So, welcome everybody.
This is the 9th lecture in my course on Tranquility and Insight.
And as usual, we start again with those who have put some questions on the forum.
Thanks to all of you who are participating in that.
There's three questions by Jayanta Gunawabana.
These are still related to an earlier lecture to Mahyama Agama 76 and its parallel in the
Anguttara Nikaya.
It was Anguttara Nikaya 863 that was that new parallel that we discovered in the course
of this course.
And one is about expression in the Pali version before the practice of Satipatthana.
We have this expression with the mind firm and well settled internally.
And he is asking whether this has any specific significance since the Chinese version speaks
of imperturbable.
So the Chinese version reads like this.
You should train in such a way that the mind becomes settled, staying imperturbable within.
And I would personally think that the fact that the term imperturbable is used here,
I would take it to point to rather deep concentration.
And if we look at the Pali, from the Pali I also get the impression that this is talking
about a considerably deep degree of samatha or concentration that is already established.
Then he asks about the expression Jhana with comfort or without comfort.
Actually it is not Jhana but there is this instruction.
You develop this concentration with this and with that.
And so in the Anguttara Nikaya we first have Sarta Sahagata which Bhikkhu Bodhi translates
as accompanied by comfort.
And then the final one is accompanied by equanimity which implicitly then as Jhavante says means
that this is without comfort.
In the Chinese version we have three terms here.
The first is conjoined with happiness which I think is the corresponds to Sarta Sahagata
even though normally you would expect sukkha there.
But I would take the reference to Sarta in the Anguttara Nikaya to be pretty much similar
to the idea of sukkha.
And at the end we also get conjoined with equanimity.
So we have the basic progression that is similar.
But between that we get this conjoined with concentration and as translators we have added
totally stable because we didn't really know what to do with that.
And I simply don't really understand why there is this additional mentioning of concentration
in between the two and I have not come across this anywhere else.
Literally it would just be conjoined with concentration and concentration has been long
developed before and it also doesn't make much sense to say develop this concentration
conjoined with concentration.
So I personally take this to be an error in the text.
But the basic progression then is the same.
So we get first the presence of the factors of the first jhana, vitaka vichara which I
like to translate as initial and sustained mental application.
Then these are dropped and you get with pity, with joy and without, with sukkha, happiness
or sata in the Pali pointing to the third absorption in the sutta scheme and then with
equanimity pointing to the fourth.
So I think the basic progression described in the two discourses is the same.
And the third question that he had was about the sequence.
You might remember we had these three main topic in the discourse.
One was the brahma viharas, the four divine abodes if you like.
Then there were the four jhanas and the four satipatanas.
And in the parallel version the sequence in which these were given is different.
And so his question was whether they point to any particular way of development.
And my personal suggestion would be to not see these as being fixed in any particular
way.
That is the advantage we can maybe draw from having such variations in the parallel versions.
Basically it seems that there is no fixed sequence and that relates us back also to
the yugananda sutta that we discussed in the very first lecture by Bhikkhu Bodhi also.
That basically there is no, there does not seem to be a fixed sequence in which one has
to do the practice.
So the approach can be flexible and according to one's personal requirements.
So now we move on to Madhyama Agama 78.
That is the discourse where we have this story about Brahma and the Buddha visiting Brahma
and then the two engaging in a, I called it a hide and hide and seek competition.
This comment is from Jeff Hardin.
He says Bhikkhu Bodhi comments that Madhyama, Madhyamanikaya 49 can be read as an allegory
to Madhyamanikaya 1, the Moolapadhyaya sutta, a dramatic representation in abstract philosophical
terms.
And he says that I also called Madhyama Agama 78 and Madhyamanikaya 49 an allegory.
In general the Pali Canon seems to contain much less allegorical, symbolical and mythical
writing than the scriptures of the other world religions.
Have you written about or discussed how to wisely view allegorical writing in this body
of work that is by and large logical, direct and utilitarian?
Yes, on my own I would perhaps not have qualified the Canon entirely as largely logical, direct
and utilitarian.
I think there is a lot of pragmatism there but maybe the reason why I am a little wary
of this type of characterization is that historically there is a tendency of reading
the early discourses in a way that conforms to certain western ideas.
This has its history, has its root in the history of Buddhist scholarships and outstanding
scholars like T.V. Rice Davis, etc.
So there is sometimes a tendency to see predominantly what is logical, direct and utilitarian.
In my own study and also influenced by other scholars I have come to more and more appreciate
the fact that there is a considerable richness already in early Buddhist discourse and there
is a lot that is not as easily compatible with our western ideas and expectations but
it is still part of the original teachings and I have been trying to comment on this
in these past years with all of you in these courses also always pointing out that there
are these, you remember we had this surprising shift from this Upakileso Sutta with this
powerful description of inner light and concentration experience and then we get this next discourse
in the Madhyama Agam with all these gods and you all help me with the homework to make
sense out of this and both discourses stand in the same collection side by side, have
party parallels show no particular reason for considering one of them to be substantially
different in terms of historical strata from the other.
So I think one point is to simply make room for the fact that these discourses originated
in a very different world 2500 years ago were inner and outer, logic and mystic etc.
Were not maybe as clearly distinct categories as we experienced them in the modern western
setting and also to be clearly aware and I think all of you are aware of that simply
because of reading all these discourses side by side that what we have in front of us are
of course not verbatim records, I mean I know Jeff knows that, I am just saying that
in general, I am not so much responding to Jeff, I am just saying this kind of what comes
to my mind on this topic.
I have some of my friends, some of my monastic friends in Asia, they take everything literal
and that becomes really difficult then especially you know as good monks we are supposed to
study the Vinaya and in the Vinaya there are some, how shall we call it, some wild
stories and there is a monk who actually is a snake, a naga and so they find out at night
when he sleeps he takes up his original form, there is another story about a layman with
his wife and he sees a monk who has a beautiful skin color and he says I wish my wife had
such a beautiful skin and flip he is changing to a woman and he runs away and then gets
married and gets children so I mean it is a full fledged sex change.
