Dhammasangani
Enumeration of Phenomena
400 B.C. | 124,932 words
*english translation* The first book of the Abhidhamma (Part 3 of the Tipitaka). The Dhammasangani enumerates all the paramattha dhamma (ultimate realities) to be found in the world. According to one such enumeration these amount to: * 52 cetasikas (mental factors), which, arising together in various combination, give rise to any one of... * ......
[962-966] What is that form which is
(i.) earth-element (pathavi-dhatu)?[1]
That which is
hard,
rough,
hardness,
rigidity,
whether it be
of the self,[2]
or external,
or the issue of grasping,[3]
or not the issue of grasping.
(ii.) fluid-element (apodhatu)?
That which is
fluid, belonging to fluid,
viscid, belonging to what is viscid,
the cohesiveness of form,
whether it be
of the self,
or external,
or the issue of grasping
or not the issue of grasping.[4]
(iii.) flame-element (tejodhatu)?[5]
That which is
flame, belonging to flame,
heat, belonging to heat,
hot, belonging to what is hot,
whether it be
of the self,
or, etc,
[continue as in preceding].
(iv.) air-element (vayodhatu)?
That which is
air, belongs to air [the fluctuation],
the inflation,[6]
of form,
whether it be
of the self,
or, etc.
(v.) derived?[7]
The spheres of the five senses . . . and solid nutriment.
Such is the Category of Form under a Fivefold Aspect.
[End of] the Group of Five.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The essential mark (lakkhanam) of the earth-element is given as 'hardness' (kakkhalattam, AsL, 332). This may very likely have conveyed to Buddhists what we understand by 'solid', when the implication is density as opposed to what is liquid or gaseous, and it was tempting to use solidity in preference to hardness. But the former term is ambiguous, for it may mean the opposite of plane surface, and kakkhalattam cannot be strained to mean that. Again, the opposite of the latter term is neither liquid nor flat, but £oft or pliant. Further, compare its use in describing gravel or stone-food in Mil. 67, where we should certainly use 'hard'. The other characteristics of pathavidhatu are said to be establishing a fulcrum or ttov o-Tw, patitthanam), and accepting (sampaticchanam), the import of the latter term not being very clear.
[2]:
Ajjhattam. See § 673, note, and § 742, note.
[3]:
In the Commentary, p. 338, where upadinnam is said to be na kammasamutthanam eva, the negative particle must have crept in by some error, that which is upadinnam being essentially due to karma. See Dh. S., §§ 653,* 654; AsL, pp. 46, 337 (§ 664), etc. Generally, says Buddhaghosa, the bony framework of the body (the most solid part of one's self, sariratthakam) is here referred to. For this, while it may, or may not be upadinnam, is said to be wholly the issue of grasping when signifying that which is taken, laid hold of, infected.
[4]:
See § 652, note. The essential characteristics of apodhatu are said to be flowing (paggharanam), expansion or spreading (bruhanam, cj. p. 12, note 3, Mil. 317) and congress (sangaho, Asl., ibid.). The last term may possibly be an attempt to express what we term, loosely enough, 'water always finding its own level'. The internal or personal apo is distributed as bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, serum, tears, and so on. M. i. 42.
[5]:
Never aggi or fire, in the Buddhist books. The essential characteristics are said to be (Asl., ibid.) heat, ripening, maturing (paripacanam) and softening. By the heat within food and drink are digested. M,, loc. cit.
[6]:
The text reads here both chambitattam and thambhitattam, fluctuation (quaking) and inflation. The former term, however, is not elsewhere in the Atthasalini applied to vayo; the latter, with the intensive vi-, is declared to be the characteristic mark of vayo, other features of the element being onward movement (samudiranam) and downward force (abhiniharam — sic lege, Cfl D. i.*76; M. i. 119; Asl. 332). Now Buddhaghosa passes over chambhitattam in silence, but explains thambhitattam. Again, though this is, of course, not conclusive, only the single term thambhitattam rupassa seems to be called for by the parallel, bandhanattam rupassa (cohesiveness), in the description of fluidity. It is significant also that K omits chambhitattam. On these grounds taken together, I should be inclined to doubt the original inclusion of the term. The instance chosen to illustrate the inflating function characteristic of vayo is that of the sheaths or stems of lotuses and reeds which are ' filled with air', or wind (vatapunnani).
[7]:
Derived' (up a da) is the opposite of (i.) to (iv.). See §§ 647, 648.