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... * ......
[1152] Which are the states that are Hindrances?
The six Hindrances,
to wit,
the Hindrance of sensual desire,
the Hindrance of ill will,
the Hindrance of stolidity and torpor,
the Hindrance of excitement and worry,
the Hindrance of perplexity,
the Hindrance of ignorance.[1]
In this connexion
[1153] What is the Hmclrance of sensual desire?
Answer as for the 'Intoxicant of sensuality', § 1097.[2]
[1154] What is the Hindrance of ill will?
Answer as for the 'Tie of ill will', § 1137.
[1155] What is the Hindrance of stolidity and torpor?
First distinguish between stolidity and torpor.[3]
[1156] What is stolidity?
That which is indisposition,[4] unwieldiness[5] of intellect;
adhering and cohering;
clinging, cleaving to, stickiness;
stolidity, that is, a stiffening, a rigidity of the intellect[6]
— this is called stolidity.
[1157] What is torpor?[7]
That which is indisposition and unwieldiness of sense, a shrouding, enveloping,[8] barricading within[9];
torpor that is sleep, drowsiness;
sleep,[10] slumbering, somnolence
— this is called torpor.
Now this is the stolidity and this is the torpor which are called 'the Hindrance of stolidity and torpor'.[11]
[1159] What is the Hindrance of excitement and worry?
First distinguish between 'excitement' and 'worry'.
In this connexion,
[1160] What is excitement?[12]
That excitement of mind which is disquietude, agitation of heart, turmoil of mind
— this is called excitement.
[1161] What is worry?[13]
Consciousness of what is lawful in something that is unlawful;
consciousness of what is unlawful in something that is lawful;
consciousness of what is immoral in something that is moral;
consciousness of what is moral in something that is immoral[14]
— all this sort of worry,
fidgeting,
overscrupulousness,
remorse of conscience,
mental scarifying[15]
— this is what is called Worry.
Now this is the excitement and this is the worry which are what is called 'the Hindrance of excitement and worry'.
[1162] What is the Hindrance of ignorance?
Answer as for 'dulness', § 1061.
[1163] Which are the states that are not Hindrances?
Every state, good, bad and indeterminate, which is not included in the foregoing [six] states, whether it relates to the worlds of sense, of form, or of the formless, or to the life that is Unincluded; in other words, the four skandhas; all form also, and uncompounded element.
Which are the states that are
[1164] (a) favourable to the Hindrances?[16]
Co-Intoxicant states, good, bad and indeterminate, whether relating to the worlds of sense, form or the formless; in other words, the five skandhas.
[1165] (b) unfavourable to the Hindrances?
The Paths that are the Unincluded and the Fruits of the Paths, and uncompounded element.
Which are the states that are
[1166] (a) associated with the Hindrances?
[1167] (b) disconnected with the Hindrances?
Answers identical with those given to corresponding questions respecting the Intoxicants, §§ 1105, 1106.
Which are the states that are
[1168] (a) Hindrances themselves and favourable to the Hindrances?
The Hindrances themselves are both.
[1169] (b) favourable to the Hindrances, but not themselves Hindrances?
The states which are favourable to the Hindrances afore named; that is to say, with the exception of the Hindrances, all co-Intoxicant states whatever, good, bad and indeterminate, whether they relate to the worlds of sense, form or the formless; in other words, the five skandhas.
Which are the states that are
[1170] (a) both themselves Hhidrances and associated with Hindrances?
The following pairs are both themselves Hindrances and associated with Hindrances:
Sensual desire in conjunction with ignorance, and conversely.
Ill-will in conjunction with ignorance, and conversely.
[1171] (b) associated with Hindrances, hut not themselves Hindrances?
The states which are associated with the [six aforementioned] states, the latter themselves being excepted; in other words, the four skandhas.
Which are the states that are
[1172] (a) disconnected with the Hindrances, hut favourable to them?
The states which are disconnected with those [six] states afore-named, that is to say, co-Intoxicant states, good, bad and indeterminate, whether they relate to the worlds of sense, form or the formless; in other words, the five skandhas.
[1173] (b) disconnected with the Hindrances and unfavourable to them?
The Paths that are the Unincluded, and the Fruits of the Paths, and uncompounded element.[17]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
In the Sutta Pitaka, the Hindrances form a category of five, ignorance (avijja) being excluded. See the description in D. i. 71-74, and cf D. i. 246; M. i. 60, 144, 181, 269, 294, etc.; A. iii. 63; S. v. 60, 94-98. This discrepancy is not noticed by Buddhaghosa. See also § 1112, etc. The Hindrances are to be understood as states which muffle, enwrap or trammel thought. States, again, which are nivaraniya are to be understood analogously to those which are saniiojaniya. Asl. 49.
