[CHAPTER IV.

Degrees of Efficacy in Good Consciousness of the Three Realms.

1. Good consciousness in the Universe of Sense (kāmā vacarakusalam).]

[269] Which are the states that are good?

When a good thought concerning the sensuous universe has arisen, which is (I) accompanied by gladness and associated with knowledge—a thought which is

of inferior, or

of medium, or

of superlative [efficacy],1

or the dominant influence in which is

1 Efficacy is not in the text. The effective power or karma of all the foregoing thoughts and exercises to modify the individual's existence in one world or another for good seems to have been, for practical purposes, distinguished under three grades of excellence. 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 individual's potentiality in the way of rebirth. Cf. Mil. 109; also below, [§ 1059], on "she

who toils".

2 For the Four Iddhipadas, see M. i, 103; A. iii, 82; S. v, 264-6, etc. The Cy. 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

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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];

or the dominant influence in which is

investigation of inferior,

of medium, or

of superlative [efficacy],1

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 vimamsā (investigation), or the propriety of its position in this series of four. The word only occurs in the Iddhipada formula; in the Nikayas (except in the late Pts), it is defined in theV bh., as is pañña, but is not given as its equivalent. It was quite possibly imported into the predominating Buddhist culture from another school of thought. There is a suggestion of dual symmetry about the series: as chando is to viriya m (conation passing into action), so is cittam (consciousness) to the discursive re-representative intellection of vimamsā. I have rendered cittadhipateyyam, not by consciousness", but 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 a dhipateyyas below, § 1034, n. 2.

pe...)

1 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 . of the repetition of the unvarying framework of the reply before and after each tabulated term. The Roman 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

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then the contact . the balance that rises-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 gladness, associated with knowledge, and instigated. . .

or (III) accompanied by gladness, and disconnected with knowledge

or (IV) accompanied by gladness, disconnected with knowledge, and instigated. . .

or (V) accompanied by indifference, and associated with knowledge . . .

or (VI) accompanied by indifference, associated with knowledge, and instigated.

...

or (VII) accompanied by indifference, and disconnected with knowledge . . .

or (VIII) accompanied by indifference, disconnected with knowledge, and instigated a thought which is of inferior. . . or of medium ...

or of superlative [efficacy] . . .

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

basis of the a rammanam of each thought is not intended to be here rehearsed.

[another thought of inferior,

of medium, or

of superlative [efficacy];

then the contact . . . the balance that arises these . . are states that are good.1

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 desires, aloof from evil ideas, by earth-gazing enters into and abides in the First Jhāna (the first rapt meditation) . .. which is of inferior,

or of medium,

or of superlative [efficacy];

or the dominant influence in which is

then the contact . . . the balance that arises these . are states that are good.

[272] Repeat in the case of the other Jhānas, both of (a) and (b).

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1 In accordance with the usual procedure in the Pali classics, when combining several subjects in one sentence, the final details apply only to the last subject in the series. Hence, after the case of or (VIII)", etc., the states possibly arising refer only to VIII, the last of the "good thoughts". And 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.

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 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-even into the Fourth Jhana, to gain which all sense of ease has been put away, etc.-(the rapt meditation) where there is neither ill nor ease, but only the perfect purity that comes of mindfulness and indifference, and which is of

then the contact . . . the balance that arises these . . are states that are good.

[274-6] Here follow the three remaining "Jhānas connected with Formless Existence", each modified by the characteristics enumerated in the foregoing answer. Cf. §§ 266-8.1

pe

1 In § 275 the text inadvertently omits m a jjhimam

panitam

pateyyam.

. pe... before vima msādhi