Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana - First Grouping - Illustrative Quotations 10-16

Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - First Grouping - Illustrative Quotations 10 - 16

ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
[10]
847. Herein, what is the type of Thread dealing with morality and
dealing with penetration ?
(After obtaining the human state, two [things]:
What is the task and what is not the task.
The proper task is'any kind of merit,
And then abandoning of [all] the fetters ) ( ; §866).
'The proper task is any kind of merit' is morality. 'The aban-
doning of [all] the fetters' is penetration.
( Those who by meritorious performance
Have merit made pass on from heaven to heaven.
But those who have abandoned [all] the fetters
Are liberated from, old age and deatJi) ( ; §866

'Those who by meritorious performance Have merit made pass
on from heaven to heaven' is morality. 'But those who have
abandoned [all] the fetters Are liberated from old age and death'
is penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with morality
and dealing with penetration.
848. (Bhikkhus, there are these two principal endeavours.
1
What
two? (i) That which gives away robes, alms-food, lodging, and requisite
of medicine as cure for the sick [by distribution] among those gone
forth from the house-life into homelessness; and (ii) that which is the
relinquishment of all essentials of existence, exhaustion of craving,
fading out, cessation, extinction, [to be found] among those who have
gone forth from the house-life into homelessness ) (cf. A. i, 49).
[160] Herein, 'that which gives away robes . . . cure for the sick
among those . . . into homelessness' is morality. 'That which is
the relinquishment of all essentials of existence . . . extinction, [to
be found] among those . . . into homelessness' is penetration.
This is the type of Thread dealing with morality and dealing with
penetration.
[ii ]
849. Herein, the type of Thread dealing with corruption by craving
can be demonstrated by whatever is on the side of craving: by the
three kinds of craving, namely (cravingfor sensual desire, craving for
being, and craving for non-being ) (§425), or it can be demonstrated
by whatever is the thing cleaved to. Its detail is the thirty-six
ways of behaviour of the net of craving (see A. ii, 211 if.),
[12]
850. Herein, the type of Thread dealing with corruption by views
can be demonstrated by whatever is on the side of views: by
annihilationism and eternalism (cf. S. iv, 400), or it can be demon-
strated by whatever object anyone insists on by means of a view
thus (Only this is truth, anything else is wrong) (M. ii, 233; D. ii,
282). Its detail is the sixty-two types of view (D. Sutta 1; M.
Sutta 102).
1
848/1 Padhdna means both 'foremost' ('principal') and 'endeavour'.
850/1 The '62 types' are to be taken, not as individual views expounded by
19

[13]
851. Herein, the type of Thread dealing with corruption by mis-
conduct can be demonstrated by [action as] choice and by action as
concomitant of cognizance (§239): by the three kinds of misconduct,
namely bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, and mental mis-
conduct (§913). Its detail is the ten unprofitable courses of action
(M. i, 46-7; cf. §238).
[14-16]
852. Herein, the type of Thread dealing with cleansing from craving
can be demonstrated by quiet.
853. The type of Thread dealing with cleansing from views can be
demonstrated by insight.
854. The type of Thread dealing with cleansing from misconduct
can be demonstrated by good conduct.
[Discussion]
855. (Three roots of the unprofitable . . . why is that ? For the occur-
rence of the roundabout. . . When the roundabout is made to occur thus,
[there is] misconduct of body . . . good conduct of body . . . misconduct
of speech . . . good conduct of speech . . . misconduct of mind . . . good
conduct of mind . . . It is by this ugly ripening of action that this
characteristic of the fool is made to occur ) ( ).
[161] This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption. (It is by
this beautiful ripening of action that this characteristic of the Great
Man is made to occur ) ( ).
This is the type of Thread dealing with morality.
856. Herein, the type of Thread dealing with corruption can be
demonstrated by the four planes of defilement: by the plane of
underlying tendencies, by the plane of obsessions, by the plane of
fetters, and by the plane of the kinds of assumption. In one who
has an underlying tendency an obsession is born; one who is obsessed
is fettered; when he is fettered, he assumes; with assuming as
condition, being; with being as condition, birth; with birth as
teachers contemporary with the Buddha, but as a comprehensive scheme—
the 'Divine Net' (Brahma-jdla) in which all possible speculative views must
be caught.

condition, ageing and death have actual being and also sorrow and
lamentation, pain, grief and despair; that is how there is an origin
to this whole category of suffering. All defilements are included
and comprised by these four planes of defilement.
This is the type of Thread dealing with corruption.
857. The type of Thread dealing with morality can be demonstrated
by the three kinds of good conduct.
858. The type of Thread dealing with penetration can be demon-
strated by the four truths.
859. The type of Thread dealing with the Adept can be demon-
strated by the three kinds of ideas: by ideas of Enlightened Ones,
by ideas of Hermit Enlightened Ones, and by the plane of the
hearer in the province of the meditator.