Cosmology and meditation: From the Aggañña-sutta to the Mahāyāna

History of Religions

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 183-217

  Gethin, Rupert ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0345947848     PISSN: 00182710     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/463464     Document Type: Review

References (51)

1. This initial formula must be regarded as constituting a significant piece of floating tradition that forms part of the common heritage of ancient Buddhism. Apart from its occurrence in all four surviving recensions of the Aggañña-sutta - see K. Meisig, Das Sūtra von den vier Ständen: Das Aggañña-sutta im Licht seiner chinesischen Parallelen (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1988) - we find the same formula (though with a slightly different account of the process of world expansion) used in two other suttas of the Digha Nikaya: the Brahmajāla and Pātcombining dot belowika (D 1:17 and D 3:28-29; the expansion formula here reads: "vivattamāne loke suññam brahma-vimānamcombining dot below pātubhavati. ath' aññataro satto āyukkhayā vā puññakkhayā vā ābhassara-kāyā cavitvā sun̄n̄am brahma-vimānamcombining dot below upapajjati. so tattha hoti manomayo pīti-bhakkho sayam-pabho antalikkha-caro subhatcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhāyi ciram dīghamcombining dot below addhānamcombining dot below titcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhati"). Two Aṅguttara passages (A 4:89; 5:60) also make use of parts of the formula, while Vibh 415 (cf. D 3:88), which states that human beings at the beginning of an aeon are born lacking the male or female faculty, also alludes to it
2. Outside the Nikāyas and Āgamas, looking beyond the Pāli tradition we find the formula used in the Mahāvastu (see Le Mahāvastu, ed. E. Sénart, 3 vols. [Paris, 1882-97], 1:52, 338-39) and referred to and commented on by Vasubandhu in the Abhidharmakośa (Abhidh-k 3:97c-d-98a-b
3. see Louis de La Vallée Poussin, trans., L'Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu: Traduction et Annotations, 6 vols. [Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1971], 2:203-4
4. and Abhidharmakośa and Bhāscombining dot belowya of Ācārya Vasubandhu with Sphutcombining dot belowārthā Commentary of Ācārya Yaśomitra, ed. D. Shastri, 3 vols. [Varanasi: Bauddha Bharati, 1970-72], 2:554)
5. G. S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures (London, Berkeley, and Los Angeles: Cambridge University Press and University of California Press, 1970), p. 281
6. See R. F. Gombrich, Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 153-91
7. S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 32-52
8. The pioneering work is W. Kirfel, Kosmographie der Inder (Bonn: K. Schroeder, 1920), but this devotes rather little space to Buddhist sources in comparison to Brahmanical and Jain materials and is now rather dated
9. It is Louis de La Vallée Poussin's work on the Abhidharmakośa that has given us the most substantial material on Vaibhāscombining dot belowika cosmology; see his L'Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu, Vasubandhu et Yaśomitra: Troisième chapitre de l'Abhidharmakośa: Kārikā, Bhāscombining dot belowya et Vyākhyā (Brussels: Académie royale de Belgique, 1919)
10. and "Cosmology and Cosmogony (Buddhist)," in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings, 13 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908-27), 2:129-38
11. The relevant portions of N̄ānamoli's translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga constitute the only readily available and accessible sources for the developed Theravādin system; see The Path of Purification (Colombo: Semage, 1964), 7:40-44
12. The Path of Purification (13:29-65, p. 214, n. 14
13. The two more comprehensive studies of the details of the Nikāyas' cosmological outlook, Joseph Masson's La religion populaire dans le canon bouddhique pāli (Louvain: Bureaux du Muséon, 1942)
14. and M. M. J. Marasinghe's Gods in Early Buddhism: A Study in Their Social and Mythological Milieu as Depicted in the Nikāyas of the Pāli Canon (Vidyalankara: University of Sri Lanka, 1974) tend to approach their subject from the standpoint that talk of gods and the like in the Nikāyas is something of a concession to "popular" Buddhism rather than an integral part of Buddhist thought - this is explicitly revealed in the title of Masson's book and is perhaps less true of Marasinghe's work; both these books, however, represent useful collections of material on cosmological ideas as presented in the Nikāyas
15. The figure of Mara has received some additional attention: T. O. Ling, Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Theravāda Buddhism (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1962)
16. J. W. Boyd, Satan and Māra: Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil (Leiden: Brill, 1975)
17. R. Kloetzli's more recent Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), while providing a useful summary and overview of Buddhist cosmological ideas from the Nikāyas through to the developed Mahāyāna, from my perspective passes rather quickly over the early materials and the Abhidharma
18. One of the most interesting treatments of cosmology in the Nikāyas to have been published in recent years is Peter Masefield's "Mind/Cosmos Maps in the Pāli Nikāyas," in Buddhist and Western Psychology, ed. N. Katz (Boulder, Colo.: Prajñā Press, 1983), pp. 69-93
