samyojanas fetters

Uoftoronto Tspace, 2024

The elimination of the first three (of ten) Fetters (saüyojana) marks a Stream-entrant (sotàpanna) on the Buddhian Path to Liberation. This is a creative attempt at understanding what is meant by these three lower Fetters, namely, sakkàyadiññhi, vicikiccà, sãlabbata paràmàsa, translating the Pali terms as "Body-is-me View," "Still Thinking," and "Shortchanging Sãla". The non-standard translation is intended to help the reader understand the concepts, easier and better, by way of encouraging the undertaking of an effort to eliminate them towards Nibbàna.

In: Research on the Saṃyukta–āgama, ed. by Dhammadinnā (Taipei: Dharma Drum Corporation, 2020), pp. 109–169.

The Saṃyutta-nikāya and Saṃyukta-āgama are constructed around the framework of a particular set of lists: twelvefold dependent origination, the five bundles, the six sense-organs and the seven sets (applications of mindfulness, right endeavours, bases of success, faculties, powers, constituents of awakening, eightfold path). The same set of lists informs the structure of certain canonical Abhidharma texts of different schools (e.g., the Vibhaṅga, the Dharmaskandha, the *Śāriputrābhidharma). The Mahā-vagga of the Saṃyutta-nikāya and the Mārga-varga of the Saṃyukta-āgama both focus on the seven sets and additional items. A feature of the Mahā-vagga is the use of templates of up to three layers of repetition; the manner in which these are applied to particular lists appears to be one of the ways the compilers of the Saṃyutta-nikāya use to communicate their understanding of the Buddha's teaching; in particular the close relationship between the developing of the sevens sets and the developing of jhāna is indicated by the application of the same repetition templates in each case. Turning to the Abhidhamma, the Dhammasaṅgaṇi's account of the arising of episodes of consciousness uses repetition templates of up to six layers to suggest the richness of skilful consciousness by indicating over one hundred thousand varieties. In a manner that seems to build on the Mahā-vagga's association of the seven sets with the jhānas, this account brings out how, through the development of sense-sphere, form-sphere, and formless-sphere consciousness, the development of the seven sets is brought to fulfilment in the thousands of varieties of transcendent jhāna.

哲學與文化, 2022

The Prajñāpāramitā Upadeśa or Dazhidu Lun is commonly recognized as a Mādhyamaka text, due to its attribution to Nāgārjuna, being a Prajñāpāramitā commentary, and its status in the Sān Lùn school. However, its hermeneutic approach is more complex than mere application of Mādhyamaka principles to the Prajñāpāramitā text alone. Fascicles 11-34, which explain a range of dharmas qua practices which pervade the Sūtra, show a consistent and structured method of exegesis. Typically, the dharmas are first contextualized as to their position within the sūtra. Then this positioning is justified in terms of its necessity. Next, an extensive Abhidharma analysis is given, which covers the majority of the exegesis. The question of which Abhidharma system and sectarian affiliation of the author requires clarification. Lastly, the dharma(s) are interpreted through the Mādhyamaka method, giving a pithy yet ultimate exegetic conclusion. Here we will examine the critical importance of the Ābhidharmika material and its relationship to the Mādhyamaka in the text's hermeneutical method. Its role is more than simply a patsy against Mahāyāna dialectic.

