INTRODUCTION TO THE  STUDY OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY

SEMINAR SIX

“For there is only one ascetic practice, namelly,

that consisting in the volition of undertaking. (..)

He who does the undertaking is a person.”

Buddhaghosa,

Text VI. So spoke the Elders[1]

1. Mahåkassapa[2] said:

One should not wander revered by the crowd; one becomes distracted, concentration is hard to obtain. Seeing that the favour of all kinds of people is painful, one should not approve of a crowd.

A sage should not frequent high-born families. He who is greedy and desirous of flavours misses the goal which brings happiness. For the respect and homage in high-born families is truly a “bog”, a fine dart, hard to extract, honour is hard for a worthless man to give up.

Coming down from my lodging, I entered a city to beg;[3] I respectfully stood by a leper who was eating. He offered a portion to me with his rotten hand; as he was throwing the peace into my alms-bowl his finger too broke off there.

But near the foot of a wall I ate that portion; no disgust arose in me, either while it was being eaten or when it had been eaten.

For whom left-over scraps suffice as food, smelly urine as medicine, the foot of a tree as lodging, a rag from a dust-heap as robe, he truly is a man of the four quarters.[4]

Where some are killed climbing up the mountain, there Kassapa meditates, without grasping, quenched among those who burn.[5] Returned from alms-begging, slimbing the rock Kassapa meditates, without grasping, his task done, without mental influxes.[6] For whom left-over scraps suffice as food, smelly urine as medicine, a rag from a dust-heap as robe, he truly has the whole universe as his abode.

Those rocks delight me, the colour of blue clouds, beautiful, cool with water, having pure streams. Like the ridge of a blue cloud, like an excellent gabled house, resounding with elements those lovely rocks delight me.

It is enough for me, desiring to meditate, resolute, mindful. It is enough for me, a resolute monk desirous of the goal. It is enough for me, a resolute monk desirous of composedness. It is enough for me, a resolute elder, desiring to meditate and to train his mind.[7] There is not such pleasure from the music as there is for someone with intent mind rightly having insight into the Teaching.

One should not do much work, one should avoid that which does not lead to the goal. One should not exert oneself. The body suffers and is fatigued; being pained, it does not find calmness.

By merely touching the lips together one does not see the self.[8] One wanders around stiff-necked; one thinks: “I am better”. Not better, the fool thinks of himself as though better. Wise man do not praise that stiff-minded one. But he who does not waver in the modes of self-conceit, such as thinking “I am better” or “I am not better”, “I am worse”, “I am equal” – that venerable one, being possessed by wisdom in that way, being well-concentrated in virtues, possessed of mental calmness, him indeed the wise praise.

2. Såriputta[9] said:

Once the Lord, the Buddha, the one with vision, taught the Teaching to another; while the Teaching was being taught, being desirous of it I turned an attentive ear. My listening was not in vain; I am released, without mental influxes. Not for knowledge of former habitation, nor even for the divine eye,[10] nor for supernormal power of knowledge of other people’s thoughts,[11] nor for knowledge of passing away and rebirth,[12] nor for acquisition of divine ear was there any resolve of mine.

Having abtained to non-reasoning,[13] the disciple of the fully-awakened one is straightway possessed of noble silence. Just as a rocky mountain is unmoving, well founded, so a monk, like a mountain, does not tremble after the annihilation of delusion. I do not long for death; I do not long for life; I shall lay down this body attentive and mindful. I do not long for death, I do not long for life; but I await my time as a servant his wages. On both sides this is death, not non-death,[14] either afterwards or before; enter on the Way; do not perish. Let not the opportunity pass you by.

As a frontier city is guarded inside and out, so you should guard yourselves. Let not the opportunity pass you by, for those who have missed the oppostunity grieve when consigned to hell.[15]

Keeping the Wheel rolling,[16] having great knowledge, concentrated, being like earth, water, fire, the elder is not attached, is not opposed.[17] Having abtained the perfection of wisdom, having great discernement and great thought, not dull but as though dull,[18] always wanders quenched.

