Gethin - Cosmology and Meditation - From The Aggañña-Sutta To The Mahāyāna
Gethin - Cosmology and Meditation - From The Aggañña-Sutta To The Mahāyāna
Gethin - Cosmology and Meditation - From The Aggañña-Sutta To The Mahāyāna
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History of Religions
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Rupert Gethin COSMOLOGY AND
MEDITATION: FROM
THE AGGANNA-SUTTA
TO THE MAHAYANA
An earlier version of this article was read at the Tenth Congress of the I
sociation of Buddhist Studies in Paris in 1991. I am grateful to Stev
Cousins, Nobumi Iyanaga, Rita Langer, Oran Rotem, Paul Williams,
Yamabe for comments, criticism, or help with tracing references in the
this article.
1 D 3:84-85: "hoti kho so Vasettha samayo yam kadaci karahaci dighassa addhuno acca-
yena ayam loko samvattati. samvattamane loke yebhuyyena satta abhassara-samvattanika
honti. te tattha honti manomaya piti-bhakkha sayam-pabha antalikkha-cara subhattha-
yino ciram digham addhanam titthanti. hoti kho so Vasettha samayo yam kadaci karahaci
dighassa addhuno accayena ayam loko vivattati. vivattamane loke yebhuyyena satta
abhassara-kaya cavitva itthattam agacchanti. te ca honti manomaya piti-bhakkha sayyam-
pabha antalikkha-cara subhatthayino ciram digham addhanam titthanti." All references to
Pali and Sanskrit texts use the abbreviations listed in app. A of this article. For full
citations, see app. A. References are to volume and page of the cited edition, except in the
case of the Abhidharmakosa and Visuddhimagga; references to the former are to chapter
and verse, and to the latter, to chapter and section of the Warren-Kosambi edition and Nan-
amoli translation.
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184 Cosmology and Meditation
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History of Religions 185
and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings, 13 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1908-27), 2:129-38. The
relevant portions of Nlanamoli's translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga constitute
the only readily available and accessible sources for the developed Theravadin system;
see The Path of Purification (Colombo: Semage, 1964), 7:40-44, 13:29-65, p. 214, n. 14.
The two more comprehensive studies of the details of the Nikayas' cosmological outlook,
Joseph Masson's La religion populaire dans le canon bouddhique pali (Louvain: Bu-
reaux du Mus6on, 1942); and M. M. J. Marasinghe's Gods in Early Buddhism: A Study in
Their Social and Mythological Milieu as Depicted in the Nikayas of the Pali Canon
(Vidyalankara: University of Sri Lanka, 1974) tend to approach their subject from the
standpoint that talk of gods and the like in the Nikayas is something of a concession to
"popular" Buddhism rather than an integral part of Buddhist thought-this is explicitly
revealed in the title of Masson's book and is perhaps less true of Marasinghe's work; both
these books, however, represent useful collections of material on cosmological ideas as
presented in the Nikayas. The figure of Mara has received some additional attention: T. O.
Ling, Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in Theravada Buddhism (London:
George Allen & Unwin, 1962); J. W. Boyd, Satan and Mara: Christian and Buddhist
Symbols of Evil (Leiden: Brill, 1975). R. Kloetzli's more recent Buddhist Cosmology:
From Single World System to Pure Land (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), while pro-
viding a useful summary and overview of Buddhist cosmological ideas from the Nikayas
through to the developed Mahayana, from my perspective passes rather quickly over the
early materials and the Abhidharma. One of the most interesting treatments of cosmol-
ogy in the Nikayas to have been published in recent years is Peter Masefield's "Mind/
Cosmos Maps in the Pali Nikayas," in Buddhist and Western Psychology, ed. N. Katz
(Boulder, Colo.: Prajiia Press, 1983), pp. 69-93. See also R. F. Gombrich, "Ancient In-
dian Cosmology," in Ancient Cosmologies, ed. C. Blacker and M. Loewe (London,
1975), pp. 110-42.
6 F. E. Reynolds and M. B. Reynolds, Three Worlds according to King Ruang: A Thai
Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1982). One of the sources
employed by Phya Lithai was the earlier Pali Lokapanniatti; see E. Denis, trans. and ed.,
La Lokapaiinati et les iddes cosmologiques du bouddhisme ancien, 2 vols. (Lille, 1977).
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186 Cosmology and Meditation
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History of Religions 187
l See esp. Masson, pp. 18-38, and the chart facing p. 144 for details of the various
hierarchical lists found in the Nikayas.
12 See in particular A 2:126, 230; 4:39, 241; cf. Marasinghe, pp. 244-68, and chart
facing p. 62.
13 See Marasinghe, p. 44; D 2:139, 253; M 3:101-2; A 1:227, 5:59.
14 For example, D 1:62: "so imam lokam sadevakam samarakam sabrahmakam
sassamana-brahamanim pajam sadeva-manussam sayam abhiniiia sacchikatva pavedeti." I
follow the commentary (Sv 1:174) in taking sadeva in the sense of sammuti-deva. It is
possible to take samaraka and sabrahmaka as indicating a plurality of maras and brah-
mas, respectively (on the grounds that the Nikayas clearly do recognize a plurality of
brahmds and maras); on the other hand, it seems to me probable that in the present
context we should take imam lokam as implying simply "this [one] world-system" that
we occupy; see Boyd, pp. 100-111; cf. the discussion of the terms loka, loka-dhatu, and
cakkavala below, n. 34.
