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86
Buddhist Philosophy
[CH. be viññāna. Here it occurred to him that in order that there might be viññāna there must be the conformations (sankhāra)'. But what being there are there the sankhāras? Here it occurred to him that the sankhāras can only be if there is ignorance (avijjā). If avijjā could be stopped then the sankhāras will be stopped, and if the sankhāras could be stopped viññāna could be stopped and so on?
It is indeed difficult to be definite as to what the Buddha actually wished to mean by this cycle of dependence of existence sometimes called Bhavacakra (wheel of existence). Decay and death (jarāmarana) could not have happened if there was no birth. This seems to be clear. But at this point the difficulty begins. We must remember that the theory of rebirth was
on Sankara's bhāsya on the Brahma-sūtras (11. ii. 19), gives a different interpretation of Nāmarūpa which may probably refer to the Vijñānavāda view though we have no means at hand to verify it. He says-To think the momentary as the permanent is Avidyā; from there come the samskāras of attachnient, antipathy or anger, and infatuation; from there the first vijñāna or thought of the foetus is produced; from that alayavijñāna, and the four elements (which are objects of name and are hence called nāma) are produced, and from those are produced the white and black, semen and blood called rūpa. Both Vācaspati and Amalānanda agree with Govindānanda in holding that nāma signifies the semen and the ovum while rūpa means the visible physical body built out of them. Vijñāña entered the womb and on account of it nămarūpa were produced through the association of previous karma. See Vedāntakalpataru, pp. 274, 275. On the doctrine of the entrance of vijñāña into the womb compare D. N. II. 63.
1 It is difficult to say what is the exact sense of the word here. The Buddha was one of the first few earliest thinkers to introduce proper philosophical terms and phraseology with a distinct philosophical method and he had often to use the same word in more or less different senses. Some of the philosophical terms at least are therefore rather elastic when compared with the terms of precise and definite meaning which we find in later Sanskrit thought. Thus in S. N. m. p. 87, “Sarkhatam abhisankharonti, sankhāra means that which synthesises the complexes. In the Compendium it is translated as will, action. Mr Aung thinks that it means the same as karma; it is here used in a different sense from what we find in the word sankhāra khandha (viz. mental states). We get a list of 51 mental states forming sankhāra khandha in Dhamma Sangani, p. 18, and another different set of 40 mental states in Dharmasamgraha, p. 6. In addition to these forty cittasamprayuktasamskāra, it also counts thirteen cittaviprayuktasamskära. Candrakīrtti interprets it as meaning attachment, antipathy and infatuation, p. 563. Govindānanda, the commentator on Sankara's Brahma-sütra (11. ii. 19), also interprets the word in connection with the doctrine of Pratityasamutpāda as attachinent, antipathy and infatuation.
2 Samyutta Nikāya, II. 7-8.
3 Jarā and maraņa bring in śoka (grief), paridevanā (lamentation), duḥkha (suffering), daurmanasya (feeling of wretchedness and miserableness) and upāyāsa (feeling of extreme destitution) at the prospect of one's death or the death of other dear ones. All these make up suffering and are the results of jāti (birth). M. V. (B.T. S. p. 208). Sankara in his bhāsya counted all the terms from jară, separately. The whole series is to be taken as representing the entirety of duhkhaskandha.