The Teacher has been waited on by me, the Buddha’s teaching has been done. The heavy load has been put down; that which leads to renewed existence has been rooted out.

3. Mahåmoggalåna[19] said:

Let us, living in the forest, living on alms-food, delighting in whatever scraps come into our alms-bowls, tear apart the army of death,[20] being well concentrated inwardly, let us knock down the army of death, as an elephant knocks down a ree-hut.

You, little hut made of a chain of bones, sewn together with flesh and sinew. Fie upon the evil-smelling body. You cherish those who have another’s limbs.[21] You bag of dung, tied up with skin, you demoness with lumps on your breast.[22] There are nine streams in your body which flow all the time, your body makes an evil smell and is abstructed by dung. A monk desiring purity avoids it as one avoids excrement. If any person knew you as I know you,[23] he would avoid you, keeping far away, as one avoids a cess-pit in a rainy season.

This is so, great hero, as you say, ascetic; and here some sink down as an old bull in mud.

Then there was terror, then there was excitement, when Såriputta, possessed of many qualities, had been quenched.[24]

Truly the dharmas are arising and passing away; their quiescence is happiness. Those who see the five elements of existence[25] as other, and not as self, have pierced the subtle thing as a tip of hair with an arrow.

A monk should wander about as though smitten by the sword, with his head on fire as it were, mindful of the abandonment of desire for existence.

Brahman, pay homage to Kassapa, calm, quiet, with secluded lodging, the sage, the heir of the best of the Buddhas.

SEMINAR VI: Buddhism is a philosophical asceticism and an ascetical philosophy

First, the initial philosophical premise: man is an ascetic. A man who is not an ascetis is, as it were a “minus-ascetic”, which means that man in general is defined only from an ascetical point of view; not the other way around, for an ascetic cannot be defined as a subclass of “man”, nor as a particular case of the last. So one’s humanness is reduced to probability of one’s being or becoming as ascetic. Asceticism became, in the so called early historical Buddhism, a dimension of human nature and the main feature of Buddhist anthropology to this day.

Buddhist asceticism is an extremely complex phenomenon which ought not to be reduced to such trivial negative attitudes as dissatisfaction with the habitual surrounding or way of life, non-sociality or a-sociality. A person is called an ascetic in Buddhism not because he went forth, having separated himself from his home, family, clan, village, town or kingdom. Nor because he has spearated himself from all he ad left innerly, mentally, emotionally. Those two sides of his becoming an ascetic constitute but the negative aspect of Buddhist asceticism. But the main umpulse here is directed towards the positive goal of obtaining the Highest Knowledge of the Dharma (the Four Noble Truths, the Interdependent Conditioned Origination, etc.) and finally of attaining to the state of arhatship. The negative aspect, both in its internal and external forms, is radically reworked by the already yogically transformed mind of the Buddhist ascetic. All that had been perceived by him negatively, is condensed now into the yogic memory (P. sati, skr. smrti) and thereby ousted into the past (this includes the memory of his ascetic life prior to the present moment of recollection, and the memory of his previous rebirths). Then the present event of his only just now achieved arhatship finds its manifestation in the special sign of recognition (P. annå, skr. åjnå), sent by the ascetic to the Buddha. In fact all the sayings in the text VI are but various expressions of that sign. They combine the triumph of the attainment of arhatship with very short account of the new arhat’s previous life. I call this aspect of Buddhist asceticism “positive” also because the present time of the ascetic’s life is described in very positive (sometimes, almost romantic) tones sharply contrasting with predominantly heavy and rude descriptions of the past. Particularly attractive are descriptions of landscapes and animals. So, in VI.1, Mahåkassapa recollects: “I entered a city to beg … and stood by a leper who was eating. He offered a portion to me with his rotten hand and as he was throwing the piece of food  into my alms-bowl, his finger too broke off there. But when I ate that food no disgust arose in me.” And after that he recollects the present: “Those beautiful rocks delight me; the colour of blue clouds, elegant, cool, with pure streams. Like the ridge of a blue cloud, like an excellent gabled house resounding with the elephants, those lovely rocks delight me.” And finally: “The Buddha has been waited on by me, the Dharma has been realised by me. The heavy load has been put down, the causes of renewed births have been rooted out.”

