Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - First Grouping - Illustrative Quotations 5 - 9
ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA
TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
[5]
837. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with morality ?
[153] (Rain soddens what is covered up,
But what is open it soddens not.
So open out the covered up,
That rain may never sodden you) (Ud. 56; Pe 25, 202).
'Rain soddens what is covered up' is corruption. 'But what is
open it soddens not' is morality. 'So open out the covered up That
rain may never sodden you' is corruption and morality. This is the
type of Thread dealing with corruption and dealing with morality.
838. (Great king, there are these four kinds of persons to be found in
the world. What four ? Dark with a dark supreme value, dark with
a bright supreme value, bright with a dark supreme value, bright
with a bright supreme value) (A. ii, 85; S. i, 93; Pe 25, 207).
Herein the two kinds, the person called 'bright with a dark
supreme value' and the person called 'dark with a dark supreme
value', deal with corruption, while the two kinds, the person called
'dark with a bright supreme value' and the person called 'bright
with a bright supreme value', deal with morality. This is the
type of Thread dealing with corruption and dealing with morality.
[6]
839. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with penetration ?
(The steadfast will never call that a strong bond
Made of iron or consisting of wood or of thongs.
But greed flushed with lusting for jewels [and gems]
And concern for a wife and for children as well,)
(§§ 194-5; Pe 25, 214),
is corruption, while
(9
Tis these that the steadfast will call a strong bond,
Which pulls a man down, subtle, hard to get free from;
But this too they sever, and wander [in freedom],
Unconcerned, and [all] sensual desires foregone)
(§§ 194-5; Pe 25, 214),
is penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with penetration.
840. (Whatever one chooses, and whatever one asserts,
1
and whatever
one lets tendencies underlie, that becomes the object whereby conscious-
ness has a steadying-point. It is when there is an object that conscious-
ness has a standing-point. When consciousness with a standing-
point [154] has developed thereon, then renewal of being is made to
occur in the future, then birth, ageing and death, sorrow and lamenta-
tion, pain, grief, and despair, have actual being in the future. That
is how there is an origin to this whole category of suffering. If one
does not choose and if one does not assert, but still one lets tendencies
underlie, that becomes the object whereby consciousness has a steadying-
point. It is when there is an object that consciousness has a standing-
840/1 Pakappati here means 'to assert' or sponsor one side (of a dialectic;
cf. anuruddha and pctiiviruddha at M. i, 65; the word vikappana represents
the either /or of a dialectic inviting taking one side. The three terms ceteti,
pakappeti and anuseti here rendered by 'chooses', 'asserts' and 'allows ten-
dencies to underlie' could be (psychologically) paraphrased as follows: He
makes an initial choice (based on an assumption), he asserts that choice in his
behaviour by either affirmation or denial (acceptance or rejection of the idea
assumed), he allows the initial choice with its assumption to lapse below the
threshold of awareness whence it continues to influence his behaviour without
his understanding why (and colours his subsequent choice, assertion and
underlying tendencies).
point. When consciousness with a standing-point has developed
thereon, renewal of being is made to occur in the future. When
renewal of being is made to occur in the future, then birth, ageing and
death, sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief and despair, have actual
being in the future. That is how there is an origin to this whole
category of suffering ) (S. ii, 65; Pe 25, 218). This is corruption.
([But] as soon as one no more chooses and one no more asserts and
one no more lets tendencies underlie, then there is no object whereby
consciousness might have a steadying-point. It is when there is no
object that consciousness has no standing-point. When consciousness,
having no standing-point, thereon develops no more, then no renewal
of being is made to occur in the future. When no renewal of being
is made to occur in the future, then birth, ageing and death, sorrow
and lamentation, pain, grief and despair, cease in the future. That
is how tJiere is a cessation to this whole category of suffering ) (S. ii,
65f.;P6 218).
2
This is penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with penetration.
m
841. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with the Adept ?
('Bhikkhus, the untaught ordinary man says "sea, sea", yet that
vast mass of water, that vast expanse of water is no sea in the Noble
Ones' Outguiding (Discipline). The eye is man's sea, whose tide is
forms') (S. iv, 157).
This is corruption.
^Whoever overcomes that tide of forms, of him it is said: He has
crossed the sea of the eye, with its waves, its whirlpools, its ?twnsters
[155] and its ogres; he has crossed over, gone to tlie further shore, and
he stands upon firm ground, as one divine ) (S. iv, 157).
This is the Adept.
('The ear is man's sea . . . The nose . . . The tongue . . . The
body . . . The mind is man's sea, whose tide is ideas') (S. iv, 157).
