Netti-part-II.2

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Nettipakarana >> PartII.2.Demonstrative Subsection

Nettippakarana : Translated By Bhikku Nanamoli

PartII.2.Demonstrative Subsection

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'''[PART 2. DEMONSTRATIVE SUBSECTION]'''

5.  Here is a summary statement of the guide.

[The 16 Modes of Conveying]

Gratification, Disappointment,

Escape, Fruit, Means, the Lord Buddha’s Injunction to devotees,1 this Mode

Is the Conveying of a Teaching (cf. Pe 81,11. 4-6). (1)

6.      What in the Thread is asked and answered,

As well as a verse-paraphrase,

And the Thread’s [term-] investigation

This Mode Conveys Investigation (cf. Pe 82). (2)

7.       Looking for right and wrong construing In the case of

all the Conveyings’

Plane and resort1 [will] demonstrate

The Mode Conveying a Construing (cf. Pe 88,11. 3-4). (3)

8.       The Victor teaching an idea Teaches what that idea has too As

footing; so with each idea:

This is the Mode Conveying Footings (Pe 89,11. 8-9). (4)

9.      When one idea is mentioned, all Ideas of         like characteristic1

Are mentioned too: this constitutes

The Mode Conveying Characteristics (cf. Pe 90). (5)

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5/1 These six words (for the first three see, e.g., A. i, 258; M. iii, 18; 8. v, 193) must be taken not as the characteristics distinguishing this Mode but as a general presentation of the Teaching, like 4 Truths, with which they are made to correspond in §48. They do not appear in ch. ii, §§489ff. In the Pe they appear instead in one of the Groupings of its ch. ii (Sasanapatthana), not in the Modes.

6/1 All texts read pavicayo, but Netti A (p. 19) takes this to represent pada-vicayo and refers to the words ipadam vicinati’ (§62; PTS Netti p. 10); cf. treatment of this Mode at PTS Netti pp. 252 and 259 and MAA. i, 127-8 (reproduced here in Appx.).

7/1 Netti A here explains plane to mean ‘phrasing’ and resort ‘meaning’.

9/1 Tena instead of keci both at MA. i, 31 (where quoted) and Pe 90.

Specification Section

10.       By way of phrasing,1 (i) the Linguistic,2

(ii)    The Purport, and (iii) the teaching’s Source,

And (iv) the Consecutive-Sequence:

This Mode Conveys a Fourfold Array (cf. Pe     91). (6)

11.       TKe Mode that, when there is one Footing,

Searches for a footing that remains

And then Converts the opposites

Is that Conveying a Conversion (Pe 93). (7)

12.       It analyses idea, footing,

Plane [of types of men], the shared

And unshared: this Mode should be known

As that Conveying Analysis.1                                                (8)

13.       That into opposites reversing Ideas of profit and      unprofit Shown to be kept in being and left

Is called the Mode Conveying Reversal. (9)

14.     [4] Knower of Threads is he that knows How many    synonyms for one

Idea are in the Thread: this Mode

Is that Conveying Synonyms (cf. Pe 96). (10)

15.       The Lord Buddha one idea teaches

By means of manifold descriptions;

This mood can thus be known to be

The Mode that does Convey Descriptions. (11)

16.       Dependent-Rising, Faculties,

Categories, Elements, Bases:

The Mode that by these means gives entry

Is that Conveying Ways of Entry. (12)

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10/1 For byanjanam here as nom. standing for instr., see restatement in §184 (PTS Netti p. 32). For this, nirutti, and pubbapara- (‘consecutive - sequence’) see A. iii. 201.

10/2 ‘Nerutta—linguistic’: strengthened form fm. nirutti (‘language’—there is no need to look for any less homely term). Both forms appear together in §185. See also n. 186/1.

12/1 The terms vibhatti (‘analysis’ here), vibhanga (‘separate’—title above §31) and vibhaga (‘specification’—title above §2) must not be confused.

The Guide

17.       Seeking if in a question answered.

What in the verse did instigate.

