PRETEXTS 2
The Motivation behind This Book
Cost
Canonical Study
Same Dhamma Different Listeners
Same Thing Different Terms
Pāli or Sanskrit
Disambiguation
Christian Lexicon in Buddhist Text
Lord
Saint -bodhisatta
Church - Saṅgha
Holy
Eternal - The Deathless
Spirit
Blessed
Salvation and Damnation – Nibbāna and Existence
A Strategy for Attaining Nobility
The Motivation behind This Book 
My need to write this book came out of a deep dissatisfaction I had with my spiritual life, and the Sangha (monastic community) to provide a solution. One particularly irksome scenario I repeatedly encountered was being told, “there are two schools of Buddhism”, without much ever being said to elucidate this. Everyone seemed to know one school was the Mahayana School, while far fewer knew that the other was Hinayana. Curiously, if I ever used the latter term, I would often be reminded that it was a pejorative term, and it was best not to use it. The fact is, Hinayana means lesser vehicle and Mahayana means Greater vehicle and there is a schism in Buddhism. I wanted to know more.
Another reason for this book is that Buddhists rarely own a personal copy of a Nikāya, certainly nothing like on the scale Christians own Bibles. This meant one’s knowledge of Buddhism might be no better than hearsay. Even dhamma teachings from monks failed my needs. The Buddha gave a serious warning about future bhikkhus and teachings.
So too, bhikkhus, the same with the bhikkhus in the future. When those discourses spoken by the Tathagata that are deep, deep in meaning, supramundane, dealing with emptiness, are being recited, they will not be eager to listen to them, nor lend an ear to them, not apply their minds to understand them; and they will not think that those teachings should be studied and mastered. But those discourses that are mere poetry, composed by poets, beautiful in words and phrases, created by outsiders, spoken by [their] disciples are being recited, they will be eager to listen to them ... therefore you should train yourself thus: when those discourses spoken by the Tathagata ... those teachings should be studied and mastered. SN II, 20:7
The Buddha’s prediction is, in my experience, accurate of today’s Sangha. The reader is urged to apply the Buddha’s criteria to this book. Does this book elucidate the discourses deep in meaning, supramundane, dealing with emptiness, or is it poetry and beautiful words and phrases? Have I, the author, applied my mind to understand those discourses spoken by the Tathagata?
These very considerations have determined the many questions, citations, elucidations, and tables herein. Anyone who has tried to learn their Buddha Dhamma directly from the Pali canon will know how arduous it is. In fact, the reality is, for practical purposes, it’s impossible. This book gives the reader the result of a decade of my effort, evolved over more than 20 years.
Over 40 discourses are referenced. Numerous citations are discussed. Well over 100 citations are relied upon, giving the reader ample opportunity to learn directly from the Buddha’s words, which I have done my best to contextualise and elucidate in scenarios the reader will recognise. This includes discourses deep in meaning, the supramundane, and emptiness. No poetry! No esotericism! If what I have experienced in over 40 years can be relied upon, this book contains Dhamma wisdom on emptiness no other does.
Nearly all the citations are either Wisdom Publication or Pāli Text Society. The PTS translations were published roughly around half a century before the Wisdom translations and have an aged style to them that isn’t as easy to read. However, once the Dhamma is learned, the PTS versions are no less easy or difficult to read, and their aged style takes on a charming appeal. Either way, we do not have to decide which is the best and discard the rest. Sometimes two translations of the same discourse are presented adjacently. The point behind this strategy is to give the reader experience in recognising the same teaching by different translators.
Not all of the Pali Canon is genuine. And so, a good deal of scrutiny has been given to sorting out what likely came from the Buddha’s mouth and what didn’t. This task was not easy. We can rely on the Buddha’s Dhamma being first and foremost practical, but the Canon contains a lot of teachings which are questionable, whilst not being necessarily unwholesome. Winkling out discrepancies and rationalising them to reasonable satisfaction, took up most of my free time for nearly a decade, and much of that full time. The results go a good way to fast-tracking readers to the wisdom of the Canon, and through difficult issues. I am confident this book is complete in its presentation of the Buddha’s message.
Next, we look at some more reasons why the Canon isn’t as popularly owned as one might expect. Not every reader needs to know, and so the reader should follow their instinct and go straight to chapters that are appealing.
If you have text to speech on your computer, I suggest you use it, although these engines can’t pronounce the diacritical markings used by the Pali language. If you are a student, use the find facility to locate subjects. If any part of this book is used, please acknowledge your source.
Cost is a major issue for many Buddhists not owning a Nikāya. Nikāya are always printed in hardback, which raises the price several fold above a paperback1 .
1 The Dīgha nikāya and Majjhima nikāya
currently cost circa £24 to £80 respectively.
