Asarva how does it flow

Author(s): Alex Wayman
Publisher: Z_Aspect_of_Jainology_Part_3_Pundit_Dalsukh_Malvaniya_012017.pdf
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/250022/1

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ASRAVA : HOW DOES IT FLOW ? Alex Wayman It is well known that in Jaina texts the term asrava means an inflow of karmaa kind of material-into the soul. Still a Western translator of Buddhist texts has translated the same term as "out-flow.''2 Granted that a number of technical terms are employed in varying senses in the different philosophical systems and religions of India. The diametrically opposite rendition of the important term asrava is certainly striking and warrants investigation, which I shall carry on by way of varieties and the theory of "flowing." Varieties and the negative form A Pali dictionary explains the term asrava as meaning "influx" or "outflow" (e. g. discharge from a sore). The Chinese renderings of asrava are overwhelmingly "flow, flux, leaking."'4 The Tibetan translation is regularly zag pa, "flow, leaking." For my own translation projects I adopted a rendition "flux" or in the adjectival case "fluxional." 6 The Sanskrit form is either asrava or asrava." Three kinds are stated in the Sammaditthisutta of the Majjhima-Nikaya - kamasava, bhavasava, and avijjasava.8 The Abhidhammattha Samgaha of Bhadanta Anuruddhacariya mentions four, which are the foregoing three plus ditthasay take them individually :-- (1) The kama variety is explained in Saddhammappakasini as vatthukama (desire for given things) and kilesakama (desire for defilement).10 This pair agrees with Asanga's self-commentary on the Paramartha-gathali: moksam dvividham darsayati / klesamoksain vastumoksam ca / sarvabijasamutsadena klesapariksayat klesamoksam tatraiva capy asamklesad vastumoksam yo bhiksavas caksusi chandaragas tam prajahita | evam ca tac caksuh prahinam bhavisyatiti / Sutrapadanyayena evam sopadhisesam moksam darsayitva nirupadhisesam darsayati | That release he shows to be of two kinds : release from defilements and release from given things. There is release from defilements by destroying all seeds through eradication of defilement; and in the same place, as well, there is release from given things through no stain. The sutra says: "O monks, whatever be the sensuous lust in the eye, abandon that! So also will the eye disappear." In the manner of that text he thus shows the release with remaining basis and then shows the one without remaining basis.

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Asrava : How does it Flow ? 89 According to this passage, if desire for defilements (klesakama) is eliminated, desire for given things ( vastukama ) will also leave. (2) The bhava variety is a passion for gestation (bhava) in the realm of form and the formless realm, according to C. A. F. Rhys Davids' Compendium, 12 (3) The dittha variety is the sixty-two wrong views (drsti) of the Brahmajalasutta, according to the Compendium. 18 (4) The avijja variety is ignorance of the four Noble Truths, past and future lives, the formula of dependent origination, and so on, according to the Compendium. 14 The negative form an-asrava may be employed as an unqualified negation; so the Saddhammappakasini : anasayan 'ti asavavirahitam.15 Is it so in Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa (1, 4, 5) ?16 sasrava 'nasrava dharmah samsksta margavarjitah / sasravah asravas tesu yasmat samanuserate // anasrava margasatyam trividham capy asamskstam akasam dvau nirodhau ca tatrakasam anavstih 11 The natures (dharma) are either sasrava or anasrava. The constructed ones are sasrava except on the path, since the asrava leave their mark in those [= the constructed ones, the five skandha per AK I, 7a-b]. The anasrava ones are the Truth of Path and the three non-constructed, namely, space and the two cessations. Among them, space is non-obstruction. Vasubandhu comments on the verb samanuserate : anusayanirdesa eva (an indication of 'trace', anusaya). Here, while the term anasrava can apply both to the Truth of Path and the three "non-constructed", it appears to diverge in significance for the two cases. When applying to the "non-constructed" it is an unqualified negation, as in the Saddhammappakasini comment. But when applying to the path (marga), it cannot be unqualified, or persons on the path would be entirely free of asrava while this was supposed to be Arhat attainment at the end of the path for which such a term as ksinasrava (erased the asrava) is used. 17 For the path, the term anasrava appears to mean "opposed to asrava', i.e. actively opposing, hence reducing asrava 18 Accordingly, the term sasraya would mean "promoting asrava". Then Vasubandhu clarifies that the role of the asrava in "constructed" (samskrta) natures-excepting the path-is described by anusaya. This term is not connected with "flow" as is asrava (at vsru, to flow); rather goes with the root 12 si, to lie, referring to its varieties as dormant. The Abhidharmakosa, Chap. V, shows various ways of classifying the anusaya. Asanga; in his Yogacarabhumi, includes them among increasing enumerations (ekottara) of defilements (klesa).19 For the number seven he presents seven anusaya, each labelled "anusaya": kamaraga (sensuous lust), 12

