English
This and the four following terms are severally discussed in connexion with the ethical metaphors of Fetters and the rest. See § 1113 et seq. - Paramattham. See § 1174: et seq. ^ Upadaniyam. See § 990 and § 1213 et seq. * Sankilesikam. See § 993 and § 1229 et seq. ^ Anarammanam, the idea or mental object belonging, of course, to the arupa-dhammo. 6 Acetasikam. See § 1022. 7 See § 989. 8 See § 994. ^ Na savitakka-savicaram. This and the two following technical terms mark off ' form ' from the mental discipline of Jhana, even though Jhana may be practised for the sake of passing from a sensuous existence to the ' universe of Form.' Cf. §§ 160, 168, 161, and 996-998. 170 not * accompanied by joy,' not * accompanied by ease,' not * accompanied by disinterestedness,'^ not something capable of being got rid of either by insight or by cultivation, not that the cause of which may be got rid of either by insight or by cultivation, neither tending to, nor away from, the accumulation involving re-birth, belonging neither to studentship nor to that which is beyond studentship, limited,^ related to the universe of sense, not related to the universe of form,^ nor to that of the formless, included, not of the Unincluded,* not something entailing inevitable retri- bution,^ unavailing for (ethical) guidance, cognizable when apparent^ by the six modes of cognition. ' Cf. §§ 999-1001. These are all mental states, characterizing the other four skandhas, not the rirpak- khandho. Similarly, the four following doctrinal ex- pressions are only applicable to mental and moral categories. Cf. §§ 1007-1118. 2 Parittam. See § 1019. . * Eead na riipavacaram. * See p. 165, n. 2. * ^ This and the following term belong to ethical, im- material categories of thought. See §§ 1028-1030 and 1291 ; also 1288, 1289, and 277. * I.e., remarks the Commentator, when it is present (in consciousness). * For, strictly speaking, with reference to visual and other sense- cognition, they {read na hi tani) do not cognize the past and future ; that is the function of representative cognition (manovinfianam) ' (Asl. 304). 171 impermanent/ subject to decay. Such is the category of Form considered by way of single attributes.^ ^ An ice am, ' inasmuch as, having fallen into this stream of sense-cognition it (' form ') has become mere flotsam, has become something gone, something that is not ' (ibid.). This shows well the idealist or psychological standpoint of the Buddhist tradition. Form is impermanent for the individual perceptive consciousness. - The Cy. gives as the reason for there being no cate- chism on each of the foregoing attributes the fact that there is no correlated opposite, as in the next category, from which each term is to be differentiated (Asl. 303). This, in view of the procedure in Book I., is scarcely adequate. However, every term is examined in the sequel, as the foregoing notes will have indicated. [Chapter II. The Category of Form considered by way of dual attributes — positive and negative (duvidhena r u pa- sang a h o). * There is form ivhich is derived. *Y [596] What is that form which is derived ? The sphere^ of vision, smell, hearing, taste, body- sensibility f the sphere of sights, odours, sounds, tastes ; the faculties of femininity, masculinity, vitality ; ^ This and the following italicised headings are quoted from the table of contents, § 585, etc. — atthi rupam upada, and again, atthi rupam no upada. The abla- tive resembles our idiom ' qiid derived ' — form as derived. In § 584 and in § 597, etc. the gerund up ad ay a is em- ployed. Depending on, not released from, is the paraphrase (Asl. BOO, 305). ' Grounded in ' were an approximate rendering, the literal meaning being ' taking hold of.' 2 Ayatanam. The word means (see my Introduction) simply ' field,' locus, range, Gebiet, ^ Lit. body. The Upanishads use * skin.' Cf. our modern term * skin- sensibility,' in extension of * touch,' * tactile sense.' The corresponding objective * sphere of the tangible ' is classed among things wnderived. See § 647. of form. 173 intimation by act, by speech ; the element of space ; buoyancy, plasticity, wieldiness, integration, maintenance, decay, impermanence, solid nutriment. [597] What is that form which is the sphere of vision (cakkhayatanam) ? The eye,^ that is to say the sentient organ,^ derived from ^ Cakkhu, which stands for vision, sense of sight and eye. * Eye,' however, is always in the present work to be understood as the seeing faculty or visual sense, and not as the physical organ or 'eye of flesh' (mamsa-cakkhu). The Cy. gives an account of the eye, of which the following is the substance: First the aggregate organism (sasam- bhara-cakkhu). A ball of flesh fixed in a cavity, bound by the socket-bone beneath and by the bone of the eyebrow above, by the angles of the eye at the sides, by the brain within and by the eyelashes without. There are fourteen constituents : the four elements, the six attributes dependent on them, viz., colour, odour, taste, sap of life, form (san- thanam), and collocation (sambhavo); vitality, nature, body- sensibility (kayappasado) and the visual sentient organ. The last four have their source in karma. When ' the world,' seeing an obvious extended white object fancies it perceives the eye, it only perceives the basis (or seat — vatthu) of the eye. And this ball of flesh, bound to the brain by nerve-fibres, is white, black and red, and contains the solid, the liquid, the lambent and the gaseous. It is white by superfluity of humour, black by superfluity of bile, red by superfluity of blood, rigid by superfluity of the solid, exuding by superfluity of the liquid, inflamed by 2 See note on p. 174. 174 the Great Phenomena, forming part of the nature of the self,^ invisible and reacting^ — by which eye, invisible and superfluity of the lambent, quivering by superfluity of the gaseous. But that sentient organ (pas ado) which is there bound, inherent, derived from the four great principles — this is the visual sense (pasadacakkhu). Placed in the midst and in the front of the black disc of the composite eye, the white disc surrounding it (note that the iris is either not distinguished or is itself the ' black disc ') and in the circle of vision, in the region where the forms of adjacent bodies come to appear {tfiere seems here some omission in the text), it permeates the seven ocular membranes as sprinkled oil will permeate seven cotton wicks. And so it stands, aided by the four elements, sus- taining, binding, maturing, moving (samudiranarn) — like an infant prince and his four nurses, feeding, bathing, dressing and fanning him — maintained by nutriment both physical (utu) and mental, protected by the (normal) span of life, invested with colour, smell, taste and so forth, in size the measure of a louse's head — stands duly consti- tuting itself the door of the seat of visual cognitions, etc. For as it has been said by the Commander of the Doctrine (Sariputta) : The visual sense by which he beholds forms Is small and delicate, comparable to a louse's head. The elaborate architectonics of this paragraph in the original is a fine effort of the Commentator's style. I am not clear to what the ' etc' after * cognitions ' alludes. But the expression occurs in the description of each sense. Cf. the description in Hardy, 'Man. of Buddhism,' p. 419. ^ Pas ado. By selecting this term, continues the Cy., he (the Buddha) rejects the other (physical) eye. So far as I know, the as yet unidentified verses quoted in the previous note are the only early instance of the word p a s a d o, mean- ing literally clearness, brightness, serenity, faith, being used to denote the receptive reacting sense-agency. It is not easy to divine exactly how the Buddhists came to use the word in this connexion. It is used co-ordinately for all the other senses, hence the sensuous signification had nothing to do with the specific nature of sight (unless this was 1 See note ^ on p. 175. ^ gee note ^ on p. 175. 175 reacting, one^ has seen, sees, will, or may see form that is visible and impingeing — this that is sight, the sphere of sight, the element of vision, the faculty of vision, this that is *a world,' ^ *a door,' * an ocean,' 'lucent,' 'a field,' *a made the Type of all other sensation). Taken causatively it may conceivably have meant either that which makes clear — a revealer, as it were {cf. Bothl.