Page images
PDF
EPUB

2

is the disposing,1 the fixing, the focussing, the superposing of the mind,3 right disposing-this is the application that there then is. [8] What on that occasion is sustained thought (vicāro)? 4

The process, the sustained procedure (vicaro), the progress and access [of the mind] which on that occasion is the [continuous] adjusting and focussing of thought 5this is the sustained thought that there then is.

[9] What on that occasion is zest (piti)? 6

1 On "disposing" see § 21.

2 Appana vyappana, the latter an intensive form of the former (Asl. 142, 143). In the "Yogavacara's Manual" (p. xi and passim) a p pa na denotes the dawn of the desired concept during the practice of regulated meditation. Buddhaghosa defines it thus: e ka ggam cittam ārammaņe appenti.

3 Cetaso abhiniropanā=ārammaņecittam... patiṭṭhapeti (ibid.).

4 Vicaro, as compared with vitak ko, was used to express the movement and maintenance of the voluntary thoughtcontinuum, as distinguished from the initiative grappling with the subject of reflection. Examining in detail, as compared with grasping the whole, is also read into it by commentators (Asl. 114). It is a pounding up (a nu majja na m), as well as a linking together. Metaphors are multiplied, to show its relation to vitakko. It is as the reverberation of the beaten drum or bell is to the beating; as the planing movement of the bird's wings after the initial upsoaring; as the buzzing of the bee when it has alighted on the lotus; as the scouring of the dirty bowl when clutched; as the manipulating hand of the potter, vitakko being represented by the hand which holds the clay to the wheel, and so on. "Investigation" would well represent the sustained activity; "analysis "the cogitation in details; discursive thought" gives some of the import of

both.

66

66

Like the adjusting of bow and arrow. 'Focussing" is anupekkhamano.

6

Pīti, as distinguished from sukham, is explicitly excluded from the skandha of feeling, considered as the irreducible hedonic constituent, and referred to the composite psychoses of the sankhara skandha. It connotes emotion, as distinct from bare feeling; that is to say, piti is a complex

The zest which on that occasion is joy, rejoicing at, rejoicing over, mirth and merriment, felicity,1 exultation, transport of mind 2-this is the zest that there then is.

[10] What on that occasion is ease (sukham)? 3

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

psychical phenomenon, implying a central psycho-physical origin and a widely diffused "somatic resonance (cf. Sully, The Human Mind, ii, 56). It arises out of a present idea, and suffuses the whole being. By Buddhaghosa's day it was divided into five species: the thrill of joy, just causing "the flesh to creep"; the flash of joy, like lightning; the flood of joy, like the breakers on a seashore; ecstasy or transport, in which the subject could float in the air; and overwhelming suffusing joy (Asl. 115, 116). Instances are related of the fourth species (ubbega-pīti), the inspiring idea being "Buddha rammanam (see also Visuddhi Magga, chap. iv; Yogavacara's Manual," vii; Bud. Psy., 1914, 187 f.). The same word (u b b e g o) is used to describe the anguish or trembling over guilt discovered. See below, § 30, n.

[ocr errors]

1 Vitti, meaning literally, as the Cy. points out, prosperity, wealth, and used here by analogy as a state conditioned by a source of pleasure. "Happiness arises to him who is joyful through his zest, as it arises to the wealthy through his ricepossessions." (Asl. 143.)

2 Attamanata cittassa. Buddhaghosa, who did not know the true etymology of this term (cf. Vedic atta), is ready as ever with a guess a wrong one: attano mana tā, or mentality of one's self, not of another, subjective experience. If I am pained or pleased, that is peculiarly my affair (ibid.). Psychologically it is interesting to note that he is prepared to find this intimate, subjective reference in a state of intense feeling. "Feeling is subjective experience par excellence our feelings... are all our own (Sully, The Human Mind, ii, 2; G. C. Robertson, Elements of Psychology, 185-8).

[ocr errors]

3 To contrast piti with sukham, Buddhaghosa draws a charming picture of the traveller who, fordone with journeying through a desert, hears with rapture of a pool in a grove, and with joy comes upon it, and who, on drinking, bathing, and resting in the shade is filled with ease. Sukham, it is true, is not bare quiescence; it is positive, pleasurable feeling, and may have active concomitants; its essence is expansion or increase (u p a bruhaṇam). But just as dukkham means, not so much pain as ill-being or misery, so does sukham mean well-being or sane and sound cænæsthesis. And as zest" lies in the satisfaction of gaining

66

66

The mental pleasure, the mental ease, which on that occasion is the pleasant, easeful experience born of contact with thought this is the ease that there then is.

[11] What on that occasion is (cittass' ekaggatā)? 1

self-collectedness

The stability, solidity, absorbed steadfastness of thought 2 which on that occasion is the absence of distraction,

66

[ocr errors]

(potentially or actually) what we desire, so is "ease" the enjoyment of the flavour (French savourer) of what we have gained (Asl. 117). See further § 60. Mental ease (cetasikam sukham) is perhaps more correctly somanass a m, rendered (§ 1, etc.) by gladness suk ham being sometimes distinguished as bodily (kāyikam) only. See S. v, 209; contra, A. i, 81; pro, Npk. 12.