15 Marasinghe (n. 5 above), p. 260; cf. pp. 59, 259-61.
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188 Cosmology and Meditation
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History of Religions 189
skillful intentions.18 Acts of body and speech are, as it were, the epiphe-
nomena of particular kinds of mentality; they are driven by specific psy-
chological states. In a very real sense acts of body and speech are acts
of will. Thus the hierarchy is essentially one of certain kinds of mental-
ity (understood as kamma) being related to certain levels of existence;
this is most explicit in the case of the various jhanas and Brahma realms.
This way of thinking demonstrates the general principle of an equiva-
lence or parallel in Buddhist thought between psychology on the one
hand and cosmology on the other.
Many of the stories about devas from different heavens in the Nikayas
lend themselves very readily to a kind of "psychological" interpretation,
that is, to interpretation in terms of certain mental states; in certain
contexts this interpretation is explicit in the texts themselves. In the
vana-samyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya there is a whole series of ac-
counts of devas visiting bhikkhus dwelling in the forest in order to ad-
monish the bhikkhus for their laziness.19 Here the devas serve to arouse
skillful states of mind in the bhikkhu that spur him on in his practice.
Similarly in the Mara- and Bhikkhuni-samyuttas Mara is represented as
appearing on the scene and tempting bhikkhus, bhikkhunis, and the Bud-
dha, with the world of the five senses.20 Here then Mara appears to act
as the five hindrances (nivarana) which are precisely the mental states
that one must overcome in order to attain jhina, and it is precisely jhdna
that-at least according to a later understanding-takes one temporarily
beyond the world of the five senses and out of Mara's reach.21 To read
these texts in loosely psychological terms is not, I think, to engage in
acts of gratuitous "demythologizing"; the Buddhist tradition itself at an
early date was quite capable of demythologizing-so much so that one
hesitates to use such a term in this context. It is rather, I think, that this
kind of psychological interpretation was for the Nikayas inherent in the
material itself. When questioned as to the nature of Mara, the Buddha
responds in abstract terms that have to do with general psychological
experience: "One says, 'Mara! Mara!' lord. Now to what extent, lord,
might Mara or the manifestation of Mara exist?' 'Where the eye exists,
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190 Cosmology and Meditation
435. Dwelling thus having attained the highest experience, my mind has no re-
gard for sensual desires. See the purity of a being.
436. Sensual desire is called your [Mara's] first army, discontent your second;
your third is called hunger and thirst, your fourth craving.
437. Your fifth is called tiredness and sleepiness, your sixth fear. Your seventh
is doubt, deceit and obstinacy your eighth . . .
439. Namuci, this is your army-the attacking (force) of the Dark One
[Mara]. Not being a hero one does not conquer it, but having conquered it one
gains happiness.23
In the Samyutta Nikaya, the daughters of Mara too are presented as hav-
ing a similar psychological reality: "Then Craving, Discontent, and Lust,
the daughters of Mara, approached the Blessed One [the Buddha]. Hav-
ing approached they spoke thus to the Blessed One: 'Ascetic, we would
serve at your feet.' Now the Blessed One paid no attention, since he was
freed in the unsurpassable, complete destruction of attachments."24 It is
surely to read nothing into these texts to say that the descriptions of the
Bodhisatta's/Buddha's encounter with Mara's armies and daughters rep-
resent vivid descriptions of the psychology of the Buddha before and after
his awakening. The Bodhisatta/Buddha has wrestled with certain men-
tal states-Mara, his armies, his daughters-and defeated them. That is
to say, particular psychological states are described in terms of an en-
counter with beings with cosmological significance-or vice versa.25
22 S 4:38-39: "maro maro ti vuccati. kittavata nu kho bhante maro va assa mara-
pafifiatti va ti. yattha kho Samiddhi atthi cakkhum atthi ripa atthi cakkhu-vifiianam atthi
cakkhu-vififiana-vififiatabba dhamma, atthi maro va mara-pafifiatti va."
23 Sn 435-39: "tassa m' evam viharato pattass' uttama-vedanam / kamesu napekhate cit-
tam passa sattassa suddhatam / / kama te pathama sena dutiya arati vuccati / tatiya khup-
pipasa te catutthi tanha pavuccati / / paficami thina-middham te chatthabhiru pavuccati /
sattami vicikiccha te makkho thambho te atthamo //... / / esa namuci sena kanhassabhip-
paharani / na nam asuro jinati jetva ca labhate sukham" (trans. adapted from K. R. Nor-
man, trans., The Group of Discourses: Revised Translation with Introduction and Notes
[Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1992]).
24 S 1:124.26-30: "atha kho tanha ca arati ca raga ca mara-dhitaro yena bhagava ten'
upasamkamimsu. upasamkamitva bhagavantam etad avocum: pade te samana paricarema
ti. atha kho bhagava na manasakasi yatha tar anuttare upadhi-samkhaye vimutto." See
also Sn 835; Nd 1:181.
