Part 20 (1/2)
[Footnote 1: I have ventured to translate ”[email protected]_” in the sense of vasana in preference to Suzuki's ”confused subjectivity” because [email protected] in the sense of vasana is not unfamiliar to the readers of such Buddhist works as [email protected]_. The word ”subjectivity” seems to be too European a term to be used as a word to represent the Buddhist sense.]
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subjectively does not exist by itself, that the negation (_s'unyata_) is also void (_s'unya_) in its nature, that neither that which is negated nor that which negates is an independent ent.i.ty. It is the pure soul that manifests itself as eternal, permanent, immutable, and completely holds all things within it. On that account it may be called affirmation. But yet there is no trace of affirmation in it, because it is not the product of the creative instinctive memory ([email protected]_) of conceptual thought and the only way of grasping the truth--the thatness, is by transcending all conceptual creations.
”The soul as birth and death ([email protected]_) comes forth from the Tathagata womb (_tathagatagarbha_), the ultimate reality.
But the immortal and the mortal coincide with each other.
Though they are not identical they are not duality either. Thus when the absolute soul a.s.sumes a relative aspect by its self-affirmation it is called the all-conserving mind (_alayavijnana_).
It embraces two principles, (1) enlightenment, (2) non-enlightenment.
Enlightenment is the perfection of the mind when it is free from the corruptions of the creative instinctive incipient memory ([email protected]_). It penetrates all and is the unity of all (_dharmadhatu_). That is to say, it is the universal dharmakaya of all Tathagatas const.i.tuting the ultimate foundation of existence.
”When it is said that all consciousness starts from this fundamental truth, it should not be thought that consciousness had any real origin, for it was merely phenomenal existence--a mere imaginary creation of the perceivers under the influence of the delusive [email protected] The mult.i.tude of people (_bahujana_) are said to be lacking in enlightenment, because ignorance (_avidya_) prevails there from all eternity, because there is a constant succession of [email protected] (past confused memory working as instinct) from which they have never been emanc.i.p.ated. But when they are divested of this [email protected] they can then recognize that no states of mentation, viz. their appearance, presence, change and disappearance, have any reality. They are neither in a temporal nor in a spatial relation with the one soul, for they are not self-existent.
”This high enlightenment shows itself imperfectly in our corrupted phenomenal experience as prajna (wisdom) and karma (incomprehensible activity of life). By pure wisdom we understand that when one, by virtue of the perfuming power of dharma, disciplines himself truthfully (i.e. according to the dharma), and accomplishes meritorious deeds, the mind (i.e. the _alayavijnana_)
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which implicates itself with birth and death will be broken down and the modes of the evolving consciousness will be annulled, and the pure and the genuine wisdom of the Dharmakaya will manifest itself. Though all modes of consciousness and mentation are mere products of ignorance, ignorance in its ultimate nature is identical and non-identical with enlightenment; and therefore ignorance is in one sense destructible, though in another sense it is indestructible. This may be ill.u.s.trated by the simile of the water and the waves which are stirred up in the ocean. Here the water can be said to be both identical and non-identical with the waves. The waves are stirred up by the wind, but the water remains the same. When the wind ceases the motion of the waves subsides, but the water remains the same. Likewise when the mind of all creatures, which in its own nature is pure and clean, is stirred up by the wind of ignorance (_avidya_), the waves of mentality (_vijnana_) make their appearance. These three (i.e.
the mind, ignorance, and mentality) however have no existence, and they are neither unity nor plurality. When the ignorance is annihilated, the awakened mentality is tranquillized, whilst the essence of the wisdom remains unmolested.” The truth or the enlightenment ”is absolutely un.o.btainable by any modes of relativity or by any outward signs of enlightenment. All events in the phenomenal world are reflected in enlightenment, so that they neither pa.s.s out of it, nor enter into it, and they neither disappear nor are destroyed.” It is for ever cut off from the hindrances both affectional ([email protected]_) and intellectual ([email protected]_), as well as from the mind (i.e. _alayavijnana_) which implicates itself with birth and death, since it is in its true nature clean, pure, eternal, calm, and immutable. The truth again is such that it transforms and unfolds itself wherever conditions are favourable in the form of a tathagata or in some other forms, in order that all beings may be induced thereby to bring their virtue to maturity.
