Beyond language and reason: Mysticism in Indian Buddhism (Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae)

188 Pages·1993·2.93 MB·English

by  Ilkka Pyysiainen

ANNALES ACADEMllE SCIENTIARUM FENNIClE
DISSERTATIONES HUMANARUM LITTERARUM 66
ILKKA PYYSIA.INEN
BEYOND LANGUAGE AND REASON
Mysticism in Indian Buddhism
Helsinki 1993
SUOMALAlNEN TIEDEAKATEMIA
Copyright © 1993 by
Ilkka Pyysiainen
ISSN 0066-2011
ISBN 951-41-0709-8
Vamma1an Kirjapaino Oy
Vamma1a 1993
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT 8
PREFACE ............................................................................................ 11
1. LANGUAGE AND MYSTICISM
1.1. Is Buddhism essentially mystical? .......................................... 14
1.2. Methodological considerations ................................................ 18
1.2.1. Experience, expression and meaning ...................... ..... 18
1.2.2. Religion-phenomenological approach .......................... 23
1.3. Previous studies on mysticism ................................................. 25
1.3.1. 'Mysticism' as a concept ............................................... 25
1.3.2. Psychological interpretations of mystical experience. 26
1.3.3. Unity with the Absolute or with the world .................. 31
1.3.4. Interpretations of mystical experiences ....................... 33
1.4. Locating mysticism ................................................................... 36
1.4.1. Being-in-the-world and language ................................. 36
1.4.2. The world, , self' and emptiness .................................... 38
1.4.3. Mystical experience and mysticism ............. :................ 41
1.4.4. Mysticism defined .......................................................... 43
2. SOURCES
2.1. The works used as sources ..........................................: .: .. :. .... :... 54
2.2. The formation of the Tipilaka .................................................. 58
2.3. The split of the Mahasamghikas .............................................. 59
2.4. The beginnings of Mahayana ................................................... 61
2.5. Presentation of the sources ...................................................... 65
3. BEING-IN-THE-WORLD AND MYSTICISM
3.1. Hinayana Buddhism.................................................................. 74
3.1.1. The Background of Buddhism: Urbanization and Indi-
vidualism .. :.................................................................... 74
3.1.2. A Person's being-in-the-world...................................... 76
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3.1.3. The concept of self is misleading ................................. 84
3.1.4. The compounded and uncompounded realities ........... 91
3.1.5. NirvalJ,a and mysticism .................................................. 96
3.1.6. The Buddha's liberating experience ................... ;......... 101
3.5. Mahayana Buddhism ................................................................ 104
3.5.1. The compounded dharmas are unreal.......................... 104
3.5.2. Only the uncompounded Absolute is real.................... 107
3.5.3. The Absolute is beyond the distinction of com-
pounded and uncompounded......................................... 110
3.5.4. The ineffability of reality .............................................. 114
3.5.5. The three aspects of existence ...................................... 120
4. THE BUDDHA AND THE ABSOLUTE
4.1. The buddhas as preachers of Dharma ...................................... 126
4.2. The Dharma-body as a representation of the Absolute .......... 130
4.2.1. Hinayana Buddhism ....................................................... 130
4.2.2. Mahayana Buddhism...................................................... 132
4.3. The Buddha's skill in means.................................................... 137
4.4. The Buddha and the world ....................................................... 140
4.4.1. The Buddha's body as a symbol of the cosmos ........... 140
4.4.2. The otherworldliness of the Buddha............................. 142
5. CONCLUSION
5.1. Mysticism ............................. ;.................................................... 148
5.2. The Buddha and his nirvalJ,a .................................................... 148
5.3. Mystical experience in early Buddhism.................................. 149
5.4. The monistic ontology of the Mahayana ................................ 151
5.5. Language and discursive thinking as "skillful means" ......... 152
5.6. Mystical experience and interpretation ................................... 154
5.7. Summing up the results ............................................................ 155
APPENDIX I: Mfilamadhyamakakarik1l1:1-14 ............................. 157
APPENDIX II: Lotus Sutra pp. 350-351 (Kern) ............................... 159
APPENDIX III: Ratnagotravibhaga IX B § 3 (Takasaki) ................. 160
APPENDIX IV: Sarridhinirmocanasutra 1:2, 1:5 ................................ 161
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................. 162
PRIMARY SOURCES ........................................................................ 162
SECONDARY SOURCES ..................................................................... 163
LITERATURE ........................................................................................ 164
Glossary and index of Sanskrit and PitH words ................................... 179
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Olen aina peliinnyt, ettii eliiin kiitkee iiiinettomyy
teensii jonkin hirvittiiviin salaisuuden, jota me ih
miset turhaan etsimme.
