Equal-headed (samasisin)
An Abhidharma Innovation and Commentarial Developments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.36758Keywords:
Abhidhamma, Abhidharma, samasīsa, samasīsin, Arahant, suicide, Theravāda, Sarvāstivāda, Dharmaguptaka, VibhājyavādinAbstract
The suicide accounts of three bhikkhus in sutta literature probably inspired the formulation of a particular type of person who attains Arahantship at death, later designated as an ‘equal-headed’ (samasisin) person in the Abhidhamma. The Theravada tends to depict those bhikkhus as non-Arahants before suicide. The Pali commentary explains that they did not attain Arahantship until their deaths and refers to two of them as each being an ‘equal-header’ (samasisi). By contrast, the (Mula-)Sarvastivada sutras and Abhidharma portray them as Arahants during their lifetimes. The Sarvastivadins deny the concept of samasisin proposed by the Vibhajyavadins, which include the Theravada and Dharmaguptaka schools. The Pali commentaries provide various explanations and classifications of samasisin, which have one idea in common: the term signifies the concurrence of two events, and it denotes at least a person who only becomes an Arahant at death, and sometimes someone who becomes an Arahant at the same time as a certain kind of event occurs. The Patisambhidamagga, a quasi-Abhidhamma text, has a chapter that expounds ‘equal-head’ (samasisa) in an oblique way by enumerating various kinds of sama and of sisa separately. The Patisambhidamagga commentary tries to make sense of the term samasisa by associating this textual exposition of sama and sisa with the more commonly found term samasisin.
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