Appamāda
Apramāda (Sanskrit; Pali: appamāda; Tibetan Wylie: bag yod pa) is a Buddhist term translated as "conscientious" or "concern". It is defined as taking great care concerning what should be adopted and what should be avoided.[1][2] In the Pāli Canon, a collection of the Buddha's earliest teachings, the term appamāda is quite significant and the essence of the meaning can not be captured with one English word. "Heedfulness", "diligence", and "conscientiousness", are all words that capture some aspects of appamāda. It is identified as one of the eleven virtuous mental factors within the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings.
| Translations of Apramāda | |
|---|---|
| English | carefulness, concern, conscientiousness, conscious awareness |
| Sanskrit | अप्रमाद - apramāda |
| Pali | appamāda |
| Chinese | 不放逸(T) / 不放逸(S) |
| Korean | 불방일 (RR: bulbangil) |
| Tibetan | བག་ཡོད་པ། (Wylie: bag yod pa; THL: bakyö pa) |
| Glossary of Buddhism | |
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| Mindfulness |
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Etymology
The word is a negation of pamāda, which means "negligent" or "lax."[3] Appamāda, therefore, means non-negligence, or non-laxity, correctly translated as "heedfulness", or whichever word fully captures the mood of the term. "Heedfulness", "diligence", and "conscientiousness", all captures certain aspects of the word.
Explanation
The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:[1]
- What is concern? From taking its stand on non-attachment (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), and non-deludedness (amoha) coupled with diligence (vīrya), it considers whatever is positive and protects the mind against things which cannot satisfy. Its function is to make complete and to realize all worldly and transworldly excellences.
Alexander Berzin states:[4]
- A caring attitude (bag-yod, carefulness) is a subsidiary awareness that, while remaining in a state of detachment, imperturbability, lack of naivety, and joyful perseverance, causes us to meditate on constructive things and safeguards against leaning toward tainted (negative) things. In other words, being disgusted with and not longing for compulsive existence, not wanting to cause harm in response to its suffering, not being naive about the effects of our behavior, and taking joy in acting constructively, a caring attitude brings us to act constructively and to refrain from destructive behavior. This is because we care about the situations of others and ourselves and about the effects of our actions on both; we take them seriously.
Robert Thurman emphasizes the high degree of apramāda of someone who has realized emptiness (a.k.a. "voidness"):[5]
- This denotes a type of awareness of the most seemingly insignificant aspects of daily life, an awareness derived as a consequence of the highest realization of the ultimate nature of reality. As it is stated in the Anavataptaparipṛcchasutra: "He who realizes voidness, that person is consciously aware." "Ultimate realization," far from obliterating the relative world, brings it into highly specific, albeit dreamlike, focus.
This term is described at length in chapter four of the Bodhicharyavatara.
Alternate translations
- A caring attitude (Alexander Berzin)
- Carefulness (Alexander Berzin)
- Conscious awareness (Robert Thurman)
- Conscientiousness
- Concern (Herbert Guenther)
- Prudent
Importance
To really get an understanding of the range of the word appamāda, we have to examine it in the context of key sutta (Buddha's discourse) passages. The important point is that Appamāda ("Heedfulness") not only leads to perfection of ethical conduct (which on its own only leads to heavenly rebirth), but to all the various skillful methods taught in the Buddha's dispensation that culminate in the realization of nibbāna (transcending the entire cycle of endless rebirth and death). Appamāda ("Heedfulness") is the source of all skillful qualities. AN 10.15 has a series of similes all with this refrain: ...all skillful qualities are rooted in heedfulness, converge in heedfulness, and heedfulness is reckoned the foremost among them. In the passage below, the Buddha, exhorting his followers for the last time before dying, advised them to be "heedful", and then demonstrated complete mastery of the 9 meditative attainments in forward and reverse order. In other sutta passages such as the chapter of Appamāda of the Dhammapada, the context makes it clear that Appamāda ("Heedfulness") is to be developed in a way leading to mental mastery, meditative attainments, culminating in nibbāna.
Before the Buddha passed (death) into final nibbāna, his last advice to the order of monks:
[SN 6.15 pari-nibbāna Sutta]
Atha kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi:
handa dāni bhikkhave āmantayāmi vo
vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethāti.
Ayaṃ tathāgatassa pacchimā vācā.
Then the Blessed One addressed the monks,
"Now, then, monks, I exhort you:
All fabrications are subject to decay.
Bring about completion by being heedful (Appamāda)."
Those were the Tathāgata's last words.
(The Buddha then goes into 9 meditative attainments in forward and reverse order before passing)
References
- Guenther (1975), Kindle Locations 634-635.
- Kunsang (2004), p. 24.
- Tan, Piya (2013). "(Chakka) Appamāda Sutta" (PDF). The Dharmafarers. pp. 118–119. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
- Berzin (2006)
- Thurman (2008), p. 158.
Sources
- Berzin, Alexander (2006), Primary Minds and the 51 Mental Factors
- Guenther, Herbert V. & Leslie S. Kawamura (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding". Dharma Publishing. Kindle Edition.
- Kunsang, Erik Pema (translator) (2004). Gateway to Knowledge, Vol. 1. North Atlantic Books.
- Thurman, Robert (2008), The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, Pennsylvania State University