From Buddhism: Andhakas

The theses of the Andhakas are recorded and disputed in the Kathavatthu as follows: -

01. All mental states are applications of mindfulness. As mindfulness is established in respect of anything, any mental state can be an application of mindfulness. The object of mindfulness being in the mind, they are themselves also the conscious subject of mindfulness. Patthana signifies the object of mindful application and the subject applying mindfulness.

02. The past, the future and the present, matter and the other aggregates exist. All things exist, in time, by way of material and other qualities, as past, present or future; they exist only in this manner. But material does not exist as sensation, perception, etc., and thus all things do not exist in this manner.

03. A single unit of consciousness or one single thought lasts for a day or more, for in a state of absorption there is continuance without interruption.

04. Realization of the four Paths and the four Noble Truths is a gradual process, as the ocean slopes and inclines gradually. There is no sudden discernments of insight.

05. The Buddha’s ordinary speech on common matters was supramundane.

06. There are two cessations of conflict, i.e., the third Noble Truth is twofold according to the cessation being effected through reasoned reflections or unreasoned reflections about things, and both of them are absolute.

07. The powers of the Buddha are common to his disciples. It was the generalization of this thesis which was objected to by Vibhajjavadina who did not deny that there were some disciples such as Anuruddha who also had some of the ten powers of the Buddha.

08. The power of the Buddha in discerning reality is ariyan not only as regards the extinction of mental intoxicants, but also in respect of his other powers of discernment of the deceases and rebirth of beings, etc.

09. A thought free from passion has attained deliverance just as a stained cloth when washed is clean. This thesis is obviously based on a misunderstanding of emancipation, which is not a mere absence of lust.

10. A person in the eighth stage, i.e., on entering the path of sainthood and before even reaping the fruit of such attainment, has abandoned the obsessions of heretical views and perplexity.

11. Such a person who has just entered the path is in the process of acquiring, but had not yet attained to, the five spiritual controlling powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and insight, although he may have these same virtues.

12. The divine eye is the physical eye when it becomes the medium of an idea.

13. Even the inhabitants of the unconscious spheres have perception, for it is said that consciousness arises in them at the moment of rebirth and of decease.

14. But one cannot say that there is consciousness in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.

15. The Buddha, in so far as in a previous life he had been a disciple of Buddha Kassapa with the name Jotipala, a Brahman youth and received from him the assurance of attainment, cannot be said to have been self-developed.

16. A person who has, attained the realization of arahantship is endowed with the three fruitions of the lower attainments; and as he had previously not renounced them, he possesses them persistently.

17. Arahantship consists of the putting away of all fetters. This thesis is rejected by their opponents on the ground that the five lower fetters have already been put away by earlier attainments.

18. He who has the knowledge of emancipation is emancipated. This statement becomes incorrect because of its lack of qualification. It is only the peace of fruition which is unconditioned emancipation.

19. When one attains mental absorption by means of the meditation device of an earthen disc he suffers from hallucination, for, while looking as material clay, he is conscious of something else, viz, the concept of extention.

20. All knowledge is analytical, because it is supramundane wisdom.

21. It is wrong to say that relative knowledge has truth as its only object, for there is a relative truth and the absolute truth.

22. Knowledge of the ways of thinking of someone else is limited in the object to have consciousness, i.e., not including the contents of such thoughts.

23. Knowledge of the future is present for in certain suttas the Buddha has predicted the future, thereby proving that at least for him there exists a degree of knowledge of the future.

24. Knowledge of the present exists. But the Andhakas seem to have implied in this thesis that the entire present without distinction is known.

25. Disciples can, like the Buddhas, state whether a certain person has won some state of noble fruition since both Buddhas and their disciples teach others the doctrine of attainment.

26. Assurance of salvation is unconditioned in the sense of permanent, for even if the path were to pass away, a person thus assured would not forfeit his salvation.

27. The attainment of cessation, i.e., the suspension of sensation and perception subsequent to the highest stage of mental absorption, is unconditioned, as the four mental aggregates cease to function and hence do not present the characteristics of conditioning.

28. Space is visible, because we have cognition of enclosed space, such as keyholes.

29. The four great elements of extension, cohesion, caloricity and vibration are visible, because the soil, water, a flame and the movement of the wind in the branches of a tree can be seen.

30. Earth is a resultant of karmic action, inasmuch as there is human action directed towards gaining dominion and sovereignty over the soil.

31. Old age and death are results of karmic action because some action is conducive to deterioration which is decay or old age, and to the curtailing of life which is death.

32. The fruits of the religious life being negative in so far as they are the abandonment of defilements and are neither thoughts nor mental factors, are not the results of karmic action.

33. The result of karmic action is in itself the cause of other results, because one result of karma stands in relation to another result by way of reciprocity.

34. The Andhakas considered the sphere of the asura (demons) as a separate destiny of rebirth, apart from the usual five destinies (gati), hell, the animal kingdom, the world of ghosts, the human world, and the heavens of the gods.

