The Tree of Enlightenment
An Introduction to the Major Traditions of Buddhism
by Peter Della Santina
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Part Four
The Abidharma
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Chapter Thirty-Nine
Analysis of Conditionality
The analysis of relations, or conditionality, is as important as the
analysis of
consciousness and the other aspects of
psycho-physical experience we
have considered in
the last few
chapters. This analysis has often been neglected in
studies of the
Abhidharma, which is paradoxical if you remember that, of the
seven
books of the
Abhidharma Pitaka, the Book of Causal
Relations (Patthana), which deals
with
conditionality, is one of the
largest. It is only by devoting
sufficient attention to the
analysis of
conditionality that we can avoid some of the pitfalls of an
overly
analytical
view of reality. I alluded to this in Chapter 32, when I
devoted some
time to examination
and comparison of the analytical
and the relational methods of
investigation, which
together make up
the comprehensive approach of Abhidharma philosophy.
Perhaps because the analytical approach of the Abhidharma
has received
more attention
than the relational, we find Abhidharma
philosophy categorized as
'realistic pluralism'
by some scholars.
This kind of categorization awakens all kinds of
associations with
movements of modern western philosophy, such as positivism and
the work
of Bertrand
Russell. It implies that the result of Buddhist
analysis is a universe
in which numerous
individual, separate, and
self-existing entities exist in their own
right and ultimately.
While this
may have been the view of some early schools of Buddhism in
India, it is
certainly not the view of mainstream Buddhism, whetherTheravada or
Mahayana.
The only way we can avoid this
pluralistic, fragmentary view of reality
is by taking due
account of
the relational approach outlined in the Patthana and also
developed
in the
Compendium of Relations (Abhidhammattha Sangaha). By
doing so, we will
achieve a
correct and balanced view of Buddhist
philosophy, a view that takes
into account the
static and analytical
aspect of experience as well as the dynamic and
relational aspect.
The importance of understanding relations, or conditionality, is
clearly indicated in the
Buddha's own words. On a number of
occasions the Buddha specifically
associated the
understanding of
conditionality, or interdependent origination, with
the attainment of
liberation. He said that it is because of the failure to understand
interdependent
origination that we have so long wandered in this round of repeated
rebirth.
The Buddha's enlightenment is frequently described as consisting of his
penetrating the
knowledge of interdependent origination. This very close connection
between the
knowledge of interdependent origination and enlightenment is further
illustrated by the
fact that ignorance is most frequently defined, both in the sutras and
in the Abhidharma,
as either ignorance of the Four Noble Truths or ignorance of
interdependent origination.
Now, the theme underlying both the Four Noble Truths and interdependent
origination is
conditionality or causality, the relation between cause and effect.
Thus the knowledge of
conditionality is equivalent to the destruction of ignorance and the
attainment of
enlightenment.
The analysis of conditionality in the Abhidharma tradition is treated
under two headings:
(1) the analysis of interdependent origination, and (2) the analysis of
the twenty-four
conditions. We will look at them separately and then together, to see
how they interact,
support, and inform each other.
I will not explain each of the twelve components of
interdependent
origination here, since
they are described in
Chapter 10. I would, however, like to briefly
mention the three
undamental schemes of interpretation of the twelve components: (a)
the
scheme that
divides and distributes the twelve components over
the course of three
lifetimes--past,
present, and future; (b) the
scheme that divides the components into
afflictions, actions,
and
sufferings; and (c) the scheme that divides the components into
active (or causal) andreactive (or resultant) categories. In this third
scheme, ignorance,
mental formation or
volition, craving, clinging,
and becoming belong to the causal category
and can belong to
either the past life or the present life, while consciousness, name
and
form, the six senses,
contact, feeling, birth and old age anddeath belong to the effect
category and can belong
to either the
present life or the future life. Thus there is an
analysis of cause and
effect, or
conditionality, in the formula of interdependent
origination.
The twenty-four conditions are not mutually exclusive. Many
of them are
partly or
entirely identifiable with one another. The only
explanation for
several instances of
almost (if not completely)
identical factors is the desire of the
authors' to be absolutely
comprehensive, so as to avoid the slightest possibility of neglecting
a
mode of
conditionality.