Paṭṭhāna, but not the detailed refutation of deviant views found in the Kathāvatthu, which is attributed to the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa, who presided over the Third Council, which was convened in Patna by the Emperor Asoka in the middle of the third century B.C.E. 17 Aṭṭhasālinī 13; The Expositor, p. 16-17. sense bases, and elements, seeking to determine whether, and to what extent, they are included or not included in them and whether they are associated with them or dissociated from them. The Puggalapaññatti, "Concepts of Individuals," is the one book of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka that is more akin to the method of the Suttas than to the Abhidhamma proper. The work begins with a general enumeration of types of concepts, and this suggests that the Puggalapaññatti was originally intended as a supplement to the other books in order to take account of the conceptual realities excluded by a strict application of the Abhidhamma method. The bulk of the work provides formal definitions of different types of individuals. It has ten chapters: the first deals with single types of individuals; the second with pairs; the third with groups of three; etc. The Kathāvatthu, "Points of Controversy," is a polemical treatise ascribed to the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa. He is said to have compiled it during the time of Emperor Asoka, 218 years after the Buddha's Parinibbāna, in order to refute the heterodox opinions of the non-Theravādin schools. The Commentaries defend its inclusion in the Canon by holding that the Buddha Himself, foreseeing the errors that would arise, laid down the outline of rebuttal, which Venerable Moggaliputta Tissa merely filled in according to the Master's intention. The Yamaka, the "Book of Pairs," has the purpose of resolving ambiguities and defining the precise usage of technical terms. It is so called owing to its method of treatment, which throughout employs the dual grouping of a question and its converse formulation. For instance, the first pair of questions in the first chapter runs thus: "Are all wholesome phenomena wholesome roots? And are all wholesome roots wholesome phenomena?" The book contains ten chapters: roots, aggregates, sense bases, elements, truths, formations, latent dispositions, consciousness, phenomena, and faculties. The Paṭṭhāna, the "Book of Conditional Relations," is probably the most important work in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka and thus is traditionally designated the "Great Treatise" (Mahāpakaraṇa). Gigantic in extent as well as in substance, the book comprises five volumes totaling 2,500 pages in the Burmese-script Sixth Council edition. The purpose of the Paṭṭhāna is to apply its scheme of twenty-four conditional relations to all the phenomena incorporated in the Abhidhamma matrix. The main body of the work has four great divisions: (1) origination according to the positive method; (2) origination according to the negative method; (3) origination according to the positive-negative method; and (4) origination according to the negative-positive method. Each of these, in turn, has six subdivisions: origination of triads, of dyads, of dyads and triads combined, of triads and dyads combined, of triads and triads combined, and of dyads and dyads combined. Within this pattern of twenty-four sections, the twenty-four modes of conditionality are applied in due order to all phenomena of existence in all their conceivable permutations. Despite its dry and tabular format, even from a "profane" humanistic viewpoint, the Paṭṭhāna can easily qualify as one of the truly monumental products of the human mind, astounding in its breadth of vision, its rigorous consistency, and its painstaking attention to detail. To Theravādin orthodoxy, the Paṭṭhāna is the most eloquent testimony to the Buddha's omniscience. 1. Abhidhammattha Sangaha, by Ācariya Anuruddha; 2. Nāmarūpa-pariccheda, by the same author; 4. Abhidhammāvatāra, by Ācariya Buddhadatta (a senior contemporary of Ācariya Buddhaghosa); 5. Rūpārupa-vibhāga, by the same author; 6. Sacca-sankhepa, by Bhadanta Dhammapāla (probably Śri Lankan; different from the great subcommentator); 7. Moha-vicchedanī, by Bhadanta Kassapa (South Indian or Śri Lankan); 8. Khema-pakaraṇa, by Bhadanta Khema (Śri Lankan); 9. Nāmacāra-dīpaka, by Bhadanta Saddhamma Jotipāla (Burmese). Among these, the work that has dominated Abhidhamma studies from about the twelfth century to the present day is the first mentioned, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha, "The Compendium of Things contained in the Abhidhamma." Its popularity may be accounted for by its remarkable balance between conciseness and comprehensiveness. Within its short scope, all the essentials of the Abhidhamma are briefly and carefully summarized. Although the book's manner of treatment is extremely terse, even to the point of obscurity when read alone, when studied under a qualified teacher or with the aid of an explanatory guide, it leads the student confidently through the winding maze of the system to a clear perception of its entire structure. For this reason, throughout the Theravādin Buddhist world, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha is always used as the first textbook in Abhidhamma studies. In Buddhist monasteries, especially in Burma, novices and young Bhikkhus are required to learn the Sangaha by heart before they are permitted to study the books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka and its Commentaries. Detailed information about the author of the manual, Ācariya Anuruddha, is virtually non-existent. He is regarded as the author of two other manuals, cited above, and it is believed in Buddhist countries that he wrote altogether nine compendia, of which only three have survived. The Paramattha-vinicchaya is written in an elegant style of Pāḷi and attains a high standard of literary excellence. According to the colophon, its author was born in Kāveri in the state of Kāñcipura (Conjeevaram) in South India. Ācariya Buddhadatta and Ācariya Buddhaghosa are also said to have resided in the same area, and the subcommentator Ācariya Dhammapāla was probably a native of the region. There is evidence that, for several centuries, Kāñcipura had been an important center of Theravādin Buddhism from which learned Bhikkhus went to Śri Lanka for further study. It is not known exactly when Ācariya Anuruddha lived and wrote his manuals. An old monastic tradition regards him as having been a fellow student of Ācariya Buddhadatta under the same teacher, which would place him in the fifth century C.E. According to this tradition, the two elders wrote their respective books, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha and the Abhidhammāvatāra, as gifts of gratitude to their teacher, who remarked: "Buddhadatta has filled a room with all kinds of treasure and locked the door, while Anuruddha has also filled a room with treasure but left the door open." 22 Modern scholars, however, do not endorse this tradition, maintaining, on the 45 Kāyaviññatti, vacīviññatti. See Chapter 6, §3. 46 On the bases, see Chapter 3, § §20-22.