The current UK minimum weekly (pretax)
income is £213.48. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/
Newsroom/DG_178175. October 2010.
Even if a layman is able to access a nikāya, such as on line, the reality is that he has little time to thoroughly investigate just one, let alone the five which exist, and which collectively run to several thousand pages. Then, there are the Commentaries (Aṭṭhakathā), the Abhidhamma (Redactions of the discourses) and the Vinaya (the Saṅgha’s code of conduct). Studying the Canon is hard going, as much of is a restating of the same teachings, it is voluminous, and contains much to compare and question.
Over the Buddha’s 48-year teaching ministry, he taught the same Dhamma in different ways. This arose out of the many scenarios and questions that were presented to the Buddha, and a listener’s knowledge and ability to understand. For example, in the Bahuvedanīya Suttaṃ (MN59), we read of a disagreement between a bhikkhu and a devoted follower, over how many types of feelings the Buddha taught. The dispute was taken to the Buddha to resolve. He tells Ānanda that there were times when he taught 2, 3, 5, 6, 16, 36, and even 108 kinds of feelings existed. Dependent Origination is another important teaching that also varies. It may be found to contain as little as 3 steps through to 22-steps.
In the Majjhima Nikāya (Wisdom Publication), the word meditation is expressed variously as contemplation, jhāna, absorption state, abiding, and the eight directions (MN7:22, MN137:26-27). In the Sandaka Suttaṃ (PTS) there are no less than eight adjacent adjectival phrases to describe an arahant.
‘... whatever monk is a perfected one, the cankers destroyed, who has lived the life, done what has to be done, laid down the burden, attained his own goal, the fetters of becoming utterly destroyed, freed by perfect and profound knowledge ...’.
MN76
Throughout the Pāli Canon the terms bhikkhu, monk, recluse, ascetic, brahmin, aggivessana, are used to identify those with renunciant ideals. The Buddha was not exclusive about who he taught. Wearing saffron robes per se meant nothing to him. He taught the measure of a person was his ability to follow a good ethic, and that a true man does not have to wear robes (MN113:20). There is one curious exception however. He is not recorded teaching higher Dhamma, such as meditation, to householders, and initially, he was reluctant to teach anyone, and had to be persuaded (MN26:20). The Buddha never asked anyone to be under his rule (DN24)2. He said, the “Tathāgata has no “teacher’s fist” in respect of doctrines (MN16:2.25).
Pāli or Sanskrit
The Language of Pāli, also called Buddhist Hybridised Sanskrit, is the language closest to that which evolved in consequence of the Buddha wandering across north-east India, disseminating his teaching and encountering different dialects. There is no one preferred language used by Buddhist scholarly traditions. Some writers even use Pāli and Sanskrit in the same text.
There is much similarity between Pāli and classical Sanskrit. In Pāli, the double ‘mm’ in Dhamma and kamma, change to rm in Sanskrit to give karma and dharma. The name Siddhatta Gotama becomes Siddhārtha Gautama. This affinity suggests counterpart words have identical meanings, and for the greater part they do. Exceptionally, the words bodhisatta and bodhisattva is a serious concern we will study in Chapter 8. Meaning is paramount, not the language. Translating original text into a hybridised language is no more important than insisting the physics undergraduate reads Newton’s Principia Mathematica in its original Latin3 (another hybridised language).
Today’s computer programmer requires clear and reliable code, so he often repeats the same instructions into his programming4 by way of a contingency. In the event of one line corrupting, another remains intact. It’s called redundancy. Accountancy also has a particular need for reliable accuracy, and often uses something called double entry bookkeeping. Similarly, the ancient scribes of the Canon used several compositional techniques to avoid ambiguity. Many discourses often present a statement in the negative, and then repeat the same statement in the positive. Mercifully, some publishers skip the more copious repetitions and just substitute an ellipse (...).
Christian Lexicon in Buddhist Text
Before we start our practical investigation of the Buddha’s wisdom, we must identify and qualify some Christian lexicon that have found their way into Buddhism. This is to be expected, as the first translators of Buddhism were Christian. Let’s look at the terms: Lord, saint, church, holy, spiritual, blessed, salvation and the concept of eternity. These are commonly found in many Pāli-English translations5 , including some citations we will later rely on.
How are we to understand the use of the word Lord in a Buddhist context? In the Bible, Lord can mean God or Jesus. The New Testament claims the latter will return one day and literally lord it over others, by dispensing the will of a supreme God. The concept and practice of anyone lording it over others, does not appear in the Pāli Canon. The Buddhist renunciant has to be lord of himself, meaning he is to master himself. He is never the master of others. Only when he has mastered himself may the epithet of Master, or arahant legitimately apply. Where the Canon refers to the Buddha as Lord, it should be understood as an acknowledgement of his complete self-mastery, not as the master of others.