[2]:
'Sensual thirst' is again omitted, as in the description of the corresponding Fetter, § 1114.
[3]:
It is interesting to note that whereas the text calls thin am (stolidity) a morbid state of the c it tarn and middham a morbid state of the kayo, Buddhaghosa, in his Cy. on the Digha Nikaya (Sum. 211), speaks of thinam as citta-gelaiinam (sickness or affection of the mind), and of middham as cetasikagelannam. The apparent inconsistency, however, will vanish if the predominantly psychological standpoint of the Dhamma Sangani be kept in mind.
By kayo, as Buddhaghosa reminds us (Asl. 378; see above, p. 43, n. 3), is meant 'the three skandhas' of feeling, perception and syntheses, that is to say, the three through which we have subjective experience of bodily states objectively conceived. And cetasiko is the adjective corresponding to kayo taken in this sense (§ 1022).
Hence stolidity is confined to the vinnana-skandha, which = c it tarn = (approximately) representative intellection, while torpor is a corresponding affection of mind on its presentative and emotional side.
[4]:
Akalyata, equivalent to gilanabhavo, Asl. 377, where Maha Vibhanga, i. 62, is quoted.
[5]:
See § 47.
[6]:
'The (stolid) mind cannot be maintained in any required attitude or deportment. It is as inert as a bat hanging to a tree, or as molasses cleaving to a stick, or as a lump of butter too stiff for spreading'
(Asl., ibid.).
'Attached to' (linam) is paraphrased by avippharikataya patikutitam, lit., bent back without expansion, where the notion, as conceived by the Commentator, has something akin to katukaficukata or niggardliness. See § 1122, n. 2.
[7]:
Middham, derived by the Cy. from medhati (√med, 'be fat'); there is a cognate notion in our 'torpor', cf. τέρπειν, to be sated, and √tarp.
[8]:
Onaho, pariyonaho. See Mil. 300; D. i. 246. In the latter work, the a is short. In the Cy. (Asl. 378) the simile is 'enveloping the senses (kayo) as a cloud the sky'. In Sum. i. 135 the latter of the two terms is applied to 'covering' a drum.
[9]:
Anto-samorodho. The Cy. explains that, as men cannot get out of an invested city, so dhamma, blockaded by torpor, cannot get out by expansion or diffusion).
[10]:
There is no comment on this repetition of soppam.
[11]:
The Commentator in his general remarks on this Hindrance is at pains to point out that for the khinasavo, or arahat, a periodical torpor or repose has ceased to engender bad karma. The Buddha allowed an afterdinner nap, for instance, at certain seasons (see M. i. 249), as not in itself conducive to a bemuddling of the mind. So powerful, however, is the Hindrance to the non-adept, that its influence is not rooted out till the arahat Path is gained. The arahat is fain to rest his frail body (lit., his fingernail-kayo), but to him it is as unmoroX an act as the folding up of leaves and blossoms at night. On overcoming torpor see A. iv. 86.
[12]:
See § 429.
[13]:
In its primary meaning kukkuccam is fidgeting, bad deportment of hands and feet. See Jat. i. 119; ii. 142; also Sum. i. 1, 2. Hence mental fidget, the worry of scruple (lit., 'the little sharp stone in a man's shoe'. See Skeat's English Dictionary), the over-sensitive, overscrupulous conscience. In the frequent cases of kukkuccam, respecting the keeping of the rules of the Order, given in the Vinaya — 'tassa kukkuccam ahosi' — or kukkuccayanto — no blame seems to have attached to the person in question. There was weakness in the anxiety felt by the non-robust conscience as to the letter of the law; on the other hand, there was loyalty to the Master's decrees.
Even the great Sariputta was not above such scruples, when, on falling ill at a rest-house, he declined to take food, in accordance with the 31st Pacittiya rule (Vin. iv. 70). But Buddhaghosa quotes this as an instance of praiseworthy scruple, to be distinguished, as 'Vinayakukkuccam', from the after-flush of burning anguish (anutapo) accompanying the consciousness of having done amiss, a feeling that is no longer possible for an arahat. Asl. 384. Cf below, § 1304.
[14]:
Things lawful (kappiyam) and unlawful are explained as here referring merely to rules of routine in the Order, e.g., to kinds of food, the dinner-hour, etc. By things moral and immoral (avajjam, etc.) are meant acts of virtue and of vice. Asl. 383.
[15]:
See p. 117, n. 7.
[16]:
Nivaraniya, to be understood as analogous to sannojaniya. Asl. 49.
[17]:
Worry and perplexity are discarded in the First Path; sensual desire and ill-will in the Third Path; stolidity, torpor and ignorance in the Fourth. Asl. 384. Insight into the presence or absence of the (five) Hindrances is termed, in A. i. 272, manosoceyyam.