Expounding on the Dhamma-Sets from the Saṅgīti Sutta Compiled And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Expounding on the Dhamma-sets from the Saṅgīti Sutta Compiled and Edited by Dr. Dion Peoples Manager, International Association of Buddhist Universities Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Thailand Initial Comment: The Saṅgīti Sutta serves as the fundamental root text for Buddhist education. As such, it appears as just a list of 230 dhammas without any explanation. To better present this text for students learning higher levels of Dhamma: following each specific Dhamma-set is a complete explanation or reference for its unit found in other discourses. Each of the 230 dhammas are listed below, followed by the actual Pali- language verse, and then a citation-reference for the actual explanation of the dhamma- set from a location in the Tipitaka where it could have been actually explained by the Buddha, before Sariputta took it for use in his discourse. Additional material related to the dhamma-concept being discussed may also be involved in explaning the dhamma- set. In doing so, this revised chapter becomes a textual-commentary, and is developed as such. This should be evident from the below presentation.1 4.1: Sets of One: All beings are maintained by nutriment: [Sabbe sattā āhāraṭṭhitikā] Biologically speaking, this is correct: plants need soil, water and sun; animals eat other animals or plants; and smaller species like bacteria feed on cells or other microscopic entities. Beings need nutrients for sustaining their life, to promote growth, and is also needed so that the body can repair itself. A discourse suggests: “...a monk takes food with reflection and judgment, not for sport, not for indulgence, not for personal charm, not for beautifying, but just enough for support, for the upkeep of the body, for its resting unharmed, for helping the living of the [noble-life]; [taking food2 with the following thought]: Thus do I check my former feeling and set going no new feeling; thus maintenance shall be mine, blameless and comfort in life. Then some time later, though dependent on food, he abandons food. As to the saying that body has come into being through food, whatever was thus said, was said in this 1 Assisting in the perceptions of this chapter are the following texts: W. Stede (editor of materials left unfinished by T.W. Rhys Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter): The Sumaṅgala-Vilāsinī – Buddhaghosa’s Commentary on the Dīgha- Nikāya, Part III (Suttas 21-34) (London: Pāli Text Society, 1971) – The Saṅgīti-Sutta-Vaṇṇanā, pp. 971-1052; T. W. Rhys Davids: Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vol. IV [Dīgha-Nikāya] (Oxford: Pāli Text Society, 1991), pp. 198-249. Further, inside Buddhaghosa’s commentary, he mentions the Visuddhimagga, so: this text is also available as a resource for exposing the understanding of the dhammas in the Discourse, although any reference or venture into that text will strictly be kept at an absolute minimum. Additionally, what may be provided here as explanatory material may be randomly derived from Tipiṭaka sources, and may not be the actual reference that Sāriputta had in his mind. Liberties were taken to find the material throughout different major texts: the Anguttara-Nikāya, the Majjhima-Nikāya and the Digha-Nikāya. If material was not found from these, then attempts were undertaken to find the material in the Saṃyutta-Nikāya, and then finally, the Visuddhimagga or various Abhidhamma texts. All Pali-language citations are taken from the Sangiti Sutta, from this website: http://buddhistlibraryonline.com/index.php/dighanikaya/pathikavaggapali/dn33-sangiti-sutta/79-sangiti - it would be too laborious to retype the discourse, so indeed, I cut and pasted the 230 sets into this document to appease readers who wanted the Pali included into the document. Any material from the commenary comes from the Digital Pali Reader. 2 Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (translators): The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima-Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications 1995), pp. 97-98 further pertains to eating and the disposal of food-remnants – this is the Dhammadāyāda Sutta. connection.”3 Further: “...And what is nutriment, what is the origin of nutriment, what is the cessation of nutriment, what is the way leading to the cessation of nutriment? There are four kinds of nutriment for the maintenance of beings that already have come to be. What four? They are: physical food (kabaliṅkārāhāra) as nutriment, gross or subtle; contact (phassa) as the second (as agreeable, disagreeable or neutral); mental volition (manosañcetanā) as the third (such as kamma feeding rebirth, for dependent origination); and consciousness (viññāṇa) as the fourth (towards name-form at the conception moment). With the arising of craving there is the arising of nutriment. With the cessation of craving there is the cessation of nutriment. The way leading to the cessation of nutriment is just right speech; right action; right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. ...entirely abandoning the underlying tendencies to greed, ...to aversion, ...to view and conceit ‘I am’, and