This is corruption.
840/2 Cf . §§304 and 306.
('Whoever overcomes that tide of ideas, of him it is said: He has
crossed the sea of the mind, with its waves, its whirlpools, its monsters
and its ogres; he has gone to the further shore, and he stands upon firm
ground as one divine* ) (S. iv, 157).
This is the Adept.
(That is what the Blessed One said. The Sublime One having said
that, he, the Master, said further:
'Who crossed the sea with all its monsters, ogres, waves,
Fearfully hard to cross, of him it can be said:
He found the end of science; he lived the life divine;
The world's end he has found, gone to the further shore )
(S. iv, 157).
This is the Adept.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with the Adept.
842. (Bhikkhus, there are these six kinds of bait in the world for the
guiding of creatures astray, for the affliction1
of breathing things.
What are the six ? There are forms cognizable through the eye that
are wished for, desired, agreeable and likable, connected with sensual
desire and productive of lust. If a bhikkhu relishes and affirms
them and steadily cleaves to them, then it is said of him: He has
swallowed Mdra's bait, he has let himself be guided astray, he is
heading for ruin, he is one whom the Evil One can do as he will with.
There are sounds cognizable through the ear . . . odours cognizable
through the nose . . .flavours cognizable through the tongue . . . tangibles
cognizable through the body . . . There are ideas cognizable through the
mind that are wished for, desired, agreeable and likable, connected
with sensual desire and productive of lust. If a bhikkhu [156] relishes
and affirms them and steadily cleaves to them, then it is said of him:
He has swallowed Mara's bait, he has let himself to be guided astray,
he is heading for ruin, he is one whom the Evil One can do as he will
with) (S. iv, 159).
This is corruption.
( Again, there are forms cognizable through the eye that are wished
for, desired, agreeable and likable, connected with sensual desire and
productive of lust. If a bhikkhu does not relish or affirm them or
steadily cleave to them, then it is said of him: He has not swallowed
842/1 Bydbddhdya is a better reading here.
Mdra's bait, he has destroyed the bait, he has quite destroyed the bait,
he has not let himself be guided astray, he is not one whom the Evil
One can do as he will with. Again, there are sounds cognizable
through the ear . . . odours cognizable through the nose . . . flavours
cognizable through the tongue . . . tangibles cognizable through the
body . . . There are ideas cognizable through the mind that are wished
for, desired, agreeable and likable, connected with sensual desire
and productive of lust. If a bhikkhu does not relish or affirm them
or steadily cleave to them, then it is said of him: He has not swallowed
Mara's bait, he has destroyed the bait, he has quite destroyed the bait,
he has not let himself be led astray, he is not heading for ruin, he is
not one whom the Evil One am do as he will with) (S. iv, 159).
This is the Adept.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption
and dealing with the adept.
[8]
843. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with corruption,
dealing with penetration and dealing with the Adept ?
This ivorld1
is bom to anguish, and subject to [painful] contact;
(It is a sickness
2
that it calls self;
For however it conceives [it]*
'Tis [ever] other than that.
Maintaining its being otherwise [than it conceives],*
The world clings to being, expectantly relishes only being.
[But] what it relishes brings fear,
And what it fears is pain) (Ud. 32-3; Pe 26, 223).
This is corruption.
843/1 The readings here seem preferable to those in the PTS Uddna text .
The whole passage is of much ontologieal interest. I t is very difficult to
render adequately.
843/2 Rodam (with attano), if accepted as right, would be ppr. nom. masc.
sing, agreeing with loko ('Weeping it speaks of itself). The alternative is
rogam ('sickness'), which would be ace. masc. sing, governed by vadati (with
attato), and this has been taken in the rendering. The Pe text (p. 224) shows
plainly that its author had only the reading rogam; UdA agrees.
843/3 For the meaning of mannati ('to conceive (conceits)') see M. Sutta 1
and S. iii, 128-32 (for its relation to mdna ('conceit') as asmi-mdna ('the
conceit " I am" ').
843/4 Pe (p. 224) says, though, that annathdbhdvl (so read there for 'mannathd
bhavarh?) means 'while existing, it aspires to future existence'.
(Now this divine life is lived to abandon being) (Ibid.).
This is penetration.
[157] ( Whatever monks and divines have declared liberation from
being [to come about] through [some kind of] being, none of them, I
say, are liberated from being. And whatever monks or divines have
declared escape from being [to come about] through non-being,
5
none
of them, I say, escape from being. It is by depending on (by asserting)
the essentials of existence that this suffering has actual being:) (Ibid.).
