Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana - The Pattern Of The Dispensation

Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - The Pattern Of The Dispensation

ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
[Chapter iv
The Pattern Of The Dispensation]
759. Herein, the eighteen Koot-Terms: where are they to be seen ?
In the Pattern of the Dispensation (cf. §964).
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760. Herein what is the Pattern of the Dispensation ? [It is the
Thread grouped, firstly, as follows:]
[First Grouping—Schedule]
[128] [A] 1. Type of Thread dealing with corruption,
[B] 2. type of Thread dealing with morality,
[C] 3. type of Thread dealing with penetration,
[D] 4. type of Thread dealing with the Adept;
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[AB] 5. type of Thread dealing with corruption and morality,
[AC] 6. type of Thread dealing with corruption and penetration,
[AD] 7. type of Thread dealing with corruption and the Adept,
[ACD] 8. type of Thread dealing with corruption, penetration,
and the Adept,
759/1 NettiA explains this elliptic sentence as follows: 'After thus analysing
in all ways the Moulding of the^Guide-Lines, now in analysing the Pattern
of the Dispensation he said "Where are the eighteen Root-Terms to be seen?
In the Pattern of the Dispensation", and since the Pattern is included in
the Comprehensive Section (§1) by only the Root-Terms and not in its own
form, this is said in order to show that , just as the Pattern can be derived
from the Root-Terms, so also the Root-Terms can be derived from the Pattern'
(p. 184). Again '(As to the two expressions) "eighteen Root-Terms" and
"Pattern of the Dispensation" each includes the other, just as (for example,
each of the three) Guide-Lines that deal with meaning (includes the other two,
or as each of the two) triads of determinations (namely that of determinative -
acts of merit, demerit and imperturbability, and that of the bodily, verbal
and mental includes the other triad)' (p. 2; Tiled, pp. 16-17). See also n. 764/2.
760/1 These 4 basic types appear with their combinations also at Pe 23ff.
and in the classification of Threads at Pe 153 down to end of that ch. (see,
e.g., Pe 163, line 1). NettiA says 'That which deals with craving, etc., as
defilement is "that dealing with defilement", that which deals with giving, etc. ,
and with the grounds for merit-making, is "that dealing with morality",
that dealing with the virtue category, etc. , in Initiates is "that dealing with
penetration", and that dealing with the virtue category, etc., in Adepts is
"that dealing with the adept" ' (p. 185). See Intro, (sect. 7b).

[ABC] 9. type of Thread dealing with corruption, morality, and
penetration,
[BC] 10. type of Thread dealing with morality and penetration ;
2
[Al] 11. type of Thread dealing with corruption by craving,
[A2] 12. type of Thread dealing with corruption by view,
[A3] 13. type of Thread dealing with corruption by misconduct;
[B-Dl] 14. type of Thread dealing with cleansing from craving.
[B-D2] 15. type of Thread dealing with cleansing from view,
[B-D3] 16. type of Thread dealing with cleansing from misconduct
(cf. Pe 22ff.).
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761. Herein, corruption is of three kinds: corruption by craving,
corruption by view, and corruption by misconduct.
762. Herein, corruption by craving is purified by quiet, and that
quiet is the concentration category. Corruption by view is purified
by insight, and that insight is the understanding category. Cor-
ruption by misconduct is purified by good conduct, and that good
conduct is the virtue category.
763. When someone is established in virtue, if clutching at the
kinds of being arises in him, then any quiet and insight of his
becomes the ground for making merit consisting in keeping in being
since it causes reappearance to occur in some kind [of existence] or
other.
764. These four [basic types of] Threads [A-D], when [combined]
in common, come to eight; and those same eight [combined] in
common come to sixteen.
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The [entire] Ninefold Thread is
classifiable under these sixteen [types thus] classified.
2
760/2 NettiA remarks that of the possible 6 dyads, 4 triads, and 1 tetrad
(see n. 764/1), as combinations of the basic 4, only 4 dyads and 2 triads are
chosen, though 'there is no reason for leaving the others out ' and so 'the text
should be regarded as set out in abbreviated form' (p. 185). Cf. Pe ch. ii.
760/3 The last 6 are merely subdivisions respectively of the first and of the
other 3, together, and NettiA points out that they were wanting in some
MSS. See Pe 29.
764/1 NettiA gives the following arithmetic: The '8' are the 4 simple ones,
A, B, C, D, (Nos. 1-4) and the 4 included dyads, AB, AC, AD, BC (nos. 5, 6,
7, and 10), which total 8. The second '8' is made up of the following com-
binations: BD, CD, ABC (No. 9), ABD, ACD (no. 8), BCD, ABCD, and the
negative tetrad not-A-not-B-not-C-not-D. The over-all total is thus 16.
Cf. Pe 29.
764/2 This means that the whole of what is called the
l
SvMd)
—the 'Thread'
in the sense of the Buddha's Utterance—in its nine classes (see n. 1/9) is
made to fall under these 16 divisions. Therefore this chapter claims to cover

765. Verse should be assessed by verse, prose-exposition should
be assessed by prose-exposition (cf. Pe 10, 11, 19), Thread should
be assessed by Thread.
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