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Summary On being unskilful in Buddhist Abhidharma psychology
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Lecture Notes (14.02.22)Lecture 4—On being unskilful
Buddhist understanding and analysis of unskillfulness. That is unwholesome, unethical,
unvirtuous states of mind or episodes of cognition.
1) On being Unskilful:
Technical term- term translated as unskilful
Unskilful episodes of cognition or states of consciousness are the states of mind you
are in when you perform unethical/unskilful actions (karma/kamma).
From a traditional Buddhist perspective unvirtuous actions involve breaking the five
precepts:
1. Killing a living being.
2. taking what is not given (stealing).
3. Indulging in sexual misconduct.
4. Telling lies.
5. Indulging in intoxicants that lead to heedlessness- basically drowning your sorrows
in heedlessness.
Unskilful episodes of cognition lead us not only to breaking the five precepts, but
they constitute bad karma even if you do not do anything! They can still have potent
karmic effect.
2) Buddhist Ethical Terminology:
The words the Abhidharma uses to characterise ethically bad episodes of cognition
and ethically good episodes of cognition.
Unvirtuous and virtuous
Unwholesome and wholesome
Unskilful and skilful
Two pairs of terms used in the Abhidharma:
Abhidharma: morally unvirtuous and virtuous: papa/punya and akusala/kusala.
Papa/punya ‘bad’ or ‘wicked’, punya ‘auspicious’, ‘meritorious’ or ‘virtuous’:
common ethical term within Indian literature.
Ethical use of akusala/kusala more distinctively Buddhist
Kusala ‘right’, ‘proper’, ‘suitable’, ‘good’, ‘well’, ‘healthy’, ‘clever’, ‘competent’,
‘able’, or ‘skilful’. Generally and widely in Indian literature but not always in a
specifically ethical sense, not always within a specifically ethical connotation. Can be
used of a skilled craftsmen. Expert in their trade/craft. Has a sense of being healthy,
if you meet someone you might say “may you be well/healthy”.
Buddhist literature: the pair akusala/kusala is applied to ethical actions and
dharmas: killing a living being is an akusala course of action; turning away from
killing a living being is a kusala course of action; the states of mind associated with
those courses of action are akusala and kusala respectively. We have this very clear
ethical application of the pair of terms akusala and kusala.
The ethical application of the pair of terms akusala/kusala has led to an argument
among modern scholars about how best to translate these pair of terms into English.
So, some scholars translate unvirtuous/virtuous, unprofitable/profitable,
unwholesome/wholesome.
Buddhist usage in English: ‘unvirtuous/virtuous’, ‘unwholesome/wholesome’
‘unskilful/skilful’.
1
, Lecture Notes (14.02.22)
Lance Cousins argues that the primary meaning is ‘unskilful’ and ‘skilful’ and
therefore we should translate appropriately.
Lambert Schmithausen argues for ‘unwholesome’ and ‘wholesome’. His basic
grounds being that we do not use in English unskilful and skilful as terms connoting
ethical conduct. They are not used generally with an ethical application.
Other ethical terms: ‘beautiful’, ‘kalyana’, and subha
Abhidharma: to act virtuously is to act skilfully and expertly; to act unvirtuously is to
act unskilfully; unvirtuous states of mind are unhealthy and ugly, virtuous states of
mind are healthy and beautiful.
These are the connotations of the ethical terms used in Buddhist texts. Rupert
Gethin argues that we should embrace the underlying sense of ‘unskilful’,
‘incompetent’, and ‘skilful’ and translate accordingly, rather than seek to obscure it.
Rather than say well because in English technical terminology to do with virtuous
and unvirtuous behaviour doesn’t have the connotation of unskilful/skilful we should
therefore reject that from our translation. It seems to Gethin that it is quite useful to
remind ourselves by translating unskilful/skilful than the way Buddhist texts think
about the unvirtuous and virtuous is rather different from what we ordinarily speak
about unvirtuous and virtuous in English.
Abhidharma literature of all schools: two pairs papa/punya and akusala/kusala come
to be used as technically equivalent. There is NO difference in their technical usage
in Abhidharma texts but it seems that in earlier pre-Abhidharma usage in the Suttas
(Discourses of the Buddha) : papa (unfortunate rebirth)/punya (fortunate rebirth)
general application, characterising behaviour as having unfortunate or fortunate
consequences especially in the context of subsequent rebirth; akusala/kusala more
specific in its usage, applies to specific practices and mental qualities that need to be
abandoned/developed in order to make progress in the training of the Buddhist
paths and become ‘expert’/’skilful’ in the Buddhist path.
3)
Unskilful Qualities (Dhammas, Cetasikas):
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