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Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c16.s4: 4. The Classifications of Phenomena

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c16.s4

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English

4. The Classifications of Phenomena

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In all the schools great attention was devoted to classification¹ and division of phenomena, material and psychic, a process indicating in the view of the Mahāyāna some failure to realize the truth of the doctrine of momentariness, since the theories took the aspect of regarding existence as made up of temporary complexes, indeed, but of complexes derived from a number of irreducible factors, a conception really heretical.

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¹ Cf. McGovern, *Mahāyāna Buddhism*, ch. vii; DS. and AK.; for the developed Theravāda, ADS.; *Compendium*, pp. 237 ff.

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The Theravādin classification, as we have seen, is based on the old doctrine of the five aggregates; it reckons under matter (*rūpa*) the strange miscellany recited above; under feeling it accepts the three classes of pleasure, pain, and neutral feeling, adding sometimes mental and physical sensation; under perception or ideation (*saññā*) we have the ideas corresponding to the five senses and to mind as the sixth; of dispositions or mental qualities (*saṅkhāra*) there are fifty-two divisions and of consciousness or intellect (*viññāṇa*) there are eighty-nine, classed from the point of view of the merit or demerit resulting. Of these the mental qualities alone are of sufficient interest to deserve mention. Seven mental qualities are common to every act of consciousness: mental contact, feeling, ideation, volition (*cetanā*), concentration, (*ekaggatā*), alertness (*jīvitindriya*), and attention (*manasikāra*). Six mental properties may or may not be present: initial and sustained application, deciding (*adhimokkha*), effort, zest, and impulse or conation (*chanda*). These thirteen are unmoral. There are fourteen evil mental qualities: dullness, impudence, recklessness, distraction, greed, error, conceit, hate, envy, selfishness, worry, sloth, torpor, and perplexity. There are nineteen virtuous mental qualities: faith, mindfulness, shame or prudence, modesty, discretion, non-covetousness or disinterestedness, amity or non-hatred, balance of mind, composure of body² or of mind, buoyancy of body or of mind, pliancy of body or of mind, adaptability of body or of mind, proficiency of body or of mind, rectitude of body or of mind. There are three forms of propriety or abstinence (virati), right speech, right action, and right livelihood; two illimitables, pity and appreciation; and one supreme possession, intuition.

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² That *kāya* here means the aggregates other than *citta* (*Compendium*, p. 96, n 3; Asl., p. 150 on DS., § 40) is very dubious. The contrast between ADS. and DS., § 62 as to *Saṅkhāras* is interesting as a token of elaboration.

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The Sarvāstivādin divisions, based on the distinction between uncompounded and compounded things, recognize seventy-two of the latter. Under matter they class five sense objects, five sense organs, and latent matter (avijñapti), the impression left by vocal or bodily action on the bodily organism. The mental element is single, though there are six forms of consciousness, the five senses and mind consciousness. There are forty-six divisions of mental qualities, corresponding to the dispositions of the Theravādins. Ten neutral elements are always present: sensation or feeling, ideation, volition, contact, impulse, intellect (mati), memory, attention, deciding (adhimokṣa), concentration (samādhi). There are ten good elements which are always present: faith, diligence, indifference, shame, modesty, non-covetousness, non-hatred, harmlessness, serenity, temperance or non-slackness. There are six great evil elements: dullness or nescience, intemperateness, indolence, disbelief, sloth or idleness, distraction or rashness. There are two non-virtuous great elements: shamelessness, immodesty. There are ten lesser evil elements, not present in all forms of sentiency, but only in those forms of life which are possessed of self-consciousness: wrath, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, anguish, injury, rancour, deceit, trickery, and arrogance. Finally, there are eight miscellaneous minor (aniyatabhūmika) mental qualities: repentance, torpor, judgement (vitarka), investigation (vicāra)—that is initial and applied attention, cupidity, anger, pride, and doubt. Finally, there are fourteen miscellaneous elements classed as non-mental compounds (cittaviprayukta dharma). They are attainment, non-attainment, general characteristics (sabhāgatā), unconsciousness (asaṃjñitā), ecstacy with loss of consciousness (asaṃjñisamāpatti), continuation of this, equivalent to cessation of existence (nirodhasamāpatti), life, birth, continuance (sthiti), decay (jarā), impermanency (anityatā) words, sentence, and letters.

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This not very happy attempt at an objective description is accompanied by a subjective classification; this recognizes the five aggregates making up the individual, which correspond with the seventy-five things of the objective classification and the twelve bases (*āyatanas*) of mental action, namely the five senses, the five sense objects, the mind and ideas,¹ being the necessary materials for the functioning of consciousness, while the eighteen factors (*dhātus*) of consciousness consist of the twelve bases together with the six forms of consciousness, the five senses and mind. In the whole scheme as in that of the Theravādins we find little of philosophical insight or importance in this, clearly a very important side in its own eyes of the activity of the school.

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¹ TRD., pp. 31 f. ; ADS. vii. 8, *Compendium*, pp. 254 ff. For the relation of the Pudgala to them in the Vātsīputrīya view see Wassilieff, *Bouddhisme*, pp. 252 f. Cf. above, ch. iv, § 4.

Cites (3)