The Abhidharma in some more detail (and compared with work in Western Philosophy)

It was considered necessary to systematise Siddhartha’s teachings so that the educated might better judge the validity of Buddhism and this was the aim of the abhidharmas in the various canons though as I’ve written in an earlier post they were little more than lists. They do contain metaphysical ideas, psychological ideas and attempts at formulating a somewhat systematic cosmology. Theravadans have traditionally considered that prajña required this aid. Coincidentally both of the earliest canons had seven books of abhidharma.

The abhidharmas have cosmology (including discussion of world systems), psychology (in its study of mind and mind-states) and simple ontology (metaphysics – analysis of the building blocks of existence).

In the western study of ontology there are three basic positions: materialism holds that all is matter, idealism that all is consciousness and dualism that all is either matter, consciousness or some combination. The abhidharmas have a different idea that the western philosophers hadn’t considered (and that I’ll get to soon). The problem for dualists has always been where (if at all) do the supernatural mind and natural body (matter) connect? Descartes thought that for human purposes it was in the human pineal gland. Materialists say simply that mind is merely matter arranged in a particular way and idealists of course assert that matter is merely a by-product of mind.

The abhidharma ontology claims instead that everything is made up of dharmas. It also claims that anything up to 37 of them can arise and die in the click of a finger. Dharmas are a combination of thing and event (c.f. particle v wave?) They naturally arise and die in groups as they are considered interdependent things (unless they are unconditioned ones such as the dharmas of air in some conceptions or of nirvana). Are they anything like the atoms posited within materialism? Perhaps some are but likely not all. The theory is quite esoteric. In the abhidharma of the Theravadan Canon there are 82 dharmas and in the Sarvastivadan one there are 75 dharma groups (divided, of course, between the 5 skandas).

Here are some quotes from Western philosophers that also reflect this:

For my part, when I enter into myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat, cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I can never catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any ‘thing’ but the perception . . . I may venture to affirm of the rest of mankind, that they are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in perpetual flux and movement (David Hume, “A Treatise on Human Nature”, 1739).

The notion of things that have a constitution in themselves is a dogmatic idea with which one must break absolutely (Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Will to Power” (Kaufmann trans., 1968 )).

Again, this idea is superimposed in the abhidharma on ancient Indian analogies and ‘rope-snake’ stories and the idea of ultimate truth is further elucidated. Here’s something of the argument: In our minds, if we saw a rope and thought it was a snake, we might put up some kind of a fence to protect others from the ‘snake’. The problem for us was the shadow which created an illusion and we might expect some praise but someone who knew it was a rope might disappoint us. For them it is an ‘idea (vijnapti)’ of a snake that is of course illusory and a superimposition on ultimate reality. The problem (if there is one) is thus the idea that led to our unnecessary work (fence-building) and not the ‘snake’ and this is what must be realised. Ego and self is that ‘snake’. It’s really those dharmas. The one problem with the analogy that the abhidharma recognises is that an ‘ego’ can perform the function of an ego (as a ‘table’, too, can that of a table) but a ‘rope/snake’ could never fully perform that of a snake; hence we can use conventional reality in real life. Nevertheless our ‘problems’ are not the problems we see and therefore we need also to see the ultimate reality so the ‘snake’ can be a ‘tool’ (and we also don’t need to kill it).

In real life we can see the effect of these kinds of real delusions in illnesses such as anorexia nervosa. A person living with the condition may see fat ‘snaking’ around her/his body. All illusions eventually lead to disillusion but the disillusion is better for us ultimately that the illusion.

Our normal conventional life and deemed ‘reality’ is a superimposition over all of this actual reality. Does a book have any universal quality of “bookness” to work with? If so then it is what we call a book. The Central Conception of Buddhism is a useful text that explores these questions. So abhidharma’s aim is to categorise ultimate truths. All the canons may be potentially added to if further intellectual or enlightening work is done or further material considered relevant is discovered.

The Kashmiri abhidharma now lost to us in its original Sanskrit was apparently especially notable for its theory of ontology. It also divides things between what actually exists (dravyatah) and what exists as a name. I discussed this as the idea of two truths in an earlier post with ‘person’, especially, being of the second type. The constituents of reality are examined (dharmas) for the better understanding of what it is. The five skandas are therefore further divided. Form, for example has at least five parts including fire (heat), earth (solidity), water (connectedness) and air (motion). Samskaras are also examined, classified and subdivided.

