say, says the Cy. (191), not the conscious
acquirement of the concept (a p pan a), but the consciousness
[Contmue as in the first Deliverance.] '
These three Deliverances may also be developed in
Sixteenfold Combination.
[IV.
The Four Jhanas of the Sublime Abodes (cattari
brahmaviharajhanan i).^
1. Love (mett a).
(a) Fourfold Jhana.]
[251] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
of the perfection or purity of colour or lustre in the par-
ticular kasina is here meant. (The reading should, of
course, be subhan ti.) And this gesthetic consciousness
is declared by Buddhaghosa to quicken the sense of emanci-
pation from morally adverse conditions analogously to that
perception of moral beauty which may be felt in the Sublime
Abodes of the following sections. According to the Pati-
sambhida-magga, here quoted, when, on pervading the
whole world with heart of love, pity, etc., all feeling of
aversion from living beings is rooted out, the student is
struck with the glory of the idea, and works his deliver-
ance.
^ On these four great exercises, see Ehys Davids, S. B. E.
xi. 201, n. ; and, on their emancipating efficacy, M. i. 38.
Buddhaghosa again refers the reader to his Visuddhi Magga
for a more detailed commentary (vide chap, ix., and cf.
Hardy, ^Eastern Monachism,' p. 243 et seq.). The four
are set out here only under the *
Suddhika ' formulae—that
is, under heads (a) and (b). But (c), or the Modes of
Progress, as well as (d) and (e), are understood to follow
in each case (Asl. 192). The object of thought (a ram-
ma nam) in this connexion will be 'limited' if the student
dwells in love, etc., on but a restricted number of beings
;
'
infinite ' if his heart embrace vast numbers.
The commentator has not a little to say in the present
work, however, on the nature and mutual relations of the
'
Abodes '
(pp. 193-195). First, the characteristics of each
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in the
First Jhana (the first rapt meditation), wherein conception
are fully set forth, together with their false manifestation
(vipatti). Clinging (sinehasambhavo) is the vipatti
of love, the essential mark of which is the carrying on of
beneficent conduct, etc. Tears and the like are less truly
characteristic of pity than is the bearing and relieving the
woes of others. Laughter and the like are less genuine
expressions of sympathy (mudita, which is strictly
(Tvyx^^P^^^^^Vi Mitfreude) than is appreciation of what
others have achieved. And there is a condition of dis-
interestedness (upekkha) which is prompted by ignorance,
and not by that insight into the karma of mankind which
can avail to calm the passions.
He next designates the four antisocial attitudes which
are to be extirpated by these ethical disciplines, taken in
order—ill-will (vyapado), cruelty (vihesa), aversion
(arati), and passion (rago)—and shows how each virtue
has also a second vice opposed to it. This he terms its near
enemy, as being less directly assailed by it than its ethical
opposite, the latter resembling an enemy who has to lurk
afar in the jungle and the hills. Love and vengeful conduct
cannot coexist. To prevail in this respect, let love be de-
veloped fearlessly. But where love and its object have too
much in common, love is threatened by lust. On this side
let love be guarded well. Again, the near enemy to pity,
more insidious than cruelty, is the self-pity pining for what
one has not got or has lost—a low, profane melancholy.
And the corresponding worldly happiness in what one has,
or in consequence of obliviousness as to what one has lost,
lies in wait to stifle appreciation of the good fortune of
others. Lastly, there is the unintelligent indifference of
the worldling who has not triumphed over limitations
nor mastered cause and effect, being unable to transcend
external things.
The remainder of his remarks are occupied with the
necessary ethical sequence in the four Abodes, and the
importance of observing method in their cultivation, and
finally with their other technical appellation of Ap pa-
manna, or Infinitudes. In this connexion he repeats the
touching illustration given in Hardy {pp. cit, 249) of the
works and thought discursive, which is born of solitude,
is full of joy and ease, and is accompanied by Love—then
the contact, etc. . . . [? continue as m § 1] . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[252] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, suppressing the working of
conception and of thought discursive, and so, by earth-
gazing, enters into and abides in the Second Jhana (the
second rapt meditation), which is self-evolved, born of con-
centration, is full of joy and ease, in that, set free . . . the
mind grows calm and sure, dwelling on high—and which is
accompanied by Love—then the contact, etc.
[Continue as in the foregoing,]
[253] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and further, through the waning
of all passion for joy, holds himself unbiassed, the while,
mindful and self-possessed, he experiences in his sense-con-
sciousness that ease whereof the Noble Ones declare :
*
He
mother and her four children. Her desire for the growth
of the infant is as Metta; for the recovery of the sick
child as Karuna; for the maintenance of the gifts dis-
played by the youth as Mudita; while her care not to
hinder the career of her grown-up son is as Upekkha.
It may be remarked, by the way, that when Hardy, with
a foreigner's want of mudita, calumniates the Buddhist
mendicant (p. 250) as one who thinks about the virtues
of solidarity without practising them, he quite forgets that
these exercises are but preparations of the will for that
ministering to the intellectual needs of others to which the
recluse's life was largely devoted, and the importance of
which the Western, in his zeal for material forms of
charity, does not even now appreciate at its real value.
And Buddhism did not believe in giving the rein to good
impulses unregulated by intellectual control.
that is unbiassed and watchful dwelleth at ease '
—and so,
by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Third Jhana,
which is accompanied by Love^—then, etc,
[Continue as in the foregoing^]
(h) Fivefold Jhana.
[254-257] Repeat question and answers in §§ 167, 168,
170, 172, adding in each answer, as in the foregoing section,
'
and which is accompanied by Love.'^
2. Pity (karuna).
[258, 259] Repeat question and answers in the preceding
sections (a) and (h), hut substituting in each case *
and which
is accompanied by Pity ' for the clause on Love.
3. Sympathy (mudita).
[260, 261] Repeat question and anstvers in the preceding
two sections, hut substituting in each case '
and which is
accompanied by Sympathy ' for the clause on Pity.
4. Disinterestedness (upekkha).
[262] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, by the putting away of
ease and by the putting away of ill, by the passing away
of the happiness and of the misery he was wont to feel, he
thus, by earth -gazing, enters into and abides in the Fourth
Jhana (the fourth rapt meditation) of that utter purity
of mindfulness which comes of disinterestedness, where no
ease is felt nor any ill, and which is accompanied by Dis-
interestedness—then the contact, etc.
[Continue as in § 165.]
^ Love necessarily involves happiness (somanassam
= cetasikam sukham, § 10, n.), hence it cannot be
cultivated by way of the Fourth—or, under (Z>), Fifth
—
Jhana.
^ Omitting the Fifth Jhana. See preceding note.
The Four Jhanas of the Sublime Abodes may be de-
veloped in Sixteen Combinations. ''
[V.
The Jhana of Foul Things (asubha-jhanam.)]
[263] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in
the First Jhana, wherein, etc. . . . and which is accom-
panied by the idea of a bloated corpse^ . . .
\or] [264] of a discoloured corpse ...
[or] of a festering corpse ...
[or] of a corpse with cracked skin ...
\or\ of a corpse gnawn and mangled ...
[or] of a corpse cut to pieces ...
[or] of a corpse mutilated and cut in pieces . . .
[or] of a bloody corpse ...
[or] of a corpse infested with worms ...
[or] of a skeleton ...
then the contact . . . the balance which arises—these . . .
are states that are good.^
^ The formula of the First Jhana is understood to be
repeated in the case of each of the ten Asubhas, but of the
First only. For, in the words of the Cy. (p. 199), 'just
as on a swiftly-flowing river a boat can only be steadied
by the power of the rudder, so from the weakness (dubba-
latta) of the idea (in this case) the mind can only be
steadied in its abstraction by the power of conceptual
activity (vitakko).' And this activity is dispensed with
after the First Jhana.
^ For a more detailed account of this peculiar form of
moral discipline, the reader is again referred to the Visuddhi
Magga (chap. vi.). Hardy (' East. Mon.'), who quotes largely
from the Sinhalese commentary on the Visuddhi Magga,
may also be consulted (p. 247 et seq.). In the Satipat-
thana Sutta (D. 22. Cf. Warren, '
Buddhism in Transla-
The Jhana of Foul Things may be developed in Sixteen
Combinations.
[Here ends the Chapter on] Good in relation to the
Universe of Form.
tion,' p. 353 et seq, ; and M.I. 58) a system of nine Asubha-
meditations is set out in terms somewhat different. In
S. V. (pp. 129-131) five of the Asubhas, beginning with '
the
skeleton ' meditation, are prescribed in connexion with the
sambhojjhangas of mindfulness and disinterestedness.
And the same five are given in the Jhana Vagga of A. i. 42
(c/. A. iii. 323). The ten here given are said in the Cy.
