The truth of perturbations

Of the Four Noble Truths (chatvari arya-satyani) first noble or aryan truth is usually that of suffering or duhkha.  But in the Digha-Nikaya, in the Samaññaphala Sutta (D. i. 84), we also learn that the âsavas (S., âsrava) or perturbations (also disturbances would work) can be substituted for suffering, hence the âsavas, the âsavas’ origin, their cessation, and the path leading to their cessation.  

Of course with the cessation or destruction (khaya) of the âsavas the mind or citta is released from the former perturbations associated with sense desire, the will to live (bhava), wrong views, and ignorance.  This release is, in essence, nirvana.  Here the Sutta describes the mind necessary to realize the destruction of the perturbations.

“And he with mind concentrated, purified and cleansed, unblemished, free from impurities, malleable, workable, established and having gained imperturbability, applies and directs his mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the corruptions [âsrava]” (trans. Maurice Walshe).

Not until the mind is released from these perturbations which cause its dispersion and non-concentrativeness, is there any chance that we can experience deliverance from suffering, including the Five Aggregates, which are synonymous with suffering, consisting of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and sensory consciousness which make up our temporal, psychophysical body.

I should mention that to translate âsava by an English word which is good for all seasons is all but impossible.  I should mention, too, the term was in use before the Buddha, mainly by the Jains.  Speaking more about this difficulty, in his book, Buddhist Phenomenology, Dan Lusthaus elaborates better than I.

“Âsava (S. âsrava)—a term that has been subjected to numerous misleading translations, such as cankers, outflows, etc.—cannot be easily translated. The Buddhists borrowed the terms from the Jains, who used it to describe the flow of karmic particles that stuck to the obstructed jîvas (omniscient life-forces), blocking their omniscience.  Since Buddhists rejected the quasi-materialist karmic theory of Jainism, the term âsava—which for Jains denoted the flow of particles that were attracted by certain types of actions—never fit comfortably into Buddhism's own karmic theories.  Instead the term functioned in Buddhism as an evocative emblem for the most fundamental karmic problems: given âsvas, one continues to act in such a way as to remain bound in samsara; one becomes free from samsara only by eliminating or ‘destroying’ (khaya) these âsvas" (p. 126).

Right now I am toying with the idea that Patanjali’s Yogas citta-vrtti-nirodhah, in his Yoga Sutra, aphorism number two, gives us a better idea what âsava means.  Translated, Patanjali’s aphorism reads: Yoga is the stopping (nirodha) of the modifications (vritti) of mind (citta).  We could say that âsava is a mind-disturbance or modification which ties us into samsara.

Comments

[Ram]

Hi there,
Your post is evidence to me that the world works in mysterious ways. I posted an article today containing the same sutra text.I found your site via twitter, and scrolled precisely to the exact same verse I was just writing about!
I had a chance to interview and learn under a Sanskrit scholar for the past few months. He has a slightly different translation than yours listed.
Citta is much more than mind, it literally means consciousness. Munas is actually the word for mind. While this may seem to be just a minor detail, someone who appreciates language and the subject may benefit more from more literal and accurate translations of the Sanskrit. If you are interested in this sort of thing, I have 2,000+ words on yoga translations on my website.
I would love to hear what you think!
http://perszenal.com/lost-found-in-yoga-translation/

[Joe]

Though centuries of perversion make it a difficult translation, "âsava" sounds like early Christian "sin."