25 The fact that the armies of Mara here in part overlap with the five hindrances of sen-
sual desire (kdma-cchanda), aversion (vydpada), tiredness and sleepiness (thina-middha),
excitement and depression (uddhacca-kukkucca), and doubt (vicikiccha) underlines the
point made already about the particular psychological interpretation of Mara in terms of
the five hindrances.
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History of Religions 191
26 D 1:215-23.
27 "viiiiiinam anidassanam anantam sabbato paham" (D 1:23), interpreted by Buddha-
ghosa (Sv 2:393) as referring to nibbana.
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192 Cosmology and Meditation
28 Masefield (n. 5 above). The Upanisadic locus classicus for the terms is Brhadaran-
yaka 2.3.
29 Masefield, p. 93, n. 32.
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History of Religions 193
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COSMOLOGY PSYC
FIG. 1.-The thirty-one realms of existence, according to the following Pali sourc
Visuddhimagga 7:40-44, 8:29-65; Dighanikayatthakathatika 1:217.
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History of Religions 195
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196 Cosmology and Meditation
term is then used to refer to a single "world-system" as constituted by the various realms
that make up the world of sense-desire; Buddhaghosa says that there are an infinite num-
ber of such world-systems (Vism 7:40-44). The term used as a gloss for cakkavala by
Buddhaghosa here is loka-dhatu, which seems to be the preferred term in the Nikayas.
Thus the Afiguttara Nikaya (5:59-60) talks of a Mahabrahma ruling over a thousand such
world-systems, while the Majjhima Nikaya (3:101-2) talks of Brahmas ruling over as
many as a hundred thousand world-systems. It thus seems that world-systems that are dis-
tinct and self-contained at the lower realms of existence are not necessarily so at higher
levels of existence. However, Buddhist tradition does not conclude that one should there-
fore talk of there being only one all-embracing Brahma-world. In fact, A 5:59 already
talks in terms of thousands of Brahma-worlds, and the ancient conception of the thou-
sandfold world-system, the twice-thousandfold world-system (embracing 1 million world-
systems), and the thrice-thousandfold world-system (embracing 1 trillion world-systems
according to Pali sources and 1 billion according to northern) (see A 1:227-28, Mp 2:340-
41, Abhidh-k 3:73-74) seems to imply a kind of pyramidal structure of world-systems:
units of thousands of world systems (i.e., sense-sphere world-systems) are governed by a
Mahabrahma, and units of a thousand such Brahma realms are in turn governed by Brah-
mas of yet higher realms, and so on. Whatever, as the Atthasalini says (pp. 160-61),
there is no end to the hundreds and thousands of world-systems: if four Mahabrahmas in
Akanittha were to set off at a speed which allowed them to traverse a hundred thousand
world-systems in the time it takes a swift arrow to pass over the shadow of a palm tree,
they would reach nibbdna without ever seeing the limit of world-systems.
37 Sv 1:110; Vism 13:30; bhasya to Abhidh-k-bh 3:90c-d.
38 Vism 13:32-55; Abhidh-k-bh 3:89-90, 100-102; cf. Reynolds and Reynolds (n. 6
above), pp. 305-27.
39 Vism 13:31, 40-41, 55.
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History of Religions 197
jhana and the four formless realms are never subject to this universal
destruction.40
So what becomes of the beings that occupy the lower realms when fire,
water, and wind wreak their destruction? They cannot just disappear from
samsdra; they must go somewhere. Here we touch upon a question which
posed something of a problem in the Buddhist tradition and to which its
answers are not entirely consistent. The simple answer that Buddhaghosa
gives in the Visuddhimagga is that at the time of the destruction of a
world-system by fire, all the beings that occupy the lower realms-
including hell beings (nerayika)-are reborn in the Abhassara Brahma
realm (corresponding to the second jhdna) or above it. But since rebirth
in a Brahma realm can only occur as a result of the practice of thejhanas,
Buddhaghosa has a problem. The chaos and hardships that are a prelude
to the destruction of the world are hardly conducive to the practice of
jhdna. Moreover, certain beings simply do not have the capacity to attain
jhdna even if they try.
There is no rebirth in the Brahma world without jhdna, and some beings are
oppressed by the scarcity of food, and some are incapable of attaining jhdna.
How are they reborn there? By virtue of jhana acquired in the Deva world. For
at that time, knowing that in a hundred thousand years the aeon will come to an
end, the sense-sphere gods, called "Marshals of the World," loosen their head-
dresses and, with disheveled hair and pitiful faces, wiping their tears with their
hands, clothed in red and wearing their garments in great disarray, come and fre-
quent the haunts of men saying, "Good sirs, a hundred thousand years from now
the aeon will come to an end: this world will be destroyed, the great ocean will
dry up, and Sineru, king of mountains, will be burnt up and destroyed. The de-
struction of the world will reach the Brahma world. Develop loving kindness,
good sirs. Develop compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Take care of
your mothers and fathers; honor the elders of the family." Hearing their words,
both men and the deities of the earth are for the most part moved; they become
kind to one another, and making merit by loving kindness and so on, they are
reborn in the Deva world. There they enjoy the food of the gods and having com-
pleted the initial work on the air kasina, they attain jhdna.