Occasionally the word saint and bodhisatta are used synonymously. Equating a bodhisatta to a saint is reasonable, as both are characterised by a life dedicated to self-effacement. Self-effacement is the renunciation of self-interest, typically by meditation, or charity, celibacy, fasting. But the bodhisatta and saint perceive very different outcomes for their efforts. A bodhisatta’s endeavour, after helping others over many life-times is to ultimately surrender to voidness, and never again be reborn (Parinibbāna). By contrast, a saint is eligible, according to the Catholic Church, to be reborn in a privileged position, possibly for ever, under the rule of Jesus Christ in the promised Eternal City. This is a fundamental difference between the bodhisatta and saint.
In Christianity, only the Pope beatifies, whereas in Buddhism no one beatifies another. The renunciant reaches Nobility by his own merit, and it is quite legitimate in Buddhism to self-assess as having reached nobility. In some Eastern countries, the title of Ajhan, meaning teacher, is attributed to someone acknowledged as having reached nobility. See Chapter 10, Nibbāna Guaranteed.
The Saṅgha and the church are sometimes equated, but this too has a fundamental flaw. The Saṅgha, and the road to Nibbāna/Nirvana, is open to anyone with the potential to maintain a meaningful measure of renunciative discipline. Whereas the renunciants of the church, its monks and priests, believe themselves to be Fruit Of The Vine. That is, they have been selected by divine intervention. “I am the real vine and my father is the gardener … I am the vine and you are the branches (John15:1-5).” These chosen ones will eventually serve as Christ’s assistants in some capacity, when he returns to rule the world. The Saṅgha on the other hand is not a political vehicle, let alone one day rule the world. Indeed, it’s practice is to renounce the world, originally relying on homelessness and begging as a vehicle to practice equanimity in the face of hardship. Buddhist renunciation is not about changing the world, either now or in the future, but about transcending one’s attachment to life, and slipping the bonds of all kamma and existences, forever.
The word holy is difficult to explain, other than for drawing deference from the uncritically minded. If holy is well used in a Buddhist context, it could be used to describe a sincere renunciant effort. But then, a holy effort could be an act of selflessness by anyone, regardless of credo.
Eternal - The Deathless
The Buddha was non-committal on eternalism, but he did share his reasoning, and it is left to the reader to contemplate the implications of what he said. ‘… So how could it be, Ānanda – since whatever is born, become, compounded is subject to decay – how could it be that it should not pass away?’ (DN16:5.14). We learn from bhikkhus following the Buddha’s discipline; Ājīvika to the Venerable Kassapa, “All conditioned things are impermanent – what is the use of this.” (DN16:6.19). Also, the wanderer Vacchagotta approached the Venerable Maha Moggallana and asked, "… is the cosmos not eternal…?" Moggallana replied, "Vaccha, that too has not been declared by the Blessed One.” (SN Part IV, 44.7). Yet the Canon refers to “the deathless Brahmā world” (DN19:45). Does not ‘deathless’ mean without dying, and therefore eternal? Let’s look into this and what a ‘compounded’ thing might be? Let’s consider for a moment the smallest building block in the universe, the whit (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whit). A whit might be eternal because it is not compounded. A compounded thing on the other hand is made up of two or more whits, and is therefore subject to decay, as they could become separated. Thus, all compounded things are transient. But could it be that all remain recognisable while imperceptibly fluxing for eternity? Similarly, a forest, or species of animal, are perpetuated by genes. The forest remains a forest, the herd of animals a herd, but both are always changing in some way, so the forest outlives its trees, and the herd outlives its animals. Could something be eternally changing, as distinct from eternally unchanging? But does this not mean the restorative mechanism behind these things has to be eternal? One house brick does not constitute a house, but could a house be repaired forever? If so, we well ask, who is the housebuilder? In fact, the Buddha said, he never found the start of his existences, nor found a house builder (Dhammapada 153-54). The Buddha described this conundrum as, “a thicket of views… beset by suffering, by vexation” (MN72:14). Buddhist doctrine does not assert or deny an eternal anything, but it does ask, how could a compounded thing not pass away? The reader may want to make up their own mind about this thicket of views.
Spirit
How are we to understand the word spirit? Corinthians 1:15 explains, ‘When the body is buried it is mortal: when it is raised it is immortal (42) … When it is buried, it is a physical body; when it is raised it will be a spiritual body (45).’ We learn from this that when raised from the dead, one becomes an immortal, spiritual body. The Buddhist should be concerned when using the word spirit, whether it confers a belief in eternity. It can be used buddistically, in the same way as the term holy, that is, to describe a sincere renunciant effort.