Let us look at each of the twenty-four conditions in turn: (1)
cause,
(2) objective
condition, (3) predominance, (4) contiguity,
(5)
immediacy, (6)
simultaneous origination,
(7) reciprocity, (8)
support, (9) decisive support, (10) preexistence,
(11)
post-existence,
(12) repetition, (13) karma, (14) effect, (15)
nutriment, (16) control,
(17) absorption, (18)
path, (19)
association, (20) disassociation, (21) presence, (22)
absence, (23)
separation,
and (24) non-separation.
A distinction must be made between cause, or root cause, and
condition.
We need to look
at the Abhidharma literature if we want
to distinguish cause from
condition, because in
the Sutra literature
the two terms seem to be used interchangeably.
Generally, we can
understand the distinction by recourse to an analogy taken from the
physical world: while
the seed is the cause of the sprout, factors
like water, earth, and
sunlight are the
conditions of the sprout. In
he
Abhidharmic treatment of
conditionality, cause operates
in the
mental sphere and refers to the six wholesome or unwholesome
roots--non-greed,
non-hatred, and non-delusion and their
opposites, greed, hatred, and
delusion.
Objective condition refers generally to the object which
conditions
experience. For
example, a visual object is the objective
condition of visual
consciousness. Predominance
refers to four
categories of mental or volitional activities--wish,
thought, effort,
and
reason--which have an overriding influence on factors of
experience.
Contiguity and immediacy are virtually synonymous and refer
to the
conditioning of a
thought-moment by the immediately
preceding thought-moment. Contiguity
and
immediacy also refer tothe conditioning of a given state of mind or
matter by the
immediately preceding state of mind or matter. We can perhaps
understand this better if
we think of contiguity and immediacy in the
sense of immediate
proximity in time and
space, respectively.
Simultaneous origination can be seen in the case of the mental
aggregates of
consciousness, volition, perception, and feeling, and
also in the case
of the four essentials
of matter (earth, water, fire,
and air). Reciprocity or mutuality
refers to the mutual
dependence
and support of factors, as in the case of the legs of a
tripod that
depend on
and support one another. Support means the basis of
any particular
factor, in the way that
the earth is the support of
trees or canvas is the support of a
painting. But when simple
support becomes decisive support, it should be understood in the
sense
of inducement in a
particular direction. This will become
clearer when we examine how the
twenty-four
modes of
conditionality function in relation to the twelve components
of
interdependent
origination.
Preexistence or antecedence refers to the preexistence of
factors that
continue to exist
after subsequent factors come into
being. This is illustrated by the
preexistence of the
sense organs and
objects of the senses, which continue to exist and
thereby condition
subsequent physical and mental experience. Post-existence
complements
preexistence
and refers to the existence of
subsequent factors such as mental and
physical experience
that
condition preexisting factors like the sense organs and objects.
Repetition is important in the sphere of mental life and leads to
skill
or familiarity. This is
exemplified in the seven moments of
impulse consciousness (see Chapter
37). Repetition
is particularly
important in the sphere of wholesome and unwholesome
action
because it
increases the force of wholesome or unwholesome
thought-moments.
Karma is volitional action of a wholesome or unwholesome
variety.
Effect or result
indicates that the reactive aspect of
previous karma has an influence
and serves to
condition coexisting
phenomena. It is interesting to note that even
effects do, to a limited
extent, function as conditions or as causes. This will become clear if
we remember that
we are considering the functional rather than the
essentialistic
definitions of such factors.
Nutriment refers to not only
physical food, which is one of the
conditions of the physical
body,
but also to mental food, such as impressions, which are the
mental
food of the
aggregate of feeling. Control refers to confidence,
mindfulness, and so
forth, which
master or control their opposites.
Absorption refers not only to
meditative absorption but
also to
absorption in a more general sense, which encompasses both
wholesome and
unwholesome absorptions. You may remember
that the factors of
absorption (jhananga)
are not necessarily
wholesome and pertain not only to the states of
meditativeabsorption
but also to a general condition of
intensification of consciousness,
whether wholesome or
unwholesome (see Chapter 34).
Path refers to the path leading to unhappy states
encompassing wrong
views, wrong
effort, and so forth, and also to
the Noble Eightfold Path. Association
refers to the
conditioning of
a factor by a similar factor, whereas disassociation is
the
conditioning by
a dissimilar factor, such as the way sweetness and
bitterness, light
and darkness condition
each other. Thus
conditionality is not only positive but also negative.
