Netti-PartI-1

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Nettipakarana >> B.Specification Section

Nettippakarana : Translated By Bhikku Nanamoli

B.Specification Section

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B. SPECIFICATION SECTION

'''PART 1. INDICATIVE SUBSECTION]'''

2.      Herein, what are the sixteen Modes of Conveying (§1, vse. 3) ? [They are sixteen modes of the Ninefold Thread as conveying:]

1.               a Teaching,1

2.               an Investigation,

3.               a Construing,

4.               Footings,

5.               Characteristics,

6.               a Fourfold Array,

7.               a Conversion,

8.               an Analysis,

9.               a Reversal,

10.              Synonyms,

11.              Descriptions,

12.              Ways of Entry,

13.              a Clearing Up,

14.              Terms of Expression,

15.              Requisites,

16.              a Co-ordination {Pe 3).

[2]    Here follows a paraphrasing-verse:

As Teaching, Investigation, Construing,

As Footings, and Characteristics,

Fourfold Array, and then Conversion,

Analysis, Reversal too,

As Synonyms, and as Descriptions,                            (1)

As Ways of Entry, Clearing Up,

Terms of Expression, Requisites,

And for sixteenth Co-ordination (cf. Pe 3). (2)

These Modes are the Sixteen Conveyings (cf. Pe 3);

[And] as to the significance [of each]

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2/1 For renderings of these and remaining technical terms, see Intro, (sect. 8). The Guide

A separate statement [follows on (§§5-20)]

With detailed method-analysis for each one2 (3)

3.  Herein, what are the five Guide-Lines (§1, vse. 3) ? [They are:]

1.                the Conversion of Relishing,

2.                the Trefoil,1

3.                the Lions’ Play;

4.                the Plotting of Directions,

5.                the Hook (Pe 3).

Here follows a paraphrasing-verse :2

Conversion of Relishing comes first,

In second place the Trefoil follows,3

The Lions’ Play is the name they give

To the Third Guide-Line formula;              (1)

The fourth Guide-Line most rare they call

The Plotting of Directions, then

The Hook is what the fifth is termed:

That is how all five Guide-Lines go (cf. Pe 4). (2)

4.  Herein, what are the eighteen Root-Terms (§1, vse. 3) ? They are the nine profitable Root-Terms and nine unprofitable Root- Terms.

Herein, what are the nine unprofitable Root-Terms ? [They are:]

Craving,

Ignorance;

Greed,

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2/2 NettiA says that this verse (the last 2 lines in the Pali) was not in all MSS. (It is not in the Pe.) That it might be a later addition seems very probable from its confusing use of the words attha and nay a, which respectively allude here neither to the 6 atthapada (opposed to the 6 byanjanapada—§§27-8) nor to the 5 naya (§§21-5), but quite loosely to the individual significance of the 16 Modes, themselves restricted to dealing with byanjana, not attha, and to the detailed method of their separate exposition (§§5-20). Such inconsistent use of prominent technical terms is unlike the rest of the work. Here NettiA glosses naya-vibhatti with upayena vibhago (also vibhatti here does not allude to the vibhatti-hara). It glosses the anomalous vittharataya (metri causa for vittharataya ?)with vittharena and rejects a reading of vitthara-naya as bad.

3/1 See Intro, (sects. 7b and 8).

3/2 This must be the meaning of anugiti; not in PED, see CPD. NettiA glosses with sangaha-gatha (p. 19); see Index; also Pe p. 87.

3/3 The order is only that of enumeration. See ch. iii, and Pe ch. viii. Specification Section

Hate,

Delusion;

Perception of Beauty,

Perception of Pleasure,

Perception of Permanence,

Perception of Self (cf. Pe 4).

These are the nine unprofitable Root-Terms, wherein all that belongs to the unprofitable side is comprised and collated.

Herein, what are the nine profitable Root-Terms ? [They are:]

Quiet,

Insight;

Non-greed,

Non-hate,

Non-delusion;

Perception of Ugliness,

Perception of Pain,

Perception of Impermanence,

Perception of Not-self (cf. Pe 4).

These are the nine profitable Root-Terms, wherein all that belongs to the profitable side is comprised and collated.

Here is a mnemonic for it:

The nine terms Craving and Ignorance

And Greed, Hate and Delusion too

And with Perversions four besides

Do constitute defilement’s plane. (1)

[3]  The nine terms Quiet and then Insight

With the three Profitable Roots

And Mindfulness-Foundations four1

Do constitute the faculties’ plane. (2)

With nine terms on the side of profit

And nine terms on unprofit’s side

Construed, these Root-Terms [thus] do come

[In all] to number eighteen terms (cf. Pe 4). (3)

End : The Indicative Subsection.

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4/1 The use of the term ‘four foundations of mindfulness’ (cattaro satipatthana) to refer to the four objects of undistorted perception (vipallasa-vatthuni) is unusual. (Cf. Pe 185).