..续本文上一页n defiled thoughts. It can be temporarily suppressed by jhana, meditative absorption.

　　The third level is that of the dormant tendencies (anusaya-bhumi). These are gradually eliminated by wisdom (pañña), arising in the four stages of final emancipation.

　　At the first stage of emancipation, stream-entry, the tendencies to false views and skeptical doubt are eliminated.

　　At the second stage, once-returning, the gross forms of the tendencies of sensual desire and ill will are eliminated.

　　At the third stage, non-returning, the residual tendencies of sensual desire and ill will are eliminated. At the fourth stage, Arahatship, all remaining unwholesome tendencies have disappeared — those of conceit, desire for any new becoming, and ignorance. Our clinging to habitual desires and their objects on the one hand, and our emotional rejections and aversions on the other — these are the main feeders of the hidden but powerful tendencies in our minds. The tendencies in turn strengthen our habitual reactions of grasping and repelling, making them almost automatic. Thence they become potent unwholesome roots of evil (akusala-mula), by way of greed or hate, while the unthinking state of mind in which we so react is the third evil root, delusion.

　　It is mindfulness that can check the unrestricted growth of those unwholesome tendencies. At the beginning mindfulness may not be strong enough to prevent the arising of every instance and degree of mental defilement. But when these defilements in their manifestation are confronted by awareness and resistance, they will no longer bring an increase in the strength of the dormant tendencies.

　　They are finally silenced, however, only by an arahant, in whom all "unwholesome roots have been expunged." The arahant has abandoned "both sides" of the tendencies, those of attraction and repulsion. Being freed of all fetters that bind to existence, he has given up the here and the beyond, the high and the low, of samsara.

　　 15. States born of anxiety he harbors none

　　which may condition his return to earth...

　　16. States born of attachment he harbors none

　　which cause his bondage to existence,

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

　　just as a serpent sheds its worn-out skin.

　　"Anxiety" (daratha) and "attachment" (vanatha), from which similar states of mind are born (ja), can be interpreted here as forms of dormant tendencies, as basic moods causing appropriate manifestation. Anxiety appears as anguish, fear and worry, and as feelings of tension, oppression and depression caused by those emotions. Also inner conflict may be included here, especially as the Pali word daratha has the primary meaning of "split."

　　Hence the range of what we have called "anxiety" may extend to the dark moods resulting in: cares and worries, which make the heart heavy; anxieties proper: fears for oneself and for others, fear of death and fear of life; the tension and agitation caused by inner conflict; the feelings of insecurity, helplessness and loneliness; the primordial (or metaphysical) anguish, rooted in those former three and in the fear of the unknown. All these moods and feelings create a negative emotional background in the character, which may color one”s human relationships and influence decisions of consequence. It may also throw a deep shadow over one”s attitude to life in general, and may lead to a shirking of reality, to a recoil from it. When anguish and worry continue to grow in the mind without finding relief, they may become a cause of the anxiety neurosis which is so widespread in times of emotional and social insecurity.

　　But anguish and anxiety are inherent in human life itself, and their presence in the human mind is not limited to times of particular stress and turbulence. How poignantly the weig…

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