Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)
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The translator’s English as printed (T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
1 This standpoint of insight into the limitations of all sentient experience when estimated according to its emotional or hedonistic values is claimed by the Buddha as a monopoly of his own doctrine, distinguishing it from other ethical systems. See his graphic exposition in the Great Suttanta on the Body of 111 ; and the passages quoted under Yathabhutazw in the Sa/z/yutta Index (vol. vi).
2 Panna. vimutto, i.e. says the Cy. 'emancipated without the aid of the following eight grades of deliverance ' — by native insight. So PP. 14, 73. Here, as throughout, when panna. is rendered by 'reason/ it is but a pis-aller. Panna is really intellect as conversant with, engaged upon, general truths, and thus comes out as approximately Kant's Vernunfi, and Reason as distinct from Understanding, a distinction very general in English and European philosophy. See Dh. S., transl., p. 17, n. 2. By 'emancipated ' the Cy. understands ' having effected the non-perpetuity (in rebirths) of name and form.'
3 Vimokha. See the following Suttanta, p. 1 1 1 of the text; A. IV, 306, 349 ; Dh. S., §§ 248-50 ; transl., pp. 63-5. Buddhaghosa's comments on the last citation are approximately the same as those on the first three stages here given. Here, too, he explains Release as deliverance from adverse conditions, so that the attention is sustained with all the detachment and confidence felt by the little child borne on his father's hip, his limbs dangling, and no need felt to clutch. In the
p. 69
4 Having one's self external form, one sees [these] forms. This is the first stage.
' Unaware of one's own external form, one sees forms external to one's self. This is the second stage.
[71] ' " Lovely ! " — with this thought one becomes intent. This is the third stage.
' Passing wholly beyond 1 perceptions of form, all perceptions of sense-reaction dying away, heedless of all perceptions of the manifold, conscious of space as infinite, one enters into and abides in the sphere of space regarded as infinite. This is the fourth stage.
' Passing wholly beyond the sphere of space regarded as infinite, conscious of reason as infinite, one enters into and abides in the sphere of cognition regarded as infinite. This is the fifth stare.
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' Passing wholly beyond the sphere of reason regarded as infinite, conscious of there being nothing whatever, one enters into and abides in the sphere of nothingness. This is the sixth stage.
' Passing wholly beyond the sphere of nothingness, one enters into and abides in the sphere of " neitherconsciousness-nor-unconsciousness." This is the seventh stage.
1 Passing wholly beyond the sphere of " neitheridcation-nor-non-ideation," one enters into and abides first stage, Jhana is induced by intense concentration on the colour of some bodily feature. In the second, the kasiwa is an object external to one's body. In the third, consciousness of an uprising glamour (around or superseding the kasiwa) of perfectly pure colour or lustre is meant. The aesthetic suffusion was held to quicken the sense of emancipation from morally adverse conditions analogously to that perception of ethical rapture induced by the Four Divine or Sublime Moods, described in the Maha Sudassana Suttanta. The Pa/isambhidamagga is again referred to by the Cy., viz. II, p. 39, in this connexion. The curious thing is that in reply to the question, ' How is there release thus : — " How lovely it is — with this thought he becomes intent ? " ' — the reply is simply and solely the Formula of the Four Sublime Moods. A
1 The 4th— 7th stages were afterwards known as the Four Aruppa Jhanas, or the four Jhanas to be cultivated for attaining to the Formless Heavens (see Dh. S., §§ 265 ff.).
JO XV. MAHA-NIDANA-SUTTANTA. D. ii. 71*
in a state of suspended perception and feeling. This is the eighth stage.
4 These, Ananda, are the eight stages of Deliverance.