나한(羅漢)의 사지(四智)에 대한 일고(一考)

Abstract

The word arahant is used to refer to enlightened people. The first arahant in Buddhism is the Buddha, Seokjon [釋尊, Śākyamuni]. In other words, the Buddha, Seokjon became a arahant through a underwent deep meditative practice also, as human beings. If it is possible to describe the Buddha's understanding upon attaining enlightenment, one may think of `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom [羅漢之四智].' Namely, arahants are people who have "extinguished the production of selfhood, completed the necessary practices of purity, done what was necessary to be done to realize enlightenment, and that there will be no further rebirths." The four verses of this passage [gāthā] first appeared in a question and answer of the Buddha to other disciples who had reached the level of arahant. These verses appear in nearly all of the Buddhist literature on practice, but the bundle of verses is copied in the early Buddhist canon without any definition of those concepts. These are then mentioned in the Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures which refer to them as `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom'. A representative such work is Huiyuan of Jinyingsi Temple's (523~592) Essay on the System of Mahāyāna [大乘義章]. `The four kinds of arahant's wisdom' in the Essay on the System of Mahāyāna, is `divided into three contexts [三門分別].' The first is to identify the wisdom based on Four Noble Truths [四聖諦]. Second, the wisdom's essence[体] and characteristics[相] are determined. Third, it is classified into `eradication wisdom [盡智]' and 'cognition of non-arising [無生智].'Here, `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom' refers to 'understanding that one has been born is the realization of the truth of suffering [我生已盡]', `the understanding that the arahant has completed the necessary practices of purity is the realization of the truth that suffering is at an end [梵行已立]', `the understanding that task of the arahant have been well performed, which is the realization of the truth leading to enlightenment [所作已辦]', `the understanding of the arahant that there will be no further rebirths, which is the realization of the truth of the causes of suffering [不受後有]'It is also said that these four is the same as the cognitions of the Four Noble Truths. The Essay on the System of Mahāyāna cites portions from Vibhāṣā’s śāstra [毘婆沙論書], Srimaladevisimhanada-sutra [勝鬘經] and Nirvāṇa Sūtra [涅槃經] assign Four Noble Truths to `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom.' Although the exact mapping of the Four Noble Truths to the `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom' differ among these scriptures, it is undeniable that the attainment of `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom' is in fact the attainment of the Four Noble Truths. Therefore, the different mappings of every verse in each text should be understood within the larger framework of the Four Noble Truths. Therefore, if the fundamental doctrines of the Buddha is the spirit of Buddhism and more important than any other doctrine,then `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom' is equal in importance. Therefore, this calls for a re-illumination of the previously neglected `four kinds of arahant's wisdom' and an understanding of `the four kinds of arahant's wisdom' as a fundamental base for practice, and further study is indicated.