How Buddhism Began

The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings

Richard F. Gombrich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9780415371230
• eBook ISBN: 9781134196388
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

Written by one of the world's top scholars in the field of Pali Buddhism, this new and updated edition of How Buddhism Began, discusses various important doctrines and themes in early Buddhism. It takes 'early Buddhism' to be that reflected in the Pali canon, and to some extent assumes that these doctrines reflect the teachings of the Buddha himself. Two themes predominate. Firstly, the author argues that we cannot understand the Buddha unless we understand that he was debating with other religious teachers, notably Brahmins. The other main theme concerns metaphor, allegory and literalism. This accessible, well-written book is mandatory reading for all serious students of Buddhism.

IV
Retracing an Ancient Debate: How Insight Worsted Concentration in the Pali Canon

This chapter is concerned with a set of instances of historical change and doctrinal development within the Pali Canon. The most important of these changes is the development of the idea that Enlightenment can be attained without meditation, by a process of intellectual analysis (technically known as paññā, insight) alone. This idea is perhaps made fully explicit in only two texts of the Sutta Piṭaka; but even one would be enough to authorise practice. There has certainly survived in Theravāda Buddhism a tradition of behaviour which takes these texts as its authority. There is also a Buddhist Sanskrit text (but preserved only in Chinese translation), Harivarman’s Satya-siddhi-śāstra¹ which uses the same canonical material to reach the same conclusion; but this work belongs to an extinct school of the Śrāvakayāna (the Bahuśrutīya).² So far as I know, the Theravāda is the only surviving form of Buddhism to accept this idea.

This chapter posits two particular processes of change, both referred to in my opening lecture. One is scholastic literalism, a form of exegesis which reads into words and phrases more meaning than was originally intended, in order to create distinctions. The other is debate. The Buddhist Canon was compiled by a number of monks, and internal evidence makes it clear that not every text that has come down to us in the Sutta Piṭaka can have been recited by Ānanda at the First Communal Recitation. The texts contain many and sometimes discrepant accounts of such central topics as meditation. As I have written elsewhere, one likely reason for the discrepancies is that in the course of a preaching career lasting forty-five years the Buddha formulated things in various ways and perhaps even changed his mind (Gombrich, 1990:9). But another reason I posit for discrepancies is that monks were arguing about these topics and that the texts sometimes preserve more than one side of an argument. These two processes are not mutually exclusive: scholastic literalism can provide ample matter for debate, and argument can often degenerate into nit-picking!³

* * *

In the Puggala-paññatti, which T.W. Rhys Davids considered to be the earliest of the books in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka (Rhys Davids 1903:188), people are classified by moral and spiritual types. The work is not original: the classifications are drawn from the Sutta Piṭaka. The text contains⁴ a seven-fold classification:

ubhato-bhāga-vimutto released on the both sides

paññā-vimutto released by insight

kāya-sakkhī bodily witness

diṭṭhi-ppatto who has seen the point

saddhā-vimutto released by faith

dhammânusārī follower of the teaching

saddhânusārī follower through faith

This seven-fold classification⁵ is also contained within a nine-fold classification in which the first two items are:

sammā-sambuddho fully Enlightened

pacceka-sambuddho Enlightened individually

This makes it immediately obvious that we are dealing with a hierarchy, in which the ‘follower through faith’ ranks last.

This list of nine is further extended to a list of ten in the Sutta Piṭaka, at AN V, 23. This text lists the ten types worthy of offerings, etc. – the standard description of the Sangha. After the ‘follower through faith’ it adds gotrabhū,⁶ ‘family member’.

Similarly, the list of seven is found in the Sutta Piṭaka contained within a list of nine which is extended in another way. At AN I, 73–4 the Buddha warns monks not to gossip in front of the laity categorising each other. The categories he envisages their using are the seven, plus

sīlavā kalyāṇa-dhammo virtuous and good

dussīlo pāpa-dhammo immoral and wicked

AN IV, 215 has the same list of nine, in a similar context.

However, the list of seven most frequently occurs in the Sutta Piṭaka by itself, without extensions, and it constitutes our real starting point. It occurs several times as a bald list, with no explanation of the terms: at DN III, 105; DN III, 253–4; MN I, 439; AN IV, 10. Similarly, the terms are listed without explanation within the longer lists cited above from AN I, 73–4, AN IV, 215 and AN V, 23.