(I've always been afraid that an animal hides in
its silence some terrible secret that we humans
seek in vain.)
- Pentti Saarikoski: Nuoruuden
piiiviikirjat (toim. Pekka Tarkka).
Helsinki: Otava 1984.
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ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to investigate the meaning of mysticism in Indi
an Buddhism. This task is accomplished through a religion-phenomeno
logical analysis trying to relate the ideas expressed in Buddhist texts to
certain human ways of experiencing one's being-in-the-world. Underlying
this approach is a view of religious texts as "tracks" of various kinds of
human experiences, mystical and otherwise.
Mystical experiences are here understood against the background of
Heidegger's and Gadamer's idea of a linguistic basis of human reality. In
mystical experience, this basis is transcended, and reality is experienced
without the boundaries of language and discursive thinking.
The specific characteristics of mystical experience have been adopted
from Paul Griffiths' division of mystical experience into three types: 1)
an experience of pure consciousness, 2) an unmediated experience, and
3) a nondualistic experience. The presence of any of these characteristics
allows us to regard an experience as mystical.
In the first case, a person is conscious, although his or her conscious
ness is not directed towards any content and does not have as its phenom
enological attribute visual, olfactory or any other type of sensory experi
ence. In the second case, we have a mental event that may have as its nec
essary condition a certain (culture-bound) conceptual scheme without it
being necessary that the phenomenological attributes or content of the
mental event in question reflect any element of that conceptual scheme.
The third case refers to a mental event whose phenomenological attribu
tes or content do not include any structural opposition between subject
and object.
The sources of this study consist of Buddhist literature representing
Theravada, Sarvdstivdda, Lokottaravada, early Mahayana, Mddhyamika,
and YogdcdralVijnanavdda, as welI as the Tathdgatagarbha-literature.
In the Atthakavagga of the Suttanipata, passages were found that clear
ly point to a mystical experience that could count as a pure conscious
ness event, or at least an unmediated or a nondualistic experience. It is
possible that this experience represents something essential to the Bud
dha's original Seinsverstandnis, or at least to the Seinsverstandnis of the
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earliest community. It may only have been suppressed when the ideologi
cal development took the form of abhidharma in which a special "langu
age of salvation" was elaborated at the cost of the claim that the ultimate
goal is ineffable.
The tradition of the Atthakavagga seems to have somehow continued
in the notion of ' cessation of mental representations and feeling (sannave
dayitanirodha)' which, in a few passages of the Tipitaka, is clearly iden
tified with nirvaJ:.la. This is an experience that physically resembles cata
leptic trance, hibernation of some mammals, or coma. Mentally it is an
experience where ordinary functions of sense-perception, concept-forma
tion and ratiocination have ceased. As such, it is a deconstruction of the
world, subjectively constructed by organizing sensory data with the think
ing mind (citta).
It is, nevertheless, difficult to take this cessation as an experience of
pure consciousness as it is usually conceived of as an unconscious state,
although some early Buddhist authors have held that it was not 'mindless'
(acittaka) but that only mental activity had ceased in it. If the cessation,
however, was an integral aspect of nirvaJ:.la, it would be much easier to
understand its significance if it were a conscious mystical experience of
any of the three kinds.