(pp. 197-199) to be prescribed for such as were proved to be
passionately affected by the beauty of the body—of the figure,
skin, odour, firmness or continuity, plumpness, limbs and
extremities, symmetry, adornment, identifying self with the
body, or complacency in the possession of it (?kaye
mamattam; cf. S. N. 951), and teeth respectively. A dead
body is not essential to this kind of mind-culture, the Cy.
citing the cases of those Theras who obtained the requisite
Jhana by the glimpse of a person's teeth, or by the sight of
a rajah on his elephant. The essential procedure lay in
getting a clear and courageous grasp of the transience of
any living organism.
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
[11.
The Stations of Mastery^ (abhibhayatanani).
1. *
Forms as Limited '(rupani parittani).
{a and h) Fourfold and Fivefold Jhana.]
[204] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
separately dwelt upon. See '
Yogavacara's Manual, 1896,'
pp. 48-52.
^ Eight '
stations ' or '
positions of mastery ' are given
in the Maha-parinibbana-Sutta (pp. 28, 29; see S. B. E.
xi. 49, 50, and in A. iv. 305), but the formulae of the first
four differ slightly from those in our text. The Cy. draws
attention to this discrepancy (Asl. 189). In the Suttanta
the esthetic aspect of the objects perceived is taken into
account in all four stations, the specific difference replacing
it in two of them being the conscious dwelling on some
part of one's own bodily frame orriipaskandha. In the
Dhammasangani this consciousness is excluded from all the
stations. To teach by way of its inclusion and exclusion
is called * merely a jeii d'esprit in the Master's discourse '
(desana-vilasa-mattam eva). See following note.
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self,^ but seeing external objects to be
limited, gets the mastery over them with the thought 'I
know, I see !'^ and so, aloof from sensuous appetites, aloof
from evil ideas, enters into and abides in the First Jhana,
etc. . . . then the contact, etc., that arises—these . . . are
states that are good.
[205] [Repeat in the case of the 2nd to the 4ih Jhana on
the Fourfold System^ and of the 2nd to the 5th Jhana on the
Fivefold System,^
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress.]
[206-210] Repeat the four combinations of progress as
painful or easy, and of intuition as sluggish or quick set
out in §§ 176-180, substituting for '
earth - gazing ' the
Masteryformula just stated.
^Ajjhattam arupasaniii ( = na rupasafini). This
rendering is in accordance with Buddhaghosa's comments
(Asl. 188, 189, 191). The student, either because he has
tried and failed, or because he did not wish to try, has not
induced Jhana by way of fixing attention on his own hair
or the rest. Cf. the Maha Eahulovada-Sutta (M. i. 62),
where the individual's rupa-skandha is fully set forth with
reference to the four elements, ajjhattika pathavid-
hatu, etc., beginning with '
hair '
and the rest. Cj. § 248 n.
^ The external objects in question are contemplated on
the kasina system (Asl. 188). And just as a man of
vigorous digestion bolts a spoonful of rice, so the aspirant
after sublime truth swiftly and easily transcends the initial
act of external perception when the object is insignificant,
and brings forth the desiderated concept (appana). The
judgments by which he registers the consciousness of in-
tellectual mastery have reference, according to Buddhaghosa,
to past experience of enlightenment, and indicate simply
a recognition, or, in terms of syllogism, a minor premise
identified. But he states that, in the Sinhalese commentary
on the Nikayas, they are interpreted as implying a present
access of new light, a fresh moral attainment, gained after
the thinker transcends perceptual consciousness {ibid.).
[(d) The Two Objects of Thought.]
[211-213] Repeat, substituting for '
earth - gazing '
the
Mastery-formulaf § 181, where the Jhana *
is limited, and
has a Hmited object of thought,' and § 183, where the Jhana
*
is capable of infinite extension, but has a limited object of
thought.'!
[(e = c and d) The Eightfold Combination (atthak-
khattuka m.]'^
[214-221] Repeat, with the same substitution, §§ 186, 188,
190, 192, 194, 196, 198, and 200 of the Sixteenfold Com-
bination.
[222] Repeat these eight combinations in the case of each
of the remaining Jhclnas.
[2. *
Forms as limited and as beautiful or ugly'^
(rupani parittani suvann a-d ubbannani).
! The '
objects of thought' are here the kasinas, essentially
discerned to be '
limited '
or insignificant. Hence two, not
four varieties ; and hence eight, not sixteen combinations.
The term appamanain connoting merely a relative, not
an absolute infinitude, there is only a difference of degree
in the depth, purifying efficacy, or what not, of the Jhana
attained to. The same illustrative figure is accordingly
used, varied in degree. The gourmand, discontented with
a small dish of rice, demands more and more. So the
aspirant (now iianuttaro, not nanuttariko), aiming
at perfect self-concentration, refuses to call that infinite
which seems so (ibid.).
2 So K.
^ The general aesthetic designations of suvann arn and
dubbanam are in the Cy. paraphrased by parisuddhaiii
and its negative. Just as the limited nature of visible
things was held to be an efficacious consideration for con-
ceptual efforts, and the notion of 'infinite' helpful for
dulness, so the beautiful and the ugly were prescribed for
inimical conduct and for indulgence in passion respectively.
The appropriateness of it all is said to be discussed in the
Cariya-niddesa of the Visuddhi Magga (Asl. 189).
(a) and (h)]
[223] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects to be
limited, and to be beautiful or ugly, gets the mastery over
them with the thought, *I know, I see!' and so, aloof
from sensuous appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana, etc. . . . then the contact,
etc., that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[224] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas,
Develop in eightfold combination.
[3. '
Forms as infinite '( rupaniappamanani).^
{a) and (/>)]
[225] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects to be
infinite, gets the mastery over them with the thoughts
*I know, I see!' and so, aloof from sensuous appetites,
etc.
[Continue as in § 204.]
[226] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas.
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress.]
[227-231] Repeat §§ 206-210, substituting *
infinite '/or
' limited.'
1 See note on §§ 211-213. Taken in order, Buddha-
ghosa's comment there reproduced applies to that part of
the text. According to the context, it might better apply
here, where the external forms or kasina-objects are now
contemplated as *
infinite.' The reflection, however, appHes
to either passage.
[(d) The Two Objects of Thought.]
[232-234] Repeat, with the same substitution as in (c),
§§ 211-213.
[(e = ca.ndd) The Eightfold Combination.]
[235-242] Develop, icith the same substitution as in (c) and
(d), after the manner o/ §§ 187, 189, and so on to § 201.
[243] Repeat these eight combinations in the case of each of
the remaining Jhdnas.
[4. ' Forms as infinite and as beautiful or ugly '
(rupani
appamanani suvanna-dubbannani).
(a) and (b)]
[244] Repeat § 223, substituting * infinite ' /o^' * limited.'
[245] Repeat in the case of each of the remaining Jhanas.
Develop in eightfold combination.
[5. *
Forms as blue-black,' etc. (rupaninilani).^
^ It is well known that it is as difiicult to determine
the range of colour indicated by nil am as to decide the
colour-value of the word ryXavKo^;, Like the latter term,
nilam may originally have referred more to lustre than
to tinge, meaning darkly lustrous, jetty, or nigrescent.
Any way, it is not plausible to render the term by *
blue
'
when one is referred to human hair or bile (pit tarn) as
instances of it in the human body. See note 2 to § 248.
In Jat. iii. 138 hair-dye or hair-wash is called niliyam
—
much, perhaps, as we speak of *
blacking ' or '
russet polish '
for shoes. This implies that the colour called nil am
was, if not the usual, at least the desiderated colour of
human hair.
If it were what we understand by a typical blue, the
term would be applied to sky and sea, or the violet band
of the rainbow, which is, I believe, never the case. Pos-
sibly our own colour -parallels in these respects are a
modern development. Cf. Havelock Ellis in Contemporary
Revieiv, vol. Ixix., p. 727. Modern Hindu colour-terms are,
I am told, largely of Persian origin.
(«)]
[246] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of any part
of his corporeal self, but seeing external objects which
are blue-black, blue-black in colour, blue-black in visible
expanse,^ blue-black in luminousness, gets the mastery over
them with the thought, *I know, I see !'
and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, etc.
[Continue as in § 204.]
* -^ -x- * -K-
[6-8. 'Forms as yellow,' etc. (rupani pitani).
[247] Repeat § 246, substituting for *
blue-black, blue-black
in colour,' etc., * yellow,' '
red,' and '
white '^ successively.
Develop these Stations of Mastery in the Sixteenfold
Combination.
[TIL
The Three First Deliverances (tini vimokkhani.^]
1.
[248] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, conscious of his bodily
^ Nilanidassanam, indicating, according to the Cy.