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90 Alex Wayman pratigha (hostility), bhavaraga (passion for gestation), mana(pride), avidya (nescience) drsti (wrong views), vicikitsa (doubt). Reducing kamaraga and bhavaraga to raga, one gets his list of six which he does not label anusaya, but which is the basic list of six anusaya in AK, Chap. V, lc-d. 20 According to Asanga's list, these defiled traces (anusaya) are an expansion of the four kinds of asraya. The renditions of this term asrava in its Pali form asava by translators of scriptures in that language, namely (Mrs. C.A.F. Davids) "intoxicants", (Miss I. B. Horner) "cankers", and the like, appear to attribute to the word asava qualities that go with certain varieties, which prejudges the case. 21 The theory of flowing First, the ancient Buddhist canon, the Samyutta-Nikaya I, contains in the Mara Suttas the question by one of Mara's daughters and the Buddha's response, about the five streams and the sixth; and the episode is in a Sanskrit version in the Mahavastu, II122; here the Pali28 : "katham viharibahulodha bhikkhu, pancoghatinno ataridha chattham / katham jhayi bahulam kamasanna, paribahira honti aladdhayo tam" ti // "passaddhakayo suvimuttacitto, asankharano satima anoko / annaya dhammam avitakkajhayi, na kuppati na sarati na thino || "evam viharibahulodha bhikkhu, pancoghatinno ataridha chattham evam jhayi bahulam kamasanna, paribahira honti aladdhayo tam" ti // For the translation, instead of the Pali aladdhayo tam we should accept the Sanskrit alabdhagadha, supported by the Tibetan version gna' dag ma thob when the same verses are presented and commented upon by Asanga in Cintamayi bhumi in the Tibetan canon24 : (Mara's daughter :) "How should a monk in his numerous states, having crossed the five streams, cross the sixth ? How should a meditator who has not attained union (Pali, *yogam,25 Skt. gadha) expel the abundant ideas of desire ? (Buddha :) "With body cleansed and mind liberated; without instigation, mindful, and untroubled; knowing the doctrine (dharma) and meditating without constructive thought, passion does not stir, nor is he torpid.

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Asrava : How does it Flow "Thus should the monk in his numerous states, having crossed the five streams, cross the sixth. Thus should the meditator who has not attained union expel the abundant ideas of desire." According to Asanga, the term "stream" stands for sensory activity; thus, the eye is a stream because viewing forms, and likewise for the remaining five senses; then the sixth stream is the mind (manas) because perceiving mental natures (dharma). The Pali commentator Buddhaghosa has a consistent remark.26 Furthermore, when the "body is cleansed"--i. e. there is "cathartic of body" (kaya-prasrabdhi), the mind may be "liberated" from lust (raga), hatred (dvesa), and delusion (moha). And tilus one crosses those streams. As to attaining "union", as I understand Asanga's discussion, it is the union of "calming the mind" (samatha) and "discerning the real" (vipasyana, where the verse's "non-instigation" points to the "calming", and where the verse's "mindful" as the four "stations of mindfulness" (smrtyupasthana) points to the "discerning", with the verse's remaining words representing further clarifications of this union. Since Asanga's Sravakabhumi statement about "restraint of sense organs" contains the verb form anusraveyus, it is well to present it now27: indriyasamvarah katamah / sa tam eva silasamvaram nisrityaraksitasmotir bhavati nipaka-smstih / smstyaraksitamanasah samavasthavacarakah sa caksusa rupani drstva / na nimittagrahi bhayati nanuvyanjanagrahi yatodhikaranam asya papaka akusala dharmas cittam anusraveyus tesam samvaraya pratipadyate raksati mana-indriyam sa srotrena sabdan ghranena gandhan jihyaya rasan kayena sprastavyani / manasa dharman vijnaya na nimittagrahi bhavati nanuvyanjanagrabi yatodhikaranam asya papaka akusala dharmas cittam anusraveyus tesam samvaraya pratipadyate raksati mana-indriyam / mana-indriyena samvaram apadyate / ayam ucyata indriyasamvarah / What is restraint of sense organs? When one has taken recourse to just the restraint of morality, be guards mindfulness. His mindfulness is prudent. His mind is guarded by mindfulness. He has the sphere of the even state. When he sees forms with the eye, he does not take hold of sign-sources or details by reason of which sinful,unvirtuous natures would flow (anusraveyus) after his mind. He acts in each case to restrain those. He guards his mind sense-organ. When he perceives sounds with his ear, odors with his nose, tastes with his tongue, tangibles with his body, natures (dharma) with his mind, he does not take hold of sign-sources or details by reason of which sinful unvirtuous natures would flow after his mind. He acts in each case to restrain those. He guards his mind sense organ. The mind sense-organ exerts the restraint. This is called "restraint of sense organs."

