"Saccanurakkha" и вопросы веры

[Assutava]

Здравствуйте!

   На различных форумах периодически возобновляются дискуссии о роли веры/доверия/убежденности/уверенности.  Мне подумалось, что было бы уместно обратить внимание сведущих людей  на комментарий  Аджана Джаясаро по этой теме и поинтересоваться их мнением на этот счет.

Источник  – фрагмент  видео  2561.06.27 Q&A in Silicon Valley by Ajahn Jayasaro () – начало с 27:20.


На случай, если так  будет нагляднее/удобнее  –  изложил (в меру умений) в текстовом виде:

       I think that because of the sort of the hegemony of the Western culture, that often you hear people say - religion is this - or - religion is that -  whereas in fact there are what I would call "families of religion". So, the religions that  grew up in the Middle East - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - they form a particular family of religions and there's a particular specific idea of what a religion is, and there are "book religions", and we understand to be a religious person means acceptance of certain dogmas and trying to live your life according to those dogmas or they give you  a sense of support and so on. I would say, essentially those religions are belief systems. Myself, I just couldn't accept the dogmas, I'm not a religious person because I understood religion to mean that you accept the dogmas in your holy book and live by them or try to.
      My belief is that Buddhism is a different family of religions, kind of different species of religion, and to my mind it's not a belief system, it's an educational system. So, it's a whole different idea about what is a religion and what does it mean to be religious, so, I've been talking a little bit about this kind of educational process as I understand it.  That's a commitment to that process of education of your actions, your speech, your emotions - this for me is what religion is about, at least  a Buddhist religion. So, in Buddhism, there is a role for faith, but, it's a circumscribed one. It's considered to be a tool, but kind of it like a power tool - you have to use it very carefully in this education  process, because if faith is not governed by wisdom and intelligence then it very easily slips either into superstition  or fanaticism. So, therefore, what is good thing about it, faith  just focuses your mind, it prioritizes things in your life and it gives rise to energy. So, in a Buddhist education you want that kind of focus and commitment and energy of faith, but without allowing it to fall into these extremes - fanaticism and superstition.
      One of most important words in the Buddhist teaching, it's not so well-known, is called "saccanurakkha" and that means "caring for the truth" and it says " you care for the  truth" - when you don't claim that you know something when you merely believe it. The Buddha says, surely, it's clear that we can have an absolute faith in something that's not true - it's psychological truth - even people who are  fanatically affiliated with a particular religion - they have to accept that, because they believe everybody who believes in other religions has a faith in something that's not true. But the mistake is often made is -  it's kind of circular reasoning - you say - "it's true" - "but why is it true?" - "well, the moment I read it I just knew". No, that's belief, so  the idea " it's true because I believe it  and I believe it because it's true" - it's just a fixed, locked kind of worldview.
       When people look at Buddhism they tend to assume - it's another kind of belief style - " you're Buddhist, oh, you believe in reincarnation, is that right? that's your key, defining belief in your belief system, that's different from mine". If someone was to say to a Buddhist - " is reincarnation true?" - you say  - I don't know, I believe it so, but actually I don't know. I don't have a direct experience of it as yet. I believe it is, and I have reasons to back up my belief  whether they are words of the Buddha himself or recollection of past lives by great monks and meditators, spontaneous past-life memories of children throughout the world, past-life memories of  people under hypnosis – these  are all, I think, quite weighty evidence supporting the hypothesis of rebirth, but it doesn't mean - " therefore it's  true" and I'm going to take my stand on that - because as a Buddhist I have to care for the truth and say " I don't know, I believe it so, yes, I have a confidence in this but I don't actually know". I think this is, something that sub-distinguishes Buddhism, was very attractive for me when I first began to study it.

Хотелось бы уточнить:

Если, как говорит Дост. Джаясаро, это понятие «saccanurakkha» - одно из немаловажных, то  - где можно что-то  узнать дополнительно? Раньше  этот термин не встречал и ни в каких обсуждениях не замечал.  Насколько в целом распространен такой подход к вопросам перерождения и  прочего? 

Почти что единственное, что получилось еще найти -  краткое упоминание в, вроде бы, магистерской диссертации  некоего тайского университета:

To become a guardian of truth (saccanurakkha) : that is a person who enjoys listening to the principles, theories, teachings, and various views of different people and groups with an openmind without making hasty judgments about things that have yet to be established as fact and not simply clinging to the things known to be correct and true.

Ссылка - https://repository.au.edu/bitstream/handle/6623004553/2684/Au-Thesis-Fulltext-128028.PDF?sequence=1 (стр. 16)

[Ассаджи]

Доброго времени!

