Problems Bared, Essays on Buddhism

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92 Yet, there is a difference in the virtue, concentration and wisdom (sīla, samādhi, paññā) of a follower on the Noble Eightfold Path, and the perfection, contemplation and insight (adhisīla, adhicitta, adhipaññā) of one on the tenfold path who is no longer a disciple (asekha) but a perfect one, an arahant. Virtue forms part of the eightfold path and still includes the observance of precepts as part of one’s ethical training, the moral obligations of the man in the world by which are regulated all aspects of social life in right speech (sammā-vācā), right action (sammākammanta) and right living (sammā-ājīva). Even the observance of a greater number of precepts does not bring about that higher virtue (adhisīla) which is found in perfection, not as a restraint, but as coming from inner necessity. For, that alone is virtue which needs no persuasion of righteousness, no inducement of reward, no compulsion of authority, no background of fear, but which comes from clear understanding and perfect comprehension, without a sense of duty but as the result of an inner necessity. Then there will be truth, not in a mere abstention from lies, from harsh language, slander and frivolous talk, but in dedication to sincerity of living, without compromise, without hypocrisy, without selfishness. Such is the adhisīla, the supreme virtue, which the Buddha declared to be superior to the most noble and highest virtue (ariya parama sīla) on which such great stress is laid usually, and in praise of which so many monks and learned men speak in various ways 6 . Similarly, the concentration of unified attention (sammā-sati) and one-pointed meditation (sammā-samādhi), which on the Noble Eightfold Path as a process of mental purification leads to tranquillity of mind and spiritual ecstasy perhaps, cannot lead to emancipation and has, therefore, to be sublimated and refined in adhipaññā, which is the purest form of insight only found in the adhipaññādhamma vipassanā. This is not only the understanding of the unsubstantiality and voidness of the object of contemplation, but rather 6 D. I., 174
93 the dissolution of the identifying consciousness. It is the breaking up of mental forms and the end of mental formations. It is the comprehensive insight that occurs by knowing an object to consist of mere phenomena, and by seeing the dissolution of this conscious thought together with the object conceived. In this comprehension lies the realisation of the void of all existence, of the dissolution of all binding factors, of the ultimate deliverance (sammā-vimutti) which is the ending of the tenfold path of perfection. Finally, the right understanding (sammā-diṭṭhi) and right intention (sammā-saṅkappa) of the Noble Eightfold Path find a deeper meaning in the adhicitta of the tenfold path of perfection. Here it is not the controlled mind, but the freed mind; for, the tenfold path of perfection gives an additional two factors, sammā-ñāṇa and sammāvimutti, not to be found in the Noble Eightfold Path. The wisdom (paññā) of understanding and intention, even on the highest level, is to be supplemented by perfect insight (ñāṇa). It was the first glimpse of this insight which made of aññā Kondañña (and of him alone) an enterer of the stream of holiness (sotāpatti-magga), while the others, without this insight, remained mere followers on the Noble Eightfold Path. It is this comprehensive insight which shows up the false as false and thereby discerns the truth. It shows the true nature of all desire (even the desire for spiritual advancement) as misguided self-delusion and thereby gives that immediate and absolute and perfect freedom (sammā-vimutti), which cannot be desired, acquired or developed, just because it is not objective and because there is no subject, no I, to acquire, to achieve, to become. This is truly a path with no one to walk on it; it is a salvation from oneself, which is the ultimate deliverance. It is not a path of progress, of a search for, or an approach to a goal. When life ceases to be a search, when it ceases to be a process of grasping, then right living will bring perfect freedom from all bondage and deliverance from all fetters. When right effort ceases to search for substitutes and escape-routes, it will be solely directed
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Copyright Notice This work is licen
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4 “What I would really like to do
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Introduction This collection of ess
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9 dhism. True Buddhism cannot be fo
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The Problem of Conflict We are livi
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What is that goal of happiness, the
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For many it will be a struggle for
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18 control them. Fear, therefore, l
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20 feeling of confidence and securi
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22 (sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā), bu
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24 live means to think deeply, to f
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26 places. Then there is a problem
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28 sibility of knowledge is an obst
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30 there is no logic in dreams, no
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32 It is not a striving with a desi
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34 an experience is really lived th
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36 nor perceived, which is not conc
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Existence I: Of Material Life No ph
Page 43 and 44: 41 ness. Matter is the non-mental,
Page 45 and 46: 43 cles of a body are not scattered
Page 47 and 48: 45 that matter has a mind of its ow
Page 49 and 50: Existence II: Of Personality There
Page 51 and 52: 49 of a particular phenomenon, but
Page 53 and 54: 51 which is peculiar to the individ
Page 55 and 56: 53 to be fettered; it does not want
Page 57 and 58: The Psychology of Rebirth All relig
Page 59 and 60: 57 so, this desire for continuation
Page 61 and 62: 59 deluded mind has something to fe
Page 63 and 64: 61 waves and eddies pass away, and
Page 65: 63 Then one might begin to seek els
Page 68 and 69: 66 there is no scientific view whic
Page 70 and 71: 68 ditions in the past, producing e
Page 72 and 73: 70 swift movement of javana is only
Page 74 and 75: 72 ture becomes discernible in the
Page 77 and 78: Dependent Origination II The scheme
Page 79 and 80: 77 course is that the wounds become
Page 81 and 82: 79 be understood then, that this co
Page 83 and 84: 81 But even this delight. and zest
Page 85: 83 tivities (saṅkhāra) which are
Page 88 and 89: 86 What is needed is not political
Page 90 and 91: 88 First, the Buddha’s very first
Page 92 and 93: 90 walker thereon” (maggaṁ atth
Page 96 and 97: 94 towards the unveiling of a delus
Page 98 and 99: 96 our mental pressure, in the hope
Page 100 and 101: 98 great detail, in order to build
Page 102 and 103: 100 the mind agreeable and amenable
Page 104 and 105: 102 strange objects for concentrati
Page 106 and 107: 104 conflict (dukkha) only, because
Page 109 and 110: Determinism and Free Will In this a
Page 111 and 112: 109 doubt; as post factum there can
Page 113 and 114: 111 volition arises in dependence o
Page 115 and 116: 113 Evil, then, is that which does
Page 117 and 118: 115 clinging. But intention, which
Page 119 and 120: Synthesis of Mind and Matter In thi
Page 121 and 122: 119 the last century was all-round
Page 123 and 124: 121 fact, it would appear that man
Page 125 and 126: 123 with its constant frictions and
Page 127 and 128: 125 ling power (indriya) which is t
Page 129 and 130: Evolution and Beyond Man’s recent
Page 131 and 132: 129 different classes, or are they
Page 133 and 134: 131 analogy just a little while mor
Page 135 and 136: 133 with himself and through himsel
Page 137 and 138: 135 nity to burst forth, in a way s
Page 139 and 140: 137 our concentration on an ideal,
Page 141: About the Author Henri van Zeyst wa
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Problems Bared, Essays on Buddhism

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