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92 Alex Wayman The Mahayana biography of the Buddha called Lalitavistara in its dependent origination (pratityasamutpada) verses has this one where "flow" is given by the word salila :28 skandha pratitya samudeti hi duhkham evam sambhonti trsnasalilena vivardhamana / margena dharmasamataya vipasyamana atyantaksina ksayadharmataya niruddhah // The personal aggregates (skandha) arise in dependence in this way does suffering arise. They swell by the flow of craving. When discerned on the path by sameness of natures (dharma), undergoing extreme depletion, they cease by their underlying nature of destruction. Edgerton, in his entry on "asrava", 29 also cites the Lalitavistara (351.1) to show how this "destruction" (ksaya) takes place : suska asrava na puna sravanti ("The fluxes, dried up, flow no more"). The foregoing investigation presents no suggestion that the word asava means out-flow. Indeed, the verbal prefix a- means here "to, unto". So Narada explains the word in his book on the Abhidhammattha Samgaha : "They are so called either because they flow up to the topmost plane of existence or because they persist as far as the Gotrabhu consciousness (i, e., the thought-moment that immediately precedes the Path-consciousness of the 'Stream-Winner'--Sotapatti). These Asavas are latent in all worldlings and may rise to the surface in any plane of existence."0 Notice that the remark "latent in all worldlings'' points to the word anusaya (traces), while "may rise to the surface" is normally expressed by a different term, paryavasthana (entrapment). There is also a way of talking about an-asrava as a kind of "bleeding". One may refer to the Lankavatara-sutra's passage on the anantariya (deadly sins, five in number, bearing immediate retribution),"patricide", "matricide", etc., by abhisamdhi, a deliberate transvaluation of the terms, 31 in this case the anantariya of causing, with evil intention, the Tathagata to bleed; and the sutra states 32 : - svasamanyabahyasvacittadsayamatravabodhakanam mahamate astanam vijnanakayanam vimoksatrayanasravadustavikalpenatyantopaghatad vijnanabuddhasya dustacittarudhiropadanad unantaryakarity ucyate / Mahamati, when the eight sets of vijnana which imagine the inherent (sva) and the generalizing (samanya) [characters (laksana)] to be external while they are merely what is seen by one's mind, are completely extirpated of their faulty (= evil) constructions by the three liberations and "nonflux", thus causing a bleeding, with "evil intention", of the Vijnanabuddha it is called an "immediacy deed".

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- 93 Asrava : How does it Flow ? 93 Here, the negation an-asrava has the effect of an opposite movement to asrava. Whereas asrava is a flow unto or upto, the an-asrava is a flow away from or down and out. I have elsewhere cited another passage about "bleeding"33 : Another Tibetan text mentions omens that the defilement will be purged : Furthermore, there are omens for the purging of sin and defilement, that speaking generally, are superior when concrete, middling when mental, and inferior when in dream; to wit, the good omens that the body emits much filthy matter, or bleeds blood and pus, or that one is bathed and in white clothes.84 And so long as they do not occur one should continually trust (that they will). So far I have not gone into the matter of the Buddha's "third watch of the night (of enlightenment)" when according to some Buddhist traditions he knew the eradication of asrava, that this is included in the supernormal faculties (abhijna) as the sixth one, or that the Arhat-attainment is especially characterized by asravaksaya. Such considerations would not have advanced my purpose of showing the significance of the positive term generally and of the negative form in special circumstances such as the Buddhist path. Finally, I must applaud the consistency of translators of Jaina scriptures in rendering the term asrava by "in-flow". My investigation suggests that everywhere that the term occurs in Buddhist texts and was rendered "out-flow' the context would have been better served by rendering it as "in-flow" or by the more neutral flux". Notes 1. A recent work continuing this rendition, in fact "influx", is Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1979). Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India (George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1962), at one spot renders the term "outflows" and at another, "impurities." However, this late Buddhologist, famous for his important works on the Prajnaparamita scriptures and whose various works on Buddhism are readily available and influential, adopted the rendition "outflows" for asrava in his "List of Buddhist Terms" which was duplicated and handed out at places where he would teach. T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede, The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary, s. v. So in M. Honda, "An Index to the Philosophical Sutras, No. II, "Proceedings of the Okurayama Oriental Research Institute (Yokohama, Japan), 1959, Vol. 3, p. 70. 3. 4.

