Netti-A.Comprehensive Section

NETTIPPAKARANA

(The Guide)

According to

MAHA-KACCANA THERA

Translated From Pali By

BHIKKU NANAMOLI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Ppn. Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga Translation, Colombo, 1956)

Ps.                   Patisambhidamagga

Pug A. Puggalapannatti Commentary (PancappakaranaA. II)

S.                     Samyutta Nikaya

Sn. Suttanipata

Thag. Theragatha

Ud. Udana '

Vbh. Vibhanga

Vis. Visuddhimagga (§ refs, to Harvard University Press ed.)

Vis A. Visuddhimagga Maha-Tika (Paramatthamanjusa-Sinhalese ed. up to ch. xviii, Burmese ed. chs. xix-xxiii)

Vv. Vimanavatthu

Yam. Yamaka

CONTENTS IN DETAIL

PARA

a. Comprehensive Section                                                                 1

b. Specification Section                                                                     2

PART I

1. Indicative Subsection                                                                    2

PART II

2. Demonstrative Subsection ...... 5

3. Counter-Demonstrative Subsection .... 31

PART III

Chapter i.—16 Modes of Conveying: Separate Treatment

Mode 1: Conveying a Teaching                                                         31

—6 aspects of the 4 Truths: gratification, disappointment,

escape; fruit, means, injunction                                                 32

—Quotations for the 6 aspects                                                        33

—Types of persons to whom the teaching is taught                           41

—The 4 Ways of Progress and 4 Temperaments                                42

—How the teaching is apprehended                                                  45

—The teaching as presentation of the 4 Truths                                  48

—How the teaching is variously presented                                        53

—Whom the teaching is intended for                                                60

Mode 2: Conveying Investigation                                                      61

—Schedule of what is to be investigated:

(1) term, question, answer, consecutively;

(2) gratification, disappointment, escape; fruit, means, injunction;

(3) verse-paraphrase; (4) any Thread                                                 62

—First Example                                                                              63

—Second Example                                                                         70

—Third Example                                                                            77

Progress to verification of extinction                                                 78

—Fourth Example                                                                         93

Description of the Lord Buddha                                           96

Guarding of cognizance                                                       97

Four Right Endeavours                                                        98

Faculties of Faith, etc.                                                       100

The World                                                                          103

Knowledge                                                                         104

Skill                                                                                   111

Mindfulness and Awareness                                                  112

Conduct for Adepts and Initiates                                           113

Actualization of the Four Truths                                            114

Exhaustion of Lust, Hate and Delusion                                  115

(—See Mode 1)

—Verse-paraphrase                                                                     116

—Any Thread                                                                              117

Mode 3: Conveying a Construing                                                    119

—The 4 Principal Appeals to Authority                                120

—How to test such appeals                                               121

—Example—Investigation of a question asked                     126

—Difference in meaning                                                    131

—Synonyms for the same meaning                                     134

—Appropriate and inappropriate construing                          139

Mode 4: Conveying Footings                                                          158

—Definitions, by characteristic and Footing, of the 18 Boot-

Terms                                                                                          159

—of lust for sensual desires,

lust for being, and the 5 Cate­gories of Assumption                           161

—of the 5 Faculties of Faith, etc.                                                   162

—of unreasoned Attention and the members of the Dependent-

Arising Formula                                                                            164

—How Being comes about                                                            165

—Definitions, by Characteristic and Footing, of the Path                  166

—Statement of Ideas as Footings (conditions sine qua non) for

other ideas                                                                                   167

—Definition of the word ‘Footing’                                                    168

Mode 5: Conveying Characteristics                                                    170

—Single Characteristics of:

The Sixfold Base                                                                172

The 5 Categories                                                                173

The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness                                         174

The 5 Faculties                                                                    174

The Ideas Partaking of Enlightenment                                    175

The Abandoning of the Unprofitable                                      176

The Dependently-Arisen                                                       180

The Abandoning of the Dependently-Arisen                            181

—Summarization                                                                              182

Mode 6: Conveying a Fourfold Array                                                   184

(i)   Linguistics                                                                                    185

Some grammatical terms                                                              186

(ii)  Purport (Intention)                                                                       187

Examples by quotations                                                               187

(iii) Source                                                                                        192

Examples by quotations                                                               192

(iv) Consecutive-Sequence                                                                 198

Examples by quotations                                                               198

4 Kinds:

(a) Meaning-Sequence                                                            214

(b) Phrasing-Sequence                                                            216

(c) Teaching-Sequence                                                            217

(d) Demonstration-Sequence                                                   218

Mode 7: Conveying a Conversion                                                        220

—Completion of footings partially stated, statement of corres­ponding ethical contraries for conversion to the Four Truths:

First Example                                                                          221

Second Example                                                                     233

Third Example                                                                        238

Fourth Example                                                                      250

Mode 8: Conveying an Analysis                                                           263

—Threads as Morality or Penetration, Ways as Merit or Fruit,

Virtue as Restraint or Abandoning                                                 264

—Ideas shared in common between types of persons                            271

—Ideas not shared in common                                                            273

—Plane and Footing                                                                           275

Mode 9: Conveying a Reversal                                                            277

—The 10 Rightnesses                                                            278

—The 10 Courses of Profitable Action                                     279

—Reversal by those who censure the eight-factored Path and

10 Rightnesses                                                                 281

—Reversal by those who say that sensual desires should be

cultivated, etc.                                                                 282

—Abandonment of the 4 Perversions                                    283

Mode 10: Conveying Synonyms                                                        285

—Various synonyms                                                            286

—Recollection of the Enlightened One                                 296

—Recollection of the True Idea                                             297

—Recollection of the Community                                          298

—Recollection of Virtue                                                        299

