Alt Und Neu Undische Studien

SR No.: 269596
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hearusgegeben Vom
Publisher: Hearusgegeben Vom
Total Pages: 11
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

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242
L. Schmithausen
5 and the Mahāmālunkyasutta (see esp. ch. J.4). The Theravādins seem to have interpreted the latter as treating of not only Liberating Insight proper but also the decisive preparatory phase. To this phase belong, according to them, the entrance into the four dhyānas and the first three States Beyond Visible Matter 167 (which they understand as alternative but not necessary 168 starting-points169) and insight into the negative nature169a - essentially impermanence, disagreeableness, and Nothaving-or-being-a-Self170 – of the dharmas that constitute those meditative states (a comprehension which they consider to be the result of a long process of analyt. ical observation or contemplation that only takes place after one has reemerged from meditative concentration"71). Liberating Insight proper has Nirvāņa for its sole object"72. Thus it corresponds only to the last element of the description of Liberating Insight in the Mahāmālunkyasutta, to the element which corresponds to Suttas like AN 10.6, viz. the comprehension of Nirvana as peaceful and excellent. Yet, the Nirvāņa-experience of later Theravādins seems to be less intellectual"73. Nevertheless, it is not a mystico-existential anticipation of Nirvāna as in the "samjnavedayitanirodha-Liberation theory" - in Theravāda too, samjnavedayitanirodha has come to be regarded as a completely non-conscious state, altogether dissociated from Liberating Insight - but a mystical cognition (ñāņa) or intuition (nāņadassana)174 taking place in one of the four, or the five175,
167 They are considered to be special applications of the Fourth Dhyāna: FRAUWALLNER,
A. St. IV (1972), p. 105; NYANATILOKA, B. Wb., p. 92. 168 There are followers of a Path of pure or mere analytical insight (sukkhavipassaka or sud
dhavipassanāyānika,cp. VisM XVIII.5; VIII.237; NYANATILOKA, B. Wb., p. 216) who do
not enter into the dhyānas before attaining Liberating Insight proper (cp. VisM XXI.112). 169 VisM XVIII.3; cp. also XXI.112-114. 169a As for insight into the negative nature of dharmas as a (merely) preparatory stage which
does not necessarily include finding pleasure in Nirvāṇa, cp. SN III 134 (... mayham pi kho etam evam hoti - rūpam aniccam, ... anatta, ...'ti; atha ca pana me... nibbane cittam na pakkhandati nappasidati...). This Sutta, by the way, seems to have had considerable influence on the Srävakabhumi (SrBh 496 ff.), according to which, nevertheless, Liberating Insight consists in a vision not of Nirvāņa alone but of all the four Noble Truths
(SrBh 500, 15 ff.). 170 Cp. Ps III 146,8 f.: nissattatthena suññato, na attatthena anattato. 171 VisM XVIII.3; cp. also the explanation of the phrase (of the Mahāmāluňkyasutta) so tat
tha thito (MN I 436,3) as tāya tilakkhaņāram maņāya vipassanāya thito (Ps III 146,25 f. Mp IV 196,23 f. (ad AN 9.36, see ch. Kj) instead of the more natural explanation tasmim
pathamajjhäne thito (Mp IV 196,6 f.). 172 See n. 178. 173 Cp. Ps III 146,18 ff. (= Mp IV 196,16 ff.) which refers the respective portion of the Ma
hāmālunkyasutta both to preparatory insight and to Liberating Insight proper (i.e. to the maggacitta) and makes it clear that [in the case of Liberating Insight proper) one does not verbalize [its contents] in the form "this is peaceful, this is excellent" but only focusses one's mind on (Nibbāna) while penetrating into it in such a form (iminā ... äkā
rena tam pațivijjhanto). 174 Cp. VisM XXII.2. 175 In the pattern of five dhyānas, an additional dhyana has been inserted in which there is
only vicara but no vitarka and which thus corresponds to the dhyānantara of the Sarvastivādins (see n. 158); cp. FRAUWALLNER, A.St. IV (1972), p. 96.