Если, как говорит Дост. Джаясаро, это понятие «saccanurakkha» - одно из немаловажных, то  - где можно что-то  узнать дополнительно?

Это из Чанки сутты (МН 95):

"Kittāvatā pana, bho gotama, saccānurakkhaṇā hoti, kittāvatā saccamanurakkhati? Saccānurakkhaṇaṃ mayaṃ bhavantaṃ gotamaṃ pucchāmā"ti.

"Saddhā cepi, bhāradvāja, purisassa hoti; 'evaṃ me saddhā'ti—iti vadaṃ saccamanurakkhati, na tveva tāva ekaṃsena niṭṭhaṃ gacchati: 'idameva saccaṃ, moghamaññan'ti (). Ruci cepi, bhāradvāja, purisassa hoti ... pe ... anussavo cepi, bhāradvāja, purisassa hoti ... pe ... ākāraparivitakko cepi, bhāradvāja, purisassa hoti ... pe ... diṭṭhinijjhānakkhanti cepi, bhāradvāja, purisassa hoti; 'evaṃ me diṭṭhinijjhānakkhantī'ti—iti vadaṃ saccamanurakkhati, na tveva tāva ekaṃsena niṭṭhaṃ gacchati: 'idameva saccaṃ, moghamaññan'ti. Ettāvatā kho, bhāradvāja, saccānurakkhaṇā hoti, ettāvatā saccamanurakkhati, ettāvatā ca mayaṃ saccānurakkhaṇaṃ paññapema; na tveva tāva saccānubodho hotī"ti.

"But, Master Gotama, in what way is there the preservation of truth? How does one preserve truth? We ask Master Gotama about the preservation of truth."

"If a person has faith, Bhāradvāja, he preserves truth when he says: 'My faith is thus'; but he does not yet come to the definite conclusion: 'Only this is true, anything else is wrong.' In this way, Bhāradvāja, there is the preservation of truth; in this way he preserves truth; in this way we describe the preservation of truth. But as yet there is no discovery of truth.

"If a person approves of something...if he receives an oral tradition...if he reaches a conclusion based on reasoned cogitation...if he gains a reflective acceptance of a view, he preserves truth when he says: 'My reflective acceptance of a view is thus'; but he does not yet come to the definite conclusion: 'Only this is true, anything else is wrong.' In this way too, Bhāradvāja, there is the preservation of truth; in this way he preserves truth; in this way we describe the preservation of truth. But as yet there is no discovery of truth."

https://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/107598/3/06%20chapter%202%20ch%20on%2025.04.14%20final.pdf#page=49

[Ассаджи]

Еще на эту тему:


Introduction to Faith & Confidence

Introduction

The meaning, role, and importance of faith (saddhā) in the Buddhist teachings is as follows:

Faith here does not mean handing over complete responsibility to something or someone without applying reasoned judgement. On the contrary. To do that would be an expression of simple emotionality.

Faith is merely one stage—and the first stage—in the development of wisdom. Correct faith is connected to reasoned analysis: it must lead to and be validated by wisdom. It is the opposite to handing over complete responsibility or to a total entrusting oneself to something or someone else without applying reasoned judgement, which is an expression of simple emotionality (āvega) and leads people to stop making inquiries. Faith based simply on emotion is a form of gullibility; it should be amended and ultimately eliminated. Granted, the emotion stemming from a correct kind of faith can prove useful at early stages of Dhamma practice, but in the end it is replaced by wisdom.

The faith included in wisdom development is perhaps better defined as self-confidence: a person has a strong conviction based on critical reasoning that the aspired-to goal or ideal is both valuable and attainable. This faith inspires a person to validate the truth which he or she believes to be reasonably accessible.

To help define faith in a correct manner, all teachings in the Pali Canon containing saddhā in a group of spiritual factors also contain wisdom as an accompanying factor, and normally, faith is listed as the first factor while wisdom is listed as the final factor in these groups. Teachings emphasizing wisdom, however, do not need to include the factor of faith. Because wisdom governs other virtues and is an essential factor, it is more important than faith. Even as a personal attribute wisdom rather than faith is the decisive factor: those individuals who are most highly praised in Buddhism, like the chief disciple Venerable Sāriputta, are those who possess the greatest wisdom.

There are two distinct benefits to faith: 1) faith conditions rapture (pīti), which gives rise to tranquillity (passaddhi), which in turn leads to concentration and finally to wisdom; and 2) faith generates effort—the endeavour to undertake spiritual practice and to put to the test those things believed in by faith, in order to witness the truth for oneself, which eventually leads to wisdom. Although these two benefits stem from an emotional basis, the process leading to their culmination must always contain an inherent aspiration for wisdom.

