Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The ... - misterdanger.net

THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY IN THE EARLY CANON
O monks, all feelings, in which he takes no delight will become cool
right here; this is called, monks, the element of nirvana without a
remainder of clinging. 49
Although this sutta is frequently referred to as textual evidence, it does not
actually mention the five aggregates expected from the metaphorical structure
as well as the Theravada exegetical tradition. This could be the reason
why scholars like Husita Koudazu have said that upAdi as meaning the five
aggregates could not be found within the early canon. 50 In fact, its description
of saupAdisesa nibbAnadhAtu refers to the five faculties ( pañcindriyAni),
as in the above mentioned Fditta-pariyAya. 51
How he uses the five faculties (pañcindriyAni) seems to differentiate a
saint (arahant) from an ordinary monk. Through the going out (nibbAna) of
the triple fires, a monk leaps into the state of a saint (arahant) in whom
there is no more impurity left (khCOAsava). Nirvana is, as Gombrich
says, ‘not a “thing” but the experience of being without greed, hatred and
delusion’. 52 The outcome of his experience, ‘going out’, is the firm belief that
he is no longer bound to endless rebirth. 53 This is why what comes after the
description of nirvana is always ‘the cry of jubilation’, 54 seen here as ‘whose
impurities are destroyed, who has reached perfection, who has done what
should be done’.
On emerging from this experience this monk is a saint (arahant). Although
he is back to normal, he is different from before: he has a firm control of his
mind (manoindriya). However, he still is in contact with the outside world
through his five sense organs and, as a consequence, he sometimes experiences
suffering or happiness. The Buddha, the best example of a saint (arahant),
for example, in the Avassutasutta in the SaNyuttanikAya feels pain in his
back and wants to stretch it. 55 Since a saint (arahant) has firm control over
his mind, he, unlike an ordinary monk, no longer forms any attachment to
external objects. When the Itivuttaka passage says ‘In him, the five faculties
still remain, . . . he experiences happiness and suffering’, we can see that a
cognitive process is going on, even after this nirvana with a remainder of
clinging.
In the early Chinese canon, 56 our cognitive process is explained as follows:
consciousness (vijñAna) arises by reason of faculty (indriya) and of object
(viLaya); the coming together of the three is contact (sparUa); conditioned
by contact, feeling (vedanA), apperception (saNjñA ) and volition (cetanA )
arise. Although the typical passages in the Pali canon tend to omit apperception
and volition and go directly to thirst (taOhA), 57 one passage in the
MajjhimanikAya 58 shows what is missing between feeling (vedanA) and thirst
(taOhA). After ‘feeling (vedanA)’, it says ‘what one feels one perceives, what one
perceives (sañjAnati) one reflects about (vitakketi), what one reflects about
one is obsessed with (papañceti)’. 59 Thus the cognitive process described in
the Pali canon could be more or less the same as that in the Chinese canon.
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