Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

Human beings are hurled between an unknown past and an unpredictable future, amongst circumstances beyond their control. One’s often ambiguous experiences conflict with one’s personal understanding of: “Here I am!” or “This is ME!”

One’s rational need, one’s intellectual capacity, one’s social requirements, one’s anxiety of life’s vicissitudes or simply forthright inquisitiveness necessitate some explanation about how one should perceive oneself and the position in the world one finds oneself. For as long as humankind has existed — already before and during the lifetime of the Buddha as well as today — a multitude of beliefs and concepts prevailed, that tried to fulfil the desires of humans to understand themselves.

Those general concepts and prevailing ideas are systematically summarized in the Brahmajālasutta of the Dīghanikāya. The Buddha deals in detail with the then current speculations about past and future major philosophies (micchadiṭṭhi). He explains how their avoidance on the base of the practice of sīla results in right view (sammādiṭṭhi) and provides a clear and practical approach to life.

Predominant at these times were the teachings around the belief of annihilation (uccheda diṭṭhi)¹ and the respective opposite, the belief about eternity (sassata diṭṭhi)² and the view about the ever-sustained self or soul (sakkāya diṭṭhi).³ Most prominent were the following schools of thought, often also called ‘six heretical teachers’:⁴

•  Pūraṇakassapa: advocated the view of the non-efficacy of action:⁵ there are no results of wholesome or unwholesome actions or any kamma (akiriya vādi or akiriya diṭṭhi);⁶

•  Makkhaligosāla: upheld the belief of fatalism or determinism:⁷ every existence is predestined without any cause or reason, without humankind having any power over life or death, with all things in constant change according to inherent energy (ahetuka diṭṭhi);⁸

•  Ajitakesakambala: maintained the opinion of materialistic nihilism⁹: human beings are identical with their physical structure without any corollaries of action and without further becoming (natthika diṭṭhi);¹⁰

•  Pakudhakaccāyana: defended the conviction of a permanent existence of a soul on base of the everlasting, unchangeable nature of the seven great elements (earth, water, temperature, motion, life, suffering and happiness — satthakaya diṭṭhi);¹¹

•  Nigaṇṭhanāṭaputta: supported the vision of the efficacy of kamma, of resultant actions of the past with unavoidable effects for the present life to be confronted with. In order to evade further negative results in the future, four strict rules of behaviour (cātuyāmasaṃvarasaṃvuto)¹² should be maintained by avoiding any violence and harm (puppekatahetu diṭṭhi);¹³

•  Sañcayabelaṭṭhaputta: upheld the standpoint of repudiating all knowledge: a scepticism that refuses and avoids all answers or definite statements and was therefore called the ‘endless equivocator’ or ‘eel-wriggler’ (amarāvikkhepika diṭṭhi).¹⁴

During the Buddha’s lifetime many of these teachings lost their efficacy and their followers started to apply the effective and pragmatic teaching of the Buddha. It is one of the special features of a Tathāgatha that he practises what he teaches, and anyone who applies what a Tathāgatha teaches can derive the very same benefits.

But already by the time of King Asoka¹⁵ various obstacles had to be faced by those who tried to maintain the purity of the teaching. Many of those previously dominant views regained importance due to many still unknown reasons. Partly paṭipatti, the applied practice of meditation, was neglected so paṭivedha, the penetrative realization of its truth, became rarer. To some extent these philosophies and their representatives were able to attract followers and thus partly became ‘reintroduced’, to a certain degree, through the splits that had occurred amongst the bhikkhus. Therefore the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa, in order to refute a number of heresies and to ensure the Dhamma was kept pure, compiled a book during the Third Council inaugurated by King Asoka which is called the Kathāvatthu.¹⁶  Today this is counted as the fifth book of the Abhidhamma.¹⁷

This present short selection is introduced to show interested readers the method that was employed by way of logical dialectical methods to prove the falseness of the respective beliefs. It is the opening part of a fivefold refutation out of twenty-two discussions on the subject of an ever-existing principle: a soul, a self.

Somehow the idea of the attavādi had evolved into ‘person, personality, individuality’ (puggala):

Tattha puggaloti attā, satto jīvo

Here with person means self, a being, and a living principle.

The followers of this idea, the puggalavādi, were amongst the first who formed their own group and then split away from the Saṅgha.

This present text is selected to give an additional idea of how the texts present refutations and how the principles of dialectical thought had developed by the time of Abhidhamma. The denials are based upon fundamental logical threads of thought and hypotheses that are repudiated by negating supposition.

It should be kept in mind that the Buddha expressed some warning in the Tatiyaanāgatabhayasutta¹⁸ about a future where a mere theoretical and logical approach would turn into the loss of the ‘real’ Dhamma:

Puna caparaṃ, bhikkhave, bhavissanti bhikkhū anāgatamaddhānaṃ abhāvitakāyā abhāvitasīlā abhāvitacittā abhāvitapaññā. Te abhāvitakāyā samānā abhāvitasīlā abhāvitacittā abhāvitapaññā abhidhammakathaṃ vedallakathaṃ¹⁹ kathentā kaṇhadhammaṃ okkamamānā²⁰ na bujjhissanti.

Iti kho, bhikkhave, dhammasandosā²¹ vinayasandoso; vinayasandosā dhammasandoso.

Again, in some period in the future there will be bhikkhus who are undeveloped in body, immature in sīla, undeveloped in mind, and immature in paññā. Thus equally undeveloped in body, immature in sīla, undeveloped in mind, and immature in paññā, they become engaged in discussions pertaining to the Abhidhamma and classifying (the texts), they will slide down into a dark Dhamma but will not really grasp it.

Thus, Bhikkhus, from corruption of the Dhamma derives corruption of the discipline, and corruption of the discipline results in corruption of the Dhamma.

Therefore, even those logical and partly enthralling threads may be of interest mostly for scholars of Pāli,²² philosophy or logic,²³ a meditator may decide for oneself whether texts of such nature may offer valuable support for one’s own practice.