The only text in the Sutta Piṭaka in which the list is described in a way which differentiates between the terms is the Kīṭāgiri Sutta, MN sutta 70. There is also a sutta, AN IV, 74-9, in which the first six of the terms in our list are described, but in a way that merely divides them into two categories; this text I shall deal with after I have recorded all that the texts have to tell us about the seven terms while they appear as a list. For this record I shall also introduce, the information available from the Puggala-paññatti.

The context in which the list occurs in the Kīṭāgiri Sutta is as follows.

The Buddha asks monks not to eat in the evening (literally: at night), but certain monks are reluctant to stop doing so. Thereupon he says that not everyone needs to be so careful: arahants need not be careful because they are incapable of going wrong. But those still in training (sekhā) must be careful (MN I, 477). Then, to illustrate who needs to take care (and avoid an evening meal) he lists our seven types, explaining each and saying whether each needs to take care – i.e., whether he is already an arahant.

The explanations are given in terms of the vimokkha, eight graded meditative states (see P.E.D. s.v.) which culminate in the extinction of apperception and feeling, and the āsava, a set of three or four defects, extinction of which is tantamount to attaining nirvana: sensual desire, desire for continued existence, speculative views (sometimes omitted), ignorance. I shall translate vimo(k)khā ‘releases’ and āsavā ‘corruptions’.

1. The one ‘released on both sides’ is described thus: ‘A certain type touches with his body and stays in these tranquil releases which are formless, transcending forms, and his corruptions are destroyed by seeing with his insight.’ ekacco puggalo ye te santā vimokhā atikkamma rūpe āruppā te kāyena phassitvā viharati, paññāya c’assa disvā āsavā parikkhīṇā honti (p. 477).
2. The one ‘released by insight’ ‘does not touch with his body and stay in ...’ – the rest is identical. The Pali is identical except that there is the word na between te and kāyena.
3. The ‘bodily witness’ ‘touches with his body and stays in those tranquil releases ... transcending forms, and some of his corruptions are destroyed ...’ The Pali is the same as for the first except that there is the word ekacce before āsavā.
4. The one ‘who has seen the point’ ‘does not touch with his body ... some of his corruptions are destroyed... With his insight he has understood and penetrated the things taught by the Tathāgata.’ The Pali has the na as under 2 and the ekacce as under 3; then comes Tathāgatappaveditā c’assa dhammā vodiṭṭhā honti vocaritā.
5. The one ‘released by faith’ ‘does not touch with his body … some of his corruptions are destroyed .... His faith in the Tathāgata is settled and firmly rooted.’ The first part is as under 4; then comes Tathāgate c’assa saddhā niviṭṭhā hoti mūlajātā patiṭṭhitā.
6. The ‘follower of the teaching’ ‘does not touch with his body ... transcending forms, and his corruptions are not destroyed by seeing with his insight. Through his insight he finds a measure of satisfaction in the things taught by the Tathāgata, and he has the faculties of faith, energy, awareness, concentration and insight.’ The Pali has the na as under 2, then reads āsavā aparikkhīṇā; then comes Tathāgata-ppaveditā c’assa dhammā paññāya mattaso nijjhānaṃ khamanti, api c’assa ime dhammā honti seyyathīdaṃ saddhindriyaṃ viriyindriyaṃ satindriyaṃ samādhindriyaṃ paññindriyaṃ.
7. The ‘follower through faith’ ‘does not touch with his body … transcending forms, and his corruptions are not destroyed…insight. He only has faith in and affection for the Tathāgata, and he has the faculties ... insight’. The first part is as under 6; then comes Tathāgate c’assa saddāmattaṃ hoti pemamattaṃ, api c’assa ime ... (as under 6).

All this is summarised diagramatically in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The Seven Types.

Of each type from 3 to 7 inclusive the text says that under favourable conditions (which are described in a long sentence) he may attain Enlightenment in this life.

It is convenient at this point to add the supplementary information provided by Puggala-paññatti p. 15. The descriptions of the first three types are the same as in the Kīṭāgiri Sutta, somewhat abbreviated. The other four descriptions have a little more detail:

4. The one ‘who has seen the point’ has insight into the four noble truths. ‘With his insight ...’ (as above); then ‘by his insight some of his corruptions are destroyed’.

5. The ‘released by faith’ is exactly the same as the previous one, with the addition at the end of the words ‘but not as for him who has seen the point’ (no ca kho yathā diṭṭhipattassa).

