Abstract

This thesis entitled ‘An Analytical Study of the Ontology of Four States of Loss and Woe in Theravãda Buddhist Philosophy’ has three objectives: 1) to study the concept of ontology, 2) to study the concept of four states of loss and woe in Theravãda Buddhist Philosophy and 3) to analyze the ontological concept of four states of loss and woe in Theravãda Buddhist Philosophy. This is a qualitative research.

In the research, it was clearly found that the concept of ontology deals with the nature of reality regarded as the universal thing. There are four ways in proving such thing: 1) it can be proved by means of ontological argument. In this way, the necessary being and faith are used to prove the nature of God, 2) it can be proved by cosmological argument which hinges on the existence of God as the first cause, 3) it can be proved by teleological argument; this involves the existence of a designation derived from the created natural phenomena, 4) it can be proved by moral argument; this basically points out to the absolute existence of morality in sustaining the ultimate good and the imperfect nature of man in morality and thereby resulting in imperfect morality.

In the second objective, it was found that the four states of loss and woe are of the hell, the animal kingdom, the realm of hungry ghosts and the host of demons. These exist in mind, that is, one becomes hell by virtue of anger, one becomes animal because of delusion, one becomes hungry ghost and demon because of greed and these also exist as a place or plane where those animal really live. In the third objective, it showed that the ontology of four states of loss and woe in Theravãda Buddhist philosophy can be proved by four viewpoints: 1) it can be proved by ontological argument which leads to two reasons: 1) the necessity of law of Kamma, this means that one who does bad thing must be born in four states of loss and woe because of his/her action and 2) the faith in the enlightenment of the Buddha, this gives rise to the awareness of the Buddha’s quality who knows all realities of things and the Buddha had experiences about those things then realized the existence of four states of loss and woe, 2) it can be proved by cosmological argument leading to two reasons: 1) mind and 2) properties of mind; this shows that the arising and ceasing of unwholesome in mind and properties of mind serve as the cause to move man to four states of loss and woe, 3 it can be proved by teleological argument, this shows the law of cause and effect because such a rule exists permanently without depending upon anything and by virtue of this law the existence of four states of loss and woe exist, 4) it can be proved by moral argument,  there are two reasons derived from this proof: 1) Nibbãna; this serves as the base of the ultimate morality leading to the awareness of the supreme good and pointing to 2) the four states of loss and woe, these exist because of man’s bad action derived from the imperfect morality.

However, the researcher is of the view that the four states of loss and woe exist on the necessary condition and on the sufficient condition in accordance with the law of cause and effect, law of Kamma, the faith in the enlightenment of the Buddha hinging on the perfect morality leading to the imperfect morality through the awareness of unwholesome mind and properties of mind.

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