As the purpose of true faith is to support wisdom, faith must promote critical discernment, which leads to wisdom development. And faith itself is well-grounded and secure only when a person has established confidence and dispelled doubts through rational inquiry. In Buddha-Dhamma, the quality of faith thus supports inquiry and investigation. The methods of appealing to others to believe, forcing others to accept a prescribed truth, or threatening disbelievers with punishment are all incompatible with this Buddhist principle of faith.

Faith and devotion to an individual has drawbacks. The Buddha even encouraged his disciples to abandon devotion to the Buddha himself, because such devotion is heavily invested with emotion and can become an obstacle to complete and perfect liberation.

Faith is not classified as a factor of the Path, because it is wisdom, linked to and validating faith, that is the necessary factor for progressing on the Path. Furthermore, those persons with great wisdom, for example the perfectly enlightened Buddhas and the Pacceka-Buddhas, begin the Path at wisdom, without passing through the stage of faith. The cultivation of wisdom needs not always begin with faith—it may also begin with wise reflection (yoniso-manasikāra). Therefore, the Buddha inserted the concept of faith in the section on developing right view; he did not distinguish faith as a separate factor.

Even faith that passes beyond what is called 'blind faith' is still considered incorrect if it does not reach the stage of inquiry, of aiming for clear vision, because it fails to fulfil its function. Spiritual practice stuck at this level is still defective, because it lacks a true objective.

Although faith is of significant benefit, at the final stages it must come to an end. The existence of faith indicates that the true goal has not yet been reached, because as long as a person 'believes' in that goal, it shows that he has not yet realized it for himself. As long as faith exists, it reveals that a person still depends on external things, entrusts wisdom to external things, and has not reached perfect freedom. Faith is therefore not an attribute of an arahant; on the contrary, an arahant has the attribute of being 'faithless' (asaddha), which means that he or she has directly realized the truth and no longer needs to believe in another person or in a rational explanation for the truth.

To sum up, progression on the Path is gradual, beginning with faith (saddhā), developing into a seeing or understanding in line with cause and effect (diṭṭhi), and finally leading to a knowledge and vision of the truth (ñāṇa-dassana). At the final stage, the task of faith is ended.

The importance and advantages of faith should be clearly understood. One should neither give faith too much value nor hold it in contempt, both of which have harmful consequences. A disparagement of faith reveals a misunderstanding of faith's role. A person may possess a high degree of self-confidence, for example, but this may simply be a belief in his own mental defilements and manifest as conceit and egoism.

In relation to moral conduct (sīla), faith is a vital factor. It provides people with supportive principles that act as deterrents, enabling them to resist temptations and provocations and to abstain from performing bad actions. Faith also provides a channel for thought. When a person experiences a sense impression that does not overwhelm the mind (does not exceed the power of the principles instilled by faith), the course of his thinking follows the path prepared by faith; thoughts do not stray in unwholesome directions. For a person who is still subject to mental defilements, faith thus sustains virtuous conduct. Although faith has many benefits, however, if it is not accompanied by wisdom then it can be harmful and it can even hinder the development of wisdom.

In reference to wisdom development, it is possible to give a rough outline of the various stages of faith, as follows:

● One develops views based on sound reason; one does not believe in things simply because one has been told by others (in accord with the Kālāma Sutta—see below).
● One safeguards truthfulness (saccānurakkha); one listens to the teachings, opinions, and doctrines of various parties with objectivity; one does not rush into making judgements about things that one does not yet truly know; one does not stubbornly insist that one's personal knowledge and opinions represent the truth.
● When one has listened to the teachings and opinions of others, has seen that they accord with reason, and has observed that the person who offers these teachings is sincere, unbiased and wise, confidence arises. One accepts the teachings in order to continue an examination of the truth using reasoned analysis.
● One contemplates and examines these teachings until one is convinced that they are true and correct; one feels deeply impressed by the truth that one has witnessed and makes effort to further one's investigations in order to deepen a realization of the truth.
● If one has doubts one hastens to inquire from others with a sincere heart; one inquires not to shore up one's identity but in order to gain wisdom. Faith is consolidated by proving the truth of reasoned arguments. In this way the purpose of faith is fulfilled.

https://www.buddhistteachings.org/buddhadhamma-translations-2/publications/the-buddhist-teachings-on-faith-and-confidence/introduction-to-faith-confidence

[Assutava]

Благодарю за ответ, уважаемый Ассаджи.

Может быть, это как-то дежурно прозвучит, но Ваши материалы действительно полезны, спасибо, что публикуете и делитесь опытом.