19. See also R. F. Gombrich, "Ancient Indian Cosmology," in Ancient Cosmologies, ed. C. Blacker and M. Loewe (London, 1975), pp. 110-42
20. F. E. Reynolds and M. B. Reynolds, Three Worlds according to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1982)
21. One of the sources employed by Phya Lithai was the earlier Pali Lokapan̄n̄atti; see E. Denis, trans. and ed., La Lokapan̄n̄ ati et les idées cosmologiques du bouddhisme ancien, 2 vols. (Lille, 1977)
22. S. Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 165-76, 218-24, 247-61
23. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand, pp. 34-35
24. According to the stock Nikāya formula (e.g., D 1:73), by abandoning the five hindrances one attains the first jhāna thereby passing from the kāmâvacara to the rūpâvacara; the developed cosmological tradition states that Māra dwells as a rebellious prince among the paranimittavasavattin gods (S 1:133, 1:33-34); see Boyd (n. 5 above), pp. 81-84, 111-19; G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, 2 vols. (London. Pāli Text Society, 1974), 2:613
25. Sn 435-39: "tassa m' evam viharato pattass' uttama-vedanamcombining dot below / kāmesu nâpekhate cittamcombining dot below passa sattassa suddhatamcombining dot below / / kāmā te patcombining dot belowhamā senā dutiyā arati vuccati / tatiyā khuppipāsā te catutthī tancombining dot belowhā pavuccati / / pañcami thīna-middhamcombining dot below te chatcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhīrū pavuccati / sattamī vicikicchā te makkho thambho te atcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhamo // . . . // esa namuci senā kancombining dot belowhassâbhippahārancombining dot belowī / na namcombining dot below asūro jināti jetvā ca labhate sukhamcombining dot below" (trans. adapted from K. R. Norman, trans., The Group of Discourses: Revised Translation with Introduction and Notes [Oxford: Pāli Text Society, 1992])
26. The kind of consciousness that is characteristic of a being is essentially a function of a being's bhavaṅga-citta; see R. Gethin, "Bhavaṅga and Rebirth in the Abhidhamma," in The Buddhist Forum, vol. 3 (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1995), pp. 11-35
27. See Vibh 135-92; Vibh-a 199-200; bhāscombining dot belowya to Abhidh-k 3:24 (La Vallée Poussin, trans., 2:65-66); cf. R. Gethin, The Buddhist Path of Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiyā Dhammā (Leiden: Brill, 1992), p. 351
28. DATcombining dot below 1:201: "āruppesu vā ti vā-saddena samcombining dot belowvattamāna-lokadhātūhi an̄n̄a-lokadhātesu vā ti vikappanamcombining dot below veditabbamcombining dot below. na hi sabbe apāya-sattā tadā rūpârūpa-bhavesu uppajjantī ti sakkā vin̄n̄ātumcombining dot below, apāyesu dīghatamâyukānamcombining dot below manussalokuppattiyā asambhavato." The fact that the DATcombining dot below comments here in this way when Vism-tcombining dot below fails to make any comment on Buddhaghosa's account of the contraction of the world is perhaps further evidence that the authors of the Nikāya tcombining dot belowikās and Vism-tcombining dot below are not the same; see L. S. Cousins, "Dhammapāla and the Tcombining dot belowīkā Literature," Religion 2 (1972): 159-65
29. P. Jackson, "A Note on Dhammapāla(s)," Journal of the Pāli Text Society 15 (1990): 209-11
30. The Nikāyas and Āgamas for their part prefer to speak of the length of time beings will suffer in hell realms by way of simile rather than specific numbers of years or aeons (see Kokāliya-sutta, S 1:149-53; A 5:170-74; Sn 123-31; cf. bhāsya to Abhidh-k 3:84). Vibh 422:26, which deals with age limits in the various realms of existence, says nothing about the hell realms, and begins with the human realm; the commentary (Vibh-a 521) states that kamma is what determines the life span of beings in the descents - as long as kamma is not exhausted beings do not pass from those realms; the Anutcombining dot belowikā apparently adds (see Ñāncombining dot belowamoli, trans., The Dispeller of Delusion, 2 vols. (London: Pāli Text Society, 1987-90), 2:299, n. 7) that the life span in Avīci is an antarakappa (a sixty-fourth of a mahākappa). Abhidh-s 23 (chap. 5, verse 21) states that there is no definite age limit for beings in the four descents and for humans; the length of time spent in these realms is dependent on the specific kamma that brought about the rebirth. As far as human beings are concerned this comment seems to be made with reference to the tradition - found in the Cakkavattisīhanāda-sutta (D 3:58-79) and Mahâpadā na-sutta (D 2:1-54) - that the life span of humans varies from ten years to 80,000 years at different periods within an aeon, and thus does not mean that humans can outlive the aeon. Vasubandhu too states (Abhidh-k 3:83) that the life span of beings in Avici is one antarakalpa (an eightieth of a mahākalpa according to northern tradition). Malalasekera (n. 21 above) comments (s.v. Avici, Devadatta) that Devadatta is destined to suffer in Avici for 100,000 aeons, but the source he cites (Dhp-a 1:148) strictly says only that at the end of 100,000 aeons Devadatta will become a paccekabuddha, and not that he will spend that period continuously in Avici
31. D 1, passim; M 1:178-84, 344-48, 3:33-36, 134-37; cf. M 1:267-71. See Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening (n. 35 above), pp. 207-8
32. S. J. Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 49-52. Tambiah confusingly describes the Ābhassara realm as arūpa at one point and creates, to my mind, a rather misleading "dyadic opposition between material states and formless states."
