The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)

2 Yasomitra, ad Ab. Kosa II. 40, computes that, if in the first moment 27 dharmas are present, there will be 4S6 elements in the sixth one, and so on, ity ananta-dravya ( praninah ) pratisantana-Sarira-ksane bhavanti. If these elements were resistent stuff, says Yasubandhu, there would be not enough room for them in the whole universe.

II. YOGA !)

certain conditions. Faculties of ten different"kinds 1 are supposed always to be present. They are termed the general faculties (citta-malid-bhumika). Among them we find the faculty of concentration, samddhi or yoga. They are morally indifferent. To them are added either a certain number of faculties morally good, or a certain number of faculties morally bad. But not only do the elements which combine in one moment vary in number, they can vary also in intensity (utkarsa). In a certain individual, at a certain time, a certain element may predominate, while in another individual, or at another time in the same individual, another element may reach promi¬ nence. 2

Among the constantly present elements there are two exceedingly precious ones which, when given the proper opportunity of full developement, become predominant and change the character of the individual and his moral value altogether. They are the faculty of appreciative analysis (prajiid) and the faculty of concentrating our thoughts upon a siugle point to the exclusion of all other disturbing considerations and occurrences, it is just samddJii or yoga. These elements may be quite undeveloped and insignifi¬ cant. Prajud is then called mati, but it is the same faculty. When fully developed it becomes transcendent wisdom {prajud amald). Life in ordi¬ nary men is controled by ignorance ( avidyd ) which is the reverse of prajud, but not its mere absence. It is a separate element which can be and, in every ordinary man really is, present at the same time with his dormant faculty of wisdom. But it is not a constant faculty, it can be suppressed {ptrahina) and thrown out of the mental stream altogether which then be¬ comes purified or saintly ( drya ).

Now, the moral law or moral progress or moral education of man¬ kind is conceived as a struggle within the stream {santdna) between the good ( kusala ), the noble faculties of man and his bad (akusala) or defiling inclinations. Since the elements are ex hypothesi separate and momentary they cannot really influence one another. Nevertheless the presence of de¬ filing ignorance and other disturbing qualities makes the whole stream im¬ pure. All the elements are then impure, even the central element, bare

1 Cp. the tables appended to my Central conception, p. 100.

2 We accordingly say «I remember», «I think», «I wisli», but this does not mean that at the moment when I wish I do not think, or that in the moment when I remember I do not wish. All mind is regarded as consisting at every moment of an assemblage of mental atoms, faculties ( samskara) or elements (dharma).

consciousness, or pure sensation ( vijhdna ), becomes affected ( klista , sdsrava). A special law of causation ( sarvatraga-hetu ) is imagined to account for the fact that the elements of the stream are either all of them pure in the Saint, or all impure (klista) in the ordinary man. 1

It is part of the system, it is also a deep belief in all Buddhist coun¬ tries, that the noble and sublime faculties will finally, in the long run, triumph. The defiling faculties (Mesa) are divided into two classes, so far as one class can be remedied by insight, so to say, by reason, and the other by concentrated attention only. The first are called drsti-heya , the other bhdvand—heya. 2 It is of course a natural, and even a trivial, fact that some of our shortcomings and vices can be eradicated by knowledge, and others by concentrated attention alone. But the faculty of concen¬ tration, if fully develooed, has a greater force. 3 It then becomes a mystic power. It can stop life altogether. In the Path of Salvation it is the last and most decisive step. It can also transfer the individual into a higher plane of existence He is then reborn or transferred into the realm of ethereal ( accha , bhdsvaray bodies, into the sphere of purified matter (rupadhdtu ), or into the still higher regions of pure spirits (arupa-dhdtu).