(190), a uniform sheet of blue without break. The colours
in this and following sections may reside in a flower, a
piece of cloth, or some other basis.
^ The remaining three English colour-names may match
the Pali terms as loosely as in the previous case. Cf.
S. B. E. xi., loc, cit. In the Sutta there translated in-
stances of the colours are given, and, curiously enough,
'
white ' is illustrated, not by milk, or the distant Himalaya
snows, but by the morning star.
^ Followed by four more of the Eight Deliverances in
the next chapter, §§ 265-268. The eighth alone is not
given in the present work. See Maha Parinibbana Sutta,
p. 30 ; A. iv. 306. According to the Cy. (190), the term
'
deliverance '
(vimokkham, or adhimuccanam) is used
form,^ sees bodily forms, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in
the First Jhana, etc. . . . then the contact, etc., which
arises, these . . . are states that are good.
2.
[249] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, unconscious of his cor-
poreal self, sees external bodily forms, and so, aloof from
sensuous appetites, etc.
[Continue as in preceding section.]
3.
[250] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, with the thought,
* How fair it is !'^ aloof from sensuous appetites, etc.
to denote the being set free from '
adverse conditions ' and
their seductive fascinations, so that the attention is sus-
tained with all the detachment and confidence that the
child feels who is borne on his father's hip, his little limbs
dangling, their clutch unneeded.
^ Rupi. Judging by the Cy. (190), this is equivalent
to ajjhattam rupasaiiiii—that is, to the opposite of the
term *
unconscious of any part of his corporeal self,' the
attitude prescribed in the Stations of Mastery, supra,
§ 204 et seq. The parikammam selected is *
one's own
hair and the rest.' If a nila-parikammam is sought,
attention is fixed on the hair or bile (pit tarn) or the pupil
of the eye. If the induction is to be by way of yellow, fat
or skin may be taken ; if red, flesh, blood, or the tongue,
or the palms of the hands or feet, etc. ; if white, the teeth,
nails, or white of the eye. At the same time '
he sees
external bodily forms in the nila or other kasina ivith the
Jhana-vision '
(jhanacakkhuna passati).
How this dual effort of intense attention was effected I
do not pretend to understand, but Buddhaghosa more than
once refers us for a more detailed account to the Yisuddhi
Magga.
2 That is to say, says the Cy. (191), not the conscious
acquirement of the concept (a p pan a), but the consciousness
[Contmue as in the first Deliverance.] '
These three Deliverances may also be developed in
Sixteenfold Combination.
[IV.
The Four Jhanas of the Sublime Abodes (cattari
brahmaviharajhanan i).^
1. Love (mett a).
(a) Fourfold Jhana.]
[251] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
of the perfection or purity of colour or lustre in the par-
ticular kasina is here meant. (The reading should, of
course, be subhan ti.) And this gesthetic consciousness
is declared by Buddhaghosa to quicken the sense of emanci-
pation from morally adverse conditions analogously to that
perception of moral beauty which may be felt in the Sublime
Abodes of the following sections. According to the Pati-
sambhida-magga, here quoted, when, on pervading the
whole world with heart of love, pity, etc., all feeling of
aversion from living beings is rooted out, the student is
struck with the glory of the idea, and works his deliver-
ance.
^ On these four great exercises, see Ehys Davids, S. B. E.
xi. 201, n. ; and, on their emancipating efficacy, M. i. 38.
Buddhaghosa again refers the reader to his Visuddhi Magga
for a more detailed commentary (vide chap, ix., and cf.
Hardy, ^Eastern Monachism,' p. 243 et seq.). The four
are set out here only under the *
Suddhika ' formulae—that
is, under heads (a) and (b). But (c), or the Modes of
Progress, as well as (d) and (e), are understood to follow
in each case (Asl. 192). The object of thought (a ram-
ma nam) in this connexion will be 'limited' if the student
dwells in love, etc., on but a restricted number of beings
;
'
infinite ' if his heart embrace vast numbers.
The commentator has not a little to say in the present
work, however, on the nature and mutual relations of the
'
Abodes '
(pp. 193-195). First, the characteristics of each
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in the
First Jhana (the first rapt meditation), wherein conception
are fully set forth, together with their false manifestation
(vipatti). Clinging (sinehasambhavo) is the vipatti
of love, the essential mark of which is the carrying on of
beneficent conduct, etc. Tears and the like are less truly
characteristic of pity than is the bearing and relieving the
woes of others. Laughter and the like are less genuine
expressions of sympathy (mudita, which is strictly
(Tvyx^^P^^^^^Vi Mitfreude) than is appreciation of what
others have achieved. And there is a condition of dis-
interestedness (upekkha) which is prompted by ignorance,
and not by that insight into the karma of mankind which
can avail to calm the passions.
He next designates the four antisocial attitudes which
are to be extirpated by these ethical disciplines, taken in
order—ill-will (vyapado), cruelty (vihesa), aversion
(arati), and passion (rago)—and shows how each virtue
has also a second vice opposed to it. This he terms its near
enemy, as being less directly assailed by it than its ethical
opposite, the latter resembling an enemy who has to lurk
afar in the jungle and the hills. Love and vengeful conduct
cannot coexist. To prevail in this respect, let love be de-
veloped fearlessly. But where love and its object have too
much in common, love is threatened by lust. On this side
let love be guarded well. Again, the near enemy to pity,
more insidious than cruelty, is the self-pity pining for what
one has not got or has lost—a low, profane melancholy.
And the corresponding worldly happiness in what one has,
or in consequence of obliviousness as to what one has lost,
lies in wait to stifle appreciation of the good fortune of
others. Lastly, there is the unintelligent indifference of
the worldling who has not triumphed over limitations
nor mastered cause and effect, being unable to transcend
external things.
The remainder of his remarks are occupied with the
necessary ethical sequence in the four Abodes, and the
importance of observing method in their cultivation, and
finally with their other technical appellation of Ap pa-
manna, or Infinitudes. In this connexion he repeats the
touching illustration given in Hardy {pp. cit, 249) of the
works and thought discursive, which is born of solitude,
is full of joy and ease, and is accompanied by Love—then
the contact, etc. . . . [? continue as m § 1] . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[252] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, suppressing the working of
conception and of thought discursive, and so, by earth-
gazing, enters into and abides in the Second Jhana (the
second rapt meditation), which is self-evolved, born of con-
centration, is full of joy and ease, in that, set free . . . the
mind grows calm and sure, dwelling on high—and which is
accompanied by Love—then the contact, etc.
[Continue as in the foregoing,]
[253] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and further, through the waning
of all passion for joy, holds himself unbiassed, the while,
mindful and self-possessed, he experiences in his sense-con-
sciousness that ease whereof the Noble Ones declare :
*
He
mother and her four children. Her desire for the growth
of the infant is as Metta; for the recovery of the sick
child as Karuna; for the maintenance of the gifts dis-
played by the youth as Mudita; while her care not to
hinder the career of her grown-up son is as Upekkha.
It may be remarked, by the way, that when Hardy, with
a foreigner's want of mudita, calumniates the Buddhist
mendicant (p. 250) as one who thinks about the virtues
of solidarity without practising them, he quite forgets that
these exercises are but preparations of the will for that
ministering to the intellectual needs of others to which the
recluse's life was largely devoted, and the importance of
which the Western, in his zeal for material forms of
charity, does not even now appreciate at its real value.
And Buddhism did not believe in giving the rein to good
impulses unregulated by intellectual control.
that is unbiassed and watchful dwelleth at ease '
—and so,
by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Third Jhana,
which is accompanied by Love^—then, etc,
[Continue as in the foregoing^]
(h) Fivefold Jhana.
[254-257] Repeat question and answers in §§ 167, 168,
170, 172, adding in each answer, as in the foregoing section,
'
and which is accompanied by Love.'^
2. Pity (karuna).
[258, 259] Repeat question and answers in the preceding
sections (a) and (h), hut substituting in each case *
and which
is accompanied by Pity ' for the clause on Love.
3. Sympathy (mudita).
[260, 261] Repeat question and anstvers in the preceding
two sections, hut substituting in each case '
and which is
accompanied by Sympathy ' for the clause on Pity.
4. Disinterestedness (upekkha).
[262] When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,
he cultivates the way thereto, and, by the putting away of
ease and by the putting away of ill, by the passing away
of the happiness and of the misery he was wont to feel, he
thus, by earth -gazing, enters into and abides in the Fourth
Jhana (the fourth rapt meditation) of that utter purity
of mindfulness which comes of disinterestedness, where no
ease is felt nor any ill, and which is accompanied by Dis-
interestedness—then the contact, etc.
[Continue as in § 165.]