abandoning ignorance and arousing true knowledge – he, here and now, makes an end of suffering...”4 That is also expressed later in the discourse, in Section 4:17, where it mentions that nutriment is material good, gross or subtle, can come from contact, mental volitions and consciousness. Further: “These four kinds of nutriment have what as their source, what as their origin, from what are they born and produced? These four kinds of nutriment have craving as their source, craving as their origin; they are born and produced from craving. And this craving has what as its source...? [and the remaining links in dependent origination follow].”5 With or without nutriment, we face the inevitiable experience of the truth of impermanence. Within the Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta, the Buddha even recalls his nutriment from his past lives:’6 The fact that all beings must be maintained by nutriment - this alone illustrates that beings are impermanent and subjected to suffering. As such, they need to be maintained physically, by nutriment – and by default, through the very essence of the life-concept, there is no ‘self’ to be seen. The necessary circumstance of nutriment establishes that the conditioned (its rising is apparent, its passing away is apparent and while persisting – change is evident) and unconditioned (no arising appears, no passing away appears, and while persisting – no change is evident) elements. These elements have the following forms: of form; the formless element; the element of cessation. All beings are maintained by conditions (processes7, or constructions8): [Sabbe sattā saṅkhāraṭṭhitikā] we can already see from the above the relationship between nutriment and conditions. Something does not become nutriment if there are no conditions that warrant the consumption of the object. Hunger and the desire for nutriment converts the object into sustenance. A commentary suggests: “Nutriment (ojā) is that which generates (janeti) materiality immediately upon its arising (udaya).”9 The following becomes obvious: “Food, undertstood as nutriment, originates materiality originating from food at the time of eating, but only at the 3 F.L. Woodward: The Book of the Gradual Sayings – Anguttara-Nikāya, Vol. II (London: Pāli Text Society, 1973), p. 149 or Anguttara-Nikāya IV, XVI, 159 4 Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (translators): The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima-Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications 1995), p. 134 – in the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta. 5 Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (translators): The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima-Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications 1995), p. 353 – in the Mahātaṇhāsankhaya Sutta. 6 Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha – A New Translation of the Majjhima-Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), pp. 269-277. 7 Richard Gombrich: What the Buddha Thought (London: Equinox Publishing, 2009), p. 11 8 Richard Gombrich: What the Buddha Thought (London: Equinox Publishing, 2009), p. 140 9 R. P. Wijeratne & Rupert Gethin (trans.): Summary of the Topcs of Abhidhamma & Exposition of the Topics of Abhidhamma (Lancaster: Pali Text Society, 2007), p. 235 stage of presence.”10 A commentary suggests: “The foods (āhāra) are what feed (āharanti) the materiality…; food consisting of contact [feeds] the three feelings: wholesome and unwholesome kamma, understood as food consisting of the mind’s volitions, feeds relinking in the three types of existence; and relinking consciousness, understood as the food consisting of consciousness, feeds the conascent mind and materiality.”11 It is important for the sake of Buddhist analytical thinking skills to illustrate that the criteria is that all beings, every living being, is maintained (enduring or fighting against impermanence), through nutriment, or the conditions which assist the enduring, against impermanence. The word: “condition” also has various usages. Beyond the existing present state, in which consumption occurs, condition also implies that something will be influenced by the consumption, as it is brought into the future – a sort of consequence or result. Beings are maintained as a result or consequence of the consumption of nutriment, the nutriment itself is a consequence of it’s own consumption and growth processes – and the species is maintained through its own reproductive processes. 4.2: Sets of Two12: Mind and body: [Nāmañca rūpañca] Of our ‘composition’, we have our living physical bodies composed of elements13, and we have our mind or mentality; and we distinquish between them. “...What is the origin of mentality- materiality, what is the cessation of mentality-materiality, what is the way leading to the cessation of mentality-materiality? Feeling, perception, volition, contact and attention – these are called mentality. The four great elements and the material form derived from the four great elements – these are called materiality. ...with the arising of consciousness there is the arising of mentality- materiality. With the cessation of consciousness there is the cessation of mentality-materiality.