It is another story about a monk who is able to change the palace of the king into gold
just like this.
So if one takes these things literal I think it becomes very difficult but my own suggestion
then is rather to see that these are stories especially the Vinaya, the Vinaya stories
are coming out of a teaching context and some of these stories are not really, maybe even
originally not really meant as historical records but as tales that illustrate something
and I have written about that in my genesis of the Bodhisattva ideal in regard to what
we call the Jadakas, the stories of what tradition believes were past lives of the Buddha and
I have tried to show that many of these Jadakas arise out of an original teaching context
where they were just an allegory, just a story just as if such and such thing would happen
and then we get another text once upon a time such and such a thing happened and then we
get another text once upon a time such and such a thing happens and so and so was the
Buddha in a past life this is how he knows about it and so we can trace this development
and I think there is a lot on literalism which is perfectly natural in an oral transmission
and with all the of religious literature that has made things that originally weigh probably
as far as we can tell may have been meant allegorical come to be literal truth and one
point I was giving maybe two lectures ago where I think that this whole idea of Buddha
and the monks flying around from here to there may have at an earlier stage been just the
idea that they were using their Mano Mayakaya so that is a mind body made by the mind so
this is a I don't like to say call this astral body but I don't know a better term in English
to give the sense so if that is the original sense then the physical body of the Buddha
would still have been seated wherever he was in meditation and he was just moving around
with his mind to another place and that gives a quite a different different impression to these
instances and another thing is also in on this very literal reading one loses a lot of humor
many of these tales and this I have tried to show in several of my papers especially tales about
gods if one reads them carefully that there comes out a lot of humor but if one takes it all fully
literal I think it becomes very difficult I mean I don't want to just dismiss this type of approach
because I have many friends who are actually living in that kind of frame of mind and I fully
respect that also but I think for us in the West and now I'm talking as a Westerner I think it's
good to not to just dismiss it all one extreme and not to just take it over all the other extreme
but have this middle way of seeing that these are these are stories out of out of a certain
historical context and some of this may just be an allegory yeah then there will now we come to
Magyama Agama 18 and there are questions about translation terminology there's a general question
by Jeff Hardin yeah I think I pasted him first of all when you translate Chinese Agamas do you use
the English equivalent for the translated party technical term even if it is not the best literal
translation of the Chinese into English it seems that sometimes excuse me the Chinese parallel
seems to use different wording in English than the parallel passage from the translated Pali
to what extent do these reflect true transmission errors versus the results of the imprecise art of
translation yeah that's a very complex term topic you see this Magyama Agama translation we are
actually originally we were three editors and now we are still two editors so especially during
the early stages the decisions were taken by three and I was the one in our group who was
strongest on trying to recognize the underlying Indic text and also trying to adopt as much as
we can we find this correct for the Pali term trying to adopt the translation terminology used
by Bikubodi because that is pretty much the standard translation now and it's just easier
for those who don't know the original but in a few cases the other two were of the opinion that
we should use a different English term even though we know it's the basic the basic Pali is the same
and one of the other two in the group he has a very strong sinological background he was very
strong on this is Chinese but I think it is not really that much Chinese in a sense because I
think it's actually an Indic text like what we have here in front Magyama Agama 81 we are going
to discuss later on this is a text that has come into being in India was produced by Indians was
transmitted in India for yeah eight centuries maybe yeah seven centuries whoever and then
at some point it was brought to China within a few years translated into Chinese and then this
is pretty much the version we have so I think it's like just imagine an Indian wearing traditional
Chinese clothes it's not really a Chinese product of the Chinese I mean immensely grateful to the
Chinese for their immense translation efforts this is not the question but it's not in itself a
text produced in China and in my studies of the Agama so far it is only in the Ekotarika Agama
where I have been able to show distinct signs of Chinese contribution to the text beyond mere
translation but particularly in Magyama Agama to me seems to be a very as far as I can tell a very
faithful rendering of the Indian original therefore my personal take is that in as much
as the Chinese allows we should we should translate what the text we should we should translate the
underlying Indic original I remember one translator meeting there was others also and there's this this
term that is the Chinese character for birth and the Chinese character for bodily form
so something like birth birth body or birth form which I mean totally makes no sense whatsoever
everybody was struggling and I mean I'm not telling this because this time I found it
normally the others are much better but I found it means jata rupa gold jata birth rupa form so so
unless in fact with the Agamas unless you have some familiarity with the Indic languages Pali
Prakrit Sanskrit it's it's difficult to to understand them because they have these
translations that make simply no sense on their own unless you start to reconstruct the underlying
Indic and Indic text so I think it is important but also there's the other danger of course that
one starts to read what one expects into the Chinese and sometimes they are borders
and one of these was brought up by two two such cases were brought up by Michael Beisert
so one is the translation and we are now with Madhyama Agamaeti right attentiveness
and right attentiveness is the same as sampajanya in Pali and this is one of the cases where the
others two in the translation team were in the majority I would have preferred to use the
translation that Bhikkhu Bodhi uses for sampajanya so here it is our fault as translators that does
not enable you as the reader to recognize this is the same as the Pali but then another one
that also mentioned by Michael Beisert was mental aspiration and undivided mindfulness
and in the Pali suttas Bhikkhu Bodhi translates that as establishing mindfulness before him and
here we have two different originals that establishing mindfulness before him is this
parimukasati and the Chinese clearly is not a rendering of parimukasati
and on that term of translation there's a third question by Michael Beisert
later in the discourse the word influxes is used Bhikkhu Bodhi usually translates asavas as tense
is influxes your preferred translation for asavas or does Madhyama Agamaeti use a different word
which would make influx more adequate yeah and this is one of the cases where I have consciously
decided to not use Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation terminology there are very few cases where I
don't follow him I think it's a nibbida I prefer disenchantment to revulsion
and dukkha I prefer unsatisfactoriness to all suffering and asavas I prefer influx the
Chinese is the same the Chinese clearly is a rendering of influx asavas or taint and I wanted
to explain because the asavas are very central for the sociological scheme in early Buddhism
for awakening and why I think asava is better translated as influx behind the choice of the
appropriate terminology for this term stands a scholarly discussion there are three scholars
I'm just putting in the references here who have argued here they are yeah no it's not coming
completely it's upon missing Richard Gombridge so it's Herman Jacobi he was in 1940 in his
