The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" c7: V. Elements of Matter

The Central Conception of Buddhism and the Meaning of the Word "Dharma" c7

Language: English

V. Elements of Matter

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Matter (*rūpa*) or the physical elements (*rūpino dharmāḥ*), which in the first classification occupied one item (*rūpa-skandha*), is otherwise distributed into ten items (Nos. 1-5 and 7-11). The term *rūp-āyatana* is reserved for visible matter or, more precisely, the phenomenon of visibility alone, this being matter *par excellence*.¹ The general characteristic of matter, or material elements, is impenetrability (*sa-pratighatva*), which is defined as the fact that space occupied by one of them cannot, at the same time, be occupied by another.²

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¹ *Ab. K.*, i, 24.

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² The etymological explanation is: *rūpyata iti rūpam*, i.e. matter is what materializes. Different meanings are then given of this materializing: pressure, pain, disappearance, or change. Thus matter is something that disappears. The real meaning is impenetrability (*sa-pratighatva*), which is further variously explained. Kumāralābha gives to the phenomenon of impenetrability an idealistic interpretation: "the impossibility for the intellect to imagine the presence of two such objects occupying the same space" (ibid., Tibetan text, p. 50, 17 ff.). Professor O. Rosenberg strongly objects to the interpretation of *rūpa* as matter. He maintains that Buddhism from its very outset viewed the phenomenal world as an illusion and relegated every reality to some transcendental world (cf. *Problems*, chap. x). He suggests "sense-elements" for *rūpa*. This would find a place in an idealistic system and would be supported by the above interpretation of Kumāralābha. But it is, evidently, not the view adopted by the school of the Sarvāstivādins. It is true that there is no other matter than sense-data. This should not prevent us, just as it does not prevent modern philosophers who favour the same view, from using the term "matter" for facts characterized by impenetrability.

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The elements of visibility are divided into two main groups, colours and shapes. There are eight colours and twelve different shapes. Another theory reduces all colours to two, light and darkness. All other varieties of visibility are represented as differences of lines. The opposite view, namely, that colours alone are realities and shapes (*saṃsthāna*) represent constructions of the mind (*mānasam, parikalpitam*) (superimposed upon the difference of coloration as an interpretation of it), was favoured by the Sautrāntikas.³ A line, say a line drawn by the motion of the hand, being an intimation of something (*vijñapti*), is an element (*rūpa-dharma*) of length¹; the line of the flight of a bird in the air is the same. They are interpreted as the apparitions of the element of length or of some colour, and all Buddhist matter must be conceived according to this pattern. They are material elements without any matter in them.

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³ *Ab. K.*, i, 10, and Yaç. comment.

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¹ *Ab. K.*, i, 10, Tib. text, p. 17.

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A glance at the ten items corresponding to matter in the *āyatana*-division will convince us that no other matter except sense-data is recognized. It is broadly divided into two categories, objective sense-data (*viṣaya*) constituting external objects, and sense-organs (*indriya*) conceived as a kind of translucent subtle *matter* which covers the body when it is living. This division reminds us of the Sāṅkhya view that matter developed along two different lines, the one with predominance of the translucent intelligence-stuff (*sattva*) resulting in sense-organs, the other, with predominance of dead matter (*tamas*), resulting in sense-objects in their subtle (*tan-mātra*) and gross (*mahābhūta*) forms. In fact the concept of *tan-mātra* comes very near to the Buddhist conception of an element of matter (*rūpa-dharma*). The fundamental difference between the two conceptions is that in the Sāṅkhya system these elements are modifications or appurtenances of an eternal substance. In Buddhism they are mere sense-data without any substance.

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The translucent matter of the sense-organs (*rūpa-prasāda*) is very subtle: it is like the shining of a jewel, it cannot be cut in two,² it cannot be burnt,³ it has no weight,⁴ and it disappears without a residue at death.⁵ It is, nevertheless, atomic, and is represented by five different kinds of atoms. The atoms of the organ of sight (*cakṣur-indriya*) cover in concentric circles the eye-ball. The atoms of the organ of taste, or, more precisely, that matter which is supposed to convey the sensation of taste, covers in concentric semicircles the tongue. The atoms of the organ of touch (*kāya-endriya*) cover the whole body.¹ The idea that all these different kinds of special matter are, indeed, the same translucent subtle stuff covering the whole living body and disappearing at death had also its advocates, who consequently reduced all senses to one, the sense of touch, but this did not find general acceptance. Being as subtle as the shining of a jewel, this matter cannot appear alone; it is supported by gross matter (*mahābhūta*), of which the eye-ball and flesh in general consist.

