The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 4

Reflecting, therefore, that this universe is pain, an abode of pain, and an instrument of pain, a man should acquire a knowledge of the principles, the method of suppressing this pain. Hence it has been said--

"The principles sanctioned by Buddha are to the saint the four methods of suppressing the aggregate of pain."[36]

In these words the sense of pain is known to every one; the "aggregate" means the cause of pain. This aggregate is twofold, as (1.) determined by concurrence; or (2.) determined by causation. Of these, there is an aphorism comprising the aggregate determined by concurrence, "which other causes resort to this effect;" the condition of these causes thus proceeding is concurrence; the concurrence of causes is the result of this only, and not of any conscious being,--such is the meaning of the aphorism. To exemplify this. A germ, caused by a seed, is generated by the concurrence of six elements. Of these, earth as an element produces hardness and smell in the germ; water as an element produces viscidity and moisture; light as an element produces colour and warmth; air as an element produces touch and motion; ether as an element produces expansion and sound; the season as an element produces a fitting soil, &c. The aphorism comprising the aggregate determined by causation is: "With the Tathagatas the nature of these conditions is fixed by production, or by non-production; there is continuance as a condition, and determination by a condition, and conformity of the production to the cause;" that is to say, according to the doctrine of the Tathagata Buddhas, the nature of these conditions, that is, the causal relation between the cause and effect, results from production or from non-production. That which comes into being, provided that something exists, is the effect of that as its cause; such is the explanation of the nature (or causal relation). Continuance as a condition is where the effect is not found without its cause. The (abstract) affix _tal_ (in the word _sthit.i.ta_) has the sense of the concrete. Determination by a condition is the determination of the effect by the cause. Here some one might interpose the remark that the relation of cause and effect cannot exist apart from some conscious agent. For this reason it is added that there existing a cause, conformity of the genesis to that cause is the nature which is fixed in conditions (that is, in causes and effects); and in all this no intelligent designer is observed.[37] To ill.u.s.trate this, the causal determination of a genesis to be gone through is as follows:--From the seed the germ, from the germ the stalk, from the stalk the hollow stem, from the hollow stem the bud, from the bud the spicules, from the spicules the blossom, from the blossom the fruit. In this external aggregate neither the cause, the seed and the rest, nor the effect, the germ and the rest, has any consciousness of bringing a germ into being, or of being brought into being by the seed. In like manner in mental facts two causes are to be recognised. There is a whole ocean of scientific matter before us, but we desist, apprehensive of making our treatise unduly prolix.

Emanc.i.p.ation is the suppression of these two causal aggregates, or the rise of pure cognition subsequent to such suppression. The method (path, road) is the mode of suppressing them. And this method is the knowledge of the principles, and this knowledge accrues from former ideas. Such is the highest mystery. The name Sautrantika arose from the fact that the venerated Buddha said to certain of his disciples who asked what was the ultimate purport (_anta_) of the aphorism (_sutra_), "As you have inquired the final purport of the aphorism, be Sautrantikas."

Certain Bauddhas, though there exist the external world, consisting of odours, &c., and the internal, consisting of colours, &c., in order to produce unbelief in these, declared the universe to be a void. These the venerated Buddha styled Prathamika (primary) disciples. A second school, attached to the apprehension of sensations only, maintain that sensation is the only reality. A third school, who contend that both are true (the internal and the external), and maintain that sensible objects are inferrible. Others hold all this to be absurd language (_viruddha bhasha_), and are known under the designation of Vaibhas.h.i.+kas. Their technical language springs up as follows:--According to the doctrine of inferrible sensibles, there being no perceptible object, and consequently no object from which a universal rule can be attained, it will be impossible that any illation should take place, and therefore a contradiction will emerge to the consciousness of all mankind. Objects, therefore, are of two kinds, sensible and cogitable. Of these apprehension is a non-discriminative instrument of knowledge as other than mere representation; cognition which is discriminative is not a form of evidence, as being a merely ideal cognition. Therefore it has been said--

"Apprehension, exempt from ideality and not illusory, is non-discriminative. Discrimination, as resulting from the appearances of things, is without controversy an illusion.

"The perceptible evidence of things is perception: if it were aught else,

"There could neither be things, nor evidence of things derived from verbal communication, inference, or sense."

Here some one may say: If discriminative cognition be unauthentic, how is the apprehension of real objects by one energising thereon and the universal consentiency of mankind to be accounted for? Let it be replied: This question does not concern us, for these may be accounted for by the possibility of an indirect apprehension of objects, just as if we suppose the light of a gem to be a gem (we may yet handle the gem, because it underlies the light, while if we were to take nacre for silver, we could not lay hold of any silver). The rest has been fully discussed in describing the Sautrantikas (cf. p. 27), and therefore need not here be further detailed.

It should not be contended that a diversity of instruction according to the disciples' modes of thought is not traditional (or orthodox); for it is said in the gloss on the Bodha-chitta--

"The instructions of the leader of mankind (Buddha) accommodating themselves to the character and disposition (of those who are to be taught),

"Are said to be diverse in many ways, according to a plurality of methods.

"For as deep or superficial, and sometimes both deep and superficial,

"Instructions are diverse, and diverse is the doctrine of a universal void which is a negation of duality."

It is well known in Buddhist doctrine that the wors.h.i.+p of the twelve inner seats (_ayatana_) is conducive to felicity.

"After acquiring wealth in abundance, the twelve inner seats

"Are to be thoroughly reverenced; what use of reverencing aught else below?

"The five organs of knowledge, the five organs of action,

"The common sensory and the intellect have been described by the wise as the twelve inner seats."

The system of the Buddhists is described as follows in the Viveka-vilasa:--

"Of the Bauddhas Sugata (Buddha) is the deity, and the universe is momentarily fluxional;

"The following four principles in order are to be known by the name of the n.o.ble truths:--

"Pain, the inner seats, and from them an aggregate is held,[38]

"And the path (method); of all this let the explication be heard in order.

"Pain, and the _skandhas_ of the embodied one, which are declared to be five,--

"Sensation, consciousness, name, impression, and form.

"The five organs of sense, the five objects of sense, sound and the rest, the common sensory,

"And (the intellect) the abode of merit,--these are the twelve inner seats.

"This should be the complement of desire and so forth, when it arises in the heart of man.

"Under the name of soul's own nature, it should be the aggregate.

"The fixed idea that all impressions are momentary,

"This is to be known as the path, and is also styled emanc.i.p.ation.

"Furthermore, there are two instruments of science, perception and inference.

"The Bauddhas are well known to be divided into four sects, the Vaibhas.h.i.+kas and the rest.

"The Vaibhas.h.i.+ka highly esteems an object concomitant to the cognition;

"The Sautrantika allows no external object apprehensible by perception;

"The Yogachara admits only intellect accompanied with forms;

"The Madhyamikas hold mere consciousness self-subsistent.

"All the four (sects of) Bauddhas proclaim the same emanc.i.p.ation,

"Arising from the extirpation of desire, &c., the stream of cognitions and impressions.

"The skin garment, the water-pot, the tonsure, the rags, the single meal in the forenoon,

"The congregation, and the red vesture, are adopted by the Bauddha mendicants."[39]

A. E. G.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 29: This sloka is quoted in the "Benares Pandit," vol. i. p.

89, with a commentary, and the latter part of the second line is there read more correctly, _'darsanan na na darsanat_.]

[Footnote 30: Kusumanjali, iii. 7.]

[Footnote 31: The Bauddhas are thus divided into--

(1.) Madhyamikas or Nihilists.

(2.) Yogacharas or Subjective Idealists.