[Buddha-l] Question

[Joy Vriens]

Ngawang Dorje wrote:

> I aske this question because this is one of the excuses iven by many 
> authors in explaining Gotama's renunciation.
>  
> I wanted to know whether it is historically correct? Is the concept of 
> four asrama pre-Buddhist? I have read somewhere that there used to be 
> only three, instead of four.

Probably because of the Indian quaternary model of four elements, which 
are in reality 3+1. e.g varna 3 social orders where the 4th one is the 
exclusion of the three, or the four objectives of man (purushaartha) 
where the fourth one (liberation) excludes the three others. Same thing 
for the four stages of life, the first 3 ones concern life, the fourth 
one is renunciation. (Theorie found in Shankara et la non-dualité, 
Michel Hulin p.48-49).

Joy