Part 14 (1/2)

[Footnote 4: _M. V._ p. 5 f.]

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Samutpada means appearance or arising (_pradurbhdava_) and prat.i.tya means after getting (_prati+i+ya_); combining the two we find, arising after getting (something). The elements, depending on which there is some kind of arising, are called hetu (cause) and paccaya (ground). These two words however are often used in the same sense and are interchangeable. But paccaya is also used in a specific sense. Thus when it is said that avijja is the paccaya of [email protected] it is meant that avijja is the ground ([email protected]_) of the origin of the [email protected], is the ground of their movement, of the instrument through which they stand ([email protected]@thiti_), of their ayuhana (conglomeration), of their interconnection, of their intelligibility, of their conjoint arising, of their function as cause and of their function as the ground with reference to those which are determined by them. Avijja in all these nine ways is the ground of [email protected] both in the past and also in the future, though avijja itself is determined in its turn by other grounds [Footnote ref 1]. When we take the betu aspect of the causal chain, we cannot think of anything else but succession, but when we take the paccaya aspect we can have a better vision into the nature of the cause as ground. Thus when avijja is said to be the ground of the [email protected] in the nine ways mentioned above, it seems reasonable to think that the [email protected] were in some sense regarded as special manifestations of avijja [Footnote ref 2]. But as this point was not further developed in the early Buddhist texts it would be unwise to proceed further with it.

The Khandhas.

The word khandha (Skr. skandha) means the trunk of a tree and is generally used to mean group or aggregate [Footnote ref 3]. We have seen that Buddha said that there was no atman (soul). He said that when people held that they found the much spoken of soul, they really only found the five khandhas together or any one of them. The khandhas are aggregates of bodily and psychical states which are immediate with us and are divided into five

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[Footnote 1: See [email protected]_, vol. I.p. 50; see also _Majjhima Nikaya_, I. 67, [email protected]..avijjanidana avijjasamudaya avijjajatika avijj.a.pabhava_.]

[Footnote 2: In the Yoga derivation of asmita (egoism), raga (attachment), [email protected] (antipathy) and abhinives'a (self love) from avidya we find also that all the five are regarded as the five special stages of the growth of avidya (_pancaparvi avidya_).]

[Footnote 3: The word skandha is used in Chandogya, II. 23 (_trayo [email protected] [email protected] adhyayanam danam_) in the sense of branches and in almost the same sense in Maitri, VII. II.]

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cla.s.ses: (1) rupa (four elements, the body, the senses), sense data, etc., (2) vedana (feeling--pleasurable, painful and indifferent), (3) sanna (conceptual knowledge), (4) [email protected] (synthetic mental states and the synthetic functioning of compound sense-affections, compound feelings and compound concepts), (5) vinnana (consciousness) [Footnote ref 1].

All these states rise depending one upon the other ([email protected]_) and when a man says that he perceives the self he only deludes himself, for he only perceives one or more of these. The word rupa in rupakhandha stands for matter and material qualities, the senses, and the sense data [Footnote ref 2]. But ”rupa” is also used in the sense of pure organic affections or states of mind as we find in the _Khandha Yamaka_, I.p. 16, and also in [email protected] Nikaya_, III. 86. Rupaskandha according to [email protected]_ means the aggregate of five senses, the five sensations, and the implicatory communications a.s.sociated in sense perceptions _vijnapti_).

The elaborate discussion of [email protected]@ni_ begins by defining rupa as ”_cattaro ca mahabhuta catunnanca mahabhntanam upadaya rupam_” (the four mahabhutas or elements and that proceeding from the grasping of that is called rupa) [Footnote ref 3].

[email protected] explains it by saying that rupa means the four mahabhutas and those which arise depending (_nissaya_) on them as a modification of them. In the rupa the six senses including their affections are also included. In explaining why the four elements are called mahabhutas, [email protected] says: ”Just as a magician (_mayakara_) makes the water which is not hard appear as hard, makes the stone which is not gold appear as gold; just as he himself though not a ghost nor a bird makes himself appear as a ghost or a bird, so these elements though not themselves blue make themselves appear as blue (_nilam upada rupam_), not yellow, red, or white make themselves appear as yellow, red or white (odatam upadarupam), so on account of their similarity to the appearances created by the magician they are called mahabhuta [Footnote ref 4].”

In the [email protected] Nikaya_ we find that the Buddha says, ”O Bhikkhus it is called rupam because it manifests (_rupyati_); how

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[Footnote 1: [email protected] Nikaya_, III. 86, etc.]

[Footnote 2: _Abhidhammatthasangaha_, J.P.T.S. 1884, p. 27 ff.]

[Footnote 3: [email protected]@ni_, pp. 124-179.]

[Footnote 4: _Atthasalini_, p. 299.]

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does it manifest? It manifests as cold, and as heat, as hunger and as thirst, it manifests as the touch of gnats, mosquitos, wind, the sun and the snake; it manifests, therefore it is called rupa [Footnote ref 1].”

If we take the somewhat conflicting pa.s.sages referred to above for our consideration and try to combine them so as to understand what is meant by rupa, I think we find that that which manifested itself to the senses and organs was called rupa. No distinction seems to have been made between the sense-data as colours, smells, etc., as existing in the physical world and their appearance as sensations. They were only numerically different and the appearance of the sensations was dependent upon the sense-data and the senses but the sense-data and the sensations were ”rupa.” Under certain conditions the sense-data were followed by the sensations. Buddhism did not probably start with the same kind of division of matter and mind as we now do. And it may not be out of place to mention that such an opposition and duality were found neither in the [email protected] nor in the [email protected] system which is regarded by some as pre-Buddhistic.

The four elements manifested themselves in certain forms and were therefore called rupa; the forms of affection that appeared were also called rupa; many other mental states or features which appeared with them were also called rupa [Footnote ref 2]. The ayatanas or the senses were also called rupa [Footnote ref 3]. The mahabhutas or four elements were themselves but changing manifestations, and they together with all that appeared in a.s.sociation with them were called rupa and formed the rupa khandha (the cla.s.ses of sense-materials, sense-data, senses and sensations).

In [email protected] Nikaya_ (III. 101) it is said that ”the four mahabhutas were the hetu and the paccaya for the communication of the rupakkhandha (_rupakkhandha.s.sa pannapanaya_). Contact (sense-contact, pha.s.sa) is the cause of the communication of feelings (_vedana_); sense-contact was also the hetu and paccaya for the communication of the sannakkhandha; sense-contact is also the hetu and paccaya for the communication of the [email protected] But namarupa is the hetu and the paccaya for the communication of the vinnanakkhandha.” Thus not only feelings arise on account of the sense-contact but sanna and [email protected] also arise therefrom. Sanna is that where specific knowing or

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