Khuddaka Nikaya - Nettippakarana ( The Guide ) - Specification Section Part 3-6
ACCORDING TO
KACCANA THERA
TRANSLATED FROM THE PALI BY
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
Pali Text Society
Mode 6
[The Ninefold Thread in the Mode of Conveying a Fourfold Array]
184. Herein, what is the Conveying of a Fourfold Array ? [It is]
this:
'By way of phrasing, (i) the Linguistic,
(ii) the Purport, and (iii) the teaching's Source,
And (iv) the Consecutive-Sequence:
This Mode Conveys a Fourfold Array' (§10).
By way of the phrasing, the Thread's Linguistic, its purport
(intention), its source [as the circumstance of its utterance], and
its consecutive-sequence, should be examined.
[(i) Linguistic]
185. [33] Herein, what is the linguistic ? I t is any language
employing terms, any knowledge of ideas by name.
1
186. For when a bhikkhu knows the name of a meaning and knows
the name of an idea, and he applies
1
it accordingly, he is called
skilled in meanings and skilled in ideas, skilled in phrasing, skilled in
language, skilled in consecutivity (syntax), skilled in the teaching,
skilled in designations of past [tenses], skilled in designations of
future [tenses], skilled in designations of presently-arisen [tenses],
skilled in designations of the feminine [gender], skilled in designations
of the masculine [gender], skilled in designations of the neuter
[gender], skilled in designations of the singular [number], skilled in
designations of the plural [number] (cf. Pe 91-2).
2
All regional
linguistics (cf. M. iii, 234-5) and all regional languages can be
treated in this way. This is 'language employing terms'.
[(ii) Purport (intent)]
187. Herein, what is the purport (intent)? [Take, for example
the following passage:]
185/1 N.b. nama ('name') is also the grammarians' collective term for
nouns, adjectives and pronouns, as one of the 'four Parts of Speech' in Oriental
grammar (nama, akhydta, upasagga, nipdta = 'names, verbs, prepositions
(prefixes), and particles').
186/1 The semantic connexion here between abhiniropeti and nirutti implies
a punning association of nirutti with \/ruh instead of ^/vac (cf. vutta; Skr.
\/uk).
186/2 Note differences in these terms at Pe 91-2.
(The True Ideal guards him that walks therein
As does a big umbrella in time of rain.
The IdeaVs reward, when walked in right, is this:
Who walks therein has no bad destination) (§37).
What is the Blessed One's purport (intent) here ? [It is that]
those who desire to be liberated from the states of deprivation will
be those who walk in the True Idea: this is the Blessed One's purport
here.
188. [Again:]
( Just as a robber taken in house-breaking
Is haunted by and responsible
1
for his act,
So too a man hereafter, when departed,
Is haunted by and responsible for his aet) (cf. M. ii, 74).
What is the Blessed One's purport (intent) here ? [It is that]
when acts have been done by someone's own choice and stored up
to be felt (experienced) as pain, their un-wished-for and disagreeable
ripening will be coessential [with a future state]. This is the
Blessed One's purport here.
189. [Again:]
( Who with the rod is cruel to beings
That are desirous to find pleasure
Shall find no pleasure when departed,
For all the pleasure he may seek) (Dh. 131).
What is the Blessed One's purport here ? [It is that] those
who would seek pleasure, let them not do evil acts: this is the
Blessed One's purport here.
190. [34] [Again:]
(A dullard drowsy with much gluttony,
Engrossed in sleep, who wallows as he lies
Like a great porker stuffed with fatting food,
Comes ever and again back to the world) (Dh. 325).
What is the Blessed One's purport here ? [It is that] those
who desire to be distressed1
by ageing and death will be such as
know the [right] amount in eating, keep the doors of their faculties
188/1 i
Sa-kammund . . . bajjhate—is responsible for his act' ; for this sense
ofbajjhati (lit. 'is bound'), not in PED, see §912, also KhpA. 28f.
190/1 'Attiyitwm—lit 'to feel hur t by' ; an allusion to A. i, 145.
guarded, are devoted to wakefulness in the first and last [of the
three] watches of the night (see M. iii, 2), practise insight with
regard to profitable ideas, and respect their companions in the
divine life whether elder or new or middle [bhikkhus]:
2
this is the
Blessed One's purport here.
191. [Again:]
(The Deathless State is diligence;
That of Mortality, neglect:
The diligent will never die;
As good as dead the negligent ) (Dh. 21; Pe 92).
What is the Blessed One's purport here % [It is that] those
who desire to pursue the search for the Deathless will abide diligent.
This is the Blessed One's purport here.
[(iii) Source]
192. Herein, what is a source ? [It is the reason for the utterance
of a Thread, for example,] according as the cattle-owner Dhaniya
1
said to the Blessed One
( C
A man with children finds relish through his children;
And a cattle-owner likewise through his cattle.