However, there are some other tendencies in Buddhist asceticism which, though themselves of ancient Indian provenance, could be deemed more specially Buddhist. First and foremost among them is the tendency to absolute neutralization of opposites, such as “human / non-human,” “human / divine,” “ascetic / worldly,” “existing / non-existing,” “negative / positive.” It is this tendency that determines the third, neutral aspect of Buddhist asceticism. The main philosophical feature of the neutral aspect is its timelessness. While in the negative aspect the mind of the ascetic is, by definition, past-orientated and in the positive aspect it is clearly present-orientated, in the neutral aspect the yogically trained mind has no orientation to and no support in time.

Furthermore, in the neutral aspect the utmost significance attributed to space which acquires an almost ontological status on the strength of its being exempt from becoming. It has already been mentioned that, apart from Nirvana, space is the only unconditioned dharma; all that becomes becomes in time; time is that wherein every phenomenon – and in the first place every mental phenomenon – occurs. From this follows that time is an epiphenomenon (that is, a dharma which is derivative from and secondary to, another dharma) of ever-changing band fluctuating mind. That is why the, as it were, “limit” of Buddhist ascetical yoga is the complete stopping of all workings of mind (preceded by the state of non-reasoning, see here n. 13). Then time disappears by itself, leaving the yogi-ascetic wander in space (it is interesting to note that the appelation of complete ascetics in jainism, who even today live totally naked, is “clad with space”). So we read (VI.1): “he truly is a man of space, he has the whole universe as his abode.”

Let us note one very important circumstance, to wit, that all that was said by the Elders in VI, was said at the present time of their attaining to arhatship or, more exactly, when they were on the threshold of arhatship. And if we ask then at that very moment (in which all moments of their life have been merged), “Why did you become an ascetic?” – we may have got the following  answers: “To change my life”, “to change myself”, and “to attain to the state where there is neither life, nor myself, nor, first of all, change (that is becoming)”. These answers correspond to three distinctive modes of the Buddhist ascetic, very shortly described in the text VI: a special mode of living (modus vivendi), a special mode of dying (modus moriendi), and a special mode of practising yoga (modus meditandi).

We ought to take into consideration, in this connection, that the Buddhist yoga, or, more exactly, dhyåna, apart from being an indispensable side of living and dying of the ascetic, is also the intermediate state (note, not stage in time, but rather a level in the space of the Buddhist dhyånic cosmic hierarchy); intermediate between life and death, between the conditioned and the unconditioned, between samsara and Nirvana.

It would be possible, thus, on the basis of that triple classification of modes, to speak about three main intentionalities of the Buddhist ascetic: 1) centrifugal intentionality marked by the expansion of mental energy. It usually expresses itself in the desire to radically change one’s surroundings, but also one’s habits and habitual mental reactions to one’s inner and external circumstances; 2) centripetal intentionality characterised by the desire to be alone, to concentrate one’s mental energy on oneself and by the general tendency to practise yoga and to progress indefinitely in the higher dhyånic states; 3) circular intentionality that finds its expression in the drive towards the “infinite”, “indefinite”, and “indeterminable” transcendental sphere (see below in the text IX.4); the sphere where the differences of any kind do not apply, where no movement, mental or physical, has its end and goal, and where all beings, events, and thought are the same and synchronous in time.

Buddhist philosophy can be called ascetical for three main reasons. First, because it was created almost exclusively by ascetics. Second, because, being essentially and by preference yogic, it found its practical application in concrete individual yogis-ascetics. Thirdly, because as such, Buddhist asceticism is, itself a philosophy or, at the very least, a remarkable case of “applied” philosophy.