However there are others who are reborn in the Deva world by virtue of their
kamma "that is to be experienced at an unspecified time," for there is certainly
no being wandering in samsdra devoid of kamma that is to be experienced at an
unspecified time. They also similarly acquire jhdna there [in the Deva world].
40 Vism 13:55-62 describes destruction by fire, water, and wind; Vism 13:65 and
Abhidh-k-bh 3:102 detail the sequence and frequency of destruction by these three ele-
ments and are in complete agreement: seven cycles of seven destructions by fire followed
by one by water (fifty-six destructions); followed by one cycle of seven destructions by
fire followed by one by wind (sixty-four destructions); thus the Brahmas who live in the
Subhakinha/Subhakrtsna realms-the highest of the third jhana/dhyana realms-have a
life span of sixty-four aeons.
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198 Cosmology and Meditation
So all beings are reborn in the Brahma world by virtue of the attainment of
jhana.41
41 Vism 13:33-35: "jhanam vina natthi brahma-loke nibbatti; etesafi ca keci dubbhi-
kkha-pilita keci abhabba jhanfdhigamaya. te katham tattha nibbattanti ti. devaloke pati-
laddha-jhana-vasena. tada hi vassa-sata-sahassass' accayena kapputthanam bhavissati ti.
loka-byuha nama kamavacara-deva mutta-sira vikinna-kesa ruda-mukha assuni hatthehi
punchamana ratta-vattha-nivattha ativiya virupa-vesa-dharino hutva manussa-pathe vicar-
anta evam arocenti: marisa marisa ito vassa-sata-sahassassa accayena kappa-vutthanam
bhavissati; ayam loko vinassissati, maha-samuddo pi ussussissati, ayaii ca maha-pathavi
sineru ca pabbata-raja uddayhissanti vinassissanti, yava brahma-loka loka-vinaso bhavis-
sati. mettam marisa bhavetha, karunam muditam upekkham marisa bhavetha, mataram
upatthahatha pitarum upatthahatha, kule jetthapacayino hotha ti. tesam vacanam sutva
yebhuyyena manussa ca bhumma-devata ca samvega-jata afiamaniiiam mudu-citta hutva
mettadini puiinani karitva deva-loke nibbattanti. tattha dibba-sudha-bhojanarm bhuiijitva
vayo-kasine parikammam katvajhanam patilabhanti. tad-afife pana aparapariya-vedaniyena
kammena deva-loke nibbattanti. aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma-rahito hi samsare samsa-
ranto satto nama natthi. te pi tattha tath' eva jhanam patilabhanti. evam deva-loke patilad-
dha-jjhana-vasena sabbe pi brahma-loke nibbattanti ti."
42 On aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma, see Vism 19:14, Abhidh-s 5:52, Abhidh-s-t 131 -32.
43 Sv 1:110: "yebhuyyena ti ye upari brahma-lokesu va aruppesu va nibbanti, tad-avas-
ese sandhaya vuttam."
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History of Religions 199
"or in world-systems other than those in the process of contracting" is the al-
ternative to be understood by the word or. For it is not possible to consider that
all beings in the descents at that time are born in form or formless existence,
since it is impossible for those beings in the descents with the longest life spans
to be reborn in the human realm.44
When not a single being remains in the hells, the world has contracted to this
extent: namely by the contraction of the hells. At that time any being who still
has karma that must be experienced in a hell is thrown into the hells of another
world-system [that is not contracting].46
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200 Cosmology and Meditation
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History of Religions 201
will become a paccekabuddha, and not that he will spend that period
Avici.
52 D 1, passim; M 1:178-84, 344-48, 3:33-36, 134-37; cf. M 1:267-71. See Gethin,
The Buddhist Path to Awakening (n. 35 above), pp. 207-8.
53 D 1:75-76: "so imam eva kayam parisuddhena cetasa pariyodatena pharitva nisinno
hoti."
54 At M 3:36 there is just one attainment. The attainments are the eight vijjas (Vism
7:20), the last six of which are often referred to as abhiniii (e.g., D 3:281) and the last
three as vijjd (e.g., M 1:482).
55 D 1:76-83 (passim): "evar samahite citte parisuddhe pariyodate anafigane vigatu-
pakkilese mudubhute kammaniye thite anejjappatte."
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202 Cosmology and Meditation
consciousness and the body; the creation of a mind-made body; the ac-
quiring of certain extraordinary powers (the iddhis and other abilities,
elsewhere termed higher knowledges or abhifnns). Lastly he may apply
this mind to the gaining of the knowledge of the destruction of the asa-
vas, the knowledge of suffering, the arising of suffering, the cessation of
suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering; he then knows
that for him birth is destroyed and that there is no future rebirth after the
present one.56
The story of the bhikkhu in the Kevaddha-sutta to which I referred ear-
lier is in fact a rather precise parable of this understanding of the prog-
ress of the Buddhist path. The bhikkhu of the Kevaddha-sutta resorts to
increasingly subtler states of consciousness and/or levels of the cosmos
in order to seek an answer to the question of the ultimate nature of the
universe; and yet, having come to the furthest reaches of the universe, he
does not find his question satisfactorily answered but must return to the
Buddha and be instructed to reorient his quest. Similarly, the bhikkhu
who attains jhana does not come to the end of the path but must turn his
attention elsewhere in order finally to understand the nature of suffering,
its cause, it cessation, and the path leading to its cessation.
