Paṭisambhidāmagga

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The Patisambhidamagga (paṭisambhidā-;

Sariputta
. It comprises 30 chapters on different topics, of which the first, on knowledge, makes up about a third of the book.

History

Tradition ascribes the Patisambhidamagga to the

Digha Nikaya, which is also attributed to Sariputta.[2]

According to German tradition of Indology this text was likely composed around the 2nd century CE.

Second Buddhist Council and dated it to the first century BCE.[4]

The Patisambhidamagga has been described as an "attempt to systematize the

A.K. Warder suggested that at some stage in its development it may have been classified as an Abhidhamma text.[2]

Noa Ronkin suggests that the Patisambhidamagga likely dates from the era of the Abhidhamma's formation, and represents a parallel development of the interpretive traditions reflected by the

Dhammasangani.[4]

Emptiness

The Patisambhidamagga is probably the first Pali

five aggregates
:

"Born materiality is empty of sabhava (sabhavena suññam); disappeared materiality is both changed and empty. Born feeling is empty of sabhava; disappeared feeling is both changed and empty...Born conceptualization...Born volitions...Born consciousness...Born becoming is empty of sabhava; disappeared becoming is both changed and empty. This is ‘empty in terms of change’."[4]

The text also defines the sense spheres as "void of self or of what belongs to self or of what is permanent or everlasting or eternal or not-subject-to-change."[6]

According to Noa Ronkin: "this extract means that the totality of human experience is devoid of an enduring substance or of anything which belongs to such a substance, because this totality is dependent on many and various conditions, and is of the nature of being subject to a continuous process of origination and dissolution."[4]

Overview

The Patisambhidamagga has three divisions (vagga) composed of ten "chapters" (kathā) each for a total of thirty chapters. The three divisions are:

  • Mahāvagga ("Great Division") - starts with an enumeration (mātikā) of 73 types of knowledge (ñāṇa) which are then elaborated upon in detail.
  • Yuganandhavagga ("Coupling Division") - poses a series of questions.
  • Paññāvagga ("Wisdom Division") - answers the prior division's questions.[3]

Translations

The Patisambhidamagga was one of the last texts of the Pali Canon to be translated into English.

AK Warder.[7][8]

Translation: The Path of Discrimination, tr Nanamoli, 1982, Pali Text Society[1], Bristol

In addition, Mindfulness of Breathing, tr Nanamoli, 1998 (6th ed.),

Anapanasati Sutta
and other material from Pali literature on the subject.

Notes

  1. ^ This ascription can be found in the Pali commentary to the Patisambhidamagga (Paṭis-a I 1,18) (Hinüber, 2000, p. 60).
  2. ^
    ISBN 3-447-02285-X
    .
  3. ^ a b c Hinüber (2000), p. 60.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-415-34519-7
    .
  5. ISBN 81-86569-18-9
    .
  6. ^ Nanamoli, The Path of Discrimination, 1982, page 359
  7. ^ a b Norman, K. R. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 2, 1983, pp. 314–315. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25211568.
  8. ^ a b McDermott, James P. Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 105, no. 4, 1985, pp. 784–784. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/602776.

Sources

  • Hinüber, Oskar von (2000). A Handbook of Pāli Literature. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
    ISBN 3-11-016738-7
    .

See also
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