Part 15 (1/2)

[Footnote 3: _Samyutta Nikaya_, III. 130.]

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Avijja and asava.

As to the question how the avijja (ignorance) first started there can be no answer, for we could never say that either ignorance or desire for existence ever has any beginning [Footnote ref 1].

Its fruition is seen in the cycle of existence and the sorrow that comes in its train, and it comes and goes with them all. Thus as we can never say that it has any beginning, it determines the elements which bring about cycles of existence and is itself determined by certain others. This mutual determination can only take place in and through the changing series of dependent phenomena, for there is nothing which can be said to have any absolute priority in time or stability. It is said that it is through the coming into being of the asavas or depravities that the avijja came into being, and that through the destruction of the depravities (_asava_) the avijja was destroyed [Footnote ref 2]. These asavas are cla.s.sified in the [email protected]@ni_ as kamasava, bhavasava, [email protected]@thasava and avijjasava.

Kamasava means desire, attachment, pleasure, and thirst after the qualities a.s.sociated with the senses; bhavasava means desire, attachment and will for existence or birth; [email protected]@thasava means the holding of heretical views, such as, the world is eternal or non-eternal, or that the world will come to an end or will not come to an end, or that the body and the soul are one or are different; avijjasava means the ignorance of sorrow, its cause, its extinction and its means of extinction. [email protected]@ni_ adds four more supplementary ones, viz. ignorance about the nature of anterior mental khandhas, posterior mental khandhas, anterior and posterior together, and their mutual dependence [Footnote ref 3].

Kamasava and bhavasava can as [email protected] says be counted as one, for they are both but depravities due to attachment [Footnote ref 4].

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[Footnote 1: Warren's _Buddhism in Translations_ (_Visuddhimagga_, chap.

XVII.), p. 175.]

[Footnote 2: _M. N._ I.p. 54. Childers translates ”asava” as ”depravities”

and Mrs Rhys Davids as ”intoxicants.” The word ”asava” in Skr. means ”old wine.” It is derived from ”su” to produce by [email protected] and the meaning that he gives to it is ”_cira [email protected]@thena_” (on account of its being stored up for a long time like wine). They work through the eye and the mind and continue to produce all beings up to Indra.

As those wines which are kept long are called ”asavas” so these are also called asavas for remaining a long time. The other alternative that [email protected] gives is that they are called asava on account of their producing [email protected] (sorrows of the world), _Atthasalini_, p. 48.

Contrast it with Jaina asrava (flowing in of karma matter). Finding it difficult to translate it in one word after [email protected], I have translated it as ”depravities,” after Childers.]

[Footnote 3: See [email protected]@ni_, p. 195.]

[Footnote 4: [email protected]'s _Atthasalini_, p. 371.]

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The [email protected]@thasavas by clouding the mind with false metaphysical views stand in the way of one's adopting the true Buddhistic doctrines.

The kamasavas stand in the way of one's entering into the way of [email protected] (_anagamimagga_) and the bhavasavas and avijjasavas stand in the way of one's attaining arha or final emanc.i.p.ation. When the _Majjhima Nikaya_ says that from the rise of the asavas avijja rises, it evidently counts avijja there as in some sense separate from the other asavas, such as those of attachment and desire of existence which veil the true knowledge about sorrow.

The afflictions (_kilesas_) do not differ much from the asavas for they are but the specific pa.s.sions in forms ordinarily familiar to us, such as covetousness (_lobha_), anger or hatred (_dosa_), infatuation (_moha_), arrogance, pride or vanity (_mana_), heresy ([email protected]@thi_), doubt or uncertainty (_vicikiccha_), idleness (_thina_), boastfulness (_udhacca_), shamelessness (_ahirika_) and hardness of heart _anottapa_); these kilesas proceed directly as a result of the asavas.

In spite of these varieties they are often counted as three (lobha, dosa, moha) and these together are called kilesa. They are a.s.sociated with the vedanakkhandha, sannakkhandha, [email protected] and vinnanakkhandha. From these arise the three kinds of actions, of speech, of body, and of mind [Footnote ref 1].

Sila and Samadhi.

We are intertwined all through outside and inside by the tangles of desire ([email protected] [email protected]_), and the only way by which these may be loosened is by the practice of right discipline (_sila_), concentration (_samadhi_) and wisdom (_panna_). Sila briefly means the desisting from committing all sinful deeds (_sabbapapa.s.sa [email protected]_). With sila therefore the first start has to be made, for by it one ceases to do all actions prompted by bad desires and thereby removes the inrush of dangers and disturbances.

This serves to remove the kilesas, and therefore the proper performance of the sila would lead one to the first two successive stages of sainthood, viz. the sotapannabhava (the stage in which one is put in the right current) and the sakadagamibhava (the stage when one has only one more birth to undergo). Samadhi is a more advanced effort, for by it all the old roots of the old kilesas are destroyed and the [email protected] or desire is removed and

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[Footnote 1: [email protected]@ni,_ p. 180.]

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by it one is led to the more advanced states of a saint. It directly brings in panna (true wisdom) and by panna the saint achieves final emanc.i.p.ation and becomes what is called an arhat [Footnote ref 1]. Wisdom (_panna_) is right knowledge about the four ariya saccas, viz. sorrow, its cause, its destruction and its cause of destruction.