It is in the light of this close correspondence that exists in Buddhist
literature between journeys through the realms of the cosmos and inner
journeys of the mind that the significance of the accounts of the expan-
sion and contraction of the universe begins to be revealed. Stanley Tam-
biah has already drawn attention to this in some comments made in his
study of the Thai forest monastic tradition-comments which are, how-
ever, brief and do not articulate the nature of the parallels entirely accu-
rately.57 Buddhist cosmology-in general, but especially in the account
of the contraction and expansion of world-systems-provides us with a
poetic, imaginative, and mythic counterpart to accounts of the stages of
jhana attainment. Reading accounts of the Buddhist path alongside tales
of the universe's end and beginning is the way to enter more fully into
the thought-world of ancient Indian Buddhism. In particular, what is re-
vealed in the cosmological accounts is the understanding of the nature
of the fourth jhdna: both the theoretical accounts of the stages of the
path and the mythic descriptions of the contraction of the world-system
converge on the fourth jhana.
That the mythic account of the contraction of a world-system can be
read as paralleling a meditator's progress through the successive dhyanas
56 D 1:84: "khina jati vusitam brahmacariyam katam karaniyam naparam itthattaya ti."
57 S. J. Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 49-52. Tambiah confusingly describes the Abhas-
sara realm as arupa at one point and creates, to my mind, a rather misleading "dyadic oppo-
sition between material states and formless states."
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History of Religions 203
In the first dhydna thinking and reflection are imperfections; these are similar to
fire since they burn through the mind. In the second dhydna joy is the imperfec-
tion; this is like water since, by association with tranquility, it makes the senses
soft.... In the third dhydna out-breaths and in-breaths [are imperfections]; these
are actually winds. In this way the subjective [adhydtmika] imperfection in a
dhydna attainment is of the same nature as the objective [bdhya] imperfection
in the corresponding dhyana rebirth.58
A mediator's entering the fourth jhana thus marks the temporary attain-
ment of a state of consciousness that is secure in its freedom from disturb-
ances and defilements. For just as the realms of existence corresponding
to the fourth jhdna can never be reached by the ravages of fire, water, or
wind, so the mind in the fourth jhdna is undisturbed either by the gross
objects of the five senses or the subtler movements of the mind still re-
maining in the first, second, and third jhdnas. What is more, viewed from
the cosmological perspective of the expansion and contraction of the
world-system and the periodic return of beings to the Brahma realms, in
stilling the mind to the level of the fourth jhdna, the bhikkhu is return-
ing to a state experienced long ago. The cultivation of thejhdnas becomes
almost a kind of Platonic recollection of something long forgotten, of
something one does not remember one knows. The recovery of the fourth
jhdna is a return to a basic or fundamental state-a stable and imperturb-
able state of the universe and also of the mind.59
In saying, however, that the realms of existence corresponding to the
fourth jhana are always there, it is, of course, necessary to keep firmly in
mind Buddhist principles of impermanence. The realms of the fourth
jhana do not have some kind of mysterious existence of their own; these
realms always exist in the sense that there are always beings "in" these
realms, although the particular beings occupying these realms continually
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204 Cosmology and Meditation
change and no individual being can permanently exist in such a realm. The
fourth jhdna realms thus do not constitute some kind of permanent sub-
strate of the universe; it is simply that there are always beings "there," or
rather beings that exist in the manner of the fourth jhdna. For the Abhas-
sara or Vehapphala, realms are not so much places as modes or ways
of being.60 So, to say that periodically the world contracts back as far as
the Vehapphala realm is exactly to say that periodically beings return to
this manner of being. It is in this sense that the levels associated with the
fourth jhdna are basic, fundamental, almost, one might say, primordial.
This, it seems, is precisely why they can serve as the stepping-off point
for gaining the four formless attainments,61 for developing various ex-
traordinary meditational powers,62 for realizing the liberating knowledge
of the path. This, it seems, is precisely why, at the time of his parinibbana,
the fourth jhana is the final active state of mind to be experienced by a
living Buddha.63
I am now in a position to return to the question I posed above concern-
ing Buddhaghosa's (and others') account of the process of the contraction
of world-systems: Why does he preserve an apparently problematic ac-
count? The view handed down by Buddhaghosa, which he has no doubt
received from the Sinhala atthakathd sources he had before him, seems
concerned to emphasize that no being in samsara is without the neces-
sary kamma to enable a skillful rebirth in the kamadhatu as a basis for
subsequent rebirth in the realms corresponding to the fourth jhdna; and
that there is no being in samsdra without experience of the realms of the
fourth jhana-of the states which give close access to the liberating in-
sight of bodhi. In other words, all beings have the capacity to become
awakened and indeed all have somewhere in them an experience of a
state of mind that is in certain important respects "close" to the awaken-
ing state of mind.