^ Love necessarily involves happiness (somanassam
= cetasikam sukham, § 10, n.), hence it cannot be
cultivated by way of the Fourth—or, under (Z>), Fifth
—
Jhana.
^ Omitting the Fifth Jhana. See preceding note.
The Four Jhanas of the Sublime Abodes may be de-
veloped in Sixteen Combinations. ''
[V.
The Jhana of Foul Things (asubha-jhanam.)]
[263] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, enters into and abides in
the First Jhana, wherein, etc. . . . and which is accom-
panied by the idea of a bloated corpse^ . . .
\or] [264] of a discoloured corpse ...
[or] of a festering corpse ...
[or] of a corpse with cracked skin ...
\or\ of a corpse gnawn and mangled ...
[or] of a corpse cut to pieces ...
[or] of a corpse mutilated and cut in pieces . . .
[or] of a bloody corpse ...
[or] of a corpse infested with worms ...
[or] of a skeleton ...
then the contact . . . the balance which arises—these . . .
are states that are good.^
^ The formula of the First Jhana is understood to be
repeated in the case of each of the ten Asubhas, but of the
First only. For, in the words of the Cy. (p. 199), 'just
as on a swiftly-flowing river a boat can only be steadied
by the power of the rudder, so from the weakness (dubba-
latta) of the idea (in this case) the mind can only be
steadied in its abstraction by the power of conceptual
activity (vitakko).' And this activity is dispensed with
after the First Jhana.
^ For a more detailed account of this peculiar form of
moral discipline, the reader is again referred to the Visuddhi
Magga (chap. vi.). Hardy (' East. Mon.'), who quotes largely
from the Sinhalese commentary on the Visuddhi Magga,
may also be consulted (p. 247 et seq.). In the Satipat-
thana Sutta (D. 22. Cf. Warren, '
Buddhism in Transla-
The Jhana of Foul Things may be developed in Sixteen
Combinations.
[Here ends the Chapter on] Good in relation to the
Universe of Form.
tion,' p. 353 et seq, ; and M.I. 58) a system of nine Asubha-
meditations is set out in terms somewhat different. In
S. V. (pp. 129-131) five of the Asubhas, beginning with '
the
skeleton ' meditation, are prescribed in connexion with the
sambhojjhangas of mindfulness and disinterestedness.
And the same five are given in the Jhana Vagga of A. i. 42
(c/. A. iii. 323). The ten here given are said in the Cy.
(pp. 197-199) to be prescribed for such as were proved to be
passionately affected by the beauty of the body—of the figure,
skin, odour, firmness or continuity, plumpness, limbs and
extremities, symmetry, adornment, identifying self with the
body, or complacency in the possession of it (?kaye
mamattam; cf. S. N. 951), and teeth respectively. A dead
body is not essential to this kind of mind-culture, the Cy.
citing the cases of those Theras who obtained the requisite
Jhana by the glimpse of a person's teeth, or by the sight of
a rajah on his elephant. The essential procedure lay in
getting a clear and courageous grasp of the transience of
any living organism.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Dhamma-Sangani - THE GENESIS OF THOUGHTS - Good in relation to the Universe of Form
A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
Chaptee II
[Good in relation to the Universe of Form (rupa-
vacara-kusalam).
Methods for inducing Jhana,
I.
The Eight Artifices (atthakasinam).
1. The Earth Artifice (pathavikasinam).
(a) The Fourfold System of Jhana (catukkanayo).]
[160] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,^ he^
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas,^ and so, by earth-gazing, enters* into
^ See Introduction.
^ The subject of these states of consciousness.
^ Vivicc' eva kamehi, vivicca akusalehi dham-
mehi. Lit., *
having separated one's self, having become
without, having departed from' (Asl. 164). That is to say
—again according to the Cy. {ibid.)—from the objects of
sensual desires, and from the desires themselves, respec-
tively (vatthukama, kilesakama. Childers' Dictionary,
s.v. kamo). The former phrase (vivicc' eva kamehi)
includes the whole psychological realm of sense-presentation
(kayo, or the three skandhas of feeling, perception and
sanskaras) ; the latter, dhammehi, referring to the realm
of ideation (cittam) only.
The Cy. repudiates the idea that the emphatic enclitic
eva, occurring only in the former of the two phrases,
renders the latter less important, and quotes, in support,
the opening words of the Cula-sihanada Discourse (M. i. 63).
* Pathavikasinam. The first of the Karmasthana
and abides in^ the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation),
wherein conception works and thought discursive,^ which is
born of solitude,^ and full of joy* and ease—then the
contact, the feeling . . . the grasp, the balance, which
arise in him, or whatever other^ incorporeal, causally
induced states that there are on that occasion—these are
states that are good.
methods, or quasi-hypnotic devices for attaining to temporary
rapt oblivion of the outer world. The percept of the circle
of mould induces the vivid image (nimittam), and there-
upon Jhana supervenes.
^ I.e., sustains the mood indefinitely. The Cy. quotes
the Vibhanga as paraphrasing the term by the same
expressions, 'going on,' etc., as are used to describe above
(§ 19) the '
faculty of vitality.'
- Savitakkam savicaram. Leaving the negative
essential conditions of Jhana, we pass to the positive
features (Asl. 166). The meditation progresses by means
of these two in particular, as a tree does by its flowers and
fruit. According to the Vibhanga, they reveal the deter-
mined resolves of the individual student (puggaladhit-
thana). (Ihid.)
^ According to the Cy., the solitude is rather moral than
physical, and means *
born in the seclusion which the
student creates by thrusting from his heart the five
hindrances {ibid.,- infra, § 1152). According as it is said in
the Petaka (? Petakopadesa), concentration opposes sensual
desire ; joy opposes malice ; conception, or the onset of
intellect, opposes stolidity and torpor ; ease opposes excite-
ment and worry ; discursive thought opposes perplexity or
doubt (Asl. 165). See I), i. 73, where the hindrances are
explicitly mentioned in connection with Jhana ; also the
notes in Khys Davids' ' Dialogues of the Buddha,' I., p. 84.
* I.e., joy of the fifth species, pharana-piti (Asl. 166),
§ 9; also compare the passage just referred to, D. i. 73.
Seeabove, so imam eva kayam . . . abhisandeti . . .
parip-pharati.
^ These are said to be the four first—desire, etc.—of the
nine named above, p. 5, n. 1 (Asl. 168).
Continue as in the First Type of Thought relating to the
sensuous univei'se, including the Summary and '
Emptiness '
divisions.^
[161] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, suppressing the working of
conception and of thought discursive, and so, by earth-
gazing, enters into and abides in the Second Jhana (the
second rapt meditation), which is self-evolved,^ born of con-
centration, full of joy and ease, in that, set free from the
working of conception and of thought discursive, the mind
^ So the Cy. (ibid.). In the text, therefore, the reader
should have been referred, not to (147), but to (1). K.
indicates the elision simply by a ... pe ... at the
point corresponding to the comma before '
or whatever . .
.'
in my translation, followed by 'ime dhamma kusala.'
1 am inclined, however, to think that the detailed
catechism as to the nature of the various dhammas, such
as occurs at §§ 2-57, is not to be understood as included in
the passage elided, either here or in the remaining Jhanas.
K. does not repeat the . . . pe . . . cited above at the
corresponding point in the three remaining Jhanas, where
the Summary is not elided, but given. Nor does it give
the . . . pe . . . which stands in the text, in §§ 163,
165, before Tasmim kho pana samaye. Similarly it
omits the . . . pe . . . given in the text at the corre-
sponding points in the formulae for the 'five-fold Jhana,'
§ 168 et seq.
2 Ajjhattam, i.e., according to the Cy. (169), attano
jatam, attasantane nibbattarn; according to the
Vibhanga, paccattam. It is not quite clear to me what
is the special force of the term in just this Jhana, unless it
be that the '
earth-gazing ' is not now continued—the
individual becoming more rapt from external determinants
of consciousness, more susceptible to purely subjective
conditions.
grows calm and sure/ dwelling on high"^—then the contact,
the feeling, the perception, the thinking, the thought, the
joy, the ease, the self-collectedness, the faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, ideation, happi-
ness, and vitality, the right views,^ right endeavour, . . .*
the grasp, the balance that arises—these, or whatever other
incorporeal, causally induced states that there are on that
occasion—these are states that are good.
^ Sampasadanam, tranquillizing, paraphrased in the
Cy. (ibid.) by saddha, assurance or faith (above, § 12).
It is a term for Jhana itself, blent as it is with the whole
contemplative discipline, 'just as cloth steeped in purple
is "purple"'—to adapt the commentator's simile to our
idiom. The following word cetaso, 'of the mind,' may be
taken either with this term, or with that next after it,
ekodibhavam (ibicL).