This all attempts to answer the question: can we list what we need to know about reality? The dharma of air is regarded by some Buddhist scholars as an unconditioned dharma along with the dharma of nirvana but this is disputed. Nirvana certainly is considered fully unconditioned. So ‘person’ came to be seen as an interactive stream of some 75 to 80 dharma forms. Also ‘fire’ is heat; it doesn’t possess it as an attribute as it does not have a selfhood. All of the conditioned dharmas are considered to have only a momentary existence. They don’t therefore have time to move anywhere; they simply arise and cease to exist in a moment. They can be discovered during meditation. The abhidharmic lists are generally thought to probably be expansions of lists taught directly by Siddhartha during his lifetime on earth.

Nirvana - Deja Vu all over Again

Ultimate wisdom is achieved when entering nirvana, the only unconditioned state. There are three main traditional “doors” to it: the realisation of the all-encompassing unsatisfactoriness of all of samsara, realisation of existence but impermanence of all in samsara and realisation that non-self-being is all there is in samsara. One can realise any of the three first depending upon one’s personality and chance but realising one immediately leads to realisation of the other two. A thus enlightened person is then called an Arya (noble person) as opposed to a Prthagjana (regular ‘Jo/e’). In different contexts, Sangha can mean all Buddhists, all monks and nuns or all of the Arya only.

It’s not possible to be understood with the intellect and must be approached from nearby before it can be ‘seen’. There simply is no remaining craving left to ‘seed’ a rebirth. Buddhas can see ‘their’ past lives which appears strange considering Buddhists believe in rebirth rather than reincarnation. The unconditioned obviously has a relationship with the conditioned but it’s not clear how the unconditioned conditions the conditioned; the conditioned certainly can’t condition the unconditioned. The unconditioned state is achieved by ‘drawing or turning away’ from the conditioned (or perhaps letting go of it). It is ineffable (too subtle for description) but as far from nothingness as one can get, apparently. It is between something and nothing, though. It is more than a mere ending but it certainly is an ending (of something). It is also both never-ending and instantaneous and is not worldly bliss. Its realisation is beyond both positive and negative emotions, it is simply realisation. It is ultimate, sublime, some kind of never-ending bliss. There is no ‘soul’ that obtains it; that could not be Buddhism. Nevertheless, ‘Siddhartha’ lived with it for many years before his parinibbana.

It appears that Arahanthood and nirvana are most likely possible mainly during the earthly life of and in the presence of a Buddha so we’ll probably have to wait until Maitreya arrives in about 8,000 years for our next best chance. There were around 50 Arahants getting around when Siddhartha achieved his parinibbana. Essentially the Arahant is the most senior of the most senior Buddhist ranks of enlightenment short of Buddhahood. The title means "one who has achieved nibbana/nirvana but has not become a Buddha”. Around 24 Buddhas are accepted as having lived before Siddhartha. In the Mahayana view, Siddhartha and other Buddhas are also held to be still working for us in some way as in the light of that view a Mahayana Buddhist would not believe that they are so selfish as to have simply freed themselves only. All must be continually prompted to follow them to nirvana. Buddhas all have to do this. So this also applies to the other 24 earlier Buddhas (it probably even applies to future Buddhas that are now Bodhisattvas).

There you have all I know about nirvana.

The Fourth Noble Truth (Marga – the Noble Eightfold Path to the Cessation of Dukkha)

The way to eventually get to nirvana is to embark on this path and the spiritual life that this entails is called Brahma carya and also Bhahvana which means cultivation (literally “bringing to be”). Methabhahvana thus means cultivation of loving kindness, one aspect of Bhavana and Brahma carya. Buddhism calls itself “the Middle Way” (majama patipada) and this is the required path (patipada).

Yoga is also used in place of marga and means a spiritual path or practice. In the West, we are mainly aware of hathayoga which means force yoga. It’s more a physical discipline in the West. The force referred to is not physical force, though, but the force that makes the mind go deep as it disciplines the body and finally the breath. Lokottara means “beyond the mundane (i.e. beyond the world)”. Nirvana is reached/realised rather than brought about by the Marga (as a summit is reached/realised but not produced by climbing).

So the path has many names but what is it? The next posts will concern this Noble Eightfold Path in more detail. There are various ways to divide it up. That there are eight stages is a quite early teaching of Siddhartha. They are usually depicted in wheel rather than ladder form. This reflects the general Buddhist view of the continuity and interdependence of things. So for example “Right view” is sometimes listed first but it may actually be the endpoint in one sense. Another way of viewing the path is as 37 awakening factors.
There are also three basic parts to the path that I’ll discuss in the next two posts: the following of moral advice is followed by meditations (prescribed as part of and made possible by that advice) which are followed in turn by wisdoms. Wisdom (seeing clearly the reality of things) would lead to one being better able to follow deeper moral advice and so the cycle may continue but eventually with enough wisdoms we may become a Buddha and reach nirvana.