article on Jainism then professor K.R. Norman in his philological approach to Buddhism and
professor Richard Gombridge in his what the Buddha thought they the basic argument is that the term
asava has been taken over from the Jain tradition in the Jain tradition the term asava
refers to what flows in onto the soul and obscures the soul with a fine material substance
because of any unwholesome activities done in the past past lives and now and as the task of
liberation is to purify the soul from this accumulated cover of what has flown in of these
defilements this this material defilement of the soul and once that has achieved and liberation
is attained and these scholars will point out that the Buddhism must have borrowed the term
from the Jains and kind of I paraphrase a little bit it's almost as if they didn't really understand
what it meant because in Buddhism there's no soul and so nothing can flow in
onto this soul and the whole conception of defilement of the mind in Buddhism is different
we are not talking about a material substances but about a purely mental approach
and I assume the idea of taint comes predominantly from one discourse and here's the reference
and this describes a boil so a boil that discharges and if you strike it if you hit it if it gets
infected more and more asavang deity more and more it will give give give rise to some impure
off looks some some impurity that comes out this pus kind of thing and so the argument is that
this passage actually shows that in Buddhism the asava is something that flows out and that is
somehow that that is is a tainted substance I'm not quite sure where the idea taint comes from but
the idea of outflow comes precisely from this discourse and this as far as I can see so far
is pretty much the established opinion in scholarly circles except for one and this is
uh professor Schmitthausen
here I've given the reference and here is the quote so he says asavang or asavang may in
buddhist text also denote annoyances trouble suffering he had said in the case of asavang the
most archaic meaning is dangers or disturbances rushing or intruding upon the ascetic
and I think this this quote and for my for my own understanding has really helped me to
to broaden my understanding of asava and then I turned to when I did my study of the magimanika
the sabassava suta magimanikaia 2 which has several chinese agama parallels the second discourse in
the magimanika it's on all the asavas and it is I believe the most detailed examination of asavas
in the early canon if I don't remember another passage that gives so much information on this
topic of the asavas and so this sabassava suta presents seven methods for overcoming the influxes
see if I can get this pasted in here
yeah so seeing dasana restraining sangvara using patissivana enduring adivasana avoiding parivajana
removing vinudana and developing bhavana seeing means to see the vulnerable truth instead of
any kind of speculation restraining means to be guarded at the sense doors
using means to use one's requisites properly as the bulbs bowl food enduring is enduring
bias types of hardships that one invariably encounters in the ancient indian setting
as a wanderer avoiding is that one is intelligent enough to avoid what is dangerous and unsuitable
like going close to a wild animal that might bite one or something like that
removing means to remove whatever is unwholesome in one's own mind and developing is to develop
body's wholesome in particular the awakening factors so if we if we look at this
some of these activities don't really have a relationship to flowing at all
and some of them do even seem to be about flowing in in particular i think the flowing
in i mean we had professor schmidt house and suggestion of these hardships and what is
dangerous these are only two things that can come from the outside towards one but particularly
important i think is guarding the sense doors and in the guarding the sense doors in the
traditional description of sensory strain it speaks that the the purpose of such sense
restraint is said to be to avoid the flowing in unversity of what is unwholesome and unversity
from philologically speaking as a part term is closely related to our server it's the same
basic term so it's clear that in first of all the idea that in buddhism asava means an outflow
and is a sort of mal-adoption of jhana usage i think is not supported by this discourse
and in general also i find it difficult to posit either the jhana or the buddhists as being the
first and the others as those who have borrowed because the texture testimony we have for both
traditions cannot be so clearly set in time and in general that we can say this one is early and
this one is later especially the jhana tradition because as far as we know the jhana canon came to
a closure much later than the buddhist canon and my personal feeling is that the most useful
approach to buddhist and jhana tradition is to see them as two members of the shramana tradition
who had a common heritage of ideas and words without trying to posit one as the originator
and the other one as the one who borrowed and the idea of asava particularly in context of
sense restraint has clear to do with influence things i i restrain my sense tools to avoid
detrimental influences on my mind and this is very much in line with the general early buddhist
approach to redefine ideas of purification already present in the ancient historic environment
but to give them a psychological approach and so my personal feeling based on what i have
said so far is that the idea of influence what influences us and what in some cases might quite
literally flow in on us is as far as i can understand the best way of grappling with this
term asava and this is why in my translation i prefer influx as to me it captures much better
this breadth of meaning that emerges particularly from sabassava sutta
than the term taint but the term taint is certainly also correct i'm just explaining
my personal preference
this is a comment by martin zayden sticker a stock passage in the suttus indicates that the
terms real significance independently of etymology when it describes the asavas it states that the
fire bring renewal of existence give trouble ripen in suffering and lead to future birth
aging and death thus other translators bypassing the literal meaning have read it cankers
corruptions or taints the three taints mentioned in the nikai's are respectively synonymous for
craving for sensual pleasures craving for existence and ignorance yeah
but uh i i agree but i mean this this this works uh similarly with the idea of influx
whereas i think taint and corruption does not work so well with the sabassava sutta
thank you for the comment martin
so
this is another question by jeff hardin what can we make of a chinese discourse that has no
pali parallel like magma magma 18 in the pali tippy taka is is if the pali tippy taka is
considered to be a complete canon would not absences of pali counterparts to chinese agamas
suggest lost pali suitors or fabricated chinese arguments yeah there are fact that uh magma magma
magma 80 has no pali parallel uh points or two possibilities either such a discourse
did exist and was lost or never came to be included in the pali
discourse collection or the second one it is it is it is a later development and we find this
fluidity of tradition already incorporated in the account of the first sangeeti in the pali vinayam
here's the reference it's a very interesting episode that the monks have finished their
recitation of the canon and then they go to another monk called purana and they say look
we have recited all these things and you should also follow this and he says yes you have recited
very well thank you but i think i will remember the things the way i heard them myself from the
buddha and i think this episode is is very very significant because the account of the first
sangeeti sometimes translated as counsel is an important reference point in the different
tradition as the time when they are the the canon was established as authentic from their perspective
so to have this episode that this is immediately put into question is is very interesting and it
just shows the fluctuations the the unfixedness of the oral transmission of these discourses at
an early stage and we have to remember this sangeeti this first sangeeti again we are back
there to the topic that earlier i mean it's not just an allegory or a myth but again there have