”Non-elightenment has no existence of its own aside from its relation with enlightenment _a priori_.” But enlightenment _a priori_ is spoken of only in contrast to non-enlightenment, and as non-enlightenment is a non-ent.i.ty, true enlightenment in turn loses its significance too. They are distinguished only in mutual relation as enlightenment or non-enlightenment. The manifestations of non-enlightenment are made in three ways: (1) as a disturbance of the mind (_alayavijnana_), by the avidyakarma (ignorant
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action), producing misery ([email protected]_); (2) by the appearance of an ego or of a perceiver; and (3) by the creation of an external world which does not exist in itself, independent of the perceiver. Conditioned by the unreal external world six kinds of phenomena arise in succession. The first phenomenon is intelligence (sensation); being affected by the external world the mind becomes conscious of the difference between the agreeable and the disagreeable.
The second phenomenon is succession. Following upon intelligence, memory retains the sensations, agreeable as well as disagreeable, in a continuous succession of subjective states.
The third phenomenon is clinging. Through the retention and succession of sensations, agreeable as well as disagreeable, there arises the desire of clinging. The fourth phenomenon is an attachment to names or ideas ([email protected]_), etc. By clinging the mind hypostatizes all names whereby to give definitions to all things.
The fifth phenomenon is the performance of deeds (_karma_). On account of attachment to names, etc., there arise all the variations of deeds, productive of individuality. ”The sixth phenomenon is the suffering due to the fetter of deeds. Through deeds suffering arises in which the mind finds itself entangled and curtailed of its freedom.” All these phenomena have thus sprung forth through avidya.
The relation between this truth and avidya is in one sense a mere ident.i.ty and may be ill.u.s.trated by the simile of all kinds of pottery which though different are all made of the same clay [Footnote ref 1]. Likewise the undefiled (_anasrava_) and ignorance (_avidya_) and their various transient forms all come from one and the same ent.i.ty. Therefore Buddha teaches that all beings are from all eternity abiding in [email protected]
It is by the touch of ignorance (_avidya_) that this truth a.s.sumes all the phenomenal forms of existence.
In the all-conserving mind (_alayavijnana_) ignorance manifests itself; and from non-enlightenment starts that which sees, that which represents, that which apprehends an objective world, and that which constantly particularizes. This is called ego (_manas_).
Five different names are given to the ego (according to its different modes of operation). The first name is activity-consciousness (_karmavijnana_) in the sense that through the agency of ignorance an unenlightened mind begins to be disturbed (or
_
[Footnote 1: Compare Chandogya, VI. 1. 4.]
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awakened). The second name is evolving-consciousness ([email protected]_) in the sense that when the mind is disturbed, there evolves that which sees an external world. The third name is representation-consciousness in the sense that the ego (_manas_} represents (or reflects) an external world. As a clean mirror reflects the images of all description, it is even so with the representation-consciousness. When it is confronted, for instance, with the objects of the five senses, it represents them instantaneously and without effort. The fourth is particularization-consciousness, in the sense that it discriminates between different things defiled as well as pure. The fifth name is succession-consciousness, in the sense that continuously directed by the awakening consciousness of attention (_manaskara_) it (_manas_) retains all experiences and never loses or suffers the destruction of any karma, good as well as evil, which had been sown in the past, and whose retribution, painful or agreeable, it never fails to mature, be it in the present or in the future, and also in the sense that it unconsciously recollects things gone by and in imagination antic.i.p.ates things to come. Therefore the three domains (_kamaloka_, domain of feeling--_rupaloka_, domain of bodily existence--_arupaloka_, domain of incorporeality) are nothing but the self manifestation of the mind (i.e. _alayavijnana_ which is practically identical with _bhutatathata_). Since all things, owing the principle of their existence to the mind (_alayavijnana_), are produced by [email protected], all the modes of particularization are the self-particularizations of the mind. The mind in itself (or the soul) being however free from all attributes is not differentiated. Therefore we come to the conclusion that all things and conditions in the phenomenal world, hypostatized and established only through ignorance (_avidya_) and memory ([email protected]_), have no more reality than the images in a mirror. They arise simply from the ideality of a particularizing mind. When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced; but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears.
By ego-consciousness (_manovijnana_) we mean the ignorant mind which by its succession-consciousness clings to the conception of I and Not-I and misapprehends the nature of the six objects of sense. The ego-consciousness is also called separation-consciousness, because it is nourished by the perfuming influence of the prejudices (_asrava_), intellectual as well as affectional. Thus believing in the external world produced by memory, the mind becomes
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