In other words,
a
particular factor of experience is conditioned not only by factors
that
are similar but also
by factors that are dissimilar.
Presence refers to the necessary existence of certain
conditions in
order that other
phenomena occur. For instance, light
must be present for the experience
of a visible form
to arise.
Absence is, like disassociation, a negative form of
conditionality.
For example,
the disappearance of light is a condition for the
arising of darkness.
Separation and non-
separation are identical to
disassociation and association,
respectively.
The twenty-four modes of conditionality operate in
conjunction with the
twelve
components of interdependent
origination. For example, ignorance, the
first of the twelve
components, conditions volition, the second component, by way of
two
modes of
conditionality: objective condition and decisive
support.
This can be understood as follows: Volition can be meritorious
or
demeritorious, and
ignorance functions as the decisive support
of both. Ignorance
functions as the decisive
support conditioning
meritorious volition if it is made the object of
your meditation, in
that the desire to free yourself from ignorance induces you to
practice
meditation and so
forth. Conversely, if an unwholesome
state of mind, such as greed
(which is born of
ignorance), becomes
the object of your absorption, then ignorance
functions as the
decisive support of demeritorious volition. If you then commit an
unwholesome action
(steal a cookie, say), it is because ignorance
has functioned as a
decisive supporting
condition inducing you to
create the unwholesome volition on which the
unwholesome
action
was based. Ignorance can also condition volition by way of
contiguity, repetition,
and so forth.
Volition (the second component of interdependent origination)
conditions rebirth
consciousness (the third component) by means of
karma and decisive
support, while
consciousness conditions
name and form (the fourth component) through
reciprocity and
also
by means of support. Thus each of the twelve components
conditions
the subsequent
component in a particular way
identifiable in terms of the twenty-four
conditions. We
could cite
more examples, but they would only reiterate how these
twenty-four modes of
conditionality condition the twelve
components of interdependent
origination.
The idea at the heart of
the teaching of interdependent origination and
the teaching of
conditionality is the avoidance of the two extremes, the erroneous
views of eternalism
and nihilism. The Buddha said that seeing the
doer of an action and the
one who
experiences the fruit of that
action as identical is one extreme, while
seeing them as
different is
another extreme. He taught the avoidance of these two
extremes
when he
taught the Middle Way, which emerges from an
understanding of
interdependent
origination and conditionality.
If we examine the twelve factors of interdependent origination
in the
light of the twenty-
four modes of conditionality, we find that
in all twelve factors there
is no self, but only
processes conditioned
by other processes--processes that are, in their
actual nature,
empty of self and substance. This understanding of the emptiness of
self and substance is
achieved through an understanding of
conditionality.
It is in this sense that the consciousness belonging to this life
and
the consciousness
belonging to the next life are neither identical
nor different. When we
understand the
relationship between this life
and the next--between the doer of an
action and the
experiencer of
an action--as one that cannot be described in terms of
either
identity or
difference, we arrive at an understanding of the Middle
Way.
The relationship between this life and the next is one of cause
and
effect, and the relation
of cause and effect is one of neither
identity nor difference. In this
way we can
successfully avoid both
the extreme of belief in an eternal self and
the extreme of
rejection
of the law of moral responsibility, or karma.
We can perhaps make this conditioned relationship between
cause and
effect clearer by
looking at examples from daily life.
Take the case of the seed and the
sprout. The sprout
riginates
dependent on the seed, but the sprout and the seed are
neither
identical nor
different. They are obviously not identical, but by the
same token,
neither are they
altogether different. Similarly, when a
sound produces an echo, the two
are not identical
but neither are
they altogether different. In the same way, this life
and the next life
are
neither identical nor different; rather, the next life arises
dependent
on this life, volition,
and ignorance.
In this process of conditioned arising, there is no persistent,
permanent, and identical self,
but neither is there an annihilation of
the continuity of the process
of cause and effect. If
we can
understand the relation between cause (or condition) and effect
(or
result) as a
relation that cannot be described in terms of identity
and difference,
permanence and
annihilation, we will understand
emptiness, the Middle Way, and how
not-self and
insubstantiality
are compatible with moral responsibility and rebirth.
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Contents
|
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11
| 12 | 13
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41
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Update : 11-05-2002