Its asking is cleared up or not:

This Mode Conveys a Clearing Up. (13)

18.       Ideas when demonstrated by [Both] unity and diversity,

Need thereby suffer no disjunction:1

This Mode Conveys Expression’s Terms. (14)

19.       Ideas that generate each an idea

In due relation are conditions;

And by its picking out1 the cause

This Mode Conveys the Requisite      (cf. Pe 104). (15)

20.       Ideas with those whose roots they are,

And those shown by the Sage to have

One meaning, should be co-ordinated:

This Mode conveys Co-ordination     (cf. Pe 110). (16)

*

[The 5 Guide-Lines]

21.       The Guide-Line Craving and Ignorance guiding

By Quiet and Insight, and construing

Appropriately the four Truths

Is the Conversion of Relishing (cf. Pe 259). (17)

22.  Guiding [ideas of] profit and

Unprofit by their [triple] roots

As they are, really, not unreally,

That Guide-Line they call the Trefoil (cf. Pe 259). (18)

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18/1 The word vikappa is the grammarians’ term for the disjunctive particle va (‘or’) as sampindana is for the conjunction ca (‘and’).

19/1 ‘Avakaddhayitva—by picking out’ : lit. ‘drawing down’. Though PED gives this ref., it only gives a Jataka-translation meaning, which does not fit here. CPD1 s ‘to extract from a text’ is based on NettiA'a ‘suttato niddharitva’; but that is too literal. Cf. apakaddhati at Pe 74f. (not in PED or CPD, apparently meaning ‘to reserve’). What is meant here is ‘picking out’ the single ‘cause’ from among the plurality of ‘conditions’.

Specification Section

23.       The wise in Guide-Lines have called that

Lions’ Play which by the faculties1

Does faith’s true objects2 guide, and also

By the perversions the defilements (cf. Pe 259). (19)

24.       What mentally plots out1 [ideas of]

profit and unprofit stated

Or here or there in expositions

They call the Plotting of Directions (cf. Pe 259). (20)

25.       After [thus] plotting with the Plotting

Of Directions, what then throws up

All profit [ideas] and unprofit

And guides them in is called the Hook (cf. Pe 259). (21)

*

[How the Modes of Conveying and the Guide-Lines are Employed']

26.       Sixteen Conveyings first, surveying

With Plotting then of the Directions,

And having collected with the Hook,

Three Guide-Lines1 demonstrate a Thread. (22)

27.     (i) The Letter, (ii) the Term, ana then (iii) the Phrasing,

Also (iv) the Linguistic [inflexion],

(v) the Demonstration, and (vi) the Mood

As sixth: this much concerns the phrasing. (23)

28.     [5] (vii) Explaining, (viii) Displaying, and (ix) Divulging,

(x) Analysing, (xi) Exhibiting, (xii) Describing:

By these six terms are demonstrated

A meaning and an action1 too. (24)

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23/I The ‘faculties’ here are those of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding. But what is meant here is the blunt-keen classification of these by temperament in this Guide-Line (see §§645fF. and also 947).

23/2 Saddhamma (here rendered ‘faith’s true object’—Skr. saddharma) can be taken as gdve. of saddahati (‘to have faith’, ‘to place faith in’), which serves in Pali as vb. for saddha (‘faith’—Skr. sraddha). What is referred to here is the four undistorted perceptions beginning with perception of impermanence.

24/1 ‘Olokayate—plots out’: lit. ‘surveys’, ‘looks down over’.

26/1 The Reversal of Relishing, the Play of Lions, and the Trefoil.

28/1 NettiA says the ‘meaning’ (attha) here is that of a Thread, while the ‘action’ (kamma) is that of condensing (ugghatana), etc., see §§41-7.

The Guide

29.       The Lord Buddha’s Utterance’s meaning

Yokes nine terms for its meaning, namely:

The [first] three Guide-Lines, dropping none (§§21-3),

And meaning-words that number six (§28). (25)

30.       For meaning nine terms (§29), twenty-four

For searching of the phrasing, too,1

These come in all to thirty-three,

And that much constitutes the guide. (26)

♦

The Demonstrative Subsection.

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30/1 The arithmetic is this: 9 terms for the meaning (§28)+24 for the phrasing (made up of the 16 Modes (§§5-20)+6 phrasing-terms (§27)+the last 2 Guide-Lines (§§24-5)) :9+24 = 33.