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² If a member, or all members, are chopped off the body, the sense-organ-matter is not cut even in two parts, i.e. the parts that are cut off are senseless. The movements of a lizard's tail after it is knocked off the main body are explained not by the presence of this life-matter (*indriya*), but by the intensification of the *vāyu* element, i.e. it is a lifeless process (*Ab. K.*, i, 36, Tibetan text, p. 63, and Yaç. comment).

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³ *Ab. K.*, i, 36, Tib. text, p. 63, 13.

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⁴ Ibid.

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⁵ *Ab. K.*, i, 37, and Yaç. comment: *mṛtasya ananuvṛttiḥ*. This is a point of analogy with the *liṅga-çarīra* of the Sāṅkhyas.

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¹ *Ab. K.*, i, 44, Tibetan text, p. 84, 15 ff.

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The atoms of external matter are likewise divided into atoms of general, universal, or fundamental matter, and special atoms of colour-, sound-, tangibility-matter, etc. The fundamental elements are four in number; they are manifested by the facts of hardness or repulsion, cohesion or attraction, heat and motion.² Conventionally they are called earth, water, fire, and air; but it is specified that these are only conventional appellations, and that in the name of the fourth general element (*īraṇa*) alone both the technical and the usual meanings coalesce, because the word *īraṇa* has both the significations of motion and air as well.³ The fact that the fourth element is motion is an indication of the trend of this division; the general elements of matter, like all Buddhist elements, are more forces than substances. These four elements appear always together, always in equal proportion. There is as much element of heat in a blazing flame as there is in wood or in water, and vice versa, the difference is only in their intensity.⁴ The general elements of matter (*mahābhūta*)

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² *Ab. K.*, i, 12.

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³ *Ab. K.*, i, 13.

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⁴ e.g. the tactile sensation may have a different degree of intensity as the touch by a bunch of steel needles is more intensely felt than the touch of a painter's brush, although the quantity may be the same. The existence

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are brought under the head of tangibles (*āyatana* No. 11). Since there is only a limited number of general manifestations of tangibility, therefore their number is four.¹ There is, apparently, a distinction between the elements in themselves and their manifestations, because the four facts of resistance, attraction, heat, and motion are clearly called manifestations (*lakṣaṇa*) of the elements (*dharma*), which, accordingly, must be something different, something mysterious or transcendental, similar in this respect to the *guṇas* of the Sāṅkhyas. The other five kinds of objective matter (*āyatanas* Nos. 7–11) were not general, but special, corresponding to each of the five senses; the tangibility-matter alone (*āyatana* No. 11) includes both the general (*mahābhūta*) and the special (*bhautika*) elements of matter.² They were also atomic, but could not appear independently without being combined with the fundamental ones, in the ratio of four atoms of primary matter to one of secondary. Thus the minimum number of atoms indispensable for their actual appearance in life was eight: four atoms of general materiality combined with each atom of colour, odour, taste, and secondary tangibility-matter (such as smoothness, coarseness, etc.). If the particular piece of matter resounded, atoms of sound were added and the combination consisted then of nine different atoms.³ The combined atoms (*saṅghāta-paramāṇu*) alone appear in phenomenal reality, the simple ones, or infra-atomic elements, presumably, were relegated to transcendental reality, in accordance with the general character

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¹ *Ab. K.*, i, 35, Tibetan text, p. 61, 5 ff.

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² Ibid.

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³ The actual number of atoms in a *saṅghāta-paramāṇu* will be much greater, since each atom of secondary (*bhautika*) matter needs a set of four primary atoms of its own, but if *dhātus* alone are reckoned the number will express the classes (*dhātu*) of elements (*dharma*) represented (cf. *Ab. K.*, ii, 22).

Cites (1)

Abhidharmakośa — Vasubandhu, Sanskrit