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] [419a] Now, on that occasion the skandhas are four, etc., the faculties are five, the Jhana is fourfold, the Path is threefold, the powers are four, the causes are two,^ etc. [Continue as in §§ 58-61.] [420] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn- theses ? Contact, , thinking, conception, discursive thought, self-coUectedness ; the faculties of energy, concentration, vitality ; wrong intention, wrong endeavour, wrong concentration ; the powers of energy, concentration, unconscientiousness, disregard of blame ; hate, dulness ; ^ Namely, doso and moho. 113 malice ; unconscientiousness, disregard of blame, quiet, grasp, balance. These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced states there are on that occasion, exclusive of the skandhas of feeling, perception and intellect — these are the skandha of syntheses. X. [421] Which are the states that are bad? When a bad thought has arisen which is accompanied by melancholy, associated with repugnance, and prompted by a conscious motive, and which has as its object a sight ... or what not, then there is contact, etc. [Continue as in Thought IX.] XI. [422] Which are the states that are bad ? When a bad thought has arisen which is accompanied by disinterestedness and associated with perplexity, and which has as its object a sight, a sound, a smell, a taste, a touch, a mental state, or what not, then there is contact, feeling, perception, thinking, thought, conception, 114 discursive thought, disinterestedness, self-collectedness ; the faculties of energy, disinterestedness, ideation, vitality ; wrong intention, wrong endeavour ; the powers of energy, unconscientiousness, disregard of blame ; perplexity ; dulness ; unconscientiousness, disregard of blame, grasp. These, or whatever other incorporeal, causally induced states there are on that occasion — these are states that are bad. [423] What on that occasion is contact ? The usual formula. [424] What on that occasion is self-collectedness ? The sustaining of thought which there is on that occa- sion^— this is the self-collectedness that there then is. 1 Buddhaghosa says on this passage (Asl. 259) : * Inas- much as this weak form of thought has only the capacity of keeping going, or persisting (pavatti thitimatta- kam'), none of the other features of 'self-collectedness' are here applied to it. It is clear, therefore, that the '. . . pe . . .' after thiti in the text is a mistake. And cf. K. * Concentration,' it will be noticed, as well as 'quiet' and * balance,' are entirely omitted. 115 t [425] What on that occasion is perplexity (vici- kiccha)?! The doubt, the hesitating, the dubiety, which on that ^ It is tempting to render vicikiccha by * doubt.' It would not be incorrect to do so. The dual state of mind which is the etymological basis of dou-bt is shown in two of the terms selected to describe the word. Again, the objects of vicikiccha, as given in § 1004, are those to which the term * doubt,' in its ethico-religious sense, might well be applied. But there are features in which the Buddhist attitude of vicikiccha does not coincide with doubt as usually understood in the West. Doubt is the contrary of belief, confidence, or faith. Now, the approximate equivalents of the latter — saddha and pas ado — are not alluded to in the answer, as they might be, for the purpose of contrast. Again, though this by itself is also no adequate ground for not matching the two terms in question, the etymology of the words is very different. There is nothing of the dual, divided state of mind in the structure of vicikiccha as -there is in that of * doubt.' Cikit is the desiderative or frequentative of cit, to think; vi, the prefix, indicating either intensive or distracted thinking. Thus, the etymology of the Indian word lays stress on the dynamic rather than the static, on the stress of intellection rather than the suspense of inconclusiveness. When the term recurs (§ 1004), Buddha- ghosa refers it to kiccho — to ' the fatigue incurred through inability to come to a decision ' — a position nearer, psycho- logically, to * perplexity ' than to * doubt.' It is quite true that, on etymological ground, neither is kankha a match for our term 'doubt.' Kanks is to desire. The word would seem to give the emotional and volitional comple- ment of the intellectual state implied in vicikiccha, the longing to escape into certainty and decision attendant on the anxious thinking. Kankha, however, is not one of any important category of ethical terms, as is vicikiccha; besides, its secondary meaning — namely, of a matter sub judice, or of the state of mind connected therewith (see Jat. i. 165 ; M. i. 147) — seems to have superseded the primary meaning, which is retained in akankhati (cf. Akan- kheyya Sutta, M. i. 33). Hence, it can be fairly well rendered by ' doubt.' I do not, then, pretend that * per- 8—2 116 occasion is puzzlement/ perplexity ; distraction, standing at cross-roads f collapse,^ uncertainty of grasp ; evasion, hesitation f incapacity of grasping thoroughly,^ stiffness of mind,^ mental scarifying^ — this is the perplexity that there then is. plexity' is etymologically the equivalent of vicikiccha, but I use it (1) to guard against a too facile assimilation of the latter to the implications of * doubt ' as used by us, and (2) to throw emphasis on the * mortal coil ' and tangle of thought in one who, on whatever grounds, is sceptically disposed. ^ Vimati, almost an exact parallel to vicikiccha, con- noting as it does either intense or distraught mind-action. 2 Dvelhakam, dvedhapatho. Here we get to the etymological idea in our own ' doubt.' The Cy. has, for the one, * to be swayed or shaken to and fro ' ; for the other, ' as a path branching in two, this being an obstacle to attainment ' (259). ^ Samsayo, -the etymological equivalent of * collapse.' To succumb to one's inability to be persistently carrying on such problems as, Is this permanent or impermanent ? etc., says the Cy. (ibid.). * Asappana, parisappana. According to the Cy., these mean, respectively, ' to relinquish ' (or slip down from — osakkati; cf. Trenckner's 'Miscellany,' p. 60) ' an object of thought through inability to come to a decision,' and *to slip' (or run — sappati [vide sarp]) ' about on all sides from inability to plunge in.' Asl. 260. ^ Apariyogahana, employed to describe moho. See § 390. ^ I should not have hesitated to adopt, for thambhi- tattam, chambhitattarn (vacillation), the alternate reading in the Cy. (Asl. 260), were it not that the latter ])araphrases the term by saying 'the meaning is a con- dition of denseness (or rigidity, thaddho). For when per- plexity arises, one makes one's mind stiff (stubborn, dense, thaddham).' K. also reads thambhitattam. Both terms, however, though opposed in connotation, are derived from the root stambh, to prop; and both are used to ^ See note on p. 117. 117 [Summary.] [425a] Now, at that time the skandhas are four, etc., the faculties are four, the Jhana is fourfold, the Path is twofold, the powers are three, the cause is one,^ etc. [Continue as in § 58.] [426] What on that occasion is the skandha of syn- theses ? Contact, thinking, conception, discursive thought, self-collectedness ; the faculties of energy, vitality ; describe the gaseous element, which, though it is vacil- lating, holds solids apart. See below, § 965. There is the further comment (AsL, ibid.) that, ' in respect of certainty, inability to carry on the idea in the mind is meant.' Vici- kiccha, then, though it implies active racking of the brain, impedes progress in effective thinking, and results in a mental condition akin to the denseness and apariyo- gahana of moho. ^ Manovilekho. 'When perplexity arises, seizing the object of thought, it scratches the mind, as it were ' (ibid.). When the term is used to describe kukkuccam, or worry (§ 1160), it is illustrated in the Cy. by the scaling of a copper pot with an awl (araggam). Asl. 384, ^ Namely, moho. 118 wrong intention, wrong endeavour ; the powers of energy, unconscientiousness, disregard of blame ; perplexity, dulness ; unconscientiousness, disregard of blame, grasp.^ Or whatever other, etc. [Continue as in § 420.] XII. [427] Which are the states that are bad ?