2 In the text read ekodibhavam. Buddhaghosa's
comments on this expression contain the original of the
Thera Subhuti's quotation given in Childers. The substance
of them is that the ceto (intellect, mind, heart), no longer
overwhelmed or encumbered by vitakko and vicaro, rises
up slowly pre-eminent (eko = settho or asahayo) in its
meditative concentration, or samadhi, this term being
synonymous with ekodibhavam (Samadhiss' etam
adhivacanam). The discursive intellection of the First
Jhana, troubling the ceto, as waves rendering water turgid,
has in the Second Jhana sunk to rest. And this uplifting
is said (the commentator emphasizes) of ceto, and not of
an individual entity, nor of a living soul (na sattassa
na jivassa). See Morris's note, J. P. T. S., 1885, p. 32.
^ Sammasankappo is here, its usual order of place,
omitted. It involves vitakko; see § 7.
* The reference in the text to § 157 cannot be right.
The subject has not yet banished pleasurable emotion, and
attained to the calm of disinterestedness ; nor is his state
of mind *
disconnected with knowledge.' The type of
thought, as to its remaining components, is still the first,
i.e., that of § 1.
[Summary.]
[161a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is threefold,^
the Path is fourfold,^
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58 et seq.^
•X- »«• -x- -x- -x- *
[162] What on that occasion is the skandha of syntheses?
Contact, joy,
thinking, self-collectedness ;
the faculties of
faith, concentration,
energy, wisdom,
mindfulness, vitality ;
right views,
right endeavour,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 62 et seq.^ ]
^ (7/. § 83. *
Conception ' and *
discursive thought ' are
now suppressed.
2 (7/1 § 89. * Eight intention,' as involving *
conception,'
is now suppressed. The mind is no longer occupied with
overt activities concerned with this life. See p. 46, n. 3.
^ Including, presumably, the '
Emptiness ' Section, as in
the case of the First Jhana.
[163] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and further, through the waning
of all passion for joy,^ holds himself unbiassed,^ the while,
mindful and self-possessed,^ he experiences in his sense-con-
sciousness* that ease whereof the Noble Ones^ declare :
'
He
that is unbiassed and watchful dwelleth at ease '
—and so,
by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Third Jhana
—then the contact, the feeling, the perception, the thinking,
the thought, the ease, the self-collectedness, the faculties of
faith, energy, mindfulness,^ concentration, wisdom, ideation,
happiness and vitality, the right views, right endea-
vour,^ etc. . . . the grasp, the balance that arises^—these,
or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced states
that there are on that occasion—these are states that are
good.
^ Pitiya ca viraga, 'meaning either distaste for joy
or the transcending of it.' The ca indicates the progressive
continuity from the preceding to the present Jhana (Asl. 171).
^ Upekkhako, or disinterested. He looks on from the
standpoint of one who has arrived, says the Cy. (172). As
we might say
:
*E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.'
Buddhaghosa expatiates here on the ten kinds of upek-
kha enumerated in Hardy, 'Man. Buddhism,' 505.
^ Sampajano. Intelligently aware of his own pro-
cedure.
* Kayo, see Introduction ; supra, p. 43, n. 3.
5 See infra, § 1003, n. 6.
^ Omitted in the text, but not so in K. The context
requires its insertion.
^ Sammasati, inserted in the text, but not in the right
order, is of course required by the context, but is, here and
in K., assumed in the *
etc'
s
§ 157, to which the reader is referred in the text, is
obviously wrong. § 1 would be nearer the mark.
[Summary.]
[1636i] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is twofold,^
the Path is fourfold,-
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58.]
[164] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Contact,
thinking,
self-collectedness
;
the faculties of
faith, concentration,
energy, wisdom,
mindfulness, vitality
;
right views, right endeavour,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 62.]
^ '
Ease ' remains and '
self-collectedness.'
2 Cf. § 16P n. 2.
[165] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, by the putting away of
ease and by the putting away of ill, by the passing away
of the happiness and of the misery^ he was wont to feel, he
thus, by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Fourth
Jhana (the fourth rapt meditation) of that utter purity
of mindfulness which comes of disinterestedness,^ where
no ease is felt nor any ill—then the contact, the feeling,
the perception, the thinking, the thought, the disinterested-
ness, the self-collectedness, the faculties of faith, energy,
mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, ideation, disinterested-
^ *Ease' and *ill,' according to the Cy., are kayikam,
or relating to the three skandhas of feeling, etc.—relating
to sense-consciousness. ' Happiness ' and ' misery ' (soman-
assarn, domanassam) relate to the intellect, or ideational
consciousness. '
Happiness '
is the last of these to be trans-
cended ; the others have been expelled in the course of the
previous stages of Jhana (Asl. 175, 176). But all four are
here enumerated, as if all were only in this Fourth Jhana
transcended, in order to show more clearly, by the method
of exhaustive elimination, what is the subtle and elusive
nature of that third species of feeling termed '
neutral
'
(adukkham-asukha), or *
disinterested '
(upekkha)
—
the zero point, or line, as we should say, of hedonic
quantity. The Cy. then gives the simile of selecting heads
of cattle by elimination of the rest of the herd, which
Hardy cites {ibid., 177; East. Monachism, 270).
^ Upekkha-satiparisuddhim. According to the
Vibhanga, the mindfulness that is made pure stands for
all the other elements present in consciousness, which have
also been brought into clear relief, as it were, by the calm
medium of equanimity. The simile is then adduced, given
also in Hardy (op. cit, 271), of the moon by day and by
night. Upekkha is latent in consciousness in the other
stages of Jhana, but rendered colourless by the radiance
of intellectual and emotional exercise, as the crescent moon
during the day, though present in the sky, is dimmed by
the sun's splendour (Asl. 178).
ness and vitality, the right views, the right endeavour,
etc. . . .
[Contmue as in § 163.]
* * * *
[Summary.]
[165a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is twofold,^
the Path is fourfold,
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58, etc.]
[166] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Answer as in § 164.'^
[Here ends] the Fourfold System of Jhana.
^ Namely, *
disinterestedness '
and *
self-collectedness
'
(Asl. 179). Else one would have looked to find ekangi-
kam Jhanam.
2 The printed text omits satindriyam, though it is
explicitly required by the context. K. gives it.
(b) The Fivefold System of Jhana (pancakanayo) .]^
[167] The First Jhana. Question and answer as in the
fourfold course, § 160.
[168] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, by earth-gazing, enters
into and abides in the Second Jhana (the second rapt medi-
tation) wherein is no working of conception, but only of
thought discursive—which is born of concentration, and is
full of joy and ease—then the contact, the feeling, the per-
ception, the thinking, the thought, the discursive inquiry,
the joy, the ease, the self-collectedness, etc. . . .
[Continue as for the Second Jhana in § 161.]
[Summary.]
[168a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
^ Jhana is usually alluded to in the Pitakas in the four-
fold order. The fivefold division is obtained by the suc-
cessive, instead of simultaneous, elimination of vitakko
and vicaro. According to the Cy., it was optional to the
teacher, after the example of the Buddha, to use either at
his discretion, adapting himself to the particular mental
state of his pupils, or having a view to the effectve flow
of his discourse. A passage is quoted from the Pitakas
—
probably S. iv. 363 or A. i. 299, n. 2 {cf K V. 413 ; Mil. 337)
—where samadhi is distinguished as (1) having vitakko
and vicaro, (2) having only the latter, (3) having neither.
the Jhana is fourfold,
the Path is fourfold,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58.]
[169] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Contact, thinking, discursive thought, joy, etc. . . .
[Contimie as in § 162.]
[170-175] The Third, Fourth and Fifth Jhanas.
[These are identical in formulation with the Second, Third
and Fourth Jhanas of the Fourfold System, Questions and
answers as in §§ 161-166.]
[Here ends] the Fivefold System of Jhana.
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress (catasso pati-
pada).]^
^ It has been seen that, before the several stages of
Jhana could be attained to, the student had to purge and
discipline himself in specific ways—elimination of all
attention to mundane matters, elimination of discursive
cogitation, and so on. The special stage of Jhana super-
vened after each act of self-control and intensified ab-
straction. In these processes there was an earlier and a
subsequent stage called—at least in the later books
—
upacara and appana respectively. The effective cogni-
tion linking these two was an exercise of paiina which,
in the text, is known as abhifina (* intuition '), probably
the intuitive or subconscious fetch of the mind to compass
the desired appana, or conception. Now, whether the
preparatory abstraction was easy or difficult, and whether
the constructive generalizing effort was sluggish or vigorous,
depended on the moral temperament and the mental ability
[176] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being painful
and intuition sluggish—then the contact^ . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[177P . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being painful, but
intuition quick . . .
[178] . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being easy, but
intuition sluggish . . .