66

66

[ocr errors]

1"Citt', or cittass'," e kaggata, the one-peaked condition of mind, is a name for concentration (s a madhi)," says the Cy. (p. 118). And accordingly, whereas under § 15 it gives no further description of s a madhi, it here applies to citt' ekaggata the metaphors used in Mil. 38 to illustrate sa mādhi, viz. the centre part of a tent-shaped hut, and a chieftain leading his army. It then adds that this samādhi, which is called self-collectedness, has, as its characteristic mark, the absence of wandering, of distraction; as its essence, the binding together of the states of mind that arise with it, as water binds the lather of soap; and as its concomitants, calmness, or wisdom-for it is said, he who is at peace he understands, he sees things as they really are '-and ease. The steadfastness of thought is likened to the steadiness of a lamp-flame in a windless place". See "Yogavacara's Manual", p. xxvi.

[ocr errors]

2 These three cognate terms are in the text cittassa thiti santhiti avaṭṭhiti. According to the Cy. (p. 143), the standing unshaken in or on the object (a ram ma ņ e) connoted by thiti is modified by the prefix s a m to imply kneading together (s a m pindetva) the associated states in the object, and by the prefix a v a to imply the being immersed in the object. The last metaphor is in Buddhist doctrine held applicable to four good and three bad statesfaith, mindfulness, concentration (= self-collectedness), and wisdom; craving, speculation, and ignorance, but most of all to self-collectedness.

balance,1 unperturbed mental procedure, quiet, the faculty and the power of concentration, right concentration—this is the self-collectedness that there then is.

[12] What on that occasion is the faculty of faith (saddhindriyam)? 3

The faith which on that occasion is a trusting in, the professing confidence in, the sense of assurance, faith,5

4

1 Avisa haro, a vikkhepo (v, § 57). Distraction and loss of equilibrium are attributed to the presence of "excitement and perplexity" (§§ 425, 429; Asl. 144).

2 Samatho. Distinguished as of three species:

calm (so used here); legal pacification, or settlement; calm in all the sanskaras, by which, according to the Cy. (144), is meant the peace of Nirvana.

3 On " faculty", see p. lxv.

Faith is characterized and illustrated in the same terms and approximately the same similes as are used in Mil., pp. 34–60. That is to say, it is shown to be a state of mind where the absence of perplexity sets free aspiration and energy. It is described as trust in the Buddha and his system. There is, however, no dwelling just here on any terminus ad quem, as St. Paul did in speaking of "the prize for the mark of the high calling", etc., towards which he pressed in ardent faith. There is, rather, an insistence on that self-confidence born of conviction of the soundness of one's basis and methods which is, as it were, an aspect of faith as a vis a tergo. In the simile of the stream, the Cy. differs from Trenckner's version of the Milinda to the extent of making the folk afraid to cross because of alligators and other monsters till the hero takes his sword and plunges in. See the note on faith " in the translation of Mil. i, 56.

66

[ocr errors]

66

دو

66

4 i.e. in the Buddha, the Doctrine and the Order. Buddhaghosa is only interested in making the etymology bear on ethics, and compares the "downward plunge of confidence (o-kappana) in the attitude of faith to the "sinking" in mindfulness", the grounded stand" in concentration and the "sounding " penetration of "wisdom" (Asl. 144, 145). 5 The Cy. puts forward an alternative explanation of the repetition in the description of this and following compounds. of the first term of the compound, viz. "faith". According to the former it is the method of Abhidamma to set out in isolation the adjectival part of a compound on which the substantial part depends: faith-faculty faith (faculty of). According to the latter, the identity between the two abstractions, faith and

=

faith as a faculty and as a power-this is the faith that there then is.

[13] What on that occasion is the faculty of energy (viriyindriyam)? 1

The mental inception 2 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 fortitude, the state of unfaltering effort, the state of sustained desire, the state of unflinching endurance and solid grip of the burden, energy, energy as faculty and as power, right endeavour-this is the energy that there then is.

faith-faculty, is brought out. The case of woman and attribute of femininity, it remarks, is different. (This may be a groping after the distinction between concrete and abstract.)

[ocr errors]

1 Viriyam is by Buddhaghosa connected with (a) vira, the dynamic effectiveness which is the essence of the genus "hero" (viro); (b) iriya, vibrating movement. He characterizes it by the two notions," supporting" and "grasping at", or "stretching forward" (pagga ho), and, again, by "exerting (ussa hana m). Cf. Mil. 36; Sum. Vil. 63. And he cites the same similes as appear in the Milinda. He seems to have wished, as modern psychologists have done, to account for the two modes of conscious effort: resistance and free energy. But he also emphasizes the fact that the energy in question is mental, not bodily (pp. 120 et seq., 145). 2 Arambho (cf. a ramma na m), overt action as distinguished from inaction, hence action at its inception, is distinguished by the Cy. as having six different implications, according as there is reference to karma, to a fault committed, to slaying or injury, or to action as such (kiriyā) or energy as such.

I do not pretend that the four following pairs of words fit those in the text exactly. They are mere approximations. "Endeavour" is va ya mo, the term representing "energy" in the Noble Eightfold Path. "Unfaltering" effort (a sithilaparakkama ta) is the attitude of one who has made the characteristic Buddhist vow: Verily may skin and nerve and bone dry up and wither, or ever I stay my energy, so long as I have attained whatsoever by human vigour, energy, and effort is attainable! (M. i, 480). The desire sustained-lit., not cast down-is that felt on an occasion for making good karma. 3 Cf. A. ii, 195.

« PreviousContinue »