Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

The article examines the technical term bhavaṅga found in the Paṭṭhāna, the last book of the abhidhamma treatises. Since the term conveys the distinctive doctrinal perspectives of Pāli abhidhamma, its gradual development represents the historical identity of the Southeast Asian Theravāda tradition. The term refers to the non-active state of mind, which serves as a foundation for active mind-moments, namely, the cognitive process (citta-vīthi). This salient term, however, was not found in the earlier texts, such as Nettipakaraṇa, Peṭakopadesa and Milindapañha. It was defined as a crucial factor of existence or a ‘deep sleep without dreaming’. It has now become a technical term, meaning a non-active mind-moment within the cognitive process, and was first discovered in the Paṭṭhāna. Actually, the Paṭṭhāna and the commentarial texts defined the term similarly. This similarity shows that the Paṭṭhāna had already established the sophisticated doctrine of cognitive process which is based on the bhavaṅga with only minor changes of the technical term. The eight usages of the term are found in the Paṭṭhāna (volume I). From scrutinizing them, three characteristics of the term are revealed as follows: Firstly, the term bhavaṅga is categorised as the resultant indeterminate state (vipāka-avyākata); Secondly, as the conditioning state (paccayadhamma), bhavaṅga produces either the adverting (āvajjana) or other bhavaṅga which is called ‘death consciousness (cuti-citta)’ or ‘rebirth consciousness (upapatti-citta)’; Finally, the term always occurs with the proximity condition (anantara-paccaya).