[179] . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being easy and
intuition quick—then the contact, etc. . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
respectively of the individual student (Asl. 182-184). See
the double explanation in A. ii. 149-152, where the swift-
ness or sluggishness of intuition in both accounts depends
on the acuteness or flabbiness of the five faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom. The ease or
difficulty in self-abstraction depends, in the first explana-
tion, on whether the student is by nature passionate,
malignant, dull, or the reverse of these three. In the
second account progress is painful if he have filled his
consciousness with the disciplinary concepts of the Foul
Things {vide below, § 263), Disgust with the World, Im-
permanence and Death ; easy if he simply work out the
Four Jhanas.
On the varying import of abhinna (which occurs in
no other connexion in the present work), see 'Dialogues
of the Buddha,' i. 62. On upacara and appana, see
'
Yogavacara's Manual,' p. xi. We shall probably learn more
about the whole procedure when the Visuddhi Magga and
the Vibhanga are edited.
' Cf. § 1.
^ The same question is to be understood as repeated in
each section.
[180] These four combinations are repeated in the case of
the ''Itul to the 4th Jhanas on the Fourfold System, and of the
2nd to the 5th on the Fivefold System.
[Here end] the Four Modes of Progress.
[{d) The Four Objects of Thought (cattari aram-
man ani).]^
[181] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation),
wherein conception works and thought discursive, which
is born of solitude, and is full of joy and ease, but which
is limited, and has a limited object of thought—then the
contact^ . . . the balance that arises—these . . . are states
that are good.
[182] . . . [or] when . . . the First Jhana^ ... is
limited, but has an object of thought capable of infinite
extension . . .
[183] . . . [o?^] when . . . the First Jhana ... is
capable of infinite extension, but has a limited object of
thought . . .
[184] . . . [or] when . . . the First Jhana ... is
capable of infinite extension, and has an object of thought
capable of infinite extension—then the contact, etc. . . .
the balance that arises, these . . . are states that are good.
^ That is to say, the percepts or concepts on which the
student, in seeking to induce Jhana, fixes his attention are
here classified as having the potentiality to induce a weak
or a lofty mood of rapt contemplation. Buddhaghosa
describes the former kind of object as having the shallow-
ness of a mere basket or dish (Asl. 184). See also below,
§§ 1019-1024.
' Cf § 1.
^ In the following condensed passages the question and
answer in the text respectively coincides with and com-
mences like the precedent given in § 181.
[185] These four combinations are repeated in the case of
the 2nd to the 4:th Jhdnas on the Fourfold System, and of the
1st to the 5th^ Jhanas on the Fivefold System.
[Here end] the Four Objects of Thought.
[(e) ( = c and d) The Sixteenfold Combination (s o 1 a s a k-
khattukam).]
[186] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the first Jhana . . .
where progress is pain-
ful and intuition sluggish,
[190] . . . [or] where pro-
gress is painful, but intuition
is quick.
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[187] . . . [or] which is
limited, but has an object
of thought capable of in-
finite extension . . .
[188] . . . [or] which is
capable of infinite extension,
but has a limited object of
thought ...
[189] . . . [or] which is
capable of infinite extension,
and has an object of thought
capable of infinite extension
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[191] . . . [or] . . . etc.
[Continue for §§ 191-193
as in §§ 187-189.]
^ In the text, § 185, after pathamam jhilnam read
. . . pe . . . pan cam am jhanam. So K. Cf. § 180.
Again, after avikkhepo hoti supply . . . pe . . .
[194] . . . [o7'] where pro-
gress is easy, but intuition
sluggish,
[198] . . . [or] where pro-
gress is easy and intuition
quick,
which is limited,^ and has
a limited object of thought
[195] . . . [or] . . . etc.
[Continue for §§ 195-197
as above.]
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[199] [Continuefor ^ 199-
\ 201 as above,]
[202] [These sixteen combinations are repeated in the case
of the 2nd to the 4:th Jhanas on the Fourfold System, and of
the 1st to the 5th Jhanas on the Fivefold System,]
[Here ends] the Sixteenfold Combination.
[2. The Kemaining Seven Artifices luhich may also be
developed in sixteenfold combination (atthakasinam
solasakkhattukam).]2
^ In the text supply parittam before parittaram-
m a n a m.
'^
The first artifice for the induction of Jhana having
been that of earth-gazing (see above, passim). In the
Sutta Pitaka—viz., in the Maha Sakuludayi-Sutta (M. ii.,
p. 14), and in the Jhana Yagga (A. i. 41)—ten kasinas are
enumerated, those omitted in the Dhammasangani being
the kasinas of intellection (v inn an a) and space (akasa).
The fact of the omission and the nature of the two omitted
kasinas are commented on by Buddhaghosa (Asl. 186).
He explains the omission of the former by its being
identical with the second of the four Aruppajhanani
given in §§ 265-268, and that of the latter through its
ambiguity. For either it amounts to the '
yellow ' kasina
(sun-lit space), or it amounts to the first Aruppajhana
(§ 265). The Ceylon tradition has ten kasinas also, but
admits aloka (light) instead of vinnana. And it includes
yet another quasi-kasina in the shape of a bhuta-kasina,
or the four elements taken collectively, after each has been
[203] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by the artifice of
water . . .
fire . . .
air . . .
blue-black . . .
yellow ...
red ...
white . . .
enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . . then the
contact, etc., that arises—these . . . are states that are
good.
[Here ends] the Sixteenfold Combination in the case of
the seven remaining artifices for induction.
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI
Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.
Chaptee II
[Good in relation to the Universe of Form (rupa-
vacara-kusalam).
Methods for inducing Jhana,
I.
The Eight Artifices (atthakasinam).
1. The Earth Artifice (pathavikasinam).
(a) The Fourfold System of Jhana (catukkanayo).]
[160] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form,^ he^
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas,^ and so, by earth-gazing, enters* into
^ See Introduction.
^ The subject of these states of consciousness.
^ Vivicc' eva kamehi, vivicca akusalehi dham-
mehi. Lit., *
having separated one's self, having become
without, having departed from' (Asl. 164). That is to say
—again according to the Cy. {ibid.)—from the objects of
sensual desires, and from the desires themselves, respec-
tively (vatthukama, kilesakama. Childers' Dictionary,
s.v. kamo). The former phrase (vivicc' eva kamehi)
includes the whole psychological realm of sense-presentation
(kayo, or the three skandhas of feeling, perception and
sanskaras) ; the latter, dhammehi, referring to the realm
of ideation (cittam) only.
The Cy. repudiates the idea that the emphatic enclitic
eva, occurring only in the former of the two phrases,
renders the latter less important, and quotes, in support,
the opening words of the Cula-sihanada Discourse (M. i. 63).
* Pathavikasinam. The first of the Karmasthana
and abides in^ the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation),
wherein conception works and thought discursive,^ which is
born of solitude,^ and full of joy* and ease—then the
contact, the feeling . . . the grasp, the balance, which
arise in him, or whatever other^ incorporeal, causally
induced states that there are on that occasion—these are
states that are good.
methods, or quasi-hypnotic devices for attaining to temporary
rapt oblivion of the outer world. The percept of the circle
of mould induces the vivid image (nimittam), and there-
upon Jhana supervenes.
^ I.e., sustains the mood indefinitely. The Cy. quotes
the Vibhanga as paraphrasing the term by the same
expressions, 'going on,' etc., as are used to describe above
(§ 19) the '
faculty of vitality.'
- Savitakkam savicaram. Leaving the negative
essential conditions of Jhana, we pass to the positive
features (Asl. 166). The meditation progresses by means
of these two in particular, as a tree does by its flowers and
fruit. According to the Vibhanga, they reveal the deter-
mined resolves of the individual student (puggaladhit-
thana). (Ihid.)
^ According to the Cy., the solitude is rather moral than
physical, and means *
born in the seclusion which the
student creates by thrusting from his heart the five
hindrances {ibid.,- infra, § 1152). According as it is said in
the Petaka (? Petakopadesa), concentration opposes sensual
desire ; joy opposes malice ; conception, or the onset of
intellect, opposes stolidity and torpor ; ease opposes excite-
ment and worry ; discursive thought opposes perplexity or
doubt (Asl. 165). See I), i. 73, where the hindrances are
explicitly mentioned in connection with Jhana ; also the
notes in Khys Davids' ' Dialogues of the Buddha,' I., p. 84.
* I.e., joy of the fifth species, pharana-piti (Asl. 166),
§ 9; also compare the passage just referred to, D. i. 73.
Seeabove, so imam eva kayam . . . abhisandeti . . .
parip-pharati.
^ These are said to be the four first—desire, etc.—of the
nine named above, p. 5, n. 1 (Asl. 168).