been several scholars who have pointed out that the historicity of this sangeeti is uh somewhat
doubtful and my personal take on this story the buddhas just passed away and so it's natural for
the monks to congregate and there is ananda who has been the attendant of the buddha and he was
a bahu sutta learned in the sense of somebody who really had heard a lot and so it's natural
for those monks who have been wandering around in different parts of india to if i may use the
modern term to update the stock of discourses that they are familiar with yeah you have to imagine
like the buddha is teaching in one part and and some monks live somewhere else and so they come
in contact with somebody who's just seen the buddha oh you saw the buddha any new discourse
ah let me know come let me let me learn it there's a continuous process of of improving this stock
of orally uh transmitted literature in different parts of the india going on continuously
and somebody who is living very far away and has little chance of meeting monks uh who have seen
the buddha recently he or she or none however might have had a very uh not the latest update
there might be years behind and or have very few suttas only and so when when all these these monks
now congregate at this time it is it is perfectly natural for them to to ask ananda any news let
let us have let us have uh what what has been said recently and so there's a kind of an updating
but at that time the idea of a formation of a canon seems very improbable
and it seems more like in later times once a division has been there different schools
different buddhi schools disagreement about what the buddha actually taught that then looking back
such a kind of perhaps somewhat informal meeting was then considered to be a real council
with the proceedings and now we are settled it and this is this is this is authentic and
and this is the site like this in fact we find that in the different vineyards
even the sequence of the four nikayas or agamas differs some say the long collection were cited
first but then another one says no no the samyukta was the first collection to be recited at this
at this first council or first sangeeti so we receive this fluctuability
right from the beginning and so for me it is not a surprise to find a discourse in the chinese
agamas that has no pali palace and as jeff rightly said we we don't really know my personal
take on mayama agama 80 the story of anuruddha needing a robe and the buddha personally
intervening to make a rope is very beautiful but i have not come across it anywhere else
this is not necessarily a sign of lateness but there is a whole genre of discourses in the
mayama agama which give a lot of emphasis to the disciples there's a whole chapter on ananda
we read some of the discourses together this chapter has a lot on anuruddha
and so i kind of wonder if if this is the outcome of a tendency very soon after the buddha passed
away and a hagiography a history of the buddha had already come into being that now the also the
first generation of disciples has passed away and the next generation wants some more material on
these disciples also still remember we are in an oral setting there is no tv there's no internet
there's no iphone there are no books all you have is stories others tell you and so to enrich your
relationship to the tradition you want some some histories of those people you hear this ananda
and anuruddha and so on so that so what are they about what what did they do one wants some more
information and so it is possible that mayama agama 80 has come into being out of such
type of need and if this pure speculation on my side should be correct then it would mean that
it is not part of the very earliest transmission but there are discourses in mayama agama also in
the other agamas even in a koturika agama which are so give us such an impression of earlyness
that i would simply i would find it very difficult to put them as late one example i discussed in a
paper on the it's it's about this idea that the four noble truths are built on an analogy with
ancient indian medicine with a diagnostic scheme in ancient indian medicine which diagnosis disease
cause of the disease state of health and cure and so the four noble truth and taken from this
scheme and there's a discourse in samyutta agama and in the other samyutta agama also and we have
tibetan and i think an uyghur version and there are also two clearly distinct transmission
lineages it's not just one single discourse we do not have this discourse in pali but we have
references to this idea in another discourse and also in the visuddhi maga in the vimutti maga
it's all over the place so my argument is in this case even though we don't have a pali version
i would consider this discourses early i see no reason why we should consider it as late
it could simply be all of this situation of transmission and if you remember that the
buddhist schools probably came into being because of geographical separation
and they're splitting as not because of philosophical ideas but because of disagreement
about the vinaya and disagreement about the vinaya can simply also happen if you have different
party mokshas party mokshas the code of rules during recitation in some area if there come to
be changes then somebody from another part will no longer be able to accept that set of rules
because it's different from the one he had and so a split can come into being so this coming
into being of different buddhist schools is different from what we know from western history
but has a lot to do with geographical separation and within geographical separation easily changes
can come into being or you have a transmission lineage from one group of monks that never got
to hear that one particular discourse so there the situation there is such that we cannot come
to a firm decision based on the mere fact that okay this discourse in pali has no chinese
parallel or this discourse in the chinese has no pali parallel they are obviously suspect
but we cannot come on a firm conclusion as such so comment by damadin influence is very nice
because etymologically comes from fluoro latin to flow into of a flux much like the influxes
yeah that that is the point that i wanted to make with that and that i think this influence
what martin brought up is that it defiles is that it brings renewal of existence etc so the
term influx influence works very well with that but that is just i was just i am i was not
criticizing other translations as cankers or tains i was just explaining why i prefer to use the term
influx thank you damadin there's a question by patrick conway excuse me
this lecture brought up what seems to be two cultivating narratives in the canon
with regard to pursuit of the holy life on the one hand there are many passages that urge the
pursuit of awakening through a kind of striving that is accompanied by seclusion isolation and
withdrawal from the world and mania maga maiti is an exemplary instantiation on the other hand
one finds several passages in the suttas where the buddha seems to extol the importance of friendship
not just as a two but something essential to the spiritual path except perhaps in the case of
pachika buddhas eg samyutani kaya 45 too i thought this was a very interesting comment
thank you patrick in mayama our 18 we have the gradual path description without the usual
introduction that comes to this path the usual introduction to the gradual path speaks of a
tathagata a tathagata arises in the world and teaches the dharma and this is usually found
but not found in mayama agama because anuruddha describes his own practice of the gradual path
and the tathagata who arises in the world and teaches the dharma is precisely the kalyanamitta
the good friend that is mentioned in samyutani kaya 45 too and if you look at the end of this
discourse this is page 1525 in the translation by bhikkhu bodhi we find that is stated there
explicitly i just wanted to read that for you ananda it may be understood how the entire holy
life is good friendship good companionship good comradeship by relying upon relying upon me as a
good friend ananda being subject to birth a freed from birth being subject to aging a freed from
aging being subject to death a freed from death etc so the point about kalyanamitta here is in
particular that there is somebody like the buddha who teaches one how to practice and without that
it's it's very difficult tradition says a buddha himself arises rarely in the world because
