SAUNDARANANDA 15.24: Not That Foul Prejudice!

sattvaanaam upaghaataaya
parikleshaaya c'aatmanaH
mohaM vrajati kaaluShyaM
narakaaya ca vartate

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15.24
Tending to cause offence to living beings

And torment for oneself,

Foulness becomes ignorance

And leads to hell.

COMMENT:
What kind of inauspicious conception (akushala vitarka) is the foulness (kaaluShya) that brings offence to others and torment on oneself, that becomes ignorance, and that leads to hell?

Really to answer that question, I have to dig deep and see this foulness (kaaluShya) as a tendency in myself.

It is easier for me to acknowledge defilement in the form of that end-gaining tendency in myself which, in combination with faulty sensory appreciation, leads me towards hell. It is not so easy for me to own up to a tendency to form vile prejudices -- a tendency literally to 'vilify' living beings.

My sense from the context, however, is that by "foulness" (kaaluShya), the Buddha here is pointing not to the defilement that is tied up with end-gaining desire. I think the Buddha is pointing to the universal human tendency to form the kind of vile prejudice that none of us like to see in the mirror of, say, Adolf Hitler. It is the kind of vile prejudice that is tied up with ill-will and cruelty.

If a Jewish lawyer is instrumental in the perpetrating of a white-collar crime against me, I can't control how I feel about that. If I feel hatred, I feel hatred. I cannot control my feelings. My feelings control me. So foulness in this verse, as I read it, is not expressing the hatred over which I have no direct control. By the word "foulness" (kaaluShya), I think the Buddha is rather pointing to an inauspicious conception around hatred, i.e, the forming of a vile prejudice, and this is something that it is within my power NOT TO DO.

The Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, justifying their action by the Islaamic prohibition against sacred images. Can we help ourselves from feeling hatred for the perpetration of that crime? Maybe not. But should we vilify Islaam, should we form an irrational and vile prejudice against all Muslims because of that act of destruction in the name of Islaam? No, we should not. To form such a foul prejudice is something NOT TO DO.

The practice of just sitting, as I see it, is antithetical to every kind of prejudiced view -- including the inherent prejudices of Judaism, Buddhism, and every other -ism.

Racism is the most obvious kind of foul prejudice. And unconscious reactions against racism might also turn into prejudiced -isms. And unconscious reactions to those unconscious reactions, and so on, all might be equally foul in their own water-muddying way.

There are foul prejudices that find favour among this group of people and opposite foul prejudices that find favour among that group of people. Each side sees the view of the other side as a prejudice, but fails to see their own view as a prejudice.

The original teaching is individual non-doing of one's own wrong and abandonment of one's own views. But would-be defenders of the original teaching divide into sects and schools, each with the prejudice that "Our way is right; and you are in the wrong." As has happened with the teaching of FM Alexander in the fifty-odd years since his death, so has happened with the teaching of Gautama Buddha in the centuries since his death.

There might not be many individuals today, even among those of us who sit, who realize the Buddha-Dharma as the giving up of our own prejudices.

EH Johnston:
A defiled state of mind involves delusion, resulting in the destruction of others and in one's own sinfulness, and leads to Hell.

Linda Covill:
Foulness of the mind leads to folly, damages other living beings and brings defilement for oneself. It leads to hell.

VOCABULARY:
sattvaanaam = gen. pl. sattva: m. n. a living or sentient being , creature , animal
upaghaataaya = dat. upaghaata: m. (fr. upa- √han) ,a stroke , hurt , violation ; injury , damage , offence , wrong

parikleshaaya = dat. pariklesha: m. hardship , pain , trouble , fatigue
pari: ind. fully , abundantly , richly (esp. ibc. to express fulness or high degree)
klesha: m. pain , affliction , distress , pain from disease , anguish ; (in yoga phil. five klezas are named; the Buddhists reckon ten , viz. three of the body [murder , theft , adultery] , four of speech [lying , slander , abuse , unprofitable conversation] , three of the mind [covetousness , malice , scepticism] Buddh. Sarvad. ) ; wrath , anger ; worldly occupation , care , trouble
klish: to torment , trouble , molest , cause pain , afflict

ca: and
atmanaH = gen. sg. atman: self

moham (acc. sg.): m. ignorance, delusion
vrajati = 3rd pers. sg. vraj: to go , walk , proceed ; to undergo , go to any state or condition , obtain , attain to , become (esp. with acc. of an abstract noun)
kaaluShyam (nom. sg.): n. (fr. kaluSha) , foulness , dirtiness , turbidness , opacity ; disturbance or interruption of harmony
kaluSha: mfn. turbid , foul , muddy , impure , dirty ; n. foulness , turbidness , dirt , impurity (lit. and fig.); n. sin , wrath

narakaaya = dative naraka: mn. hell
ca: and
vartate = 3rd pers. sg. vRt: to turn, to tend or turn to , prove as (dat.)