Continue as in the First Type of Thought relating to the
sensuous univei'se, including the Summary and '
Emptiness '
divisions.^
[161] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, suppressing the working of
conception and of thought discursive, and so, by earth-
gazing, enters into and abides in the Second Jhana (the
second rapt meditation), which is self-evolved,^ born of con-
centration, full of joy and ease, in that, set free from the
working of conception and of thought discursive, the mind
^ So the Cy. (ibid.). In the text, therefore, the reader
should have been referred, not to (147), but to (1). K.
indicates the elision simply by a ... pe ... at the
point corresponding to the comma before '
or whatever . .
.'
in my translation, followed by 'ime dhamma kusala.'
1 am inclined, however, to think that the detailed
catechism as to the nature of the various dhammas, such
as occurs at §§ 2-57, is not to be understood as included in
the passage elided, either here or in the remaining Jhanas.
K. does not repeat the . . . pe . . . cited above at the
corresponding point in the three remaining Jhanas, where
the Summary is not elided, but given. Nor does it give
the . . . pe . . . which stands in the text, in §§ 163,
165, before Tasmim kho pana samaye. Similarly it
omits the . . . pe . . . given in the text at the corre-
sponding points in the formulae for the 'five-fold Jhana,'
§ 168 et seq.
2 Ajjhattam, i.e., according to the Cy. (169), attano
jatam, attasantane nibbattarn; according to the
Vibhanga, paccattam. It is not quite clear to me what
is the special force of the term in just this Jhana, unless it
be that the '
earth-gazing ' is not now continued—the
individual becoming more rapt from external determinants
of consciousness, more susceptible to purely subjective
conditions.
grows calm and sure/ dwelling on high"^—then the contact,
the feeling, the perception, the thinking, the thought, the
joy, the ease, the self-collectedness, the faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, ideation, happi-
ness, and vitality, the right views,^ right endeavour, . . .*
the grasp, the balance that arises—these, or whatever other
incorporeal, causally induced states that there are on that
occasion—these are states that are good.
^ Sampasadanam, tranquillizing, paraphrased in the
Cy. (ibid.) by saddha, assurance or faith (above, § 12).
It is a term for Jhana itself, blent as it is with the whole
contemplative discipline, 'just as cloth steeped in purple
is "purple"'—to adapt the commentator's simile to our
idiom. The following word cetaso, 'of the mind,' may be
taken either with this term, or with that next after it,
ekodibhavam (ibicL).
2 In the text read ekodibhavam. Buddhaghosa's
comments on this expression contain the original of the
Thera Subhuti's quotation given in Childers. The substance
of them is that the ceto (intellect, mind, heart), no longer
overwhelmed or encumbered by vitakko and vicaro, rises
up slowly pre-eminent (eko = settho or asahayo) in its
meditative concentration, or samadhi, this term being
synonymous with ekodibhavam (Samadhiss' etam
adhivacanam). The discursive intellection of the First
Jhana, troubling the ceto, as waves rendering water turgid,
has in the Second Jhana sunk to rest. And this uplifting
is said (the commentator emphasizes) of ceto, and not of
an individual entity, nor of a living soul (na sattassa
na jivassa). See Morris's note, J. P. T. S., 1885, p. 32.
^ Sammasankappo is here, its usual order of place,
omitted. It involves vitakko; see § 7.
* The reference in the text to § 157 cannot be right.
The subject has not yet banished pleasurable emotion, and
attained to the calm of disinterestedness ; nor is his state
of mind *
disconnected with knowledge.' The type of
thought, as to its remaining components, is still the first,
i.e., that of § 1.
[Summary.]
[161a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is threefold,^
the Path is fourfold,^
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58 et seq.^
•X- »«• -x- -x- -x- *
[162] What on that occasion is the skandha of syntheses?
Contact, joy,
thinking, self-collectedness ;
the faculties of
faith, concentration,
energy, wisdom,
mindfulness, vitality ;
right views,
right endeavour,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 62 et seq.^ ]
^ (7/. § 83. *
Conception ' and *
discursive thought ' are
now suppressed.
2 (7/1 § 89. * Eight intention,' as involving *
conception,'
is now suppressed. The mind is no longer occupied with
overt activities concerned with this life. See p. 46, n. 3.
^ Including, presumably, the '
Emptiness ' Section, as in
the case of the First Jhana.
[163] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and further, through the waning
of all passion for joy,^ holds himself unbiassed,^ the while,
mindful and self-possessed,^ he experiences in his sense-con-
sciousness* that ease whereof the Noble Ones^ declare :
'
He
that is unbiassed and watchful dwelleth at ease '
—and so,
by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Third Jhana
—then the contact, the feeling, the perception, the thinking,
the thought, the ease, the self-collectedness, the faculties of
faith, energy, mindfulness,^ concentration, wisdom, ideation,
happiness and vitality, the right views, right endea-
vour,^ etc. . . . the grasp, the balance that arises^—these,
or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced states
that there are on that occasion—these are states that are
good.
^ Pitiya ca viraga, 'meaning either distaste for joy
or the transcending of it.' The ca indicates the progressive
continuity from the preceding to the present Jhana (Asl. 171).
^ Upekkhako, or disinterested. He looks on from the
standpoint of one who has arrived, says the Cy. (172). As
we might say
:
*E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.'
Buddhaghosa expatiates here on the ten kinds of upek-
kha enumerated in Hardy, 'Man. Buddhism,' 505.
^ Sampajano. Intelligently aware of his own pro-
cedure.
* Kayo, see Introduction ; supra, p. 43, n. 3.
5 See infra, § 1003, n. 6.
^ Omitted in the text, but not so in K. The context
requires its insertion.
^ Sammasati, inserted in the text, but not in the right
order, is of course required by the context, but is, here and
in K., assumed in the *
etc'
s
§ 157, to which the reader is referred in the text, is
obviously wrong. § 1 would be nearer the mark.
[Summary.]
[1636i] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is twofold,^
the Path is fourfold,-
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58.]
[164] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Contact,
thinking,
self-collectedness
;
the faculties of
faith, concentration,
energy, wisdom,
mindfulness, vitality
;
right views, right endeavour,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 62.]
^ '
Ease ' remains and '
self-collectedness.'
2 Cf. § 16P n. 2.
[165] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and, by the putting away of
ease and by the putting away of ill, by the passing away
of the happiness and of the misery^ he was wont to feel, he
thus, by earth-gazing, enters into and abides in the Fourth
Jhana (the fourth rapt meditation) of that utter purity
of mindfulness which comes of disinterestedness,^ where
no ease is felt nor any ill—then the contact, the feeling,
the perception, the thinking, the thought, the disinterested-
ness, the self-collectedness, the faculties of faith, energy,
mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, ideation, disinterested-
^ *Ease' and *ill,' according to the Cy., are kayikam,
or relating to the three skandhas of feeling, etc.—relating
to sense-consciousness. ' Happiness ' and ' misery ' (soman-
assarn, domanassam) relate to the intellect, or ideational
consciousness. '
Happiness '
is the last of these to be trans-
cended ; the others have been expelled in the course of the
previous stages of Jhana (Asl. 175, 176). But all four are
here enumerated, as if all were only in this Fourth Jhana
transcended, in order to show more clearly, by the method
of exhaustive elimination, what is the subtle and elusive
nature of that third species of feeling termed '
neutral
'
(adukkham-asukha), or *
disinterested '
(upekkha)
—
the zero point, or line, as we should say, of hedonic
quantity. The Cy. then gives the simile of selecting heads
of cattle by elimination of the rest of the herd, which
Hardy cites {ibid., 177; East. Monachism, 270).
^ Upekkha-satiparisuddhim. According to the
Vibhanga, the mindfulness that is made pure stands for
all the other elements present in consciousness, which have
also been brought into clear relief, as it were, by the calm
medium of equanimity. The simile is then adduced, given
also in Hardy (op. cit, 271), of the moon by day and by
night. Upekkha is latent in consciousness in the other
stages of Jhana, but rendered colourless by the radiance
of intellectual and emotional exercise, as the crescent moon
during the day, though present in the sky, is dimmed by
the sun's splendour (Asl. 178).
ness and vitality, the right views, the right endeavour,
etc. . . .
[Contmue as in § 163.]
* * * *
[Summary.]
[165a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
the Jhana is twofold,^
the Path is fourfold,
the powers are seven,
the causes are three,
contact counts as a single factor,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58, etc.]
[166] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Answer as in § 164.'^
[Here ends] the Fourfold System of Jhana.
^ Namely, *
disinterestedness '
and *
self-collectedness
'
(Asl. 179). Else one would have looked to find ekangi-
kam Jhanam.
2 The printed text omits satindriyam, though it is
explicitly required by the context. K. gives it.