The Third Noble Truth (Nirvana – the Cessation of Dukkha)

Nirvana is extremely difficult to define but here goes! It is the experience of the cessation of unsatisfactoriness. Was that too easy? Well, you may be right. It is achieved during the lifetime of a person very rarely. When that person dies s/he may or may not achieve parinirvana which means an end to samsara and rebirths. Parinirvana is the final death of a Buddha (such a one will not be reborn in any conventional form).

It is not annihilation, however, despite what Schopenhauer claimed. Weber also thought that Buddhism was a selfish seeking of annihilation. Siddhartha said that he taught nirvana. Buddhists see it as like the blowing out of a candle (the flame thought to be being extinguished is not representative of existence but reflects the impairment only the causes of unsatisfactoriness; nothing is truly extinguished in achieving nirvana just as the flame merely takes another form of existence).

Awareness of the truth is at the heart of this as the prime cause of suffering is delusion concerning the truth of existence. Awareness in itself is effectively becoming unconditioned (asamskrta). This awareness unleashes the purest of freedoms, not any excursion to any heavenly place or time.

Nirvana may be some supreme level of bliss or joy. Early texts generally say that it exists but it isn’t possible to tell in what sense. It is apparently not an event but a continual and realisable reality of experience. A Buddhist is permitted to aspire (chandas) to it but not to crave (trsna) it, as craving is a desire and nirvana is all about the absence of desire. That’s probably as clear as mud and that’s possibly as it should be. Nirvana is not easy. I'll next get into how Buddhists say we can eventually get there.

The First Noble Truth (Dukkha – suffering or unsatisfactoriness)

The idea is that the cosmos we know of (as unenlightened beings) is in conditioned existence (samsara) (i.e. things follow from other things) and that this is unsatisfactory (dukkha is our very state of existence, then).

There are three categories. The first is dukkha dukkha and this means the clearly unsatisfactory things such as direct suffering, pain, trauma, loads, psychological distress and loss/bereavement. The second form is the unsatisfactoriness of the reality that we know the happinesses we may be feeling now will surely end in old age or death (viparinama (change) dukkha). Siddhartha is asking for people to consider how their lives are unsatisfactory in the here and now (are we in pain now or do we fear the pain of loss of our happiness in the future?) The third form of unsatisfactoriness is the very fact that those states we feel - good or bad - are not our independent states, they are conditioned because we are living in a conditioned world (samkhara (conditioned existence) dukkha (samskara duhkka in Pali)). Siddhartha wants followers to examine whether this conditioned state is real or must be real for all time. He also asks them to ask if any of these three states is satisfactory. It’s fairly clear that if they are our reality that our reality is not ideal.

Is knowing this, then, the beginning of the way to reach for the ideal reality that is possible? The idea is that pondering this in itself in depth is useful to us if we seek enlightenment. This is really a pondering of whether we have agency to make our own reality or not. The answer of course is too subtle for us to simply know without in-depth pondering (and pondering over many lifetimes may be required before we can know the answer). The Buddhist argues both that 'we' are dependent by nature and that imagining otherwise is an illusion that we need to try to know as the illusion it is but that knowing this is part of finding a way out of this major chain of dukkha states we call our lives.

There are within this dukkha (samsara) reality held to be five or six realms plus some meditation level realms and we’ve now entered into the metaphysics/ontology of abhidharma. Tibetan Buddhists especially have created wheels of existence that depict the realms for the benefit of the unlettered. One actually shows 31 realms because there are various sub-realms all of which humans might potentially experience in some sense in their lifetimes so human mind experiences in some sense reflect Buddhist cosmology.

The five realms that we can say Buddhists accept as at least real in some sense according to the abhidharma are the Hell realm (niraya), the Animal realm (tiracchanaroni – especially difficult to get out of), the Ghostly realm (pettivisaya – the ghosts may or may not be hungry and/or thirsty ghosts), the Human realm (mantissa) and the realm of the Gods. Some wheels depict a further realm of Titans (a demi-god (Asura) realm). Within the actual God (deva and Brahma) realms some hold that there are six lower God sub-realms and sixteen higher God sub-realms.

I’ve mentioned that only humans, egotistical though they are said to be, are able to escape to nirvana because only they are able to see both what is and what can be but is not now and four of the possible realms are realms regarded as higher than the higher God realms that can only be reached by human meditation (called formless dhyana/Samadhi/Zen) - levels five to eight of meditation - the highest of them is on the edge of nirvana but still a realm of existence and the four lower so-called pure form levels of meditation one to four permit communion with various higher gods). Humans can also arguably be reborn in these highest four realms (five to eight) as a result of having reached them in an earlier life by meditation.