These essentials of existence are a man's relish;
Who has them not will never relish find1
') (Sn. 33),
and as the Blessed One replied
(C
A man with children finds sorrow through Ids children;
And a cattle-owner likewise through his cattle.
These essentials of existence are a man's sorrow;
Who has them not will never sorrow find' ) (Sn. 34; cf. Pe 55).
Here
2
it is known that with this as circumstance, with this as source,
the Blessed One speaks of an external chattel as an essential of
existence.
190/2 An 'elder bhikkhu' has ten or more years' seniority since full admission
(upasampadd), a 'middle bhikkhu' has five to ten, and a 'new bhikkhu' has
less than five. Ful l admission can be given as soon as the 20th year from
conception is completed.
192/1 In the Sn. text it is not Dhaniya but Mara who says this.
192/2 Idha seems to belong better to the preceding ndyati than to the
succeeding bhagava . . . aha.
193. And according as, when the Evil One, Mara, let fall a large
stone from the Vulture-Peak Rock, the Blessed One said
('Even if you choose to move
The whole of Vulture-Peak, for sure
No fully freed Awakened One
Would be perturbed on that account' ) (S. i, 109),
[and]
'Were heaven to split, were earth to quake, were all
The things that breathe to fear, were you to plunge
A dagger in his heart, no Wakened One
Takes shelter in essentials of existence') (S. i, 107).
Here it is known that with this as circumstance, with this as source,
the Blessed One speaks of the body as an essential of existence.
194. x\nd according as he said
('The steadfast will never call that a strong bond
Made of iron or consisting of wood or of thongs.
1
But greed flushed with lusting for jewels [and gems]
And concern for a wife and for children as well: . . .')
But greed flushed with lusting for jewels [and gems]
(S. i, 77; see next para).
Here it is known that with this as circumstance, with this as source,
the Blessed One speaks of craving for external things.
195. And according as he said
(' 'Tis these that the steadfast will call a strong bond,
Which pulls a man down, subtle, hard to get free from;
Yet this too they sever and wander [in freedom],
Unconcerned, and [all] sensual pleasures foregone
9
)
(S. i, 77;Pe25, 214).
Here it is known that with this as circumstance, with this as source,
the Blessed One speaks of abandoning craving for external things.
196. And according as he said
194/1 PED (this ref.) equates pabbaja (here rendered by 'thongs') with
babbaja (a kind of grass with a tangle of roots), but that does not work out
well from the context. Pabbaja here could be made up of pabba ('section',
'joint-to-joint-length of creeper', etc.) and ja ('born of . 'made of) . SA
ignores.
(l
This sick impure foul thing, stinking,
Oozing with carcase-exudations
[Unceasingly] by day and night:
[Only] a fool could relish if) (cf. Thag. 394).
Here it is known that with this as circumstance, with this as source,
the Blessed One speaks of abandoning craving for things in oneself.
197. And according as he said
[36]('Cte off affection for the self,
As with the hand an autumn lily;
And so pursue the path of peace,
The Quenching the Sublime One taught') (Dh. 285).
Here it is known that, with this as circumstance, with this as a
source, the Blessed One speaks of abandoning craving for things in
oneself.
[(iv) Consecutive Sequence]
198. Herein, what is Consecutive Sequence ? I t is according to
what the Blessed One said, namely:
( 'Caught in the net of sensual murk,
And blocked by craving's bondage,
Fenced in by fences of neglect
Like fishes in a funnel-trap,
They follow after ageing and death
As does the sucking-calf its mother' ) (Pe 24; Ud. 76).
What is stated is craving for sensual desires. What consecutive
sequence is that construable by ?
199. I t is according as he said
(Who lusts no meaning ever knows,
Who lusts sees never an idea;
The murk of darkness laps a man
When he will suffer lust to be) (§68).
200. So it is that same craving that is expressed by [the terms]
'murk' and being 'caught' (§198). And when it is said 'caught in
the net of sensual murk, And blocked by craving's bondage' (§198),
and when it is said 'Who lusts no meaning ever knows, Who lusts
sees never an idea' (§199), it is that same craving that is expressed
by these terms [which illustrate] obsession.
201. The 'murk' (§198) is the origin of suffering, and that is the
craving that gives renewal of being.
202. And when it is said 'sensual' (§198) this is sensual-desire as
defilement; and when it is said 'caught in the net' (§198) obsession
is shown by those same sensual desires as means. Consequently
craving is called a 'fence' (§198) by way of defilement and by way of
obsession. I t is such as these that 'follow after ageing and death'
(§198).