the feet buddha has to accomplish is to find the path himself without having a teacher
so the buddha as a teacher is the kalyanamitta the good friend and this teaching enables the
practitioner to walk the path to liberation but this walking of the path does require
intensive practice and seclusion for the great majority of practitioners except for the gifted
few and in between the buddha and the disciple stands the patantcheka buddha
excuse me which patrick mentioned and this is a very interesting motif in early buddhi's discourses
their role is not entirely clear the term as i have discussed in one of my papers contrary to
professor norman means pachika means solitary not pratya ya that a pachika buddha has become
obeying because of a particular condition i think that interpretation proposed by first
Norman i disagree with that it's clear also from the use of pachika in other contexts
so the basic idea for pachika buddha is a single or solitary buddha and the idea is that this
person is capable of realizing awakening on its own without a teacher but the realization is such
that this pachika buddhi is not able to teach this to others this makes the difference between
a pachika buddha and some buddha who is capable of teaching others but there are some passages
where we find that pachika buddhas do not necessarily live totally alone
sometimes we also find them living in groups so this aspect of their actual lifestyle is not
clearly defined and there are some variations
this is Shyla Catherine she says i'm especially moved by the gradual path articulated by Venera
Anuruddha and Magyamagama 80 with the final line relying on the precepts established in the
precepts using the precepts as my letter i ascended to the hall of unsurpassable wisdom
to the pavilion of true dharma and with little effort i observed the thousand worlds
as most of us will probably agree a foundation of virtue is so very important for the development
of concentration inside and all the various attainments that a meditative path offers
this discourse beautifully articulates the humble foundation and the gradual development
of the path of release all those supernormal powers might be dramatic and impressive they
rest on the integrity of our commitment to virtue yeah beautiful i can't say anything to that can
only agree and there's another comment by Linda Grace one thing that struck me in this sutta was
the quality of humility beginning with the touching story of the buddha joining and sewing the ropes
all the way through Venera Anuruddha's description of his own process of awakening via the gradual
path while he could have focused more on his meditative attainments and extraordinary psychic
powers instead he highlights seedler as the essential foundation and ongoing support
throughout the entirety of the path yeah i was also very struck by this idea that the buddha would join
making a rope for Anuruddha for one of his monks it's something i have not come across
elsewhere there's a very beautiful story in the Venera where the buddha chances upon a sick monk
who is lying there in his excrements and the other monks have kind of neglected him and so the buddha
calls Ananda and together they wash this monk and the parlour versions differ how much the buddha did
the actual washing and in some versions we get we get the sakra and the gods then they come and
wash it instead of the buddha but i think the original point was that the buddha himself
washed off the excrement from this monk and this is a very powerful powerful story also
and afterwards he calls the monks together and says look you have to you have to look after each
other so i i i think this this idea that he helps to make the robes uh while while i in general i think
Maja Mahama 18 may be a later product the story itself is not totally incredible and i was
not totally incredible and i also find it very touching and this is again linda grace
i find this image of the ladder to be very powerful i was considering how not only is it
not possible to jump to the highest rung without mounting the ones below the ladder needs to be
well built one which isn't going to crack and fall apart while climbing it one which can be
dependent upon for safety with each step taken excuse me it needs to be constructed of strong
material rungs probably aligned any cracks or splintering or shakiness attended to in order for
it to be a trustworthy support and the means whereby it's possible to reach the highest goal
the precepts as a ladder emphasize the importance of step by step moment by moment cultivation of
wholesome conditions the purification of body speech and mind in every aspect of life and
practice that will not only have their positive results yeah thank you linda for bringing out this
simile in an even more powerful way a very powerful simile indeed
so this completes my survey of the contributions made in the forum thanks again for all of you
and now we are ready to get into the discourse on mindfulness of the body
there's an introductory narration in both versions which i have not put in here
according to which the monks were already discussing the topic of mindfulness of the
body and then the buddha comes to join them and then gives an exposition
so here he has just come to join and has been told what they were discussing
the blesser bond said again to the monks excuse me why did i declare that by cultivating mindfulness
of the body widely and in detail one will obtain great fruits then the monks said to the blessed
one the blessed one is the source of the dharma the blessed one is the master of the dharma the
dharma comes from the blessed one may he explain it having heard it we will come to know its meaning
fully the buddha said listen closely and pay careful attention i shall explain its meaning to you
then the monks listen to receive instruction this is just a standard parry call we get to
show that how the buddha is being asked to expound a particular topic the buddha said
how does a monk cultivate mindfulness of the body and before continuing i need to mention
something i i think i already mentioned briefly in the forum when the discourses use the term
monk bhikkhu then this is not meant in an exclusive manner it was a standard pattern in
in those times apparently that speaking to all who are present one would address only
part of the congregation so if there's the king and all his followers then one must say just talk
to the king or we had it in a few discourses back that there was anuruddha in his two friends
and instead of calling all three by the name the address is anuruddha splura and now if i
look at all of you who are present i would just say bhikkhu adhamika or bhante i would just address
him but it is not meant that i'm only talking to him and not to anybody else
so here this is the same the the practice is in generally open to anyone at the same time however
the use of the term bhikkhu or bhikkhuni implies that in the ancient setting the
going forth as a monk or a nun was held to be the ideal environment and form for intensive practice
okay i continue when walking a monk knows he's walking when standing he knows he is standing
when sitting he knows he is sitting when lying down he knows he is lying down when falling
asleep he knows he's falling asleep when waking up he knows he's waking up when falling asleep
or waking up, he knows he's falling asleep or waking up. Yeah, the difference here with
the Pali parallel is that Maji Menekaya 119 does not explicitly mention falling asleep
or waking up as part of this particular exercise. The practice described here, according to
my understanding, is a foundational practice for tranquility and insight. My understanding
is that this requires a whole body awareness with what everyone does. And this is something
extremely crucial for bridging formal meditation practice and everyday life. It is a backdrop
for formal sitting to be aware of one's sitting posture and then do whatever practice of
tranquility and insight one may wish to engage in. And it is something that even now talking
to you or as you sit there wherever you are in the world to listen to me, as you get up after the
lecture to do something, is something that can be done continuously. And being aware of the whole
body, instead of being aware of a small part of it like the breath or the touch sensation on the
feet or whatever, encourages a very broad state of awareness that enables reacting to anything that
happens in the outside world. It does not exclude things, but at the same time it gives a centering.
