Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c11.s3.t3: 3. The Four Stages of Holiness

Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c11.s3.t3

Language
English

3. The Four Stages of Holiness

c11.s3.t3.1

It is not my intention here to expound in all its bearings the doctrine of the Cattâro Maggâ, on the whole rather unprofitable to the comprehension of Buddhist religious thought. I shall here only attempt to show how, in the statement of the psychological attributes which were attributed to the saints of the four stages, the earlier and later texts of the sacred Kanon differ from each other, in a manner which is characteristic of the history of the development of dogmatic literature.

c11.s3.t3.2

As far as I know, we possess, regarding the psychological attributes of saints of the four grades, no older expressions than those which occur in the "Mahâparinibbâna Sutta," p. 16 seq., and conformably very often afterwards in the "Sutta Pitaka." The four stages are there defined in the following way:

c11.s3.t3.3

1. tinnam samyojanânam parikkhayâ sotâpanno avinipâtadhammo niyato sambodhiparâyano.

c11.s3.t3.4

2. tinnam samyojanânam parikkhayâ râgadosamohânam tanuttâ sakadâgami sakid eva imam lokam âgantvâ dukkhass' antam karissati.

c11.s3.t3.5

3. pañcannam orambhâgiyânam samyojanânam parikkhaya opapâtiko tatthaparinibbâyî anâvattidhammo tasmâ lokâ.

c11.s3.t3.6

4. âsavânam khayâ anâsavam cetovimuttim paññâvimuttim dittheva dhamme sayam abhiññâ sacchikatvâ upasamyajja vihâsi.

c11.s3.t3.7

These definitions show evidently that there was a conventionally arranged series of Samyojanas and this lay at the bottom of the speculations upon progressive sanctification. We can scarcely doubt that this series is the same which is uniformly given by commentators, and already occurs in the "Sutta Pitaka":* the five Orambhâgiva Samyojana are Sakkâyaditthi, Nicikicchâ, Sīlabbataparāmāsa, Kāmarāga, Patigha; the five Uddhambhāgiva Samyojana: Rūparāga, Arūparāga, Māna, Uddhacca, Avijjā.

c11.s3.t3.8

∗ "Samyutta Nikâya," vol. iii, fol. dhe.

c11.s3.t3.9

It will be seen how quite unsymmetrically couched the definitions given of the four stages are, with reference to this series. Sometimes three, sometimes five of the Samyojanas are overcome; the categories of Rāga, Dosa, Moha, are introduced, of which only the first figures in the list of the Samyojanas; in the second stage, it is said, these three vices are almost overcome; how it fares with them in the third stage is not stated; but for the definition of the third grade recourse is again had exclusively to the Samyojana categories. Thus these formulas give a veritable picture of the confusion which usually prevails in the long and abstruse series of ideas in ancient Buddhist dogmatic.

c11.s3.t3.10

It is interesting to observe how the later generation of dogmatists, whose systematizing and harmonizing labours lie before us in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, endeavoured to introduce some order and arrangement into this confusion. One of the Abhidhamma texts, the Puggalapaññatti,* deals exclusively with the different grades of beings in relation to the goal of holiness. Thus the four classes (by the side of which stand the corresponding subdivisions of the “phalasacchikiriyāya paṭipannā,” already, by-the-bye, frequently mentioned in the older Piṭakas, e.g., “Cullavagga,” ix, 1, 4) are defined as follows:

c11.s3.t3.11

1. yassa puggalassa tīni samyojanāni pahīnāni ayam vuccati puggalo sotāpanno.

c11.s3.t3.12

2. yassa puggalassa kāmarāgabyāpādā tanubhūtā ayam vuccati puggalo sakadāgāmī.

c11.s3.t3.13

¹ * Puggala (Sansk. pudgala), the subject bound in transmigration, or correspondingly the subject delivered therefrom, is synonymous with Satta, and Puggala-Satta stands against the pair of synonyms, Dhamma-Samkhāra (vide supra, p. 250). According to the old strict teaching there are only Dhammas, and Sattas are spoken of only in accordance with ordinary modes of expression. Regarding the juxtaposition of Satta-puggala and Dhamma-Samkhāra compare “Milinda Pañha,” p. 317, where in characteristic style the topic is “atthisatta” and “atthidhamma;” the Jinālamkāra in Burnouf, “Intr.” 505 (“Buddho ’ti ko satto vā samkhāro vā”), and the northern Buddhist text, which is there quoted, p. 508 (“Sa pudgalo na dharmaḥ”).

c11.s3.t3.14

3. yassa puggalassa kâmarâgabyâpâdâ anavasesâ pahînâ ayam vuccati puggalo anâgâmî.

c11.s3.t3.15

4. yassa puggalassa rûparâgo arûparâgo mâno uddhaccam avijjâ anavasesâ pahînâ ayam vuccati puggalo arahâ.

c11.s3.t3.16

The system rests here exclusively on the series of the ten Samyojanas.* Whatever in the older form of the doctrine referred to the Samyojanas, is here adopted; the other categories which were there dealt with, Râga, Dosa, Moha, and the Âsavas, have vanished from the new wording, or have been replaced by notions from the Samyojana series. Thus, when we regard the Samyojanas numbered according to the order given above, the graded course of their conquest is the following: the Sotâpanna has got rid of 1—3; in the case of the Sakadâgâmî and Anâgâmî, 4 and 5 also vanished, and that in such a way that in the Sak. they were reduced to a small measure, in the Anâg. wholly annihilated; the Arahâ finally has extirpated the last vices also, 6—10.

c11.s3.t3.17

Thus the doctrine of the four grades gives a picture of the way in which the confused series of notions contained in the suttas have been pondered by the theologians of the Abhidhamma, and their inconsistencies eliminated by them.

c11.s3.t3.18

∗ That the notion which was designated in the above-quoted form of the Samyojana list as Patigha is identical with that here named Byâpâda, admits of no doubt.

Cites (8)