203. [37] The following verse, as it is presented by the Blessed One,
is given in order to show by what power
1
they 'follow after ageing
and death':
(Who has no steadying points, no diversification?
Who has outstripped the Chain and Bar beside:
Not even the world with all its gods can know
The conduct of that Stilled One free from craving ) (Ud. 77).
204. The 'diversifications' are craving, views, and conceit, and the
determinations thereby actively determined. The 'steadying-
points' are the underlying-tendencies.
1
The 'Chain' is obsession by
craving, which is the thirty-six ways explored by the net of craving
(see A. ii, 21 Iff.). The 'Bar' is delusion. The determinations
[determined] by the diversifications, and the stead)dng-points, and
the Chain, and the Bar: whoever has surmounted all those is called
'free from craving'.
203/1 Read as two words either yathdnikkhittagdihd balena or . . . phalena"i
§205 suggests the latter but §209 the former.
203/2 For papanca ('diversification' or 'dialectic') in the sense in which l
p.'
is used in the Suttas as the contrary of nibbdna (called appapanca and nippa-
panca), see KhpA. trsln, Appx. I
i
Nirodha)
; see also §297. I t could be
emphasized that papanca in these contexts is not well translated by 'multi-
plicity', which would make nibbdna (as nippapanca) unilaterally 'unity' . The
Pali terms for 'multiplicity' and 'unity' are ndnatta and ekatta respectively,
which are used for 'form' (rupa-sannd: M. i, 41) and its opposite, namely the
four formless (arupa) states. Such rendering of papanca and nippapanca
must invite the only too easy confusion between the (sankhata) arupa-dhdtu
and the asankhata-dhdtu (nibbdna). But both form and the formless are
alike 'determined' . The 'diversification' or 'dialectic' between mere 'multi-
plicity' and 'unity' being itself a determination, whereas nibbdna remains
undetermined. For multiplicity /unity and nibbdna see, e.g., JSn. 714.
Nibbdna would seem misconceived as 'an absolute-opposed-to-particularity'
(
i
kasi7ia\
l
advayd')9 or as, philosophically, 'the Absolute'.
204/1 But cf. §§484ff. for the 'steadying-points' (thiti). This definition of
thiti by anusaya is unusual. See also n. 176/1.
205. Herein, determinations due to obsession can be felt (ex-
perienced) here and now [in their ripening] or they can be felt on
next reappearance, or they can be felt in some subsequent period.
So craving gives fruit in three ways: here and now [in this existence],
or on next reappearance, or in some subsequent period.
206. So the Blessed One said: (Whatever action he does effected out of
greed by body or speech or mind, makes his existence coessential with
its ripening, either here and now or on next reappearance or in some
subsequent period) (cf. A. i, 134).
This is construed with a consecutive sequence of the Blessed
One's statements.
207. Herein, obsession is action [whose ripening] can be felt here
and now, or it is action [whose ripening can be felt] on next re-
appearance, or it is action [whose ripening can be felt] in some sub-
sequent period. So action ripens
1
in these three ways: here and
now [in this existence] or on next reappearance or in some subsequent
period. According as it is said:
208. (And when a fool is one who here kills breathing things, . . .
holds wrong view, in consequence he feels the ripening of that here and
now or on next reappearance or in some subsequent period) ( ).
[38] This is construed by a consecutive sequence of the Blessed
One's [statements].
209. Herein, the obsession is abandonable by means of the power of
deliberation, the determinations are abandonable by means of the
power of seeing, and the thirty-six ways explored by craving are
abandonable by means of the power of keeping-in-being. So
craving is abandonable in three ways.
210. 'Freedom from craving' (§203) is the element of extinction
with trace left, but with the dissolution of the body it is the element
of extinction without trace left. 'Diversification' (§203) is what
keeping bound together
1
is called.
211. And when the Blessed One says (He diversifies instigated by a
past, a future, or a presently-arisen form cognizable by the eye) (
207/1 Vipaccati. Perhaps neither this word nor paccati nor their derivatives
should be translated by 'to cook' in Icamma contexts, especially where mention
is made of the hells, despite the fires, 'Ripening out ' of bad action in hell
is what is meant , in the sense of its finding its moment for ripening and at the
same time expending itself. The metaphor seems from the ripening of fruit,
rather than from the kitchen-stove.
210/1 i
Anubandha—keeping bound together' : In the sense of keeping ideas
of opposites tied together or in the sense of 'obstructing'? NettiA says only
l
Ta?ihddinam anuppabatidhana'pavatti' (p. 86).
), and when the Blessed One says (Radha, do not look back
with yearning to past form, do not expectantly relish future form,
practise the way to dispassion, fading of lust, ceasing, giving up, and
relinquishment, as to presently-arisen form) (§173), this is construed
by the consecutivity of the Blessed One's [statement].