And this centering role is described in two similes. This is the reference for the first one,
Samyutani Kaya 4720, volume 5 page 170. The simile of carrying a container full of oil on one's head.
The simile is that this person is given a container full of oil to carry and in ancient
India things were carried on the head. So we mentioned he or she puts it on the head like
maybe the glass I take here to drink water. So put it on the head and balance it somehow.
Maybe holding it also. And this is full of oil to the brim. And now this person has to carry it
through the marketplace and on the marketplace there is the most beautiful girl of the town.
And she is doing a performance. She is singing and dancing. You can imagine this Indian music
very sweet and with all this it is very religious. It is not just about sexy. They have all these
hand forms to show like this is the god Ganesha and so and so and then this very sweet voice and
beautifully dressed. And around her there is this crowd of spectators. And any one of you who has
been to India knows that Indians have a very different notion of physical distance like we
westerners like to have people at a distance. And Indians they come very close. They can be right up
in your face. And so this person has to walk through this crowd without spilling a single
little bit of the oil. And if even a little bit of oil is split just behind him there is somebody
with a drawn sword and he will cut off his head right there. So this this this this simulating
gives a very strong sense of being totally centered. Don't lose your balance and be aware
of what happens around you. Because as this crowd is moving there with the girl dancing you can't
just go through. But you have to you have to be totally centered. But at the same time be aware
how to best get through this crowd. What's just happening now not just closing off.
And this is a very important aspect. There's a recurrent stories of meditators on intensive
retreat and then coming out of intensive retreat and finding it very difficult to handle outside
world. And one problem is that this effort on concentration even in the dry inside meditation
practice the moment to moment concentration has some exclusive aspect to it. That one does not
want one one one one tries to focus on one particular thing whether it's the rise and
fall of the abdomen or the breath at the nostril or the touch sensation of the feet or whatever.
And it makes it becomes very difficult to relate to things outside. And in the simile it would be
like the person is totally focusing on that oil and on that center but not really aware of what's
happening around. And as the crowd dances then the whole crowd comes across him and however centered
he will be the oil will get spilled. In that situation we cannot afford to be totally just
with ourselves. There has to be that untenant what's the outside. And the other simile
Samyota Nikaya 35 206 in volume four page 200 of the Samyota Nikaya is the simile of the six
animals. Six wild animals of different types are caught and bound together each with the string
and the string all together in the middle. So there's the power versions differ a little bit
but one of the animals is a monkey and another animals is a crocodile. Probably a very small
little crocodile because if it's a big crocodile it would eat the other animals but it's a very
small one let us imagine. And there's a dog and there's a bird etc. And so as soon as these
animals are all bound together and let go off they will all try to escape.
And that small tiny little crocodile it just wants to get into the water it pulls in that direction.
And the monkey wants to go to the next tree it pulls in the other direction.
And the bird wants to go up in the sky it pulls into the upper direction.
And the dog wants to return to the village it pulls still another direction.
And imagine that these animals are more or less of the same strength or maybe a very big bird and a
very small crocodile. Then depending on who is the stronger one it goes for some time in this
direction for some time in that direction forward backward and they keep pulling in this direction
until one gets tired and the others pull another direction. And then there's another
setting the same animals bound together but a strong wooden post put in the middle choke.
And all these six animals are bound to that post. Each of them pulls for some time wanting to get off
but eventually it just sits down by the post because there's no the pulling gives no reaction.
