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Paññatti means “to establish conventions” to characterize things in this world so that people can communicate among themselves.
- Each language has assigned “names” for things, time, etc.
- One can get a basic idea of how to assign time by reading the “Niruttipatha Sutta (SN 22.62).”
- Another set of examples is in the “Mahānidāna Sutta (DN 15).” Here, “paññāyethā” means “without such assignments, one cannot provide meaning to a word like “adhivacana samphasso” or “paṭigha samphasso.”
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Yes. You are right, Gad.
- “The kali sutta is more about the distorted sanna that arises with Rūpa ragā or Arūpa ragā.”
- The Mulapariyaya Sutta provides a general description of everything in this world.
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Yes. The second sutta (“Kali Sutta“) states the same as the Mulapariyaya Sutta. See “Mūlapariyāya Sutta – The Root of All Things.”
- It is good to look at various ways of presenting a concept.
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It is hard to say, but it will be up to thousands of years before the next Buddha, Buddha Maitreya, appears.
- The “Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14)” discusses human lifetimes during various Buddhas.
- Huan lifetime during the Buddha Sasana of Buddha Gotama is one of the shortest.
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Yes. The Madhupindika Sutta is a critical sutta related to “distorted saññā.” I will write a post on it at some point.
- I will take a look at the other sutta. Thank you, Gad.
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There is a difference between “kappa,” “asaṅkheyya kappa,” and “maha kappa.”
- As I remember, four “asaṅkheyya kappa” are in a “maha kappa.”
- It is possible that 100,000 kappa are in an “asaṅkheyya kappa.“
- It is a matter of dividing a “maha kappa” into sub-categories.
P.S. According to “Bhikkhu_Bodhi-Comprehensive_Manual_of_Abhidhamma,” by Bhikkhu Bodhi, the description is as follows (on p.198 of the pdf):
- Four “asaṅkheyya kappa” are in a “maha kappa.”
- Twenty “antara kappa” in an “asaṅkheyya kappa.“
- One “antara kappa” is the time required for the human lifespan to rise from ten years to a maximum of thousands of years (as I remember 80,000 years at least). So, the human life span goes up and down 20 times within an “asaṅkheyya kappa.” It starts at the maximum and gradually decreases to ten, then gradually increases to a maximum, and so on, twenty times!
If anyone else has more or different information, please comment.
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There is a difference between acinteyya and asaṅkheyyā.
- Acinteyya means a concept is “not amenable/graspable to average humans.” Such things can be discovered/explored only by a Buddha.
- Asaṅkheyyā specifically refers to the inability to express the magnitude of an entity with numbers. The Buddha states that the length of a maha kappa cannot be expressed in numbers. That could be because the number system at that time was not big enough to express that number, and/or the length of a maha kappa could change somewhat each time.
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I don’t think this discussion helps much.
- The suttas that Gad quoted in his initial post provide the essential sutta text.
- The interpretation of some terms could be subjective, i.e., depends on one’s views.
- But I think his original post provides a good description of the “four types of learners.”
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Thank you, Sammasambodhi Gami and Dosakkhayo, for the reference.
- Some of the minor suttas may have been lost. The following background could be helpful to remember.
1. As summarized in “Incorrect Theravada Interpretations – Historical Timeline“:
- 161-137 BCE: For the first time in history, King Dutugemunu united all of Sri Lanka under one kingdom.
- I did not mention this there, but he built a seven-story library in the Mahāvihāra monastery in Anuradhapura. His mistake was to collect all the Tipitaka copies spread out in temples around the country and deposit them in that library.
- That library was burned: King Mahāsena (277-304 CE) as I stated in the above post.
- Of course, there must have been other “partial copies” in other temples. But it is possible that some suttas were lost at that time.
2. Another factor is the following. Before the British took over Sri Lanka in the 1800s, the island had been under partial control of the Dutch and Portuguese, who discouraged the practice of Buddhism. The temples were decaying, and the bhikkhu population decreased; see #5 of “Elephant in the Room” – Direct Translation of the Tipiṭaka.”
- If it were not for the British civil servants, more Tipitaka suttas could have been lost. They collected copies of Tipitaka texts spread throughout the country and sent them to the museum in London to be preserved; see #6 in that post.
- The point is that the whole Tipiṭaka was written on specially prepared ōla (palm) leaves. They typically deteriorate over 100 years or so and need to be rewritten. See “Preservation of the Buddha Dhamma.” Some suttas may not have been rewritten and thus be lost.
3. The above information, while not critical, helps to provide an understanding of the obstacles and “lucky breaks” involved in preserving the Tipitaka.
- We may not have all the original texts, but we probably have enough essential and critical texts.
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Excellent essay. Thank you, Gad.
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The Church’s (Vatican) influence on science issues is no longer there. Of course, it led to Galileo’s death in the 1600s because his scientific findings were deemed to “go against the Church.”
