(b) "States having objects of thought of wider scope": The sphere of infinite consciousness; the sphere where there is neither perception nor non-perception." (Cf. §§ 267, 268). (c) "States having infinite objects of thought": "The four Paths that are the Unincluded, and the four Fruits of the life of the recluse." "The four uprisings of consciousness which are disconnected with knowledge and belong to good (karma) in the universe of Sense, also the four uprisings of consciousness disconnected with knowledge which are inoperative, and all bad (karma) these states may be (a) or (b), but not (c), and may not be termed both (a) and (b). "[Again] the four uprisings of consciousness which are associated with knowledge and belong to good (karma) in the universe of Sense, the four uprisings of inoperative consciousness which are associated with knowledge, the Fourth Jhana relating to the universe of Form, whether it arise as good (karma), or as inoperative consciousness, and the representative cognition which is inoperative and free from rootconditions and is accompanied by indifference: these states may be (a), or (b), or (c), but it is not proper to call them (a) and (b) and (c). "[Lastly] the threefold and fourfold Jhana relating to the worlds of Form, whether it arise as good (karma), or as result, or as inoperative consciousness, the results of Fourth Jhana, and the two first Jhanas connected with Formless existence, viz., the spheres of Infinite Space and of Infinite Nothingness these states it is not proper to call (a) and (b) and (c). "[Material] form and Nirvana are without objects of thought." One more group deserves quoting as giving answers not in terms of the subject inquired into. This is the two triads corresponding to §§ 1044-9. The commentarial chapter has the following: "The questions which are the states that are personal. . . external. . . personal-external seem to have fallen out, and we get instead a collective answer only : "With the exception of form which is not bound up with faculties,1 and Nirvana, all states may be personal or external or personal-external. [Material] form which is not bound up with faculties, and Nirvana, are both external." States which have (a) a personal object of thought, (b) an external object of thought, (c) a personal-external object of thought": "(a) The sphere of infinite consciousness and the sphere where there is neither perception nor non-perception. "(b) The threefold and fourfold Jhana relating to the heavens of Form, whether it arise as good (karma), as result (of good karma), or as completed thought, also results of Fourth Jhana, the sphere of infinite space, the four Paths that are the Unincluded and the four Fruits of the life of the recluse: these states have an external object of thought. "Excepting form, states, good, bad and indeterminate relating to the sensuous universe, and the Fourth Jhana relating to the worlds of Form, whether it arise as good 1 Read, for Manindriyam, Anindriya - baddha rūpañca. By an oversight this sentence and the next are printed in the text as if belonging to the previous triad. The import of the two sentences is probably simpler than it seems. It appears from Buddhaghosa's comment (Expositor, 533) that we must supply one's own" before faculties. Those of another person are external to us. (karma), or as completed thought all these may be either (a), (b), or (c). "But it is not proper to say that the sphere of nothingness is all three. "Form and Nirvana are without objects of thought." There is here a point of additional interest. The second and fourth Āruppajjhānas are shown to have been conceived as exercises of pure introspection, and to be devoid of any implications of a World-Reason, or a macrocosmic Perception, let alone any of the "rapt soul" being caught up to other spheres. APPENDIX II. On that which is predicted about Unconditioned Element (a sankhata dhatu) in the Dhamma Sangani. Unconditioned Element is classed as the fourth and last species of the morally Indeterminate (a v y ā kata m)—in other words, of that conduct or state of mind which is not productive of good or bad karma. But it alone, of those four, does not receive separate and systematic discussion, as is the case with the other three-Result, Inoperative Consciousness, and [Material] Form. The following predicates are elicited incidentally in the course of Book III., which discusses what may be called Applied Ethics. Again, whereas the word Nirvana (nib ba na m) is always substituted for asankhata dhatu in the appended commentarial supplement to the original text, the term "unconditioned element" is not identified, in the Dhamma Sangani, with the "topmost fruit" of the Paths, the ara hatta - phalam, which is one aspect of the state called Nirvana (cf. S. iv, 251, 252). The subject therefore seems to demand further inquiry. It is to facilitate this that the following results are appended, parallel more or less to the table on Form, pp. 168–71. Cf. note, p. 166. |