| dc.description.abstract | Buddhism has a long history of addressing the relationship between mind and body, especially the process of transformations from worldly person to Buddhahood. The vast theoretical systems relating to these issues warrant further study and exploration. This article, following the sequence of historical development in Indian Buddhism, examines the perspectives on body and mind in various supermundance stages of spiritual development, including the transformations of body and mind which occur as the worldly person attains supermundance stages. Through this examination of Buddhist perspectives on body and mind, the author hopes to contribute to society with regard to ways of protecting the spiritual environment and respecting humanity. In early Buddhism, the system of practice involved the triple discipline of morality, meditaion, and wisdom, as well as the four fruits: the fruit of stream-entry (sotāpatti-phala); the furit of once-return (skadāgāmi-phala); the furit of non-return (anāgāmi-phala); the fruit of arhatship (arahatta-phala). These four stages of practice-which involve cultivating the body, cultivating the mind, and dcultiviating wisdom-constitute the early Buddhist perspective of body and mind. In the Śrāvaka vehicle, the Sarvāstivāda school establishes a different sequence for supermundance stages, with three paths: 1. the path of seeing (path of streampentry)2.the path of practice (including fruit of stream entry, path of once-returning, fruit of once returning, path of non-returning, fruit of non-returning, and path of arhat); 3. the path of no further study 9the fruit of arhat). Regarding the stages of practice according to Sarvāstivādain treatises, for the worldly person there are three beneficial aspects which precede the path of seeing; 1.the aspect of according with merit, which includes generosity, morality, four unlimited states; 2. the aspect of according with liberation, which includes advanced enjoyment, i.e., enjoyment in seeking nirvāa and revulsion for sa?s?ra; 3. the aspect of choice according with wisdom, in which one is able to do the sixteen contemplations based on the four noble truths; this aspect precedes the path of seeing, and includes warmth, pinnacle, forbearance, and highest worldly wisdom. Having attained the stage of forbearance, it takes the practicioner approximately 1.8128 to 6.8128 seconds to enter the first supermundance stage, the path of seeing. This is Buddhism’s description of the transformation of the mind and body in the transformation from worldly to supmermundance stages. In the Bodhisattva vehicle, the Yogācāra school’s system of practice aligns the three stages (worldly, studying and no further study) with the three realms to describe thirteen types of person (pudgala). From this, numerous paths and systems of practice are constructed. In the “śrāvaka-bhūmi” chapter of the Yogācārabhūmi śāstra, the methods and stages of practice regarding the sixteen contemplations based on the four noble truths are explained in terms of the seven mental orientations: 1. understanding the characteristic; 2. the mental orientation arising from conviction; 3. seclusion; 4. analytical mental practices; 5. attraction of bliss; 6. the final stage of application; 7. the fruit of the final stage of application. Of these, the mental orientation arising from conviction corresponds with the Mahāvibhā a’s four stages of practice contained in the aspect of choice according with wisdom. The Mahāyāna-samgraha-bhāsya, Cheng weishi lun, and the Mahāyāna-sūtrālamkāra all agree that these four stages involve awakening to the nature of mind-only, and can be explained with the four types of sam ādhi. | - |