- There is not yet enough concrete evidence to discard the “Big Bang theory. ” If the evidence is irrefutable, scientists will give it up.
- I believe that will happen within the next few years.
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The Pali version and the English translation at Sutta Central: “Assutavā Sutta (SN 12.61)“
The main point the Buddha tried to explain is the following:
- Our physical bodies change relatively slowly, especially after the teenage years.
- However, our minds change even moment-to-moment. Like a monkey jumping from tree to tree, our minds quickly jump from one arammana to another. Think about it. Within a day, one’s mindset can change from a relaxed mindset to an angry mindset to a generous mindset and back and forth many times.
- But one firmly believes one’s mind is one’s own, even more than to think of one’s body as one’s own.
This point needs to be addressed in detail at some point. A mind works like a machine, according to specific rules. Even though we think it is “my mind”, it really is not. It can “change on a dime” based on one’s mindset and the type of arammana coming to it.
- For example, if one is in an angry mindset, it takes only a bit of provocation even to kill another human.
- Most rapes take place because of that: if the conditions get set up, even a “moral person” could be triggered to commit rape.
That is quite clear among animals, who don’t have developed brains to slow their actions. However, some humans act like animals because they are not used to being “mindful.”
- Because the mind works like a machine, it will AUTOMATICALLY stop engaging in “apayagami actions” after reaching the Sotapanna stage or stop getting attached to sensual pleasures after the Anagami stage.
- There is no “me” controlling such actions. It happens automatically.
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Tobi wrote: “An estimate published in the Astrophysical Journal concludes that there may currently be dozens of radio-capable civilizations in the Milky Way, with 36 being the most likely number.”
- I am not sure how they can calculate the number of civilizations, let alone those “capable of using radio.” Can you provide the reference? Of course, it is not a critical issue, but I am just curious.
- Astrology primarily uses spectroscopy (light emitted by stars) to come to conclusions about stars and planets. Of course, planets do not emit light, so they need to use indirect methods to find planets, and that is why it was only in 1992 that scientists found the first planet outside the solar system.
- The closest star with planets is more than four light-years away. A light-year is a distance traveled by light in a year. That is an astounding distance! I don’t think humans will be able to travel to even the closest planetary system (outside our solar system) within the next 100 years or may be ever. See “Could humanity send astronauts to Alpha Centauri“
P.S. Tobi emailed me the following paper: “The Astrobiological Copernican Weak and Strong Limits for Intelligent Life.” Thanks, Tobi.
- Of course, it is an indirect estimate. To quote the paper: “Most famously, Drake (1965) developed an equation which in principle can be used to calculate how many Communicating Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent (CETI: pronounced “chetee”)
civilizations there may be in the Galaxy..” - The Drake equation seems to provide a vastly underestimated number. According to the Buddha, life exists on most planetary systems, each with 31 realms like ours. Think about the following: As I mentioned above, science did not find evidence for a single planet outside our solar system until 1992. With time, more evidence in support of the Buddha Dhamma will come from science.
Thanks, Gad.
- However, both those refer to Ven. Moggallana cultivating the first arupāvacara samāpatti, “ākāsānañcāyatana samāpatti.”
- That does not refer to the account of Ven. Moggallana “getting lost in space.” That happened after he developed all the abhinna powers.
The Moggallana Samyutta in the Samyutta Nikāya has nine suttās that describe step-by-step how Ven. Moggallana attained Ariya jhānās and samāpattis in sequence, starting with the first Ariya jhāna. The Sutta Central reference you gave at the end is one of those suttas.
- I explained that in #9 of the post, “Pannāvimutti – Arahanthood without Jhāna.”
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I am not sure whether there is a single sutta that says so.
- But the inference can be made by studying various relevant suttas. I will provide a few below. Perhaps others can add to this collection, and I can write a post. These issues keep coming up, so it would be good to have one post that summarizes what is in the suttas.
“Cūḷanikā Sutta (AN 3.80)“, “Rohitassa Sutta (SN 2.26)“, “Acinteyya Sutta (AN 4.77).”
- In the first one, the Buddha tells Ven. Ananda about the “mahāsahassī lokadhātu” (a region of space) with a billion stars with planetary systems like ours. As I understand, that is the “maximum range” of a single Buddha. But there can be many Buddhas even now, in other such “mahāsahassī lokadhātu” in the universe. Our Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion stars. Thus, even within our Milky Way galaxy, there could be living Buddhas right now. The English translation used the word “galaxy” for a collection of only 1000 planetary systems, which is wrong.
- There is also a sutta, which describes Ven. Moggalana took off to “look for the end of the world.” He got lost on the way, and the Buddha had to rescue him. I don’t remember the name of that sutta.
That is why, in the last sutta quoted above, the Buddha says figuring out the universe’s structure is “not achievable” for humans. Anyone who tries to do that “will go mad or get frustrated” (see the starting verse of that sutta).
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