Blessed
So, what are we to make of the word blessed? What is it that happens when one entity blesses another? Buddhism has a comparable concept, that of earning and transferring merit. Merit (good kamma) is earned for oneself, in consequence of performing a selfless deed. But it is possible for the merit earner to confer his merit upon someone else, if he wishes (MN35:30). This could be described as a blessing; a metaphysical gift that will fruit as good kamma for the receiver. A blessed effort could mean a merit earning effort of renunciation, in the same way one makes a holy or a spiritual effort.
Salvation and Damnation – Nibbāna and Existence
Buddhist doctrine is clear, the word Nibbāna/Nirvana means extinguished or a flame blown out, and that flame is the flame of passion. Without enough passion, that is kamma/karma, there is not enough compulsion to be reborn. Buddhist doctrine teaches there are beings who have attenuated their kamma, and by virtue of this, have a limited number of lives left to live. They are thought of as noble, as sappurisā6. Nobility is attainable by householders and not just meditators. Depending on the denomination of Buddhism, these might be called bodhisatta/bodhisattva (bodhi = noble, satta = being). However, Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism are not consistent on the number of lives left whence reaching Nobility (see chapter 10). Nobility is largely earned in meditation and through renunciative practices, or for some, particularly householders, by simply earning merit through acts of selflessness and right perspective (see Eight-Fold Noble Path). Nobility is the purpose of the Buddhist’s endeavours.
Even though salvation and (Pari)Nibbāna are different paradigms there are still some reasonably interesting comparisons. Rebirth in one of the 27 Buddhist heavenly planes could be seen as a salvation, and one of the four planes of woe as a damnation (see table 21 The Echelons of Existence) except that, in Buddhism, both salvation and damnation are temporary, even though they can last for eons. Curiously, after having spent time as a human, or, in a heavenly abode, most beings reappear into a woeful existence (SN 56.102-113). This is not because one has failed to worship the gods properly, but because that’s the way the machinery of existence works for those ignorant of how to deal with sentience. The cycle of rebirth and death is without foreseeable end for those who habitually indulge in reckless passion. By comparison, the meaning of damnation in Christianity varies between some denominations, and also between the Old and New Testaments. The Book of Revelation says damnation is eternal suffering in the fires of Hell, although some preachers say any fires mentioned are only the fires at one’s funeral cremation7. Revelation says the Devil, the beast and the false prophet will burn for eternity (Rev20:10) and that cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, magicians, idolaters and liars are burned to death in a lake of sulphur (Rev21:8). For the rest whom this does not concern, God “will give to each person according to what they have done (Rev22.12)” and they are “… judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books (20.12)”. The Old Testament expresses several beliefs. The book of Daniel 12.1 says, “… many people will have their hearts and lives made pure and clean, but those who are evil will keep on being evil and never understand. Contrarily, the son of King David believed we are dead for eternity (Ecc.3:19-20)8.
So, it is possible for Buddhists to adopt some biblical terms, as long as they are in the context of renunciation, and don’t assert eternalism.
6 SN55. Sotāpattisaṃyutta “… the superior persons (sappurisā), endowed with wisdom, developed serenity and insight and attained Nibbāna.”
7 Herbert W Armstrong College of Bible Studies says, Hell is an overused English word for the Hebrew word sheol and that the Greek words Hades, Gehenna and Tartaro. Sheol means grave. The word Gehenna is derived from the rocky valley Hinnnom, where cremations took place, and Tartaro is a place of abyss where fallen angels are held – not humans.
8 Also, see Rev 20:10 “… some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace (12:2).” (Dan12.13)
A Strategy for Attaining Nobility
Nobility is the point where one’s balance of kamma has tipped the scales towards a guarantee of Nibbana in this or a future life. The first level of nobility is called Stream Entry and can be realised, even by the householder, when the five mental facilitations of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom are practiced over a long time (SN V55:24) (MN68:9-23). We are taught, “Bhikkhus, whatever a bhikkhu frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind (MN19:11).” Owning and studying a nikāya is then an ideal supportive vehicle in the ‘long term’, for right inclination of mind, as is this book. The reason I have loaded the text with references is so citations can be checked for oneself online.
Understand, that the practice of the householder is very different from the bhikkhu’s. Some householders will occasionally raise the bar to equal that of a bhikkhu’s practice, for example by going on a meditation retreat. This is more common for Western Buddhists, and not so much for Eastern Buddhists. The reader must understand: one cannot be a renunciant and an urbanite at the same time. You can end up very confused if you try. The renunciant renounces the world; the urbanite builds the world.