35. The element of matter consists of cognized material qualities.

36. In the spheres of form the Brahmas and others have sensation of smell, taste and touch, in addition to those of sight, sound and ideas.

37. Even in the formless spheres of existence there is material form, because “in dependence on consciousness arise mind and matter.”

38. Anyone who discerns the blessings of a virtuous life, thereby puts away the fetters.

39. The latent evil tendencies have no object, as they are distinct from the actual mind.

40. Insight belonging to the highest path of arahantship is sometimes without mental object, e.g., when visual consciousness is engaged with the visible object of the sense of sight.

41. One who has attained insight into the eight liberations and who can at will induce the four states of mental absorption is persistently in possession thereof. And thus a past or a future experience is actually his. The commentator’s objection to this thesis is the absence of a distinction to be made between the acquisition of the state, which is a potential faculty, and the actual possession thereof , functioning at that time.

42. The four aggregates of existence of a new lifespan arise before the aggregates of the expiring lifespan cease, without which there would be a break in the life-continuum, and being the new being would be totally different from, and unconnected with, the earlier existence.

43. The utterance of the words: This is conflict causes the rising of insight into the nature of conflict.

44. The conditioning factor by which resulting things are established is predetermined. The Andhakas based this thesis on a passage of the sutra: Whether a Tathagata arises or not, it still holds good that all component things are impermanent, fraught with conflict and without substance, for such is the casual law of nature which invariably fixes things as effects.

45. Impermanence itself, apart from impermanent phenomena, is predetermined.

46. One who has attained mental absorption takes pleasure therein as his goal.

47. The latent evil tendencies are different from the actual vice manifesting itself as an outburst; for, an ordinary man while having a latent tendency of hate or lust may yet without openly manifesting such tendency develop a morally good thought.

48. Outbursts of corruption take place sometimes unconsciously when the mind is distracted.

49. Just as desire of the senses is inherent in the spheres of sense-experience, so desire for things in the sphere of form is inherent in the worlds of form and desire for things in formless spheres is inherent in the formless worlds.

50. Erroneous views are indeterminate, i.e., neither good, nor bad. This thesis is based on a too general interpretation of the word “abyakata.” Speculation has been declared “abyakata” by the Buddha, as contradictory statements are “not declared” by him as true and false. In the ethical sense the term “abyakat” has the meaning of neutral when an action is neither morally skilful nor unskillful. The Andhakas applied this ethical meaning to speculative opinions.

51. Karmic action is one thing, the accumulation of karma is something else, for it goes on unintentionally, it is independent of moral action and has no mental object.

52. Material qualities are resultants of karmic action, just as consciousness and mental factors.

53. There is matter in the material as well as in the immaterial spheres. For, inasmuch as an act of lust is material belonging to the sphere of sense desire, and a material act is material belonging to the material spheres, so an immaterial act is material belonging to the immaterial spheres.

54. Lust for life in the spheres of form and the formless spheres is inherent to those spheres.

55. There is still accumulation of merit in the case of an arahant for he can perform good deeds such as the distribution of gifts.

56. As a result of excessive devotion towards the Buddha, certain Andhakas hold that the Buddha’s excreta excelled all other perfumes.

57. The fourfold fruition of the religious life is realized by one single path, as the Buddha and many arahants did not pass through the preliminary stages of stream-winner, once-returner and non-returner to attain arahantship.

58. Progress from one stage of mental absorption to the next stage does not require a reversion to the procedure of advertising, reflection, etc. involved in access concentration.

59. Certain Andhakas with the Sammitiyas explained the fivefold divisions of mental absorption, which is not found in the four nikayas, as initial application being the basis of the first stage, and by holding that sustained thought is not the second stage but only an intermediate step to the second stage of absorption based on the zest.

60. Without taking into consideration the two kinds of voidness, one concerning the unsubstantiality of the physical and mental aggregates and the other concerning Nibanna, the Andhakas held that the characteristic of emptiness was inherent only in the psychic aggregate of mental factors.

61. The element of Nibanna is morally good because it is fautless.

62. In the underworld there are no beings as guards, but those who enter are kept there and punished by their own evil karma.

63. In the heavenly spheres are found celestially born animals, such as the wondrous elephant Eravana belonging to Indra.

64. The Buddha and his disciples possess the power to perform miracles whenever they wish.

65. The Buddhas differ one from another in degrees of superiority but only in respect of bodily features, duration of life, luster, etc.

66. All things are fixed as to their fundamental nature, for however much matter is subject to change, it is fixed as matter.

67. All karmas are fixed in so far as they work out their own effects.

68. An arahants attains final deliverance without having cast off every fetter, as he is still limited in his range of omniscience.

69. An arahant at his final deliverance develops a morally good thought, as he is always lucidly conscious.

70. An act of sexual relationship may be entered upon if there is a united resolve to be thus associated in future lives in samsara.

71. A bodhisatta in order to realize his supreme desire will be born in an evil existence, performing hard tasks and acts of penance under unorthodox teachers.

72. There are acts of loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy which may resemble the corruptions of lust, hate and delusion.