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Alex Wayman 9. 11. Alex 5, So in the Sanskrit-Tibetan Buddhist Dictionary Mahavyutpatti, ed. Ryoza buro Sakaki, 2 vols. (2nd ed., Tokyo, 1962). 6. So in Alex Wayman and Hideko Wayman, The Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala; a Buddhist Scripture on the Tathagatagarbha Theory (Columbia University Press, New York, 1974), pp. 85-86. 7. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1953), s. v. 8. Majjhima-Nikaya, I,55 (Pali Publication Board, Bihar, 1958, I, p. 75.11). Narada, A Manual of Abhidhamma : Abhidhammattha Sangaha (Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Ceylon, 1968), p. 322. 10. Saddhammappakasini : Commentary on the Patisambhidamagga, ed. by C. V. Joshi, Vol. III, p. 624.11-12. Alex Wayman, Analysis of the Sravakabhumi Manuscript (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1961), pp. 177-178, 185. 12. Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids, Dhamma-Sangani (Compendium of States or Phenomena), also: A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics (London 1900), p. 293, n. 2. 13. C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Dhamma-Sangani, p. 293, n. 3. 14. C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Dhamma-Songani, p. 294, referring to p. 283. 15. Saddhammappakasini, Vol. III, p. 628.25. 16. Abhidharmakosabhasyam of Vasubandhu, ed. P. Pradhan (K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna, 1975), text, p. 3. 17. For Pali passages about this Arhat attainment, cf. Pali Tipitakam Concor dance, Vol. I: A-O (Pali Text Society, London, 1956), p. 348. 18. This is a significance of a small group of a-an- negations, having as well known example the term avidya, which the commentaries, such as Vasubandhu in the Abhidharmakosa, do not accept as just not it or other than vidya, but which actively opposes vidya; cf. AK, III,28c-d, and Vasubandhu's comment. 19. Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, ed., The Yogacarabhumi of Acarya Asanga, Part I (University of Calcutta, 1957), p. 161. 20. Cf. Louis de la Vallee Poussin, L'Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu (Chap. V-VI). (Paris, 1925), pp. 2-3 21. Mis. C.A.F. Davids attempted to justify her rendition in Dhamma-Sangani, p. 291, n. 1, starting with a claim that no adequate English equivalent is available to this there is response that the English "flux" is just what the Chinese and Tibetan translators adopted in their own languages, while her "intoxicant" is a translation by in place of presumed effect of the asava. Miss Horner's "canker(s)" in her translation of Majjhima-Nikaya seems to adopt the medical meaning of a sore that is discharging, which disagrees with the side of asrava constituted by the latent anusaya.

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Asrava : How does it Flow ? 22. Cf. J. J. Jones, The Mahavastu, Vol. III (London, 1956), pp. 271-272; Radhagovinda Basak, ed. Mahavastu Avadana (Sanskrit College, Calcutta, 1968), pp. 375-376. Samyutta-Nikaya, 1, 126 (Pali Publication Board, Bihar, 1959, 1, p. 125.22 to 126.8). 24. Photo ed. of Tibetan Kanjur-Tanjur, Vol. 110, p. 4-5-8, ff. 25. J. J. Jones, The Mahavastu, Vol. III, p. 271, n. 4, observed that the Pali -yo tam is a corruption, but did not notice that the reading should be yogam, which is partially synonymous with the Sanskrit gadha; while he mistranslated the phrase by assuming Sanskrit gadha, which is from a different root. . 26. J. J. Jones, The Mahavastu, Vol. III, p. 271, n. 3. 27. Alex Wayman, Analysis of the Sravakabhumi Manuscript, pp. 61-62 28. I use the edition in Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Reader, pp. 24-25; he mentions that this passage, LV 418-22-420.10, immediately follows "The First Sermon". 29. Franklin Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary, s. v. 30. Narada, A Manual of Abhidhamma, p. 327. The word abhisardhi means "deliberate misrepresentation" but in the good sense of being required for circumstances of teaching. Four of them are stated in the texts and listed in the Mahavyutpatti, nos. 1672-1675. Examples are given for the four in a work of an ancient Tibetan translator, Dpal brtsegs, his treatise on Dharma-paryaya in Photo ed. of Tibetan Kanjur-Tanjur, Vol. 145, p. 128-4-6, ff. For the fourth one, parinamabhisardhi, he gives as example this very list of the five deadly sins. Here, parinama means "tiansvaluation of term(s) standing for sin(s). 32. Bunyiu Nanjio, ed. The Lankavatara Sutra (Kyoto, at the Otani University Press, 1956), 138.18-139.3. 33. Alex Wayman, "Purification of Sin in Buddhism by Vision and Confession", in G. H. Sasaki, ed., A Study of Klesa (Tokyo, 1975), p. 68. - 34. One immediately, thinks of the Jaina Svetambaia saint. 31.