Note 107 — INDEX.

Âçrava literally means “oozing,” or “flowing out,” and the Chinese translators rendered it by lou, dripping, or leaking. Roughly speaking, it is a general name for evils, principally material and sensuous. According to an Indian Buddhist scholar, Âçrava has threefold sense: (1) “keeping,” for it retains all sentient beings in the whirlpool of birth and death; (2) “flowing,” for it makes all sentient beings run in the stream of birth and death; (3) “leaking,” or “oozing,” for it lets such evils as avarice, anger, lust, etc., ooze out from the six sense-organs after the fashion of an ulcer, which lets out blood and filthy substance. The cause of Âçrava is a blind will, and its result is birth and death. Specifically, Bhâvâçrava is one of the three Âçravas, which are (1) kâmâçrava, (2) vidyâçrava, and (3) bhâvâçrava. The first is egotistic desires, the second is ignorance, and the third is the material existence which we have to suffer on account of our previous karma. (return)