Part 7 - On the variety of intake

Q. 8. Bhante! How many types of matter do the infernal beings separate?

A. 8. Gautama! From the standpoint of the variety called kārmic³⁰, two types are separated: fine and coarse.

Q. 9. Bhante! How many types of matter do the infernal beings assimilate?

A. 9. Gautama! From the standpoint of the variety called ‘intake’, two types are assimilated: fine and coarse. (As of separation and assimilation), so also of absorption.

Q. 10. Bhante! How many types of matter do the infernal beings cause to fructify?

A. 10. Gautama! From the standpoint of matter of kārmic variety, they cause fructification of two types. They are: fine and coarse. The rest, feeling and exhausting, need be stated likewise. (To be precise, the forms are): increased/ decreased, increasing/decreasing, will inncrease/decrease, the effects; altered, altering, will alter; piled, piling, will pile; cemented, cementing, will cement. For all these, kārmic matter, the distinction between fine and coarse needs be stated.

Couplet:

Separation, assimilation, absorption,
Fructification, suffering, exhaustion,
Increase/decrease (of effect),
Alteration, piling, cementing,
Last four in all tenses, past, present and future³¹.

Notes (based on commentary of Abhayadeva Sūri):

30. ‘Vaggaṇā’ is variety or type of matter. Eight varieties are mentioned, viz., gross (audārika), fluid (vaikrīya), intake/assimilative (āhāraka), caloric (taijasa), expression (bhāṣā), respiration (śvasocchvāsa), mind (manaḥ) and kārmaṇ. Clusters of atoms, gross, fluid, assimilative, caloric and kārmaṇ, build up five types of body-forms around the soul and the remaining three impart expression, respiration and thinking. They are stated in an order headed by the coarsest variety called ‘gross’, then tending to be finer, the finest of all being ‘kārmaṇ’.

A broad demarcation will be:

In the Sūtra here, the consideration relates to kārmaṇ vaggaṇa.

31. Following intake of matter-particles, discussion now starts on how to get rid of them occupying soul-spaces. Terms relevant in the process, which have already been noted, are sepa-

ration, assimilation, absorption, fructification, suffering and exhaustion. These are major steps by which all matter-particles are thrown out and the soul is liberated. But in between, certain matter-atoms need special attention in order to be thrown out. Hence certain new terms have been introduced.

They are:

1. uvvaṭṭaṇa—increase/decrease of effect (rasa);
2. saṅkāmaṇa—process of altering, say, short-span ones into long-span ones, and vice versa;
3. ṇihattaṇa—process of piling up matter-particles one on the other in a heap; and
4. ṇikāyaṇa—process of cementing the entire bunch of matter-particles into one inseparable unit, to be thrown, out together at one stroke.

In all, then, they take 18 forms as follows:

Separation, assimilation, absorption, fructification, suffering, exhaustion — 6,
Effect (rasa) increased / decreased, in-creasing/decreasing, to be increased/to be decreased — 3,
Altered, altering, to be altered — 3,
Piled, piling, to be piled — 3,
Cemented, cementing, to be cemented — 3,
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