Latent or Commonplace? A New Interpretation of Anusayas in Early Buddhism

• 발행기관: 불교학연구회
• 저자명: Ven. PANDITA
• 간행물 정보: 『불교학연구』제81호, 57~96쪽, 전체 40쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 불교학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2024.12.31

국문 초록

In this paper, I argue that latent tendencies (anusaya) in early Buddhism are not subconscious/unconscious entities, but that later schools came to view them as such because this view helps them to answer the question of how noble persons eradicate mental defilements. I also show that Theravadin school, on the other hand, does not view such mental defilements as subconscious, but it fails to convincingly answer the aforesaid question. Finally, I argue that there does exist an way to answer that question without resorting to anything subconscious/unconscious. When we interpret the sentence “The noble person X has eradicated the defilement A” as a shorthand for the statement “X’s enlightenment in the past is guaranteed to produce the anti-A factor in him whenever he is tempted to harbor A,” we do not need to assume anything of subconscious/unconscious nature. This theory, if correct, would complete the seemingly incomplete early Buddhist model of mind, and would render the Yogācārin concept of ālayavijñāṇa into a solution looking for a problem. I also deal with other relevant issues: (1) Is sīlabbataparāmāsa a type of anusaya? (2) Three levels of moral evil, and (3) Why there are only seven anusayas.

목차

I. Introduction

II. The Early Buddhist Context

III. Later Controversial Theories

IV. A Question That Needs to Be Answered

V. A New Approach

VI. Other Relevant Issues

VII. Concluding Remarks

키워드

Theravada Buddhism Abhidharma philosophy Buddhist philosophy enlightenment psychology Buddhist psychology underlying tendency latent disposition anusaya