Book
This careful analysis of early Buddhist thought opens out a perspective in which no permanent Self is accepted, but a rich analysis of changing and potent mental processes is developed. It explores issues relating to the not-Self teaching: self-development, moral responsibility, the between-lives period, and the 'undetermined questions' on the world, on the 'life principle' and on the liberated one after death. It examines the 'person' as a flowing continuity centered on consciousness or discernment (vinnana ) configured in changing minds-sets (cittas ). The resting state of this is seen as 'brightly shining' - like the 'Buddha nature' of Mahayana thought - so as to represent the potential for Nirvana. Nirvana is then shown to be a state in which consciousness transcends all objects, and thus participates in a timeless, unconditioned realm. (Source: Routledge )Bhavaṅga and the Brightly Shining Mind.
INTRODUCTION 1 Key non-Buddhist concepts 1 Key Buddhist concepts 2 'Not-Self' and scholars 7 Sources 9 Methodology 11
Part I Exploring the Notion of Selflessness
1. THE QUESTION OF SELF 17 Scholars who see a metaphysical Self in the 'early Suttas' 17 Uses of the word 'self' (atta) in the 'early Suttas' 19 Passages which might indicate the acceptance of a Self 21 Nibbāna as not-Self and not related to a Self 23 Self as 'not being apprehended' 24 A Self beyond 'existence' and 'non-existence'? 28 Proof of the impossibility of a Self 31 Buddhism and the Upaniṣads on Self 33 The status of the 'person' 34 Why is Self not denied?: the Buddha and the 38 The 'I am' attitude: its cause, effect and its ending 40
2 THE MEANING OF 'NOT-SELF' 43 The role of viewing phenomena as not-Self 43 The criteria for Self-hood 46 Nibbāna and the Self-ideal 51
3 DEVELOPING A SELF WITHOUT BOUNDARIES 54 Living with citta as an 'island' 54 Developing a 'great self' 55 'One of developed self' 57 The Arahat as self-contained and 'dwelling alone' 58 The Arahat's boundaryless citta 60 The Arahat's boundaryless, self-contained self 62
4 PERSONAL CONTINUITY AND RESPONSIBILITY 64 The person as a continuity 65 Responsibility for actions 66 The stability of character traits over lives 68 What conserves character traits and the unity of the 'continuity'? 72 To what extent are 'continuities' isolated from each other and the world? 74
5 MY WORLD AND ITS END 78 The Self-world link and the meaning of 'world' (loka) 78 The Buddhist perspective on the world 79 The undetermined questions 83 The undetermined questions on the world 84
6 THE LIFE-PRINCIPLE AND THE BETWEEN-LIVES STATE 89 The undetermined questions on the life-principle 89 The 'life-principle' accepted by early Buddhism 91 Discernment and rebirth 95 The question of the intermediary existence (antarā-bhava) 98 The nature of the intermediary existence 102 The gandhabba: spirit-being of the intermediary existence 105
Part II: Saṃsāric and Nibbānic Discernment 109
7 THE CENTRALITY OF DISCERNMENT 111 The nature and centrality of citta 111 A person as discernment and the sentient body 116 The vortical interplay of discernment and the sentient body 119
8 DISCERNMENT AND CONDITIONED ARISING 122 The nature of the constructing activities 122 The conditioning of discernment by the constructing activities 124 The conditioning of discernment by nāma-rūpa 127 Discernment as conditioned by attention 129 The conditioning of the sentient body by discernment 130 Conditioned Arising as an analysis of the perceptual process 134
9 DISCERNMENT AND THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS 138 The perceptual process in the 'early Suttas' 138 The nature and functions of cognition (saññā) 141 The activity of discernment (viññāṇa) 143 The functions of discernment in the Abhidhamma 'process of cittas' 145 The nature of viññāṇa 148 The effect of karma on discernment in the perceptual process 151
10 BHAVAṄGA AND. THE BRlGHTLY SHINING MIND 155 Is the bhavaṅga concept ruled out by the 'early Sutta' world-view? 155 'Early Sutta' evidence for a bhavaṅga-type state 151 The meaning of 'bhavaṅga' 160 The roles of bhavaṅga 162 The brightly shining citta 166 Freedom from defilements 169 The shining citta and bhavaṅga 170 The Arahat's ever-shining citta 173 The shining citta and the Buddha-nature 114 The shining citta and the realms of rebirth 111
11 NIBBĀNA AS THE TIMELESS 'STOPPING' OF THE ENTIRE 180 The nibbāna-element without remainder of upādi 181 Nibbāna during life as not ever-present in the Arahat 182 The 'stopping' of the personality-factors during life 185 Nibbānic 'stopping' and nirodha-samāpatti 187 Re-entry to the state of 'stopping' 188 Nibbāna during life as 'unborn', 'unconstructed' and 'deathless' 189 Nibbāna as a timeless object of insight 193
12 NIBBĀNA AS A TRANSFORMED STATE OF DISCERNMENT 198 Nibbāna as a form of discernment 199 Nibbānic discernment as 'stopped', 'objectless' and 'unsupported' 201 Udāna.80 as a description of nibbānic discernment 203 The nature of nibbānic discernment 205 Unsupported discernment and nibbāna beyond death 208 The relation of nibbānic discernment to the Arahat's normal state 210 Theravādin perspectives 214 Mahāyāna perspectives 217
13 SEEKING THE TATHĀGATA 227 The 'untraceability' of the tathāgata 228 The 'hard to fathom' tathāgata and Dhamma 231 The tathāgata as 'not being apprehended' 235 Nibbānic discernment and the views on the tathāgata after death 239
Appendix: The Theory of the Process of Cittas 252
Notes 259 Abbreviations 274 Bibliography 277 Index and glossary 282
Charts
1. The 'process of cittas' in waking consciousness, according to Abhidhamma theory 146 2. The citta-sequence in sleep 163 3. The citta-sequence in meditative jhānas 163
