..續本文上一頁f anguish we have quoted earlier a voice from the Buddha”s own days. Closer to our days, it was that great and radical Christian, Soren Kierkegaard, who held that the human predicament demanded from those who seriously desired salvation, an "anxious concern" and even "despair."

　　The Buddha, however, as a teacher of the Middle Way, advocated neither a mood of despair nor of facile appeasement. In his earnest disciples he instilled a "sense of urgency" (samvega), like that of one "whose turban is on fire." And on the side of "attachment," he urged his disciples to show "keen desire" (tibba-chanda) for the task of liberation. The arahant, however, has transcended "both sides" even in their beneficial aspects. He is free from "anxious concern" (asoko) and free from any clinging (anupadano).

　　 17. He who has the five hindrances discarded,

　　doubt-free and serene, and free of inner barbs,

　　— such a monk gives up the here and the beyond,

　　just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.

　　When, in the arahant, all defiling tendencies have been silenced and become non-existent, they can no longer provide a soil for the growth of the five hindrances, which in jhana and in the worldling”s insight are only temporarily suppressed. The pair of opposites in the moral sphere, sense-desire and ill will, can no longer impede, and these painful "inner barbs" can no longer irritate. The extremes in temperament, sloth and agitation, cannot arise and disturb the serenity of one who has reached the perfect equipoise of the faculties of energy and calm; nor can there be any doubtful wavering in one of perfect wisdom.

　　It is for these reasons that, in this last verse of our text, the arahant is portrayed as being "doubt-free and serene, and free of inner barbs."

　　The five hindrances illustrate once more some of the strands that keep the skin — be it fresh or partly worn-out — attached to the body. Unhindered by them and free from all that has been "worn out," the Liberated One serenely goes his way into the Trackless — Nibbana.

　　Notes

　　1.

　　These are the "five aggregates" (pañcakkhandha) into which the Buddha analyzes the inpidual personality.

　　2.

　　In this method of meditation, mentioned in the Satipatthana Sutta and explained at length in the Visuddhimagga (Chap.VIII), the body is contemplated by way of its constituent parts, such as skin, muscles, sinews, bones, the internal organs, secretions and excretions.

　　3.

　　See Visuddhimagga, XXI, 43; Discourse on the Characteristic of Not-self and The Fire Sermon (in Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha, trans. by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli; Wheel No.17); Majjhima Nikaya 83. 18

　　4.

　　See "Hate as Unwholesome Root" by Irene Quittner, Bodhi Leaves No.A 16.

　　5.

　　The words "he can curb" in verse 1 are a rendering of the Pali vineti, which, among other connotations, may mean "restraining" and "removing."

　　6.

　　See The Removal of Distracting Thoughts, trans. by Soma Thera, Wheel No.21.

　　7.

　　Buddhist cosmology recognizes three spheres of existence — the sense sphere, the fine-material sphere and the immaterial sphere. Human existence belongs to the sense sphere. Non-returners, after death, are reborn in the fine-material sphere and attain liberation there.

　　8.

　　Anguttara Nikaya, 3:68; see comment, p.27.

　　9.

　　See The Four Nutriments of Life, ed. by Nyanaponika Thera, Wheel No.105/106, pp.2,8.

　　10.

　　On these necrophil, "death-loving" tendencies, see Erich Fromm, The Heart of Man (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), pp.37ff.

　　11.

　　Quite similarly, in the Pali language, mana (conceit) and maññati (conceiving).

　　12.

　　Majjhima Nikaya 20. Translated as Removal of Distracting Thoughts, by Soma Thera, Wheel No.21.

　　13.

　　In the discourse, the relevant Pali term is citta-sankhara-santhana, and the commentary explains here sankhara by condition (paccaya), cause (karana), and root or source (mula). This phrase, however, could also be rendered by "stilling the thought formations (or processes)."

　　14.

　　Appatittha, "without standing still" or "without seeking a hold."

　　The concluding two lines, too, point to a wider significance.

　　15.

　　Appatittha, "without standing still" or "without seeking a hold."

　　16.

　　See the translation of this text with notes by Bhikkhu Ñanananda in Samyutta Nikaya Anthology, Part II, Wheel No.183/185.

　　17.

　　The Pali word ayuhana also means "accumulation" of rebirth producing actions (kamma), and thereby, of new lives.

　　18.

　　Here one may think too of the cosmic periods of evolving and shrinking (vivatta-sanvatta) within one world-cycle (kappa).

　　19.

　　This relates our paired terms to two of the five hindrances (nivarana). See verse 17 and commentary.

《The Worn-out Skin Reflections on the Uraga Sutta》全文閱讀結束。