THE MAHAYANA
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History of Religions 205
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206 Cosmology and Meditation
3549. Since their existence is outside samsdra, which consists of the five des-
tinies, the death of Buddhas is not admitted by us; therefore it is their creations
that are perceived.
3550. In the lovely city of Akanistha, free from all impure abodes-there Bud-
dhas awaken; but here [in this world] creations awaken.67
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History of Religions 207
772. I am of Katyayana's family; issuing from the Pure Abode I teach beings
dharma that leads to the city of nirvana.
773. This is the ancient path; the Tathagatas and I have taught nirvana in three
thousand sutras.
774. Thus not in the realm of the senses nor in the formless does a Buddha
awaken, but among the Akanisthas of the form realm who are free of passion he
awakens.69
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208 Cosmology and Meditation
Although the Dasabhumika once again does not mention the Pure
Abodes or Akanistha in connection with the bhumis, it does talk of Bo-
dhisattvas established in the tenth stage as being "mostly the Great Lord
[mahesvara], king of the gods [deva-raja]."71 Various passages (which
must be the source of the Tattvasamgraha tradition quoted above) con-
sistently identify these terms as epithets of the chief of the gods of the
Pure Abodes.72 But for the Dasabhumika it is the Bodhisattva of the tenth
stage (and not the ninth stage as in the Prajnaparamita) who manifests in
a single world-system all the acts of Tathagatas from abiding in the Tusita
realm to Parinirvana (the final attainment of nirvana at death), but he ap-
pears to do this as Bodhisattva, remaining such and not becoming a full
Buddha in the process.73 Moreover,
At will he displays the array of the realms of all the Buddhas at the end of a
single hair; at will he displays untold arrays of the realms of the Buddhas of all
on Perfect Wisdom with the Divisions of the Abhisamayalamkdra (Delhi: Motilal Banar-
sidass, 1979), p. 165. Eighth-stage Bodhisattvas are here described as enjoying the play
of the higher knowledges (abhijinkridanata), seeing Buddha fields (buddha-ksetra-
darsanatd), and producing their own Buddha fields in accordance with what they have
seen ("tesam buddha-ksetranam yatha-drs.tnam sva-ksetra-parinispadanata"). The com-
mentarial *Mahaprajnaparamitdasstra (see Lamotte, trans., 5:2433-35, 2439, 2444) fills
this out and explains that at the eighth stage the Bodhisattva sees the bodies of the Bud-
dhas as "creations" (nirmdna), and that he accomplishes the concentration that fills the
universe with his own magical creations, like a magician producing apparitional armies,
palaces, and cities; from now on he knows the precise circumstances of any new birth he
will assume. During the ninth stage he is a Bodhisattva in his last existence (caramabha-
vika); finally, seated beneath the tree of enlightenment, he at last enters into the tenth
stage, the stage of the Cloud of Dharma (dharma-megha bhumi). The Mahdprajid-
paramitadgstra here appears to impose the standard nomenclature of the Dasabhumika
Sutra on the ten bhumis of the Prajnaparamita, despite the fact that the details of the
Dagabhumika scheme are manifestly different.
71 Dasabhumikasutra 94.20-95.6: "yasyam pratisthito bodhisattvo bhuyastvena mahe-
svaro bhavati deva-rajah." Compare DaSabhiimisvaro 199.2-5; T. Cleary, trans., The Flower
Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra, 3 vols. (Boston: Shambala,
1984-87), 2:111.
72 Lalitavistara 79.6-7: "jata-matrasya bodhisattvasya mahesvaro deva-putrah sud-
dhavfsa-kfyikin deva-putran amantryaivam aha." G. Bays, trans., The Lalitavistara Sutra:
The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion, 2 vols. (Berkeley: Dharma, 1983),
1:164. See also F Edgerton, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 1953), s.v. "mahesvara." The Lalitavistara's account of the Pure Abodes
is interesting in itself. The Lalitavistara begins with the Buddha attaining a samadhi called
"the manifestation of the ornaments of a Buddha" (buddhdlamkdravyuha) (Bays, trans., p. 2);
the lights that subsequently issue from his body attract the attention of various gods of the
Pure Abodes who come to him and request the Buddha to teach the Lalitavistara, a teaching
that "cultivates the skillful roots of the Bodhisattva" (bodhisattva-kusala-mula-samudbha-
vana) (p. 3). The gods of the Pure Abodes lead the way in coming to honor the newly born
Bodhisattva (p. 79) while later they create the four omens that prompt the Bodhisattva to go
forth (p. 136). Nobuyoshi Yamabe has drawn my attention to Lamotte, trans., 1:519, which
associates tenth-stage Bodhisattvas called MaheSvaradevarajas with the Pure Abodes.