[P.S. Conventionally, we may speak of three main classes of Buddhist ascetics. The terms denoting them are often synonymous or overlapping each other, but still quite distinct in their technical application in various Buddhist texts: 1) paribbajita (skr. parivråjita) – the general term denoting all those who have gone forth, have left home, have given up the worldly life and entered the life of ascetics. Probablt a better translation of this term would be “renouncer”; 2) samana (skr. sramana) – a wandering ascetic of any kind, usually practising yoga (the Buddha, as a young man, when he lived in the Forest of Ascetics was called “samana Gotama”); 3) bhikkhu (skr. bhiksu) – literally, “mendicant”, is an ordained member of the Buddha’s community (P. and skr. sangha) of ascetics, a monk.]

[1] The Elders Verses, I, Theragåthå, trans. by K. R. Norman, London, 1969, pp. 97-99. “Elder” (P. thera) in traditional nomenclature denotes a senior member of the Buddha’s community of monks, bhikkhus, considered in the Tradition to have been a personal pupil of the Buddha himself or one of his personal pupils.

[2] The Great Kashyapa ­– one of the most outstanding and famous pupils of the Buddha.

[3] It was the rule for the numbers of the sangha to go to villages and cities for alms-begging. Note that a monk, when offered some food, is not supposed to pay any attention to what he (or she) is offered.

[4] That is, absolutely free man.

[5] That is, those who continue to live in the burning world (see in text III).

[6] These words were said by Kashyapa to the Buddha when he had already become an arhat, and were the sign of recognition or manifestation of his arhatship (P. annå, Skr. åjnå).

[7] That is, he speaks here of the whole complex of mental yoga.

[8] There is no relation to the transcendental Self here, but simply “seeing himself” in the sense of yogic self-observation.

[9] Shariputra is, probably, the most famous of all pupils of the Buddha. These words are also said to the Buddha when Shariputra achieved the arhatship (see above, n. 6).

[10] Or “divine vision” (P. dibbacakkhu, Skr. divya-caksu) – the supernatural power of clairvoyance. There are three other kinds of divine eye: dharma-eye, wisdom-eye, and Buddha-eye. Further below Shariputra refers to the acquisition of the six supernatural powers which are: 1) magical power of mental  transformation and creation of various things and events; 2) all-penetrating knowledge; 3) divine eye; 4) the knowledge of other people’s thoughts; 5) divine ear; 6) the supramundane (P. and Skr. lokuttara) intuitive knowledge. It is, however, strongly emphasized in this and many other Buddhist texts, that the supernatural powers should not be an end in themselves, but merely a means for achieving the arhatship.

[11] See the previous note.

[12] This is a special knowledge, sometimes referred to as knowledge of the future and added to the six supernatural powers (see above n. 10).

[13] Or “freedom from thinking in notions and conceptions” (P. avitakka, Skr. avitarka) a yogic transformation of mind attained to in the second stage of meditation.

[14] “Non-death” here not in the sense of deathlessness but simply as “not being dead”.

[15] That is, in your next reincarnation.

[16] That is, the Wheel of Dharma (see text I, n. 1).

[17] “Not opposed” here also means, “avoiding the opposites”, always keeping to the middle.

[18] That is, showing no reactions to other peoples actions and words.

[19] He is also one of the greatest pupils of the Buddha.

[20] That is, the army of Måra, the host of sensual pleasures.

[21] That is, the monk ought to see his limbs as the limbs of another being.

[22] Such demoness is an object of utmost disgust and abhorrence killing any sensual desire or attachment.

[23] That is, “I know you, my body”.

[24] This is a reference to the death of Shariputra who was, supposedly, the teacher of Mahåmoggalåna.

[25] That is, the material elements of which consists any body: earth, water, heat, and ether (or space).