There's no way to to get away and they give up. And this similarly the six animals stand for the
senses and the strong post is chi and catastrophe the topic of this discourse and particularly
exemplified in this first exercise mindfulness of the body. So mindfulness of the body this
whole body mindfulness to be with one's sitting walking lying down whatever it is
it gives gives a possibility to to be centered so that the pull of the senses in this and that
direction doesn't pull one off center. This is another problem that happens after intensive
meditation where monkey goes out into the world it's just overwhelming. Being in a in a in a
retreat setting I had that one time doing a one-month retreat in the desert in Rajasthan
and on my way back at Delhi airport flight was cancelled and so they put me into a five-star
hotel in Delhi and the shift from the everything was beige there in the desert the food was very
bland just simple rice and dal and one month doing nothing but meditating and everything beige and
then all of a sudden Delhi five-star hotel I was very difficult for me to handle that that this
transition because at that time I had not yet been so strong on cultivating mindfulness of the body
but this this whole body mindfulness gives a a centering force so that this pull of the senses
in this and that direction will not pull the whole person off and after some time
and they will come down and this is the the beauty and the power of this exercise
I continue with the description
without spilling the oil in this way a monk however he acts with his body he knows it as
described above as it really is in this way dwelling in a secluded spot with the mind free
from indolence practicing energetically he removes any defilements from the mind and attains
concentration of the mind having attained concentration of the mind he knows the body
as described above as it really is this is how a monk cultivates mindfulness of the body
so this passage comes after each of the exercises that we will be looking at today and
I don't think we'll be finishing today so probably also next time
it always this is this is the main theme of this discourse that there's a certain way of developing
mindfulness with the body and we will be seeing several alternative approaches and it always
has to do with developing knowledge as it really is and this knowledge as it really is then leads
to retiring to seclusion what we just discussed practicing energetically to remove
defilements from the mind and to lead to concentration to samatha so here we have
another way how insight leads on to tranquility and having attained concentration of the mind
he knows the body as described above as it really is it feeds back into insight
the Pali version has a slightly different formulation it speaks of instead of removing
defilements it speaks of removing memories and intentions related to the household life
so here's the next exercise
again among cultivates mindfulness of the body as follows when going out and coming in
among clearly knows contemplates and discerns this action well when bending or stretching
lowering or raising any of his limbs he does so with appropriate deportment when wearing his outer
robe and other robes and carrying his bowl he does so properly when walking standing sitting
lying down falling asleep waking up speaking and keeping silent all these activities he clearly
knows in this way among and here would now be again the full passage we just had seclusion
concentration etc this is how among cultivates mindfulness of the body
so the corresponding description in the Pali version among is one who acts in full awareness
when going forward and returning who acts in full awareness when looking ahead and looking away who
acts in full awareness when flexing and extending his limbs who acts in full awareness when wearing
his robes and carrying his outer robe and bowl who acts in full awareness when eating drinking
consuming food and tasting who acts in full awareness when defecating and urinating who acts
in full awareness when walking standing sitting falling asleep waking up talking and keeping silent
yeah we note that the Pali version speaks also of defecating and urinating which the chinese does
not have but alongside such smaller differences in formulation the basic point as far as i can
understand of this exercise is it it goes a step further than the exercise before where the point
was just this being fully aware with the body as a whole and here we have this element the Pali
sampajanya that was the term that Michael Beiser had asked about before sampajanya i i like clear
clear knowing clear comprehension it has a pajanya panya it has a small it has a flavor of a slight
flavor of wisdom to it it means to to to do things properly and we have that explicitly in the chinese
version can you see there he does so with appropriate deportment that i think uh helps
really to understand that this is something that particular for us monastics is considered an
important aspect of proper conduct that we behave in a way that is considered appropriate uh like
for example being out on the road we shouldn't be jumping around and then like raising our arms and
shouting or things that that but but but have a kind of uh a centered and quiet
form of conduct and this is not merely just to impress others but it actually has an important
function for one's own practice because when one the the more one adopts a natural not an
enforced one but a natural calm behavior this in turn really supports mental calmness
and one finds that uh behaving in a very agitated manner and jumping around and shaking around
it will be very difficult for the mind to become so the two work in tandem the calmness of the
mind expresses itself in calmness of bodily activities and calmness of body activities in
turn increases mental calmness
yeah now we get an exercise that is not found in the pi version
again among cultivates mindfulness of the body as follows when evil and unwholesome thoughts arise
among controls abundance eradicates and stops them by recollecting wholesome states
and we also get a simile it is just as a carpenter or a carpenter's apprentice might apply an inked
string to a piece of wood to mark a straight line and then cut the wood with the sharp aids
to make it straight in the same way and then in this way among cultivates mindfulness of the body
yeah i i think not only the fact that this exercise is not found in the party version
but even if you look at it from the context this has no direct relationship to mindfulness of the
body much rather this is mindfulness of the mind it's mindfulness of thoughts so it does not really
have a proper place here and i have a theory how it got there but i want to take this together
with the next exercise which similarly is not found in the pi version again among cultivates
mindfulness of the body as follows with teeth clenched and tongue pressed against his palate
a monk uses the willpower of his own mind to control his mind to control abundant eradicate
and stop evil thoughts it is just as too strong man might grab a weak man and turning him this
way and that might beat him up as they wish in the same way etc and in this way among cultivates
mindfulness of the body yeah so we have comparable exercises to these two in the vitaka santana
sutta of the magima nikaya and its magima agama parallel and these two discourses
present a method for gradually dealing with unwholesome thoughts
and within this scheme we have this idea of
overcoming unwholesome thoughts by the point is by by replacing them with something wholesome
the Pali versions simile that explains this also speaks of a carpenter but the other point is
that the carpenter removes something gross with something more subtle and we get as the last
last of five methods this description that one really beats down beats down the mind
with teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the palate
the last one here has to be understood within the context of the whole series of
five methods giving in the vitaka santana sutta as a last resort when everything else has failed
it is not a practice that on its own leads to awakening in fact in another discourse
i've discussed this in my satipatana book already in another discourse the buddha reckons this
exercise on its own as something that does not lead to awakening but it comes in the what i
think is its original context in the vitaka santana sutta and its parallel it comes in a context where
first just being mindful of unwholesomeness has not worked then one uses these five methods one
after the other and every time one finds still i am obsessed by this unwholesome thought so at
the final point this comes in i think to prevent the unwholesome thought from leading to unwholesome
speech or action it is an emergency brake an emergency brake has its place in any vehicle
any car any any train or whatever but obviously if we just keeps pulling the emergency brakes one
will not progress but on the other side never using it it's also nonsense because sometimes
with an emergency brake one can avoid an accident so that is the the point of this exercise within
its original context and now my hypothesis how this got into this context is simply that
the description tenth teeth clenched and tongue pressed against the palette
and then also this image of the two strong men who grab a weak man has some physical component
and so by association i assume doing all transmission it got carried over into this
discourse here and the other exercise before about the thoughts unwholesome thoughts replaced
by wholesome thoughts and the carpenter somebody might have been carried along with it
because there's no logical reason why this exercise should stand in a context of contemplation of the
body and the interesting thing is in the madhyama agama collection this discourse on mindfulness
of the body is earlier than the before in the collection and then the version of the satipatthana
sutta and so we have these same exercises also in the madhyama agama version of the satipatthana sutta
it seems that the once this by way of association these two exercises were brought into this
context of contemplation of the body then the same template was also used for the satipatthana sutta
in the madhyama nikaya the situation is opposite because the satipatthana sutta is earlier
it's number 10 and the kayagata satisutta is later it's number 119 so such a
there would have no way not such an easy way for them to influence each other
just looking at the time let us see how far we go still again a monk cultivates mindfulness of
the body as follows a monk is mindful of breathing in and knows he's mindful of breathing in
he's mindful of breathing out and knows he's mindful of breathing out excuse me
you
when breathing in long he knows he's breathing in long
when breathing out long he knows he's breathing out long when breathing in short he knows
he's breathing in short when breathing out short he knows he's breathing out short he trains and
experiencing the whole body when breathing in he trains and experiencing the whole body when
breathing out. He trains in calming bodily activities when breathing in, he
trains in calming verbal activities when breathing out. In this way a monk
cultivates mindfulness of the body. Yeah, so here the verbal activities is very
clearly just a textual error. In fact, there's a footnote. You will find it if
you download the file where I'm saying this. It should also be bodily
activities. The description of the basic steps of mindfulness of breathing in the
Majimani Kaya version is closely similar. A difference between the two is that the
Chinese version does not have the Turner simile. We have that in the Pali version
also in the Satipatthana Sutta. No, I think we don't have it in the 119 but only in the Satipatthana Sutta.
