Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana - Second Grouping - Illustrative Quotations 6

Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - Second Grouping - Illustrative Quotations 6

ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA

TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
[vi (a)]
897. Herein, what is the answerable ?
When a question is asked [whether] one should be acquainted
with this, [whether] this should be diagnosed, [whether] this should
be abandoned, [whether] this should be kept in being, [whether]
this should be verified, [whether] these ideas, being taken thus,
make this fruit occur, [whether] this is the meaning of those [ideas]
taken thus, this is answerable.
898. [When it is asked whether] one should demonstrate un-
reservedly the Enlightened One's grandeur thus 'Great is the
Enlightened One, the Blessed One', and the True Idea's well-
proclaimedness, and the Community's goodly practice [corres-
pondingly, or when it is asked whether] one should demonstrate
unreservedly that ( Impermanent are all determinations ) (§38),
([and] painful too are all determinations) (§38) [or] ([and then
besides] not-self are all ideas ) (§38), or anything else of the same
sort, this is answerable.
[vi (b)]
899. [176] Herein, what is the unanswerable ? [When it is asked
as follows:]
(0 Leader of men to be tamed,
When you design,
No gods or men or even all
The whole [array
Of] breathing things can know what is
Thought by your mind
Using the quiet concentration
Without conflict ( ; Pe 71):

' What is it that the Blessed One
Is there intending V ) ( ).
This is unanswerable.
900. [When it is asked whether] the Blessed One is this much in
respect of the virtue category, the concentration category, the
understanding category, the deliverance category, or the knowing-
and-seeing-of-deliverance category, in respect of behaviour, in
respect of dignity, in respect of seeking welfare, in respect of com-
passion, in respect of supernormal success, this is unanswerable.
901. [When it is said] (BhikMus, with the arising of a Perfect One,
accomplished and fully enlightened, in the world, there is the arising1
of the three Jewels, of the Enlightened-One Jewel, of the True-Idea
Jewel, and of the Community Jeweh ( ) [and it is asked]
'What is the measure of the three Jewels ?', that is unanswerable.
2
902. [When it is asked likewise about] the province of an Enlightened
One (see A. ii, 80), That is unanswerable.
903. [When it is asked likewise about] the Knowledge of diversity
in [the faculties of other] persons (see §585), that is unanswerable.
904. [When it is said] (Bhikkhus, a past term is not evident of
creatures who, with ignorance as hindrance and craving as fetter run
on and on, going the roundabout now in hell, now in the animal womb,
now in the ghost realm, now in the Asura-Demon womb, now among
gods, now among men) (cf. S. ii, 178 v, 326; cf. §644), [and it is
asked] 'What is the past term V, that is unanswerable. I t is
'not evident' owing to deficiency in the hearer's knowledge.
1
905. [Now] the teaching of the Enlightened Ones, the Blessed
Ones, is of two kinds, namely with themselves as guiding example
and with another as guiding example. [The teaching] (is not
evident) (§905) is with another as guiding example, while [the
901/1 Reading ratandnam uppddo.
901/2 Read probably . . . sangharatanassa' (end of quote). Kim-pamdndni
tini ratandni ? ti idam avissajjaniyam (new para.).
904/1 This, oddly expressed as it is, does not mean that there is a 'first term
(beginning)' which they cannot see, but rather, it is the 'deficiency' in their
knowledge that makes them seek the illusory 'first term' , that is, deficiency
in their knowledge of the following, namely, 'aflta pana pannayati "idappaccayd
avijjd" ti' (A. v, 113) and ' "idappaccaya bhavatanhd" ii' {A. v, 116).