212. And while the diversifications, and the determinations, and the
relishing of the past, future and presently-arisen, are a singularity,
yet the teaching of the True Idea stated by the Blessed One with
various other terms, with various other letters, with various other
phrases, is of ungauged meaning (cf. §49).
213. That is how the Thread is demonstrated by collating Thread
with Thread, adding the sequence together by consecutivity.
1
[4 kinds of Consecutive Sequence]
214. Now this consecutive sequence is of four kinds: meaning-
sequence, phrasing-sequence, teaching-sequence, and demonstration-
sequence.
215. (i) Herein, meaning-sequence is the six terms, namely explaining,
displaying, divulging, analysing, exhibiting, and describing (§53).
216. (ii) Phrasing-sequence is the six terms, namely letter, term,
phrase, mood, language, and demonstration (§53).
217. (iii) Teaching-sequence; he does not meditate with earth as
support and yet he meditates as a meditator. He does not meditate
with water . . . fire . . . [39] air . . . the base consisting of infiniteness
of space . . . the base consisting of infiniteness of consciousness . . .
the base consisting of no-owning . . . the base consisting of neither
perception nor non-perception . . . He does not meditate with this
world or the other as support, and yet he meditates as a meditator.
And what is in between both—the seen, heard, sensed,
1
cognized,
reached, sought, thought, explored, and cogitated over with the
mind—he does not meditate with that as support too and yet he
meditates as a meditator.
2
In the world with its gods, its Maras,
and its High Divinities, in this generation with its monks and
divines, its princes and men, when one such as this meditates with
cognizance unsupported, he is not known (cf. A. v, 324f.). Just as
213/1 Sandhirh seems a better reading than saddhirh here.
217/1 See n. 174/1.
217/2 This sequence means the normal order of enumeration found in the
Suttas. I t is called yaihanusandhi at MA. i, 175, as one of 3 kinds mentioned
there.
Mara the Evil One, seeking the clansman Godhika's consciousness,
neither knew nor saw it (S. i, 120f.; Pe 11); for with the abandoning
of craving he had gone past diversification, and he had no more
support for views. And as Godhika, so too Vakkali (S. iii, 119fT.).
When such as these are meditating with unsupported cognizance
they are not known by the world with its gods, its Maras, and its
High Divinities, by this generation with its monks and divines, its
princes and men.
This is teaching-sequence.
218. (iv) Herein, what is demonstration-sequence ?
Those with supported cognizance (cf. §364) can be demonstrated by
means of the unprofitable side; those with unsupported cognizance
(cf. §364) can be demonstrated by means of the profitable side.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of corruption; those with unsupported cognizance can be demon-
strated by means of cleansing.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of the occurrence of the roundabout; those with unsupported
cognizance can be demonstrated by means of the non-occurrence of
the roundabout.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of craving and ignorance; those with unsupported cognizance can be
demonstrated by means of quiet and insight.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of consciencelessness and shamelessness; those with unsupported
cognizance can be demonstrated by means of conscience and shame.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of unmindfulness and unawareness; those with unsupported cog-
nizance can be demonstrated by means of mindfulness and awareness.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of what is no reason (see M. iii, 140) and [40] by means of unreasoned
attention (see M. i, 7); and those with unsupported cognizance can
be demonstrated by means of what is a reason and by means of
reasoned attention.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of idleness and difficult admonishability; those with unsupported
cognizance can be demonstrated by means of instigation of energy
and easy admonishability.
1
218/1 'Dovacassata—difficult admonishability' and 'sovacassatd—easy ad-
monishability' mean literally 'the state of one to whom it is difficult—easy—
to speak (in order to point out his faults)'. They never mean respectively
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of faithlessness and negligence; those with unsupported cognizance
can be demonstrated by means of faith and diligence.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of hearing what is not the true object of faith and by means of non-
restraint; those with unsupported cognizance can be demonstrated
by means of the true object of faith and by means of restraint.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of covetousness and ill-will; those with unsupported cognizance can
be demonstrated by means of non-covetousness and non-ill-will.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of the hindrances and the fetters; those with unsupported cognizance
by means of the heart-deliverance due to fading of lust and by means
of the understanding-deliverance due to fading of ignorance.
Those with supported cognizance can be demonstrated by means
of the annihilation view and by means of the eternity view; those
with unsupported cognizance can be demonstrated by means of the
element of extinction with trace left and the element of extinction
without trace left.
This is demonstration-sequence.
219. That is why the venerable Maha-Kaccana said:
'By way of phrasing, the Linguistic,
The Purport, and the teaching's Source,
And the Consecutive-Sequence:
This Mode Conveys a Fourfold Array' (§10).
The Mode of Conveying a Fourfold Array is ended.
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