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ĀSRAVA : HOW DOES IT FLOW ?
Alex Wayman
It is well known that in Jaina texts the term āsrava 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 āsrava 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 Pāli 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 aśrava."
Three kinds are stated in the Sammadiţthisutta of the Majjhima-Nikāya - kāmāsava, bhavāsava, and avijjāsava.8 The Abhidhammattha Samgaha of Bhadanta Anuruddhäcariya mentions four, which are the foregoing three plus ditthāsay take them individually :--
(1) The kāma variety is explained in Saddhammappakäsini as vatthukama (desire for given things) and kilesakāma (desire for defilement).10 This pair agrees with Asanga's self-commentary on the Paramārtha-gāthāli:
mokşam dvividham darśayati / klešamokşain vastumokşam ca / sarvabijasamutsādena klesapariksayāt klešamokşam tatraiva capy asamkleśãd vastumokşam yo bhikṣavas cakşuşi chandarāgas tam prajahita | evam ca tac caksuh prahiņam bhavisyatiti / Sūtrapadanyāyena evam sopadhišeşam moksam darśayitvā nirupadhiśesam darśayati |
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 sūtra 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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