Chapter III

1. 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of an unconscious existence after death, and who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is unconscious. And how do they do so?

2. 'They say of the soul: "The soul after death, not subject to decay, and unconscious,

(1) has form,
(2) is formless,
(3) has, and has not, form,
(4) neither has, nor has not form
(5) is finite,
(6) is infinite,
(7) is both,
(8) is neither.

3. 'These, brethren, are those recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of an unconscious existence after death, and who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is unconscious. And those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of those eight ways. There is none beside.

4. 'Now of these, brethren, the Tathāgata knows that these speculations thus arrived at, thus insisted on, will have such and such a result, such and such an effect on the future condition of those who trust in them. That does he know, and he knows also other things far beyond (far better than those speculations); and having that knowledge he is not puffed up, and thus untarnished he has, in his own heart, realised the way of escape from them, has understood, as they really are, the rising up and passing away of sensations, their sweet taste, their danger, how they cannot be relied on, and not grasping after any (of those things men are eager for) he, the Tathāgata is quite set free.

'These, brethren, are those other things, profound, difficult to realise, hard to understand, tranquillising, sweet, not to be grasped by mere logic, subtle, comprehensible only by the wise, which the Tathāgata, having himself realised and seen face to face, hath set forth and it is concerning these that they who would rightly praise the Tathāgata in accordance with the truth, should speak.

5-8. [Similar sections for those who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is neither conscious nor unconscious.]

 

The Annihilationists

9.^[1] 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who are Annihilationists, who in seven ways maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.^[2] And on account of what, starting out from what, do they do so?

10. 'In the first place, brethren, some recluse or Brahman puts forth the following opinion, the following view: "Since, Sir, this soul has form, is built up of the four elements, and is the offspring of father and mother, it is cut off, destroyed, on the dissolution of the body; and does not continue after death; and then, Sir, the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

11. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul—divine, having form, belonging to the sensuous plane, feeding on solid food. That you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

12. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul—divine, having form, made of mind, with all its major and minor parts complete, not deficient in any organ. This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

13. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing beyond ideas of form, by the dying out of ideas of resistance, by paying no heed to ideas of difference, conscious that space is infinite, reaches up to the plane of the infinity of space.^[3] This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

14. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such ,a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which having passed beyond the plane of the infinity of space, knowing that consciousness is infinite, reaches up to the plane of the infinity of consciousness.^[4] This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

15. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing quite beyond the plane of the infinity of consciousness, knowing that there is nothing, reaches up to the plane of no obstruction.^[5] This you neither know of nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off and destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living, being.

16. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the whole soul, Sir, is not then completely annihilated. For there is a further soul, which by passing quite beyond the plane of no obstruction, realises 'This is good, this is excellent,' and reaches up to the plane of neither ideas nor the absence of ideas.^[6] This you neither know of, nor perceive. But I know and have experienced it. And since this soul, on the dissolution of the body, is cut off, destroyed, does not continue after death, then is it, Sir, that the soul is completely annihilated." Thus is it that some maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being.

17. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who are Annihilationists and in seven ways maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being. And whosoever do so they, all of them, do so in one or other of these seven ways. There is none beside.

18. [Repetition of Section 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathāgata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.]

19. 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being. And relying on what, starting out from what, do they do so?

20. 'Hereon, brethren, some recluse or Brahman may have the following opinion, the following view: "Whensoever the soul, in full enjoyment and possession of the five pleasures of sense, indulges all its functions, then, Sir, the soul has attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvāṇa."^[7] Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

21. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvāṇa. And why not? Sensuous delights, Sir, are transitory, they involve pain, their very nature is to fluctuate. And grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and loathing arise out of their inconstancy and change. But whensoever the soul, putting away sensuous delights and evil dispositions, enters into and abides in the First Jhāna, the state of joy and ease, born of seclusion, accompanied by reflection, accompanied by investigation, then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvāṇa." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

22. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvāṇa. And why not? Because inasmuch as that state involves reasoning and investigation it is stamped as being gross. But whensoever, Sir, the soul, suppressing both reasoning and investigation, enters into and abides in the Second Jhāna, the state of joy and ease, born of serenity, without reflection or investigation, a state of elevation of mind, internal calm of heart, then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvāṇa." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

23. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvāṇa. And why not? Because inasmuch as that state involves the sense of joy, of exhilaration of heart, it is stamped as being gross. But whensoever, Sir, the soul, by absence of the longing after joy remains in equanimity, mindful and self-possessed, and experiences in the body that ease of which the Arahats speak (when they say) 'the man serene and thoughtful dwells at ease,' and so enters into and abides in the Third Jhāna—then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvāṇa." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

24. 'To him another says: "There is, Sir, such a soul as you describe. That I do not deny. But the soul does not by that alone attain to the highest Nirvāṇa. And why not? Because inasmuch as that state involves a constant dwelling of the mind on the ease it has enjoyed it is stamped as gross. But whensoever, Sir, the soul, by putting away ease, by putting away pain, by the previous dying away both of joys and griefs has entered into and abides in the Fourth Jhāna,^[8] a state made pure by self-possession and equanimity, without pain and without ease—then, Sir, has the soul attained, in this visible world, to the highest Nirvāṇa." Thus do some maintain the complete happiness, in the visible world, of a living being.

25. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being. And those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of these five ways. There is none beside.

26. [Repetition of Section 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathāgata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.]

27. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who arrange the future, whose speculations are concerned with the future, and who on forty-four grounds put forward various assertions regarding the future. And those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of these forty-four ways. There is none beside.

28. [Repetition of Section 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathāgata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.]

29. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who reconstruct the past, and arrange the future, or who do both, whose speculations are concerned with both, and who in sixty-two ways put forward propositions with regard to the past and to the future, and those who do so, all of them, do so in one or other of these sixty-two ways. There is none beside.

30. [Repetition Of Section 40, above p. 44, setting forth that other, higher, knowledge of a Tathāgata, for which alone he can be rightly praised.]

32. 'Of these, brethren, those recluses and Brahmans who are Eternalists, who in four ways maintain that the soul and the world are eternal:

(2) those who are Semi-eternalists, who in four ways maintain that the soul and the world are partly eternal and partly not:

(3) those who are Extensionists, who in four ways maintain the infinity or the finiteness of the world:

(4) those who are Eel-wrigglers, who when a question is put to them on this or that resort, in four ways, to equivocation, to wriggling like eels:

(5) those who are Fortuitous-Originists, who in two ways maintain that the soul and the world arose without a cause:

(6) those who in any of these eighteen ways reconstruct the past:

(7) those who hold the doctrine of a conscious existence after death, who maintain in sixteen ways that the soul after death is conscious:

(8) those who hold the doctrine of an unconscious existence after death, who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is unconscious:

(9) those who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is neither conscious nor unconscious:

(10) those who are Annihilationists, who maintain ill seven ways the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being:

(11) those who hold the doctrine of happiness in this life, who in five ways maintain the complete salvation, in this visible world, of a living being

That opinion of theirs is based only on the personal sensations, on the worry and writhing consequent thereon,^[9] of those venerable recluses and Brahmans, who know not, neither perceive, and are subject to all kinds of craving:

45 foll. 'Those opinions of theirs are therefore based upon contact (through the senses).

58 foll. 'That they should experience those sensations without such contact, such a condition of things could not be.

71. 'They all of them, receive those sensations through continual contact in the spheres of touch. To them on account of the sensations arises craving, on account of the craving arises the fuel (that is, the necessary condition, the food, the basis, of future lives), from the fuel results becoming, from the tendency to become arises rebirth, and from rebirth comes death, and grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair. It is, brethren, when a brother understands, as they really are, the origin and the end, the attraction, the danger, and the way of escape from the six realms of contact, that he gets to know what is above, beyond, them all.^[10]

72. 'For whosoever, brethren, whether recluses or Brahmans, are thus reconstructors of the past or arrangers of the future, or who are both, whose speculations are concerned with both, who put forward various propositions with regard to the past and to the future, they, all of them, are entrapped in the net of these sixty-two modes; this way and that they plunge about, but they are in it; this way and that they may flounder, but they are included in it, caught in it.

'Just, brethren, as when a skilful fisherman or fisherlad should drag a tiny pool of water with a fine-meshed net he might fairly think: "Whatever fish of size may be in this pond, every one will be in this net; flounder about as they may, they will be included in it, and caught"—just so is it with these speculators about the past and the future, in this net, flounder as they may, they are included and caught.

73. 'The outward form, brethren, of him who has won the truth^[11], stands before you, but that which binds it to rebirth is cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him.

