But I think that no one can read this Sutta in comparison with the short passage found in the Book of the Great Decease (above, pp. 99-101) without feeling that the latter is the more original of * the two, and that the legend had not, when the Book of the Great Decease was composed, attained to its present extended form.
We seem therefore really to have three stages of the legend before us, and though the Gataka story was actually put into its present shape at a known date (the fifth century of our era) long after the latest possible date for the Book of the Great King of Glory, it has probably preserved for us a reminiscence of what the legend was at the time when the Book of the Great Decease was composed.
1 On this celebrated verse, see the note at Mah£parinibb£na Sutta VI, 16, where it is put into the mouth of Sakka, the king of the gods, and the discussion in the Introduction to this Sutta.
SABBASAVA-SUTTA.
sabbAsava sutta.
Dr. Morris, who had borrowed the Phayre and Tumour
MSS. of the Ma^Aima Nikdya from the India Office
Library, has been good enough to transcribe the text of
this Sutta for me.
I had hoped from the Rev. David da Silva's analysis of the Sutta in the Ceylon Friend for 1873, that it would determine the exact meaning of the difficult word Asava as used in the theory of Arahatship, and in the important passage (the Faith, Reason, and Works paragraph) re- peated so often in the Mahaparinibbina Sutta. It will be seen that this is scarcely the case, but as it does throw light on the ideas wrapped up in the word, and contains a very interesting passage 1 on the especial value attached in Buddhism to the mental habit we should now call agnosticism, I have adhered to the intention of including it in this volume.
The word Asava seems in this Sutta to be used in a general sense, — not confined only to the Asavas of sen- suality, individuality, delusion, and ignorance, but including the more various defilements or imperfections of mind, out of which those especial defilements will proceed.
Incidentally reference is made to the well-known Bud- dhist doctrine, that the right thing is to seek after the Nirvana of a perfect life in Arahatship, and not to trouble and confuse oneself by the discussion of speculative ques- tions as to past or future existence, or even as to the
sabbAsava sutta.
presence within the body of a soul. Buddhism is not only independent of the theory of soul, but regards the con- sideration of that theory as worse than profitless, as the source of manifold delusions and superstitions. Practically this comes, however, to much the same thing as the denial of the existence of the soul ; just as agnosticism is, at best, but an earnest and modest sort of atheism. And we have seen above that anattaw, the absence of a soul or self as abiding principle, is one of the three parts of Buddhist wisdom {v\gg&) 1 and of Buddhist perception (sa/?«a) 2 . The reconciliation of these two doctrines, of the agnosticism and of the denial, is, I think, that the absence of soul is only predicated of those five Aggregates of parts and powers to which a good Buddhist should confine his attention. These alone he should consider ; and he does wrong to care whether beyond and beside them a soul has, or has not, any real existence.
I may add that the importance of the Asavas appears from the fact that elsewhere the knowledge of them, of their origin, of their cessation, and of the way that leads to their cessation is placed on the road to Arahatship immediately after, and parallel to, the knowledge of Suffering, of its origin, of its cessation, and of the way that leads to its ces- sation — the knowledge, that is, of the four Noble Truths 3 .
The Asavas there meant are sensuality, individuality
(or life), and ignorance ; and the expressions c to him who
knows, to him who sees' (^inato passato) are used
there much in the same way as they are in our § 3. Per-
haps this was the passage which Burnouf had in his mind
when he wrongly said 4 that he had found in the Mah&-
parinibbclna Sutta an enumeration of three classes of
Asavas, whereas that Sutta always divides them into four
classes.
I am unable to suggest any good translation of the term itself —simple though it is. It means literally ' a running or flowing/ or (thence) ' a leak ; ' but as that figure is not
1 See above, p. 162.
3 Samara Phala Sutta, p. 152.
2 See above, p. 9.
4 Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 823.
used in English in a spiritual sense, it is necessary to choose some other figure ; and it is not easy to find one that is appropriate. ' Sin ' would be very misleading, the Christian idea of sin being inconsistent with Buddhist ethics. A ' fault ' in the geological use of the word comes somewhat nearer. * Imperfection ' is too long, and for ' stain ' the Pcili has a different word l . In the Book of the Great Decease I have chosen ' evil ; ' here I leave the word untranslated.
1 Ra^- o. See the verses translated in * Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 164.
sabbAsava-sutta.
once staying at Sivatthi, at the £etavana, in An&tha Piwdfika's park.
There the Blessed One addressed the brethren, and said, * Bhikkhus.'
* Yea, Lord !' said those brethren, in assent, to the Blessed One.
Then the Blessed One spake :
2. ' I will teach you, O brethren, the lesson of the
subjugation of all the Asavas. Listen well, and
attend, and I will speak!'
' Even so, Lord ! ' said the brethren, in assent, to the Blessed One.
Then the Blessed One spake :
' 1 say that there is destruction of the Asavas,
brethren, to him who knows, to him who sees ; not
to him who knows not, to him who sees not. And
what do I say, brethren, is the destruction of the
Asavas to him who knows, to him who sees ? It
is (a matter of) wise consideration, and of foolish
consideration.