73 Dasabhumikasuitra 90.11-15: "dharma-meghayam bodhisattva ekasyam api loka-
dhatau tusita-vara-bhavana-vasam upadaya cyavanacankramana-garbhasthiti-janmabhini-
skramanabhisambodhy-adhyesana-mahadharmacakra-pravartana-mahaparinirvana-bhumir
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History of Religions 209
At that time, the Buddhas of all the ten directions assembled, aroused him from
that samidhi by snapping their fingers, and said to him, "You cannot become a
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210 Cosmology and Meditation
Manifest Complete Buddha by this samadhi alone." "Then how shall I proceed?"
he implored them. They guided him to the Akanistha heaven. Moreover, while
his maturation body (vipaka-kdya) stayed on the bank of the same Nairafijana
River, the mental body (manomaya-kaya) of the Bodhisattva Sarvarthasiddha
proceeded to the Akanistha heaven.
After the Buddhas of the ten directions had given garment initiation (vastra-
abhiseka) and diadem initiation (mukuta-abhiseka), they bade him enter the in-
tense contemplation in sequence of the five Abhisambodhi. After completing the
five Abhisambodhi, he became a Manifest Complete Buddha as Mahavairocana,
the Sambhoga-kaya.76
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History of Religions 211
In the course of this article I have been trying to explore the way
in which psychology and cosmology parallel each other in Buddhist
thought-something that Peter Masefield has already tried to elucidate in
the Nikayas by reference to the Upanisadic terms adhydtmam and adhid-
aivatam. I have suggested that in the Abhidharma the shift from psychol-
ogy (levels of citta) to cosmology (levels of the lokadhdtu) can be viewed
as a shift of time scale. The effect of my discussion is not to reveal some-
thing new but to bring into sharper focus something that lies at the heart
of Indian Buddhist thought, namely, a basic ambiguity about matters of
cosmology and psychology, about the objective outer world and the sub-
jective inner world. This is true to the extent that the key to understanding
both is to recognize that there is a fundamental and profound equivalence
between cosmology and psychology.
In conclusion I should like to risk a few general comments about the
metaphysics and ontology of Indian Buddhism. I do not want to imply
here that all Indian Buddhism shares an explicit and definite metaphysics
and ontology, but I am suggesting that there is a general, underlying ori-
entation, which tends to locate reality in the mind and its processes rather
than in something "out there" which is other than the mind. We may
want to persist in asking questions in the latter terms, yet it is significant
that the tradition itself never quite does. On the contrary, it seems to take
for granted and as natural an ambiguity between cosmology and psychol-
ogy, for what is the difference between really being in Akanistha and
experiencing one is really in Akanistha?
To put it another way, there is a loosely "idealist" tendency to all Indian
Buddhist thought. It is no accident that one of the most important and
influential philosophical schools of Indian Buddhism, the Yogacara, ex-
pounded an idealist ontology. For the Yogacara the only reality anything
ultimately has is psychological. Yogacara thought is essentially a product
of and a continuation of an Abhidharmic way of thinking; it gives explicit
expression in systematic and philosophical form to a tendency that runs
through the whole of Buddhist thought. The Theravadin Abhidhamma
tends to sidestep the issue of the ultimate ontological status of the exter-
nal world and the world of matter; the question is never explicitly raised.
Yet for the Theravadin Abhidhamma-and as I understand it this would
also be true of the Vaibhasika Abhidharma-the physical world each be-
ing lives in and experiences is one that is the result of his or her past
kamma performed by deed, word, and thought; regardless of the ulti-
mate ontological status of the external world and the world of matter, the
particular physical sensations that beings experience are constructed
mentally insofar as each one is the result of past kamma. In technical
Abhidhamma terms our basic experience of the physical world is en-
compassed by just ten classes of sense-sphere consciousness that are
the results (vipaka) of twelve unskillful and eight skillful classes of
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212 Cosmology and Meditation
University of Bristol
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History of Religions 213
APPENDIX A
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABBREVIATIONS
A Aiiguttara-Nikaya
Abhidh-av Abhidhammavatara
Abhidh-di Adhidharmadipa
Abhidh-k-(bh) Abhidharmakos`a-(bhdsya)
Abhid-s-(t) Abhidhammatthasafigaha-Q(ikd)
As Atthasalini
D Digha-Nikaya
DAT DIghanikdyatthakathittka
Dhp-a Dhammapadatthakathd
Ky Kathavatthu
M Majjhima-Nikdya
Mp Manorathapiirani
Pp Papaficastdani
S Samyutta-Nikdya
Sn Suttanipdta
Sv Sumafigalavilasini
Vibh Vibhaiiga
Vibh-a Vibhanigatthakatha (= Sammohavinodani)
Vism Visuddhimagga
Vism-t Visuddhimagga-tika (= ParamatthamafijUisdtika)
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214 Cosmology and Meditation
APPENDIX B
AGGANNA-SUTTA
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History of Religions 215
faithfully by them, until someone or some group still in the pre-Asokan period
appended to it a cosmogonic myth.83 But this kind of model is perhaps inappro-
priate to the composition and transmission of oral literature and may also be his-
torically naive. A more appropriate general model for an original sutta might be
of a "text" representing the substance of a discourse or teaching that the Buddha
himself may have given on a number of different occasions and which in part at
least draws on a stock of images and formulas which the Buddha himself em-
ployed in a variety of contexts as he considered appropriate. Whether or not the
Buddha himself composed his teachings in this way, it is clear that someone
started doing so at some point, since many of the discourses of the Pali Nikayas
and Chinese Agamas are manifestly put together in this way. This, however, is a
matter that needs more systematic research. It may well be that Schneider's and
Meisig's analysis goes some way to revealing the blocks of tradition which have
been put together to form the Aggafina-sutta; but to expose these blocks of tra-
dition does not of itself tell us anything about who put them together and when.