'Just, brethren, as when the stalk of a bunch of mangoes has been cut, all the mangoes that were hanging on that stalk go with it; just so, brethren, though the outward form of him who has won the truth stands before you, that which binds it to rebirth has been cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him.'

74. When he had thus spoken, the venerable Ānanda said to the Blessed One: 'Strange, Lord, is this, and wonderful! And what name has this exposition of the truth?'

'Ānanda, you may remember this exposition as the Net of Advantage, and as the Net of Truth, and as the Supreme Net, and as the Net of Theories; remember it even as the Glorious Victory in the day of battle!'

Thus spake the Blessed One, and glad at heart the brethren exalted his word. And on the delivery of this discourse the thousandfold world-system shook.

Here ends the Brahma-Jāla Sutta.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

SectionSection 9-18 are discussed by James D'Alwis in 'Buddhist Nirvana,' p. 47. Comp. Jacobi, 'Jaina Sūtras,' II, 236, 339.

[2]:

Sato sattassa. Insert the word sato in the text (as in SectionSection 17,19, 41, 42). The Kaṭha Upanishad I, 20 alludes to such belief.

[3]:

Compare the 4th Vimokha. See Rh. D. 'Buddhist Suttas,' pp. 5 2, 213. The idea of resistance, paṭigha, is here not ethical, but refers to the senses. Having no sense of reaction to touch, of opposition to muscular effort. It appears from M. I, 164 that this was pretty much the view put forth by Gotama's first teacher Ālāra Kālāma.

[4]:

Compare the 5th Vimokha. This seems from M. I 165 to have been much the same as the view held by Rāma, whose son and pupil, Uddaka, was Gotama's second teacher.

[5]:

Compare the 6th Vimokha.

[6]:

Though it is not explicitly so stated, this last of these seven theorisers is no doubt to be considered as believing in all the sorts of soul held by the others, so that he believes in seven. One may compare the five souls each more subtle than the last, made respectively of anna, prāṇa, manas, vijñāṇa, and ānanda (food, breadth, mind, consciousness, and joy), described in the Taittirīya Upanishad II, 1-5. The Buddhist modification of these theories omits the souls, and treats instead of various states of mind (produced by stages of meditation), the attainment of which, during this life, leads to rebirth in corresponding worlds, or planes of existence, named after those stages of meditations. But the oldest Piṭaka texts say very little about it, and the history of Buddhist speculation on the matter has yet to be formulated.

Centuries afterwards we find a somewhat analogous conception in the gradually ascending series of seven, each more subtle than the last (Sthūla-sarīra, änga-sarīra, indriya, manas, ahaïkara, buddhi, and ātman), set out in the Sāïkhya texts, and the later Vedanta has a similar series. There is sufficient truth in the idea of the series of seven set out in our text to explain the persistence of the general idea in all the Indian systems, but the details and the application are strikingly different.

The text shows that the four Arūpa Vimokhas of the Buddhist theory were regarded by the early Buddhists as derived from closely allied speculations, older than Buddhism, and expressed in almost identical phraseology.

[7]:

Buddhaghosa here (Sum. 1, 121) explains Nirvāṇa as the suppression of pain; pain, dukkha, being bodily, as opposed to domanassa, mental. 'In this visible world' means in whatever world the particular soul happens to be at the time. On parikāreti compare V. II, 290 rājā uyyāne paricāresi, 'the king indulged himself, enjoyed himself, in the garden.' 'All its functions' is added from the Commentary.

[8]:

The text shows that the four Jhānas were regarded by the early Buddhists as older than Buddhism. The very words used are identical; the only modification introduced in Buddhism being the omission of the 'souls.' These four, together with the four Arūpa Vimokhas (see note on Section 19), make up the Eight Attainments (Samāpattiyo), often mentioned in the Jātaka commentary as practised by pre Buddhistic recluses.

[9]:

On paritasita compare M. 1, 36 na asati paritassati, 'is not worried at what is not': paritasita, 'fidgetiness' or 'worry,' at M. 1, 136; S. III, 15-19; and Mil. 253, 400. On vipphandita, M. I, 8, 486; Dh. S. 381 (Asl. 253); Jāt. IV, 495.

[10]:

In the text the first three of these four propositions are repeated of each of the eleven classes of theorisers. `The fourth is put in the form which, to avoid repetition, I have adopted for all the four.

[11]:

Tathāgata, that is the speaker himself, the Buddha.