Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

Identity and Experience
conception has the concomitant implication that san"n"i can be correct: if the
term san"Ei on its own meant erroneous conception, there would be no need
of the prefix vi. So though certain conceptions may be incompatible with
'seeing things as they are', other conceptions may also be correct: the term
saiiiii does not in itself mean false conceptions. This is illustrated in a
description of deep meditation given by Sariputta. On the one hand, he
states that deep meditation is a state "in the world but without any concept
of the world".4g This suggests that ideas or concepts are of an ongoing
nature, part of our general samsin'c experiential baggage, and that in our
normal waking state what we experience as the 'world' involves 'naming'
by us according to our level of insight. On the other hand, in such meditation
Sariputta is nevertheless able to have a specific idea,50 in this instance
that Nirvana is the end of rebirth,51 which is clearly not false according to
Buddhist teaching.
There is no suggestion that the world is mereb conceptual, only that it is
san"n"5 that interprets it according to our level of insight. We find san"ii
described as 'like a but the passage is one in which each of the
khandhas is being described in a manner which conveys its impermanence:
the context does not imply that san"n"6 is being singled out as unreal. In this
context, it is relevant that the meditative levels of the nipajhGnu.s and the first
three arzipajhinas (or spheres - Qatana) are all referred to as These
three ariipajhinas have already been referred to above. The fourth anipajh&a
is called the realm of neither-conception-nor-non-conception54 (which is
why it did not feature in the Anguttara Nikiiya passage which gave the
abstract conceptions of the meditator in the ariipajhinas). The fourth
arzipajhzna does not, however, represent the attaining of insight any more
than the precedingjhinas do: it is a state free from conceptions of whatever
nature, and is conducive to the attainment of Nirvana since it is thus free
from any notion of but liberating insight has still to be achieved. There
is controversy about whether the subsequent and highest meditative level of
the cessation of conception and feeling (safiivedayitanirodha) represents
liberation or If it does, then it cannot be just because of the cessation
of conceptions. Not only does the fourth aspajhina, which, as I have said,
does not represent liberation, also appear free from conceptions, but it is
also stated elsewhere that the destruction of the isavas (which does
represent liberation) can take place in one who has conceptions. Indeed,
the experience is described as being the highest activity of ~an"n"5.~~ It would
appear from this that san"n"i not only apperceives and conceives all our
samsiric experiences, sensory and abstract, but is also instrumental in
identifjnng the liberating experience. And though it precedes papah when
papaka occurs, it would appear that papan"ca is not automatically a result of
saiifik, as might be inferred from the description of the arising of feelingm5*
Supporting the points made in this and the last paragraphs, it is stated in
the Abhidhamrna that saiii can be bad, good and neither-good-n~r-bad.~~