33. Vasubandhu does, however, designate the realms of the rūpadhātu as "places" or "locations" (sthāna); the ārūpyadhātu, on the other hand, is without location (asthāna). This would seem to be because to the extent that beings of the rūpadhātu possess rūpa-skandha (they possess the senses of sight and hearing) they must have location. Compare Abhidh-k 2:2-3, 7:3; Y. Karunadasa, The Buddhist Analysis of Matter (Colombo: Department of Cultural Affairs, 1967), pp. 161-162
34. For example, Vism 10; one should note here that in certain contexts (e.g., Abhidh-s 5; Nārada, trans., A Manual of Abhidhamma [Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1980], p. 64) the four formless attainments are treated simply as modifications of the fourth (or, according to the Abhidhamma reckoning, fifth) jhāna
35. P. M. Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 98
36. Both these expressions are connected with another expression of this theme, namely, the Sautrāntika theory of "seeds"; cf. P. S. Jaini, "The Sautrāntika Theory of Bīja," Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 22 (1959): 237-249
37. Tattvasaṅgraha 2:1107 (vv. 3549-50): "pañcagaty- ātma-samcombining dot belowsāra-bahir-bhāvān na martyatā / buddhānām isyate 'smābhir nirmāncombining dot belowam̄ tu tathā matam / / akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhe pure ramye 'śuddhâvāsa- vivarjite / budhyante tatra sambuddhā nirmitas tv iha budhyate." I read ramye 'śuddhāvāsavivarjite for Shastri's ramye śuddhāvāsavivarjite, although a Tibetan translation of apparently the same verse does not recognize the sandhi: "Rejecting the pure abodes, he rightly and completely awakened in the ecstatic abode of Akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowha." (See mKhas grub rje's Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tanlras, trans. F. D. Lessing and A. Wayman [The Hague: Mouton, 1968], pp. 22-23.) The implication that the Akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowha realm is somehow apart from the pure abodes is surely problematic, while the phrase "akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowha-bhavane divye sarva-pāpa-vivarjite" (Laṅkā vatāra Sūtra 269.4) would seem to confirm my emendation
38. Tattvasaṅgraha 2:1107: "naraka-preta-tiryag-deva-manuscombining comma belowya-bhedena pan̄cagaty-ātmakahcombining dot below samcombining dot belowsārahcombining dot below tad-bahir- bhūtāś ca buddhā bhagavata ity asiddhamcombining dot below martyatvam escombining dot belowām / kathamcombining dot below tarhi śuddhodanâdi-kulotpattir escombining dot belowāmcombining dot below śrūyate / ity āha nirmāncombining dot belowamcombining dot below tu tathā matam iti / etad evâgamena samcombining dot belowspandyann āha akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowha ity ādi / akaniscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhā nāma devāhcombining dot below tescombining dot belowām ekadeśe suddhâvāsa-kāyikā nāma devāh / atra hy āryā eva śuddhā āvasanti / tescombining dot belowām upari maheśvara- bhavanamcombining dot below nāma sthānam / tatra carama-bhavikā eva daśabhūmi-pratiscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhitā bodhisattvā utpadyante / iha tu tad-ādhipatyena tathā nirmāncombining dot belowam upalabhyata ity āgamahcombining dot below" (cf. G. Jha, trans., The Tattvasaṅgraha of Shāntarakscombining dot belowita with the Commentary of Kamalashīla, 2 vols. [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986], 2:1547; Williams, pp. 180-181)
39. É. Lamotte, trans. Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajnāpāramitāś āstra), 5 vols. (Louvain: Bibliothèque du Musèon and Publications de l'Institut Orientaliste, 1944-1980), 5:2431-32, 2438, 2442-43
