Jīvitindriya (Sanskrit and Pali) is a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
term translated as "life faculty" or "vitality". ''Jīvitindriya'' is identified as one of the
seven universal mental factors within the Theravada abhidharma teachings. In this context, ''jīvitindriya'' is defined as a
mental factor that sustains the life of the citta (mind) and other mental factors it accompanies. The characteristic of jīvitindriya is said to be “ceaseless watching”.
Definition
Theravada
Bhikkhu Bodhi states:
:There are two kinds of life faculty, the mental, which vitalizes the associated mental states, and the physical, which vitalizes material phenomena. The mental life faculty alone is intended as a cetasika. It has the characteristic of maintaining the associated mental states, the function of making them occur, manifestation as the establishing of their presence, and its proximate cause is the mental states to be maintained.
Mahayana
Within the Mahayana Buddhist teachings, there are a variety of definitions for ''jīvitindriya''. The ''Dharmaskandhapadashastra'' (an early
Abhidharma
The Abhidharma are ancient (third century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist ''sutras''. It also refers to the scholastic method itself as well as the f ...
work of the Sarvastivadin school) defines ''jīvitindriya'' as: a faculty that persists, continues, maintains, animates, and operates what we called sentient beings.
[Soonil Hwang (2006), p. 80]
Etymology
Jīvitaṃ means “life”, and
indriya
''Indriya'' (literally "belonging to or agreeable to Indra") is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the senses more specifically. The term literally means "belonging to Indra," chief deity in the Rig Veda ...
means “controlling faculty”.
See also
*
Indriya
''Indriya'' (literally "belonging to or agreeable to Indra") is the Sanskrit and Pali term for physical strength or ability in general, and for the senses more specifically. The term literally means "belonging to Indra," chief deity in the Rig Veda ...
*
Mental factors (Buddhism)
Mental factors ( sa, चैतसिक, caitasika or ''chitta samskara'' ; pi, cetasika; Tibetan: སེམས་བྱུང ''sems byung''), in Buddhism, are identified within the teachings of the Abhidhamma (Buddhist psychology). They are d ...
*
Qi or Chi
References
Sources
*
* Nina van Gorkom (2010)
''Cetasikas'' Zolag
* Soonil Hwang (2006), ''Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana'', Routledge
External links
Definitions for jīvitindriya, Soonil Hwang
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jivitindriya
Mental factors in Buddhism