6. ‘When the faculty of insight of the type who is on the way to realising the result of stream-entry⁷ is very great, and brings insight⁸, he develops the noble path which is introduced by insight. He is called the type “follower of the teaching”. When one is on the way to realising the result of streamentry, one is the type “follower of the teaching”; when one has that result one is one who has seen the point.’

7. ‘When the faculty of faith of the type who is on the way to realising the result of stream-entry is very great, and brings faith,⁹ he develops the noble path which is introduced by faith. He is called the type “follower through faith”. When one is on the way to realising the result of stream-entry, one is the type “follower through faith”; when one has that result one is “released by faith”.’

This goes a step further in systematisation than the Kīṭāgiri Sutta, in that it explicitly states that 4 and 5 are higher grades of 6 and 7 respectively. The paragraph on 7 makes it obvious that the text of the paragraph on 5 is corrupt. A copyist accidentally repeated for 5 the paragraph applying to 4. Then he, or a later scribe, noticing the identity of the two descriptions, feebly added the last clause. One could emend the text with some confidence by resorting to the Kīṭāgiri Sutta.

Our list as thus expounded has an extremely schematic character, evidence of an attempt to systematise a variety of things which have been said in other texts about stages of spiritual progress. Nevertheless it contains two prima facie oddities. Firstly: the fifth type in the list is called ‘released by faith’, and yet he is not released at all; in fact he is placed third down the list of the unreleased. In the case of this type there is a straightforward contradiction between his title and its explanation. Secondly: it is an oddity, though not quite a contradiction, that in the list of seven there are just two who are released, and what determines whether one is released is whether one’s ‘corruptions are destroyed by seeing with insight’. There is an attainment, common to only the first and third on the list, which consists in reaching certain ‘formless’ meditative states, which are even called ‘releases’; but they do not release! Thus the attainment of those ‘releases’ by the first and highest type, the ‘one released both ways’, seems to have no function, but to hang there as a redundant ornament, like an act of supererogation in Roman Catholicism.

* * *

Before we set out to explore these anomalies, let us look at AN IV, 74–9, the only other text which has anything to say about this list, even though it is not particularly helpful. Here the list occurs during a dialogue which takes place in a heaven. A monk called Tissa has recently been reborn as a Brahmā, and Moggallāna calls on him to ask him about the knowledge gods may have of human spiritual attainments. Tissa speaks of the first six in our list. Of each of the first two types he says that as long as his body exists gods and men will see him, but after the dissolution of the body they will not. Of each of the next four he says that under favourable conditions they may attain Enlightenment; this sentence is identical to the one used five times, for types 3 to 7, in the Kīṭāgiri Sutta.

Moggallāna returns to the Buddha and tells him of his talk with the late Tissa. The Buddha then makes up the list to seven, but in an unusual way. He says, ‘Tissa didn’t teach you about the type who stays in the signless (animitta-vihāriṃ).’ At Moggallāna’s request, he explains that ‘by not attending to any signs a monk enters and stays in signless mental concentration’, and the gods know of him too that under favourable conditions – detailed as for the previous four types – he may attain Enlightenment.

How are we to interpret this text? It seems to me to be part of a debate among the authors/compilers/reciters of our texts. This debate concerns the relative value of various moral qualities and spiritual attainments, value being measured by how close they bring you to Enlightenment. The compiler of this little text has received our list of seven types. In this list three qualities are evidently jockeying for position. They are three of the five faculties (indriya): faith, concentration and insight. Insight is winning easily: it is the only one of the three to bring release (types 1 and 2), and it also predominates in types 4 and 6. Faith has places 5 and 7. Concentration is up along with insight in first position, but there, as we have seen, it seems to play no role. Otherwise concentration predominates only at number 3, where it is present in full measure – but still not all that effective. Moreover, a type with a small amount of insight gets onto the list (at 6), but a small amount of concentration counts for nothing here.

The author of AN IV, 74–9 is, I think, trying to remedy that situation. The ‘signl...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Introduction to the Second Edition
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• I: Debate, Skill in Means, Allegory and Literalism
• II: How, not What: Kamma as a Reaction to Brahminism
• III: Metaphor, Allegory, Satire
• IV: Retracing an Ancient Debate: How Insight Worsted Concentration in the Pali Canon
• V: Who was Aṅgulimāla?
• Bibliography of Secondary Sources