40. E. Conze, trans.. The Large Sūtra on Perfect Wisdom with the Divisions of the Abhisamcombining dot belowayālamkāra (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979), p. 165. Eighth-stage Bodhisattvas are here described as enjoying the play of the higher knowledges (abhijn̄ākrī danatā), seeing Buddha fields (buddha-kscombining dot belowetrdarś anatā), and producing their own Buddha fields in accordance with what they have seen ("tescombining dot belowām buddha-kscombining dot belowetrānām yathā-drcombining dot belowscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowānāmcombining dot below sva-kscombining dot belowetra-pariniscombining dot belowpādanata"). The commentarial Mahāprajn̄āpāramitāśāstra (see Lamotte, trans., 5:2433-35, 2439, 2444) fills this out and explains that at the eighth stage the Bodhisattva sees the bodies of the Buddhas as "creations" (nirmāncombining dot belowa), and that he accomplishes the concentration that fills the universe with his own magical creations, like a magician producing apparitional armies, palaces, and cities; from now on he knows the precise circumstances of any new birth he will assume. During the ninth stage he is a Bodhisattva in his last existence (caramabhavika); finally, seated beneath the tree of enlightenment, he at last enters into the tenth stage, the stage of the Cloud of Dharma (dharma-meghā bhūmi). The Mahāprajn̄āpā ramitāśāstra here appears to impose the standard nomenclature of the Daśabhūmika Sūtra on the ten bhūmis of the Prajn̄āpāramitā, despite the fact that the details of the Daśabhūmika scheme are manifestly different
41. Daśabhūmikasūtra 94.20-95.6: "yasyām pratiscombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhito bodhisattvo bhūyastvena maheśvaro bhavati deva-rājah." Compare Daśabhū mīśvaro 199.2-5; T. Cleary, trans., The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, 3 vols. (Boston: Shambala, 1984-1987), 2:111
42. Lalitavistara 79.6-7: "jāta-mātrasya bodhisattvasya maheśvaro deva-putrah śuddhâvāsa-kāyikān deva-putrān āmantryaivam āha." G. Bays, trans., The
43. See also F. Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1953), s.v. "maheśvara." The Lalitavistara's account of the Pure Abodes is interesting in itself. The Lalitavistara begins with the Buddha attaining a samādhi called "the manifestation of the ornaments of a Buddha" (buddhâlamcombining dot belowkāravyūha) (Bays, trans., p. 2); the lights that subsequently issue from his body attract the attention of various gods of the Pure Abodes who come to him and request the Buddha to teach the Lalitavistara, a teaching that "cultivates the skillful roots of the Bodhisattva" (bodhisattva-kuśala-mūla-samudbhāvana) (p. 3). The gods of the Pure Abodes lead the way in coming to honor the newly born Bodhisattva (p. 79) while later they create the four omens that prompt the Bodhisattva to go forth (p. 136). Nobuyoshi Yamabe has drawn my attention to Lamotte, trans., 1:519, which associates tenth-stage Bodhisattvas called Maheś varadevarājas with the Pure Abodes
44. See, e.g., Abhidh-s 2 on "motivationless consciousness" (ahetuka-citta) and Abhidh-s chap. 4, on the "consciousness process" (citta-vithi); cf. L. S. Cousins, "The Patcombining dot belowtcombining dot belowhāna and the Development of the Theravādin Abhidhamma," Journal of the Pāli Text Society (1981), pp. 22-46
45. See, e.g., J. Varenne, Yoga and the Hindu Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), pp. 127-63
46. J. Brereton, "The Upanis̄ads," in Approaches to the Asian Classics, ed. W. T. de Bary and I. Bloom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), pp. 115-35
47. Richard Gombrich, "The Buddha's Book of Genesis?" Indo-Iranian Journal 35 (1992): 159-78
48. see also his Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988), p. 85
49. Gombrich, "The Budda's Book of Genesis?" pp. 163, 161
50. Steven Collins, "The Discourse on What Is Primary (Aggañña-Sutta): An Annotated Translation," Journal of Indian Philosophy 21 (1993): 301-93
51. Collins, Selfless Persons (n. 7 above), pp. 131-38