Just as a skilled lathe operator or his apprentice, when making a long turn
understands I make a long turn, or when making a short turn understands I make a
short turn. So too, breathing in long, breathing in short. This is not found in the
Majimani Agama at all, not even in the Satipatthana Sutta version that we have in the
Majimani Agama. A comparison of the three versions of the Satipatthana Sutta that
we have has led me to the hypothesis that mindfulness of breathing may not have been
originally part of contemplation of the body. My understanding here is that the original
point of mindfulness of breathing is in the context of the full description of this practice
in the Anapanasati Sutta Majimani Kaya 118 and its parallels, where we are led through a progression
of 16 steps altogether. And of these 16 steps, the first four are these that we found here, and the
other tetrads, groups of four, correspond to the other Satipatthanas. My understanding is that the
point of mindfulness of breathing originally was to be as a practice that on its own is a full-fledged
path to awakening that covers tranquility and insight. And this is what we find described in
the 16-step scheme. And we have parallels to this 16-step scheme in the Samyukta Agama of the Mula
Savasthivada tradition, and I recently also found another parallel in the Mahasangika Vinaya. And these
parallels are very closely similar. There's a small difference for the last tetrad, which is not a major
difference, and there's a difference about which of these 16 steps are we can consider a form of
training, but otherwise they're closely similar. So with these 16 steps of mindfulness of breathing,
we are very clearly on firm ground. This is early Buddhism, not a later invention just because it
is somewhat formal, these 16 steps. Formalism is something natural to oral transmission. And it
is again by the same law of association that first four steps concerned with the body out of this
16-step scheme, according to my hypothesis, would have been associated with contemplation of the body.
They are certainly a contemplation of the body, but the problem I see is that the full power of the
16-step scheme is lost if one practices only the first four. The full power is really to move
through all four satipatanas, and the commutarial explanation, according to which the second and
third group of four pretty much requires Jhana attainment, I find that not convincing. Also,
this is another question of what one considers to be actually a Jhana, which I don't want to get into
now, much more controversy now. But it's basically based on the interpretation of the third step.
He trains in experiencing the whole body. What does the whole body mean? According to the
commentary understanding, the whole body refers to the whole body of the breath. So the idea is
that from beginning to end, one is completely with the whole of the breath. And basically, on
this understanding, then one knows the breath is long, short, then one is with the whole breath,
one experiences the whole breath, and then at that point, one gets into Jhana. I personally find this
interpretation not so convincing, because knowing long and short, one already needs to know the
breath in its whole length. So the third step doesn't introduce anything new. And I was quite
happy to find that the Mahasanghika Vinaya in supports my understanding here. And I just paste
in the translation of the relevant part, the step number three, the Mahasanghika Vinaya says,
at the time of breathing in, pervading the body. One knows one is breathing in, pervading the body.
At the time of breathing out, pervading the body, one knows one is breathing out, pervading the body.
So there's no doubt here that the idea is to be aware of the whole body. So in the 16 step scheme,
this means that from long breath to short breath, from being aware of the breath as short and long,
or long and short, one then broadens awareness to become aware of the whole body, the whole body as
it sits here. And from awareness of that whole body, one relaxes, one calms any bodily activity.
This is the breath, but this is also any bodily tension, any whatever there may be, one lets it
calm down. And out of that calming down, then comes the joy and happiness, or something quite
natural that one experiences. And one consciously cultivates joy and happiness. And as these
naturally become weaker after some time, one becomes aware of any other kind of activity in
the mind, Chitta Sankara, and one lets these calm down. And as these calm down, one becomes aware of
the mind itself, that which is aware of the breath, that which is aware, or if concentration is
deepening the nimitta, the light nimitta. And again, one glads the mind, concentrates it and
frees it, liberates it from any kind of obstruction. And at that point, a rather deep state of
concentration is reached and on emerging naturally sooner or later that concentration will become
weaker, then one contemplates impermanence, dispassion, cessation, letting go. Or according
to the Chinese parallel, impermanence, abandoning, dispassion, cessation, not such a major difference.
Three topics that are similar impermanence, dispassion and cessation. So in this way, mindfulness of
breathing and 16 steps covers all four satipatanas with each of them builds up a basis for the
development of the seven awakening factors, and thus is capable of leading to knowledge and
liberation. Yeah, this is a nice moment to stop knowledge and liberation leave you to do the
practice. And we continue after mindfulness of breathing next time. Yeah, thank you very much for
your attention. I hope there was some things of interest. I look forward to your comments and
discussions in the forum. And yeah, until, until next week with keep that bodily mindfulness with
you if possible.