On the other hand, the early Buddhists felt it problematic to explain
how one could re-emerge from this state, and for this reason postulated a
special consciousness (alayavijfiana) that survived the state of cessation.
However, we cannot be certain whether i'ilayavijfiana is a purely theoreti
cal concept, refers to an unconscious state, or to a conscious mystical ex
perience. In any case, it is said to have an object and content, although
they are 'indistinct,' 'extremely subtle' and not experienced.
In Mahayana texts we found a conception of reality that is neatly sum
marized in the words 'prapafica' and 'vikalpa'. The first one means both
'language' and ' world', and thus is testimony of an idea of a linguistic
basis of reality. The driving force of prapafica is vikalpa (,imagination,'
'construction') that divides the world of silence into categories expressed
in language.
The ultimate reality, however, is reached only through 'unconstruct
ed awareness (nirvikalpakajfiana)' that is identical with its object (i.e. is
unintentional) which is the 'ineffable reality (anabhilapyadharmata)' and
'not-selfness (nairatmyadharmata),. Its content is 'absence of characte
ristics (animitta)'. Thus, unconstructed awareness refers to an unmediated
and non-dual~stic mystical experience and may even count as a pure con
sciousness event.
Consequently, Buddhist thought has clearly been influenced by mys
tical experiences, and these experiences have in turn been given meaning
through conceptual and mythological thinking. Here we encounter the di
lemma of expressing and describing an ineffable experience. Even though
the mystical experience would be genuinely ineffable as it occurs, it is
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described afterwards in so many words because language is such a cen
tral element in human reality. Thus, religious or philosophical ideas pro
vide the ideological content in contentless experiences.
It becomes clear that the Buddha figure has been the cen~al element
through which the mystical experiences have been given content and mean
ing. The ultimate reality is referred to, using such expressions as 'the Bud
dha's Dharma-body' and 'tathagatagarbha' ('womb' or 'germ of the Ta
thagata'). However, these are only 'skillful means (upaya)' to point to
the ultimate truth (paramartha), and thus should not be confused with the
truth itself. In the last analysis, everything is empty (sunya).
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PREFACE
And now, that the end is near ... The song immediately comes to mind
when I realize that the time has come to finally write this preface to a
study that has taken me several years. I have lived with this work for quite
some time, I have laughed and cried, and I have done it my way. How
ever, these pages have not been written in a hermitage, and thus I owe a
great debt to many people who have been of help in one way or another.
I am afraid it is not possible to recognize all of them here by name, but
that does not mean I will not remember them in my heart.
I have studied religion under Professor Juha Pentikainen, head of the
Department of the Study of Religions at the University of Helsinki, since
1980 and I am very grateful to him for his encouragement and support
during different phases. In the study of Buddhism, I was led by Dr. Rene
Goth6ni whom I want to thank for his support in getting myself estab
lished in the academic environment. I have also studied philosophy of re
ligion under the guidance of Professor Simo Knuuttila (the University of
Helsinki) whose interest in my work, encouragement and help I will re
call with gratitude.
My unofficial supervisor in questions regarding Buddhism has for many
years been Mr. Harry Halen, Lic.Phil. (the University of Helsinki). I wish
to express my warmest thanks to him. I have also had the pleasure of dis
cussing Indology and the history of Buddhist studies with Dr. Klaus Kart
tunen (the University of Helsinki) whom I wish to thank as well.
The topic of this dissertation is an outcome of a process during which
my interest has gradually shifted from the biography of the Buddha to more
philosophical questions. In this connection, I would like to mention with
thankfulness the encouraging comments I received for my work on the
Buddha's biography from Professors Andre Bareau (College de France)
and Frank E. Reynolds (the University of Chicago).
As I began to realize what cosmic dimensions the symbolism of the
Buddha's figure and story had, my interest was directed toward explor
ing the essentials of Buddhist ontology with regard to human ways of ex
periencing one's being in-thecworld. This was accompanied by a theo
retical interest in finding the best possible way of approaching religion,
an interest I have for some years shared with my friends and colleagues
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