This is corruption.
(With exhaustion of all kinds of assumption, suffering has no
actual being) (Ibid.).
This is penetration.
(See this wide world subjected to ignorance,
Which is, which delights to be, never freed from being:
[ Yet] whatever the kinds of being, in any way, anywhere,
All are impermanent, pain[-haunted], inseparable from the idea
of change) (Ibid.).
This is corruption.
( So when a man sees thus
With right understanding how it is,
[His]craving for being is abandoned,
And he no more expectantly relishes non-being.
That is the utter exhaustion of all craving,
That is the remainderless fading, cessation, that is extinction )
(Ibid.).
This is penetration.
(That bhikkhu being quenched through not assuming,
No more his being comes to a renewal.
Transcended is Death's being* the battle won,
One such as this outstrips all [modes of] being) (Ibid.).
This is the Adept.
843/5 Vibhava (lit. perhaps 'out-being') has the opposite senses of 'out-
standing being' and 'non-being', the prefix vi- ( = 'out') having both augment-
ative and privative senses (compare the English 'put out the flags' and 'put
out the lights'). The term bhavdbhava has a similar double sense (see n.
877/1).
843/6 Abhibhuta lit 'overbeen'; cf. abhibhu ('Supreme Being', 'Transcendent
Being') as used of the High Divinity (D. i, 221) and the Buddha (§§252, 917;
M. i, 171), and abhibhdyatana ('base for transcendence' , i.e., of sensual desire:
M. ii, 13), etc.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption, dealing with
penetration and dealing with the Adept.
844. (Bhikkhus, there are these four kinds of persons. What four ?
One goes with the stream, one goes against the stream, one has steadied
himself, and one has crossed over, gone to the further shore, and stands
on firm ground as one divine) (A. ii, 5; Pe 28, 228).
x
Herein, the person who 'goes with the stream' is the [type of
Thread] dealing with corruption. Herein the two persons, namely
the one who 'goes against the stream' and the one who 'has steadied
himself, are that dealing with penetration. [158] Herein, the
person who 'has crossed over, gone to the further shore and stands
on firm ground as one divine', is that dealing with the Adept.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption, dealing
with penetration and dealing with the Adept.
[9]
845. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with corruption,
dealing with morality and dealing with penetration ?
( There are six kinds of giving birth. There is the black person
given birth by blackness who gives birth to a black ideal. There is
the black person given birth by blackness who gives birth to a white
ideal. There is the black person given birth by blackness who is
interested in extinction as the infinite goal, not black, not white, and
with no ripening black or white. There is the white person given
birth by whiteness who gives birth to a black ideal. There is the white
person given birth by whiteness who gives birth to a white ideal. There
is the white person given birth by whiteness who is interested in
extinction as the infinite goal not black, not white, and with no ripening
black or white) (cf. A. iii, 384).
Herein, the two persons, namely the 'black person given birth
by blackness who gives birth to a black ideal' and the 'white person
given birth by whiteness who gives birth to a black ideal', are that
dealing with corruption. Herein, the two persons, namely the
'black person given birth by blackness who gives birth to a white
ideal' and the 'white person given birth by whiteness who gives
844/1 According to NettiA (p. 209) 1 = the 'ordinary man', 2 = the 'good
ordinary man' (kalydna-puthujjana) i.e., one practising who has not reached
the 1st Path), 3 = the Initiate, and 4 = the Adept.
birth to a white ideal', are that dealing with morality. Herein, the
two persons, namely the 'black person given birth by blackness who
is interested in extinction as the infinite goal, not black, not white'
and with no ripening black or white' and the 'white person given
birth by whiteness who is interested in extinction as the infinite
goal, not black, not white, with no ripening black or white', are
that dealing with penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption, dealing
with morality and dealing with penetration.
846. (Bhikkhus, there these four kinds of action. What four ? [159]
There is black action with black ripening. There is white action with
white ripening. There is black-white action with black-white ripening.
There is not-black-not-white action with not-black-not-white ripening,
which is the supreme kind of action, the best kind of action, which
conduces to the exhaustion of action) (A. ii, 230).
Herein, any 'black action with black ripening' and any 'black-
white action with black-white ripening' are corruption. Any
'white action with white ripening' is morality. Any 'not-black-
not-white action with not-black-not-white ripening, which is the
supreme kind of action, the best kind of action, which conduces to
the exhaustion of action', is penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption, dealing
with morality and dealing with penetration.
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