In the end, Schneider's and Meisig's understanding of the original Aggafifia-sutta
amounts to a judgment about how well the blocks of tradition have been put to-
gether; their view is that they have been put together badly and that the two ba-
sic parts of the discourse are ill-fitting. Yet even if we agree with this judgment,
the bare fact that a sutta is badly put together does not of itself preclude the
possibility that it is the original work of the Buddha; a claim that the Buddha
cannot possibly have made such a mess of it is an appeal to the transcendent no-
tion of Buddhahood rather than a conclusive historical argument.
To say that the Aggafiia-sutta is composed of two parts must surely be largely
uncontroversial. Clearly paragraphs 1-9 and 27-32 do form something of a unity
and could intelligibly stand on their own; again, the cosmogonic myth of para-
graphs 10-26 is an intelligible unit such that the Buddhist tradition itself ab-
stracted portions of it to be used outside this context. But it seems to me purely
arbitrary to pick on the first as original and relegate the second to the status of
later interpolation. One might just as well argue the Buddha originally gave a
discourse consisting of a cosmogonic myth that was later wrapped up in an ethi-
cal disquisition on the four classes (vanna) by certain of his followers who did
not appreciate myth. This reveals what one suspects might be the true basis for
the conclusion that it is the section of the Aggafifia-sutta concerned with the four
classes that constitute the original sutta: the "ethical" portion of the discourse is
to be preferred to the "mythic" precisely because it is ethical, and, as we all
know, the earliest Buddhist teachings were simple, ethical teachings, unadulter-
ated by myth and superstition; we know that early Buddhist teaching was like
this because of the evidence of the rest of the canon. Here the argument becomes
one of classic circularity: we arrive at a particular view about the nature of early
Buddhism by ignoring portions of the canon and then use that view to argue for
the lateness of the portions of the canon we have ignored.
Richard Gombrich has countered the Schneider/Meisig view of the Aggafifia-
sutta by arguing that the two parts of the discourse have been skillfully put to-
gether and that the cosmogonic myth works as an integral part of the discourse
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216 Cosmology and Meditation
taken as a whole.84 According to Gombrich the first half of the discourse intro-
duces the problem of the relative status of brahmanas and suddas; this question
is then dealt with in a tongue-in-cheek satirical manner by the Aggafnia myth.
Gombrich regards the overall form of the Aggafinia-sutta as we have it as attrib-
utable to the Buddha himself and thus original. But for Gombrich the text is
"primarily satirical and parodistic in intent," although in time the jokes were lost
on its readers and the myth came to be misunderstood by Buddhist tradition "as
being a more or less straight-faced account of how the universe, and in particu-
lar society, originated."85 Following Gombrich, Steven Collins has discussed the
Aggafifia Sutta in some detail as a "humorous parable," finding in certain of its
phrases echoes of Vinaya formulas.86 Gombrich's arguments for the essential
unity of the Aggainia text as we have it are extremely persuasive, yet I would
disagree with the implication that we should regard the mythic portions of the
Aggafina-sutta as solely satirical.
Certainly it seems to me that Gombrich must be right in arguing that there is
a good deal of intended humor in the Aggaifnia-sutta, and certainly I would not
want to argue that the cosmogonic myth was never intended to be understood as
literal history in the moder sense. How could it have been? Yet it still seems to
me unlikely that, for the original compiler(s) of and listeners to the discourse,
the mythic portion of the sutta could have been intended to be understood or ac-
tually understood in its entirety as a joke at the expense of the poor old braha-
nas. As Gombrich so rightly says, if we want to discover the original meaning of
the Buddha's discourses we need to understand the intellectual and cultural pre-
suppositions shared by the Buddha and his audience. While in absolute terms
this is an impossible task, since we can never entirely escape our own intellec-
tual and cultural presuppositions and be reborn in the world of the Buddha-at
least in the short term-we can still surely make some progress in trying to re-
discover that world.
The question I would therefore ask is, Do we have any particular historical
reasons for supposing that it is unlikely that the Buddha should have recounted
a more or less straight-faced cosmogonic myth? My answer is that we do not.
Indeed, I want to argue the opposite: what we can know of the cultural milieu in
which the Buddha operated and in which the first Buddhist texts were composed
suggests that someone such as the Buddha might very well have presented the
kind of myth contained in the Aggafinia-sutta as something more than merely
a piece of satire. Far from being out of key with what we can understand of
early Buddhist thought from the rest of the Nikayas, the cosmogonic views
offered by the Aggafifia-sutta in fact harmonize extremely well with it. I would
go further and say that something along the lines of what is contained in the
Aggafina myth is actually required by the logic of what is generally accepted as
Nikaya Buddhism.
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History of Religions 217
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