(b) The Fivefold System of Jhana (pancakanayo) .]^
[167] The First Jhana. Question and answer as in the
fourfold course, § 160.
[168] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, by earth-gazing, enters
into and abides in the Second Jhana (the second rapt medi-
tation) wherein is no working of conception, but only of
thought discursive—which is born of concentration, and is
full of joy and ease—then the contact, the feeling, the per-
ception, the thinking, the thought, the discursive inquiry,
the joy, the ease, the self-collectedness, etc. . . .
[Continue as for the Second Jhana in § 161.]
[Summary.]
[168a] Now, on that occasion
the skandhas are four,
the spheres are two,
the elements are two,
the nutriments are three,
the faculties are eight,
^ Jhana is usually alluded to in the Pitakas in the four-
fold order. The fivefold division is obtained by the suc-
cessive, instead of simultaneous, elimination of vitakko
and vicaro. According to the Cy., it was optional to the
teacher, after the example of the Buddha, to use either at
his discretion, adapting himself to the particular mental
state of his pupils, or having a view to the effectve flow
of his discourse. A passage is quoted from the Pitakas
—
probably S. iv. 363 or A. i. 299, n. 2 {cf K V. 413 ; Mil. 337)
—where samadhi is distinguished as (1) having vitakko
and vicaro, (2) having only the latter, (3) having neither.
the Jhana is fourfold,
the Path is fourfold,
etc., etc.
[Continue as in § 58.]
[169] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn-
theses ?
Contact, thinking, discursive thought, joy, etc. . . .
[Contimie as in § 162.]
[170-175] The Third, Fourth and Fifth Jhanas.
[These are identical in formulation with the Second, Third
and Fourth Jhanas of the Fourfold System, Questions and
answers as in §§ 161-166.]
[Here ends] the Fivefold System of Jhana.
[(c) The Four Modes of Progress (catasso pati-
pada).]^
^ It has been seen that, before the several stages of
Jhana could be attained to, the student had to purge and
discipline himself in specific ways—elimination of all
attention to mundane matters, elimination of discursive
cogitation, and so on. The special stage of Jhana super-
vened after each act of self-control and intensified ab-
straction. In these processes there was an earlier and a
subsequent stage called—at least in the later books
—
upacara and appana respectively. The effective cogni-
tion linking these two was an exercise of paiina which,
in the text, is known as abhifina (* intuition '), probably
the intuitive or subconscious fetch of the mind to compass
the desired appana, or conception. Now, whether the
preparatory abstraction was easy or difficult, and whether
the constructive generalizing effort was sluggish or vigorous,
depended on the moral temperament and the mental ability
[176] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being painful
and intuition sluggish—then the contact^ . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
[177P . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being painful, but
intuition quick . . .
[178] . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being easy, but
intuition sluggish . . .
[179] . . . [or] when ... he ... so enters into and
abides in the First Jhana . . . progress being easy and
intuition quick—then the contact, etc. . . . the balance
that arises—these . . . are states that are good.
respectively of the individual student (Asl. 182-184). See
the double explanation in A. ii. 149-152, where the swift-
ness or sluggishness of intuition in both accounts depends
on the acuteness or flabbiness of the five faculties of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom. The ease or
difficulty in self-abstraction depends, in the first explana-
tion, on whether the student is by nature passionate,
malignant, dull, or the reverse of these three. In the
second account progress is painful if he have filled his
consciousness with the disciplinary concepts of the Foul
Things {vide below, § 263), Disgust with the World, Im-
permanence and Death ; easy if he simply work out the
Four Jhanas.
On the varying import of abhinna (which occurs in
no other connexion in the present work), see 'Dialogues
of the Buddha,' i. 62. On upacara and appana, see
'
Yogavacara's Manual,' p. xi. We shall probably learn more
about the whole procedure when the Visuddhi Magga and
the Vibhanga are edited.
' Cf. § 1.
^ The same question is to be understood as repeated in
each section.
[180] These four combinations are repeated in the case of
the ''Itul to the 4th Jhanas on the Fourfold System, and of the
2nd to the 5th on the Fivefold System.
[Here end] the Four Modes of Progress.
[{d) The Four Objects of Thought (cattari aram-
man ani).]^
[181] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, and so, aloof from sensuous
appetites, aloof from evil ideas, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the First Jhana (the first rapt meditation),
wherein conception works and thought discursive, which
is born of solitude, and is full of joy and ease, but which
is limited, and has a limited object of thought—then the
contact^ . . . the balance that arises—these . . . are states
that are good.
[182] . . . [or] when . . . the First Jhana^ ... is
limited, but has an object of thought capable of infinite
extension . . .
[183] . . . [o?^] when . . . the First Jhana ... is
capable of infinite extension, but has a limited object of
thought . . .
[184] . . . [or] when . . . the First Jhana ... is
capable of infinite extension, and has an object of thought
capable of infinite extension—then the contact, etc. . . .
the balance that arises, these . . . are states that are good.
^ That is to say, the percepts or concepts on which the
student, in seeking to induce Jhana, fixes his attention are
here classified as having the potentiality to induce a weak
or a lofty mood of rapt contemplation. Buddhaghosa
describes the former kind of object as having the shallow-
ness of a mere basket or dish (Asl. 184). See also below,
§§ 1019-1024.
' Cf § 1.
^ In the following condensed passages the question and
answer in the text respectively coincides with and com-
mences like the precedent given in § 181.
[185] These four combinations are repeated in the case of
the 2nd to the 4:th Jhdnas on the Fourfold System, and of the
1st to the 5th^ Jhanas on the Fivefold System.
[Here end] the Four Objects of Thought.
[(e) ( = c and d) The Sixteenfold Combination (s o 1 a s a k-
khattukam).]
[186] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by earth-gazing, enters into
and abides in the first Jhana . . .
where progress is pain-
ful and intuition sluggish,
[190] . . . [or] where pro-
gress is painful, but intuition
is quick.
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[187] . . . [or] which is
limited, but has an object
of thought capable of in-
finite extension . . .
[188] . . . [or] which is
capable of infinite extension,
but has a limited object of
thought ...
[189] . . . [or] which is
capable of infinite extension,
and has an object of thought
capable of infinite extension
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[191] . . . [or] . . . etc.
[Continue for §§ 191-193
as in §§ 187-189.]
^ In the text, § 185, after pathamam jhilnam read
. . . pe . . . pan cam am jhanam. So K. Cf. § 180.
Again, after avikkhepo hoti supply . . . pe . . .
[194] . . . [o7'] where pro-
gress is easy, but intuition
sluggish,
[198] . . . [or] where pro-
gress is easy and intuition
quick,
which is limited,^ and has
a limited object of thought
[195] . . . [or] . . . etc.
[Continue for §§ 195-197
as above.]
which is limited, and has a
limited object of thought . . .
[199] [Continuefor ^ 199-
\ 201 as above,]
[202] [These sixteen combinations are repeated in the case
of the 2nd to the 4:th Jhanas on the Fourfold System, and of
the 1st to the 5th Jhanas on the Fivefold System,]
[Here ends] the Sixteenfold Combination.
[2. The Kemaining Seven Artifices luhich may also be
developed in sixteenfold combination (atthakasinam
solasakkhattukam).]2
^ In the text supply parittam before parittaram-
m a n a m.
'^
The first artifice for the induction of Jhana having
been that of earth-gazing (see above, passim). In the
Sutta Pitaka—viz., in the Maha Sakuludayi-Sutta (M. ii.,
p. 14), and in the Jhana Yagga (A. i. 41)—ten kasinas are
enumerated, those omitted in the Dhammasangani being
the kasinas of intellection (v inn an a) and space (akasa).
The fact of the omission and the nature of the two omitted
kasinas are commented on by Buddhaghosa (Asl. 186).
He explains the omission of the former by its being
identical with the second of the four Aruppajhanani
given in §§ 265-268, and that of the latter through its
ambiguity. For either it amounts to the '
yellow ' kasina
(sun-lit space), or it amounts to the first Aruppajhana
(§ 265). The Ceylon tradition has ten kasinas also, but
admits aloka (light) instead of vinnana. And it includes
yet another quasi-kasina in the shape of a bhuta-kasina,
or the four elements taken collectively, after each has been
[203] Which are the states that are good ?
When, that he may attain to the heavens of Form, he
cultivates the way thereto, aloof from sensuous appetites,
aloof from evil ideas, and so, by the artifice of
water . . .
fire . . .
air . . .
blue-black . . .
yellow ...
red ...
white . . .
enters into and abides in the First Jhana . . . then the
contact, etc., that arises—these . . . are states that are
good.
[Here ends] the Sixteenfold Combination in the case of
the seven remaining artifices for induction.
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