Dhamma-Sangani - THE DIVISION ENTITLED ELIMINATION - The Intoxicant Group

A BUDDHIST MANUAL
Psychological Ethics,
FROM THE PALI
OF THE
DHAMMA-SANGANI

Translated by CAROLINE A. F. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A.

[Chapter IV.
The Intoxicant Group (asava-gocchakam).]
[1096] Which are the states that are Intoxicants ? ^
The four Intoxicants, to wit, the Intoxicant of sensuality,
^ '
Intoxicant' is but a pis-aller for asavo, no adequate
English equivalent being available (see Rhys Davids,
'
Dialogues of the Buddha,' i., p. 92, n. 3). The choice of
it here has been determined by Buddhaghosa's comment.
This is as follows: 'Asava means they flow on to. They
are said to flow {lege savanti), to circulate about the
senses and the mind. Or, they flow, in respect of mental
states, right up to the elect, in respect of space, right up to
the highest planes of becoming—I mean, their range em-
braces both states and space, this encompassing being
denoted by the prefix a. The Asavas, moreover, are like
liquors (asava), such as spirits, etc., in the sense of that
which may be kept a long time. For, in the world, spirits,
etc., which have been laid down for a long period are called
asavas. And if those spirits for this long storage are
called asavas, these states deserve the name as well. For
it is said :
" The ultimate point of ignorance, brethren,
before which ignorance has not existed, is not manifest"
[alluding to the asava of ignorance].' Asl. 48.
From this passage we gather that, to Buddhaghosa, the
word asavo, whatever other implications it may have had,
typified mainly two notions, and these were pervasion and
length of growth of a potential and very potent effect. The
former metaphor—that of a flowing in, upon, and over
—occurs with a cognate verb in the standard descrip-
tion of the guarded avenues of sensation—anvas(s)a-
veyyum {e.g., D. i. 70). The latter notion appears in


the Intoxicant of renewed existence, the Intoxicant of specu-
lative opinion, the Intoxicant of ignorance.
In this connexion
[1097] What is the Intoxicant of sensuality ?
That sensual desire,^ sensual passion, sensual delight,
Subhuti's opening remark on the term (* Abhidhanappadi-
pika-suci,' s.v. Asavo) : mana-jpurisamadadayo yenati—that
by which come pride and human madness [or infatuation].
No doubt the term also implied something that tainted,
corrupted, souillissait as it flowed. But this is also part of
the physiological and ethical import of the term I have
selected in translating.
Later (p. 369) the Cy. considers the Intoxicants under
numerical categories, according to the very usual Buddhist
method. Thus, they are One, or undifferentiated, in virtue
of their being, like liquor, long stored up. In the Vinaya
they are treated of as Twofold :
—the Intoxicants that have
to be suppressed in this life and those that have to be
eschewed in future lives (see V. iii. 21 ; V., pp. 143, 223).
In the Suttanta, e.g., in the Salayatana-Sutta, they are
distinguished under Three heads, ditthasava being
omitted. (The Sutta referred to is not yet edited, but
V. M. i. 55 ; S. iv. 256 ; A. i. 167 ; iii. 414 ; and cf. D. i.
84. In the Maha-parinibbana-sutta of the Digha Nikaya,
however, all four Asavas are mentioned (pp. 38, 40).
Hence follows one of three possible conclusions. Either
Buddhaghosa is for once in error, or the edition of the
Sutta last named needs correcting, or it is a later work,
contemporary, it may be, with the Abhidhamma.) In the
passage on *
Penetration ' (A. iii. 410-417) they are treated
of as leading to Five different forms of rebirth. '
In the
Ahuneyya-sutta of the Chakka nipata ' (i.e.. No. Iviii.
of that Nipata, A. iii. 387) they are treated of under Six
methods for overcoming them. In the Sabbasava-discourse
(M. i., pp. 7-11) Seven methods are given.
^ 'Kamachando ti kamasankhato chando na
kattukamyatachando na dhammachando.' Asl.
370. This carefully-drawn distinction between sensual
desire and an ethically neutral state of bare conation, as
well as the desire after the ideal, bears me out in the argu-
ment I ventured to put forward in J. R. A. S., January, 1898,
and which is rediscussed in my Introduction.


sensual craving, sensual fondness, sensual thirst, sensual
fever, sensual languishing, sensual rapacity, which is
excited by the pleasures of the senses^—this is called the
Intoxicant of sensuality.
[1098] What is the Intoxicant of renewed existence ?
The desire, the passion for coming into being, delight in
coming into being, craving, fondness for coming into being,
the fever, the yearning, the hungering to come into being,
which is felt concerning rebirths—this is called the In-
toxicant of renewed existence.^
[1099] What is the Intoxicant of speculative opinion P
To hold that the world is eternal, or that it is not
eternal,* infinite or finite;^ that the living soul is the
body, or that the living soul is a different thing from the
^ Paiicakamaguniko rago kamasavo nama (Asl.
369). The Cy. points out that to hanker after the man-
sions of the supreme gods or the wishing-trees of heaven
or the craving for aesthetic luxuries (abharanam) is not
to be confounded with the Intoxicant of sensuality, since
such desires are a step higher than the latter vice. But
they are subsumed under the Tie of covetousness (§ 1136),
and the Lust-cause (§ 1059). Asl. 371, 377.
2 Literally, of becoming. * That which is called bhava-
savo is the hoping for re-becoming, the passion connate
with the Eternalist speculation (v. following answer and
§ 1003, n. 2), the craving for the state of JhanaQ'hanani-
kanti
—
sic lege), the passionate desire for re-births in the
planes of form and of formlessness.' Asl. 369.
3 Ditth a savo, 'i.e., the sixty-two theories.' Ihid, See
D. i., Brahmajala Sutta.
* I.e., to hold that this five-skandha'd affair is permanent,
fixed, a thing for all time—which is the Eternalist theory ;
or that it is annihilated, perishes—which is the Theory of
Total Disintegration. Asl. 370, 371. Cf §§ 1003, n. 3;
1315-16.
^ Either of these theories is by the Cy. declared to be
compatible with either of those in the preceding clause.
And they are also said to be determined by the nature of
the Jhana practised by the adherent to one or the other.
Asl. 371. See §§ 1317-18.