3. ' In him, brethren, who considers unwisely,
Asavas which have not arisen spring up, and Asavas
which have arisen are increased. In him, brethren,
who considers wisely, Asavas which have not arisen
SABBASAVA SUTTA.
spring not up, and Asavas which have arisen do not increase.
4. ' There are Asavas which should be abandoned,
brethren, by insight, there are Asavas which should
be abandoned by subjugation, there are Asavas
which should be abandoned by right use, there are
Asavas which should be abandoned by endurance,
there are Asavas which should be abandoned by
avoidance, there are Asavas which should be aban-
doned by removal, there are Asavas which should
be abandoned by cultivation.
5. 4 And which, brethren, are the Asavas which should be abandoned by insight 1 ?
' In the first place, brethren, the ignorant uncon-
verted man, who perceives not the Noble Ones, who
comprehends not, nor is trained according to the
doctrine of the noble ones ; who perceives not good
men, who comprehends not, nor is trained according
to the doctrine of good men ; he neither understands
what things ought to be considered, nor what things
ought not to be considered ; the things that ought
not to be considered, those he considers; and the
things that ought to be considered, those he does
not consider.
6. * And which, brethren, are those things which
he should not consider, which he nevertheless con-
siders ?
* There are things which, when a man considers
them, the Asava of Lust springs up within him, which
had not sprung up before ; and the Asava of Lust,
which had sprung up, grows great; the Asava of
1 Dassand.
Life springs up within him, which had not sprung
up before ; and the Asava of Life, which had
sprung up, grows great; the Asava of Ignorance
springs up within him, which had not sprung up
before; and the Asava of Ignorance, which had
sprung up, grows great.
'These are the things which ought not to be considered, things which he considers.
7. 'And which, brethren, are those things which
should be considered, which he nevertheless does
not consider?
4 There are things, brethren, which, when a man
considers them, the Asava of Lust, if it had not
sprung up before, springs not up within him ; and
the Asava of Lust, which had sprung up, is put away;
the Asava of Life, if it had not sprung up before,
springs not up within him ; and the Asava of Life,
which had sprung up, is put away; the Asava of
Ignorance, if it had not sprung up before, springs
not up within him; and the Asava of Ignorance,
which had sprung up, is put away.
' These are the things which ought to be con- sidered, things which he does not consider.
8. ' It is by his consideration of those things,
which ought not to be considered ; and by his non-
consideration of those things, which ought to be
considered, that Asavas arise within him which had
not sprung up ; and Asavas which had sprung up,
grow great/
9. * Unwisely doth he consider thus :
4 " Have I existed during the ages that are past,
or have I not ? What was I during the ages that
are past? How was I during the ages that are
Sabbasava Sutta-
past ? Having been what, what did I become in the
ages that are past ? Shall I exist during the ages of
the future, or shall I not ? What shall I be during
the ages of the future ? How shall I be during the
ages of the future ? Having been what, what shall
I become during the ages of the future ? "
4 Or he debates within himself as to the present :
" Do I after all exist, or am I not ? How am I ?
This is a being; whence now did it come, and
whither will it go ?
10. 4 In him, thus unwisely considering, there springs up one or other of the six (absurd) notions l .
" I have a self!"
<4 I have not a self!"
" By my self, I am conscious of my self! "
44 By myself I am conscious of my non-self! "
4 Or, again, he gets the notion, 44 This soul of mine
can be perceived, it has experienced the result of
good and evil actions committed here and there :
now this soul of mine is permanent, lasting, eternal,
has the inherent quality of never changing, and
will continue for ever and ever ! "
11. 4 This, brethren, is called the walking in delu-
sion, the jungle of delusion 2 , the wilderness of de-
lusion, the puppet show of delusion, the writhing of
delusion, the fetter of delusion.
1 2. 4 Bound, brethren, with this fetter of delusion,
1 A^annaw di/Mtnam.
2 Di/Mi-gahanaw, with allusion, doubtless, if the reading is correct, to gaha«a/w.
the ignorant unconverted man becomes not freed
from birth, decay, and death, from sorrows, lamenta-
tions, pains, and griefs, and from expedients 1 — he
does not become free, I say, from pain.
1 3. ' But the wise man, brethren, the disciple
walking in the Noble Path, who perceives the noble
ones; who comprehends, and is trained according to.
the doctrine of the Noble Ones ; who perceives good
men, who comprehends, and is trained according to,
the doctrine of good men ; he understands both
what things ought to be considered, and what things
ought not to be considered — and thus understand-
ing, the things that ought to be considered those he
considers ; and the things that ought not to be
considered, those he does not consider.
14. * And which, brethren, are those things which
ought not to be considered, and which he does not
consider ?
' There are things which, when a man considers
them, the Asava of Lust springs up within him, which
had not sprung up before ; and the Asava of Lust,
which had sprung up, grows great; the Asava of
Life springs up within him, which had not sprung
up before ; and the Asava of Life, which had
sprung up, grows great ; the Asava of Ignorance
springs up within him, which had not sprung up
before ; and the Asava of Ignorance, which had
sprung up, grows great.
4 These are the things which ought not to be con- sidered, things which he considers.
1 That is, the practice of rites and ceremonies and the worship of Gods.
sabbAsava sutta.