4:11 Quarrels & Disputes
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('â', appealingâ & ),
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('â', unappealingâ in the world: In dependence on that, desire arises. Having seen becoming & not- with regard to forms, a person gives rise to decisions in the world; anger, lies, & perplexity: these qualities, too, when there exists that very pair. A person perplexed should train for the path of knowledge, for itâs in having known that the Contemplative has spoken of qualities/dhammas."1 "Where is the cause of appealing & un-? When what isnât do they not exist? And whatever is meant by becoming & not- : Tell me, Where is their cause?" "Contact is the cause of appealing & un-. When contact isnât, they do not exist, along with whatâs meant by becoming & not- : I tell you, from here is their cause." "Now where is the cause of contact in the world, and from where have graspings, possessions, arisen? When what isnât does there not exist mine-ness? When what has disappeared do contacts not touch?" "Conditioned by name-&-form is contact. In longing do graspings, possessions have their cause. When longing isnât, mine-ness doesnât exist. When forms have disappeared contacts donât touch." "For one how-arriving does form disappear? How do pleasure & pain disappear? Tell me this. My heart is set on knowing how they disappear." "One not percipient of perceptions not percipient of aberrant perceptions, not unpercipient, nor percipient of whatâs disappeared2: For one thus-arriving, form disappears3— for objectification-classifications4 have their cause in perception." "What we have asked, youâve expounded to us. We ask one thing more. Please tell it. Do some of the wise say that just this much is the utmost, that purity of spirit5 is here? Or do they say that itâs other than this?" "Some of the wise say that just this much is the utmost, that purity of spirit is here. But some of them, who say they are skilled, say itâs the moment with no clinging remaining. But knowing, ),
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('â', Having known, they still are dependent,â6 the sage ponders dependencies. On knowing them, released, he doesnât get into disputes, doesnât meet with becoming & not- : Heâs enlightened." vv. 862–877 Notes 1. As other passages in this poem indicate (see note 6, below), the goal is not measured in terms of knowledge, but as this passage points out, knowledge is a necessary part of the path to the goal. 2. According to Nd I, "percipient of perceptions" means having ordinary perceptions. "Percipient of aberrant perceptions" means being insane. "Unpercipient" means either having entered the cessation of perception and feeling (see AN 9:33) or the dimension of beings without perception (DN 1 and DN 15). "Percipient of whatâs disappeared" (or: having perceptions that have disappeared) means having entered any of the four formless states. Of these four explanations, the last is the least likely, for as the next lines show, this passage is describing the stage of concentration practice in which one is transcending the fourth jhṅna and entering the formless attainment of the infinitude of space. A more likely explanation of "percipient of whatâs disappeared" would be the act of holding to perceptions of the breath and of pleasure and pain, even though these phenomena have all disappeared in the fourth jhṅna (see SN 36:11, AN 9:31, AN 10:20, and AN 10:72). 3. This is the point where the meditator leaves the fourth jhṅna and enters the perception of the infinitude of space. 4. Objectification-classifications (papaā±ca-saṃkhṅ): Nd I defines papaā±ca simply as craving, views, and conceit. A survey of how the term papaā±ca is actually used in the suttas, however, shows that it denotes the mindâs tendency to objectify itself as a being. Then, from that objectification, it searches for nourishment to keep that being in existence, classifying experience in terms conducive to that search and thus giving rise to conflict. As Sn 4:14 points out, the root of the objectification-classifications is the perception, "I am the thinker." For further discussion of this point, see note 1 to that sutta and the introduction to MN 18. 5. "Spirit" is the usual rendering of the Pali word, yakkha. According to Nd I, however, in this context the word yakkha means person, individual, human being, or living being. 6. In other words, the sage knows that both groups in the previous verse fall back on their knowledge as a measure of the goal, without comprehending the dependency still latent in their knowledge. The sages in the first group are mistaking the experience of neither perception nor non-perception as the goal, and so they are still dependent on that state of concentration. The sages in the second group, by the fact that they claim to be skilled, show that there is still a latent conceit in their experience of not-clinging, and thus it is not totally independent of clinging. (For more on this point, see MN 102.) Both groups still maintain the concept of a "spirit" that is purified in the realization of purity. Once these dependencies are comprehended, one gains release from disputes and from states of becoming and not-becoming. It is in this way that knowledge is a means to the goal, but the goal itself is not measured or defined in terms of knowledge. See also: DN 21; Ud 2:4 - --> - - - -