FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  
@dhiyati_) [Footnote ref 1]. The earth ball (_pa@thavi_) is however still the object of the jhana. In the fourth or the last jhana both the sukha (happiness) and the dukkha (misery) vanish away and all the roots of attachment and antipathies are destroyed. This state is characterized by supreme and absolute indifference (_upekkha_) which was slowly growing in all the various stages of the jhanas. The characteristics of this jhana are therefore upekkha and ekaggata. With the mastery of this jhana comes final perfection and total extinction of the citta called cetovimutti, and the sage becomes thereby an arhat [Footnote ref 2]. There is no further production of the khandhas, no rebirth, and there is the absolute cessation of all sorrows and sufferings--Nibbana. Kamma. In the Katha (II. 6) Yama says that "a fool who is blinded with the infatuation of riches does not believe in a future life; he thinks that only this life exists and not any other, and thus he comes again and again within my grasp." In the Digha Nikaya also we read how Payasi was trying to give his reasons in support of his belief that "Neither is there any other world, nor are there beings, reborn otherwise than from parents, nor is there fruit or result of deeds well done or ill done [Footnote ref 3]." Some of his arguments were that neither the vicious nor the virtuous return to tell us that they suffered or enjoyed happiness in the other world, that if the virtuous had a better life in store, and if they believed in it, they would certainly commit suicide in order to get it at the earliest opportunity, that in spite of taking the best precautions we do not find at the time of the death of any person that his soul goes out, or that his body weighs less on account of the departure of his soul, and so on. Kassapa refutes his arguments with apt illustrations. But in spite of a few agnostics of _______________________________________________________________________ [Footnote 1: _Visuddhimagga_, p. 163.] [Footnote 2: _Majjhima Nikaya_, I.p. 296, and _Visuddhimagga_, pp. 167-168.] [Footnote 3: _Dialogues of the Buddha_, II. p. 349; _D. N._ II. pp. 317 ff.] 107 Payasi's type, we have every reason to believe that the doctrine of rebirth in other worlds and in this was often spoken of in the Upani@sads and taken as an accepted fact by the Buddha. In the _Milinda Panha_, we find Nagasena saying "it is through a difference in their karma tha
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147  
148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Footnote
 

Buddha

 

rebirth

 
Visuddhimagga
 

upekkha

 

absolute

 

virtuous

 

happiness

 

arguments

 

Payasi


Nikaya

 
taking
 

return

 
vicious
 
precautions
 

suffered

 

suicide

 

believed

 

earliest

 

enjoyed


commit

 

opportunity

 

refutes

 

worlds

 

spoken

 
doctrine
 

reason

 

difference

 

Nagasena

 

accepted


Milinda

 

departure

 
Kassapa
 

illustrations

 

account

 

weighs

 

Dialogues

 

agnostics

 

Majjhima

 

person


jhanas
 
characteristics
 

ekaggata

 

stages

 

indifference

 
slowly
 

growing

 
mastery
 
cetovimutti
 

called