teaching] (The Enlightened Ones, the Blessed Ones, have no non-
cognition) ( ) is with themselves as guiding example.
According as the Blessed One told a certain bhikkhu about the
bhikkhu Kokalika: [177] (Bhikkhu, suppose there were a Kosalan
sesamum-seed waggon of twenty kharika-measures' capacity, [and at
the end of every hundred years or every thousand years a man took a
single sesamum seed away, that Kosalan sesamum-seed waggon of
twenty kharika-measures* capacity would in this manner sooner be
exhausted and come to an end] than would the abbuda1
hell; and like
twenty abbuda hells is the one-nirabbuda hell; and like twenty nirabudda-
hells is the one-atata hell; and like twenty atata hells is the one-ahaha
hell; and like twenty ahaha hells is the one-kumuda hell; and like
twenty kumuda hells is the one-sogandhika hell; and like twenty
sogandhika hells is the one-uppala hell; and like twenty uppala hells
is the one-pundanka hell; and like twenty pundanka hells is the one-
paduma hell. Now it is the paduma hell that Kokalika has reappeared
in through hardening his heart against Sariputta and Moggalldna)
(S. i, 152).
906. Or in fact, [any question about the measure of] anything of
which the Blessed One has said 'This is measureless, incalculable'
is always unanswerable.
This is the unanswerable.
[vi (c)]
907. Herein, what is the answerable and unanswerable ?
When the ascetic Upaka asked the Blessed One 'Where are you
going, friend Gotama V and the Blessed One said 'I am going to
Benares. I am going to set rolling the True Idea's Wheel, the
Deathless Drum, not to be stopped in the world' and the ascetic
Upaka asked, 'Do you claim to be a Victor, friend Gotama V
and the Blessed One said:
( 'The Victors like me, Upaka,
Are those whose taints are quite exhausted;
I vanquished all ideas of evil,
And that is why I am a Victory (M. i, 171).
1
905/1 This and the following names are all names of progressively huge
numbers, the last of which are borrowed from different kinds of (many-
petalled) lotus flowers.
907/1 The first par t of this paragraph up till the verse is not a quotation
but a precis.

[Now the questions] 'How a Victor V or 'By what reason a
Victor V are answerable; [but the question] 'What [is] a Victor V2
is unanswerable. [Again, the question] 'Which exhaustion of
taints ? [Is it] exhaustion of lust, exhaustion of hate, exhaustion
of delusion?' is answerable; [but the question] 'How much
exhaustion of taints V is unanswerable.
[178] This is the answerable and unanswerable.
908. [The question] 'Is there (atthi) a Perfect One (tathdgata) V
is answerable.
1
[The question] 'Is there form V is answerable. [The question]
('[Zs] a Perfect One form T) (S. iv, 383) is unanswerable; [the
question] 'Does a Perfect One possess form?' is unanswerable;
[the question] (c
[Is] a Perfect One in form f) (S. iv, 383) is un-
answerable; [the question] '[Is] form in a Perfect One?' is un-
answerable.
Likewise 'Is there feeling V . . .
Likewise 'Is there perception V . . .
Likewise 'Are there determinations V . . .
[Likewise] 'Is there consciousness V is answerable. ('[Is] a
Perfect One consciousness?^ (S. iv, 383) is unanswerable; 'Does a
Perfect One possess consciousness?' is unanswerable; ('[/s] a
Perfect One in consciousness ?') (S. iv, 383) is unanswerable.
'[Is] a Perfect One apart from form V is unanswerable; '[Is] a
Perfect One apart from feeling . . . from perception . . . from
determinations . . . from consciousness V are unanswerable.
'[Is] this Perfect One without form ? . . . without feeling . . .
without perception.. . without determinations... without conscious-
ness V are unanswerable.
This is the answerable and unanswerable.
907/2 l
Katamo jino—what [is] a victor?': NettiA: 'Is the Victor form or
feeling or perception or determinations or consciousness ? Or is he apart
from them ?' (p. 220); see §379.
908/1 The question 'atthi tathdgato? = 'atthi satto?' (NettiA, p. 220); also
"This person (dyasmd) is describable thus by an assumption based on the
5 categories as named so-and-so, of such-and-such family, and this, since it
refers to that so-described person, is answerable' (p. 220). Terson' is other-
wise called an l
avijjamana-pannatti
)
(FugA, i.e., 'description in terms of the
non-factual'), the categories, etc., being 'vijjamdna-pannattV (description
in terms of the factual'). Cf. S. iv, 52.

909. 'Does the Blessed One with the heavenly eye, which is purified
and surpasses the human, see creatures passing away and re-
appearing . . . and so all the rest (see §591) . . . does he understand
how creatures pass on according to their actions V is answerable.
'What [are] creatures V and 'What [is] a Perfect One V are
unanswerable.
This is the answerable and unanswerable.
910. 'Is there (atthi)
1
a Perfect One V is answerable. 'Is there
(atthi) a Perfect One after his death V is unanswerable.
This is the answerable and unanswerable.