dharma (7706)

dharma
Entry 7706, Page 276, Col. 1

(Darma, Darma<h>2)
2 dharma¦, normally m. as in Skt.; occasionally (as in Pali, see Childers s.v. dhammo) nt.: SP 70.2 (vs) acc. to Kashgar rec. duḥśrāddheyam idaṃ dharmaṃ deśitam adya śāstṛṇām (ms.), but Tib. seems to support Nep. mss. which lack dharma; idam…dharmaṃ śrutvā SP 71.3 (prose; KN em. to imaṃ, which WT keep without note); aśrutvaiva…idam…dharmaṃ SP 60.4 (here kept with all mss. in both edd.); mā…a-dharmaṃ utpadyate LV 15.10 (prose), may no wickedness arise; idaṃ dharmaṃ LV 396.1 (prose; acc. sg.); paramaṃ dharmaṃ Mv ii.99.5 (n. sg.; in next sentence dharmo).--(1) characteristic, quality, substantially as in Skt. (BR s.v. 2), but used in BHS, as in Pali dhamma, very commonly and in a way which seems specially pointed and deserving of special [Page276-b+ 71] mention: asti-dharma, see s.v. 1 asti; vināśa-dharmeṇa (subject to destruction, perishable) mānsena Mv i.94.12; divyāś ca kāyāḥ parihāṇa- (v.l. °ṇi-) dharmāḥ SP 162.3 (vs), and divine bodies were characterized by diminution, i.e. became few (meaning proved by parallel 170.2; wrongly Burnouf and Kern); māreṇa…īrṣyādharmaparītena LV 267.2 (prose), full of the quality of jealousy; catvāra ime… duḥkhavipākā dharmāḥ RP 19.16 (prose), qualities that result in misery, i.e. vices; in Mv iii.200.5 are mentioned eight āścaryādbhuta dharma, marvelous qualities, of the Buddha, seven of which (the eighth apparently being omitted by mistake) are listed 200.6--202.2; they cor- respond imperfectly to the eight yathābhucca vaṇṇa of Pali DN ii.222.7, listed 222.13--224.14 (DN nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8 = Mv nos. 2, 7, 3, 4, 6); śuddhāvāsā ca devā aṣṭādaśa āmodanīyāṃ dharmān (the eighteen ‘qualities of rejoicing’, here conditions of, elements or matters for re- joicing) pratilabhanti Mv ii.259.10 (they are listed in the sequel); (2) like Pali dhamma, dharma (or dharmāyatana) is the object of manas (as rūpa of cakṣus, etc.); sometimes rendered idea; it seems likely that, at least in origin, it meant quality, characteristic (= 1), as that element in the outside world which the indriya manas (as distinguished from the five external organs of perception) concerned itself with; see AbhidhK. LaV-P. i.45, where it is ex- plained that ‘tho all the āyatanas are dharmas’ (qualities), ‘because it includes many and the chief (agra) dharma, one āyatana is specifically so called;’ in any case this exclusively Buddhist use occurs: dharmāyatanam Mvy 2039; Dharmas 24; dharmadhātuḥ Mvy 2057 (after mano- dhātuḥ, as dharmāyatanam 2039 follows mana-āy°); manendriyaṃ dharmavicāraṇeṣu Suv 56.12; similarly 57.8, etc.; see also dharmāyatanika, s.v. āyatanika; (3) in Laṅk used in a peculiar sense; pañcadharmāḥ Laṅk 229.6; °rma- id. 2.2; the list of them is given id. 228.5 pañca- dharmo (v.l. °mā, which seems surely correct), nimittaṃ nāma vikalpas tathatā samyagjñānaṃ ca, which are then defined in the sequel, but I confess I find the definitions hard to understand; Suzuki, Studies 155 ff., discusses the passage and renders dharma by category; it seems likely that it started out as a specilized application of mg. (1), quality; (4) very commonly, as with Pali dhamma, state of existence, condition of being; crystallized in the phrase or cpd. dṛṣṭa dharma, the present state, the present life, see dṛṣṭa-dharma; (nāhaṃ…ye) dharmā anityās te nityato deśayāmi, nāpi ye dharmā nityā te anityato deśayāmi Mv i.173.2, I do not teach that impermanent states are permanent, nor permanent ones impermanent; mostly restricted to states of empiric, hence transitory, worthless, existence: nairātmyaṃ…dharmāṇāṃ Laṅk 1.4; nairātmy’ aśubhāś (so divide, as Foucaux implies) ca dharm’ ime LV 176.19 (vs); māyasamāṃs tatha svapnasamāṃś ca …samudīkṣati dharmāṃ; LV 308.9 (vs), but note in 10 that the word is used in two radically different senses, īdṛśa dharma-nayaṃ vimṛṣanto (considering as such the rule, nature, condition, of the states of existence)…dhyāyati saṃsthitu dharme, he meditated…steadfast in the Doctrine; dharma pratītya-samutthita buddhvā LV 308.13 (vs, just after prec.), realizing that the states of being have originated by dependent-causation; śāntāḥ kila (read with WT °lā or with Ḱ °laḥ) sarv’ imi dharm’ anāsravā…(4) na cātra kaścid bhavatīha dharmo SP 117.3--4 (vs; Burnouf and Kern take dharma in 3 as law), all the conditions of being (in the saint) are calmed, free of the impurities (so that) there is not (any longer) in them under these conditions any state of (conditioned, empiric) existence; by extension, however, even nirvāṇa is called a dharma, state of being: (śreṣṭho…) dharmāṇa nirvāṇaṃ iva Mv i.166.18 (vs), (Buddha is the best of creatures) as nirvāṇa of states of being; nirvṛtau…dharma (loc. sg.) RP 6.9 (vs), in the state (of) nirvāṇa. See also the following cpds., esp. dharma- [Page277-a+ 71] kāya. For Dharma as n. pr. see prec.; for dharma as adj. see next. I have not listed dharma law, doctrine (second of the 3 ratna, Dharmas 1 etc.), since it is both extremely common and hardly un-Skt. It may refer particularly to the collections of sūtras which set forth the Doctrine; see e.g. dharma-caryā.--dharma is also one of the four pratisaṃvid, q.v.; on the mg. here see esp. AbhidhK. LaV-P. vii.89. ff., with references (note Dbh 77.3 ff.); it seems likely to belong to mg. (4) but definitions are con- fusingly variant and obscure.

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