Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s6.t2: Uddhamāghātanika-n’eva-saññināsaññivādins

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s6.t2

Language: English

Uddhamāghātanika-n’eva-saññināsaññivādins

v1.c8.s6.t2.1

VIII. Eight kinds of *Uddhamāghātanika-n’evasaññinā-saññivādins* (supporters of the view that the soul after death is neither conscious nor unconscious).

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Among those who adhere to the view that the soul after death remains healthy, but is neither conscious nor unconscious, the following eight opinions exist:

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The soul is (a) material (*rūpī*), (b-h) non-material (*arūpī*) and so forth, as shown under the previous head ‘unconscious soul after death.’

The opinions placed under the headings ‘Adhiccasamuppannikas’ and ‘Uddhamāghātanikas’, are formed, says Buddhaghosa, according to the object (kasina) of meditation selected by a meditator. He says that the meditators sometimes become so much engrossed with the object of their meditation that they lose their power of judgment. They are carried away by their ecstatic experiences and give out their individual experiences as the Truth. In the exposition of the thirty-four views given above, he pointed out, as far as possible, how far a kasina could be responsible for a particular view.¹ There are some views, however, based on the Buddhist notion of heavens and hells, e.g. attā hoti ekantasukhī, ekantadukkhī, sukhī-dukkhī, and so forth.

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¹ An instance is given in the *Majjhima Nikāya* (I, p. 21) as to how a meditator is sometimes bewildered by the object of his meditation. See *Papañcasudani*, p. 121-2 commenting on the passage ‘Eke samaṇabrāhmaṇā rattim eva samānam divā ti sañjānāti, etc.’

Linked texts (1)

Bhayabheravasutta — Pāli