body ;^ or that he who has won truth^ exists after death, or
does not exist after death, or both exists and does not exist
after death, or neither exists nor does not exist after death
—this kind of opinion, this walking in opinion, this jungle
of opinion, wilderness of opinion, puppet-show of opinion,
scuffling of opinion, the fetter of opinion, the grip and
tenacity of it, the inclination towards it, the being infected
by it, this by-path, wrong road, wrongness, this ' fording-
place,' this shiftiness of grasp ^—this is called the Intoxicant
of speculative opinion. Moreover, the Intoxicant of specu-
lation includes all false theories.
[1100] What is the Intoxicant of ignorance ?*
Answer as in § 1061 for '
dulness.'
These are the states that are Intoxicants.
[1102]^ Which are the states that are not Intoxicants ?
Every state, good, bad and indeterminate,^ which is not
included in the foregoing (Intoxicants), whether relating to
the worlds of sense, form or the formless, or to the life that
is Unincluded, to wit, the four skandhas ; all form also, and
uncompounded element.
[1103] Which are the states that are co-Intoxicant ?^
^ I.e., that the life (or living soul) is, or is not,
annihilated on the dissolution of the body. Ibid.
2 Tathagato—in the Cy., satto tathagato nama.
Clearly, therefore, not a reference to the Buddha only. See
Kobert Chalmers, '
Tathagata,' J. R. A. S., January, 1898,
pp. 113-115. The four speculations about such a person's
future existence are named respectively Eternalist, Anni-
hilationist, Semi-eternalist, Eel-wriggling (amaravikkhe-
pika). Ibid., see D. i. 3, §§ 58, 41, 59, 35.
3 See under § 381.
^ In the text, after dukkhudaye annanam, supply
dukkhanirodhe annanam.
^ *
§ 1101 ' is apparently an erroneous interpolation. See
^ 1104, where it appears again and in its right place.
^ In the text read kusalakusalavyakata.
^ Sasava, i.e., states 'proceeding along with Asavas,'
and which attanam arammanam katva—* have made
the Self their object.' Asl. 48.


Good, bad and indeterminate states, whether relating to
the worlds of sense, form, or the formless ; in other words,
the five skandhas.
[1104] Which are the states that are not co-Intoxicant?
The Paths that are the Unincluded, and the Fruits of
the Paths, and uncompounded element.
[1105] Which are the states that are *
associated with
Intoxicants '?
The states which are associated with those [Intoxicant]
states,^ to wit, the four skandhas.
[1106] Which are the states that are '
disconnected with
Intoxicants 7
The states which are disconnected with those [Intoxi-
cant] states, to wit, the four skandhas ; all form also, and
uncompounded element.
[1107] Which are the states that are both Intoxicants
and co-Intoxicant ?
The Intoxicants themselves.^
[1108] Which are the states that are co-Intoxicant, but
not Intoxicants ?
The states which have the foregoing states (§ 1096) as
their concomitants ; that is to say, with the exception of the
Intoxicants, all states whatever, good, bad and indeter-
minate, which are co-Intoxicant, whether they relate to
the worlds of sense, of form or of the formless ; in other
words, the five skandhas.
^ Answers of this form, which frequently occur in these
* Groups,' are not the mere repetitions of the question that
they at first sight appear, but are, in logical idiom, analytic,
or explicative propositions. The current term asava-sam-
payutta means or includes these four modes:—kama-
sava-sampayutta, bhavasava-sampayutta, and
so on.
2 When mutally associated. Cf. the following pair of
answers.


[1109] Which are the states that are both Intoxicants
and associated with Intoxicants ?
The Intoxicant of sensuality together with that of ignor-
ance, and conversely. The Intoxicant of renewed existence
together with that of ignorance, and conversely. The
Intoxicant of speculative opinion together with that of
ignorance, and conversely.
[1110] Which are the states that are associated with
Intoxicants but are not Intoxicants ?
The states which are associated with the foregoing states
(§ 1096)—the latter themselves excepted—to wit, the four
skandhas.
[1111] Which are the states that are disconnected with
Intoxicants but co-Intoxicant ?
The states which are disconnected with those above-
named states (§ 1096), but which, good, bad, or indeter-
minate, have them as concomitants, whether they belong to
the worlds of sense, of form, or of the formless, to wit, the
five skandhas.
[1112] Which are the states that are disconnected with
Intoxicants and are not co -Intoxicant ?
The Paths that are the Unincluded and the Fruits of the
Paths and uncompounded element.^
^ In conclusion the Cy. declares (p. 372) that the In-
toxicant of speculative opinion is put away during one's
progress through the first (sotapatti) path, the Intoxicant
of sensuality in the third (a nag ami) path, and the In-
toxicants of renewed existence and ignorance in the fourth
(arahatta) path.