—Recollection of Generosity                                                 300

Mode 11: Conveying Descriptions                                                     302

—Definition of description                                                    303

—Examples by quotations                                                     304

Mode 12: Conveying Ways of Entry (to the Four Truths)                      351

—Examples by quotations showing how a Way of

Entry to           the Truths is provided via Faculties,

Categories, Elements, Bases, and Dependent-Arising         352

Mode 13: Conveying a Clearing Up                                                   414

—Examples by quotation showing how the subject-

matter of a question must be covered by the answer          415

Mode 14: Conveying Terms of Expression                                        422

—Alternative terms expressing by Unity and Diversity:

The 4 Truths                                                                         424

Path                                                                                    428

Cessation                                                                             429

Form, and its constituents                                                       430

Ignorance (nescience)                                                             439

Science                                                                                440

Attainment                                                                            441

Meditator                                                                                442

Concentration                                                                         443

Way                                                                                         444

Body                                                                                       445

—Other alternative terms of Expression:

Creatures, and Ideas                                                                       446

Mode 15: Conveying Requisites {in the sense of Cause and

Condition)                                                                                           448

—Definition of the Requisite of an Idea                                                449

—Cause and Condition                                                                      451

—Similes of the seed and the milk                                                       453

—Cause and condition for the Roundabout of rebirths                           454

—Causality in immediate-proximity and in remote-relation                      455

—Simile of the lamp                                                                           456

—Continuity                                                                                       457

—Various ideas and their conditions                                                    458

—Formula of Dependent Arising: how any idea has for condition

-sine-qua-non another idea, and for its cause its own

individual-essence                                                                         462

—Redefinition of a Requisite                                                             463

Mode 16: Conveying a Coordination                                                   465

—Coordination of all ideas that condition an idea mentioned:

(a) By Footing                                                                       468

(b) By Synonym                                                                     478

(c) By Keeping in Being (i.e., what is kept in being with

the Path)                                                                         482

(d) By Abandoning (i.e., what is abandoned with its

abandoning)                                                                   484

PART IV

Chapter ii.—16 Modes of Conveying: Combined Treatment

Mode 1               489

—Basic verse (1st half): Unprofitable                                    491

—Exposition of basic verse as a Teaching                              492

Mode 2

—Unprofitable and profitable craving and conceit, and

Investi­gation promoted by profitable craving, and the

temporary heart-deliverance to which it leads                    505

—Unshakable understanding-deliverance as superior goal and

Investigation promoted                                                              509

—Investigation of concentration attained                                          518

—Investigation of the Noble Eight-factored Path                               519

—Impermanence, pain, not-self                                           527

—The 3 Gateways to Liberation                                          528

—The 3 Categories of the Path                                           533

—Keeping-in-being of the Body, Virtue, Cognizance, and

Understanding                                                                535

—The 5-fold Arrival                                                             539

—Investigation of the 10 Powers of a Perfect One                 541

Mode 3                                                                                          595

—Basic verse (2nd half): Profitable                                       595

—Construing of the basic verse                                            595

Modes 4-16                                                                                  596-643

PART V

Chapter iii.—Moulding of the 5 Guide-Lines                          644

Introductory                                                                                    644-5

Conversion of Relishing Guide-Line                                          646-72

a. Corruption                                                                                646-65

Craving-temperament and view-temperament: behaviour in

corruption                                                                                  646-8

(i) Corruption  by self-torment and sensual-indulgence:

cleansing by quiet and insight: the 4 Truths                                 649-51

(ii) Corruption by embodiment-view: cleansing by right-

view: the 4 Truths                                                                     652-7

(iii) Corruption by annihilationist and eternalist views:

cleansing by the middle way: the 4 Truths                                  657-61

(iv) Corruption by the 62 types of wrong-view: cleansing by

the 43 ideas partaking of enlightenment, etc.:      the

bursting of Delusion’s Net                                                        662-5

b. Cleansing                                                                                 666-72

Craving-temperament and view-temperament: behaviour in

cleansing                                                                                  666-9

The 2 Temperaments, 4 Ways, and sluggishness and keenness

of the Faculties, etc.                                                                  670-1

The 4 Ways: Conclusion: Summary Verses                                   672

The Plotting-of-Directions Guide-Line                                             673-740

Introductory                                                                                       673

a.         Unprofit

10 tetrads all subsumable under the Perversions-tetrad          674

—Progressive subsumption of 10 tetrads                               675

—Application to 2 types of temperament                              676-85

—Progressive relationship of 10 tetrads .... 686-96

The 4 Directions: Unprofit                                                              697

—Defilement and the 4 Temperaments                                698-701

—Defilement and 3 Gateways to Liberation                         702-11

—Summing up                                                                   712

b.         Profit

10 tetrads all subsumable under the Profitable-perceptions

tetrad                                                                                713

—Progressive subsumption of 10 tetrads                               714

—Progressive fulfilment of 10 tetrads                                   715

The 4 Directions: Profit (Outlet)                                                         724

—As medicine for the 4 Temperaments                                725-8

—The 10 profitable tetrads and 3 Gateways to Liberation     729-38

The Play-of-Lions Guide-Line                                                          739

—Their Play: 2 sets of tetrads opposed                               739

—Lions and their Play: Expression of the 4 Faculties as

Faith’s pasture, and non-expression of the 4 Perversions    740

—Summary verses                                                             740

Trefoil (with the Hook)                                                                   741-58

(i) 4 types of persons defined by the 4 Ways                                     741

a. Corruption: 10 Unprofitable tetrads                                           742

b. Cleansing: 10 Profitable tetrads                                              743-4

(ii) Reduction of the 4 types of person to 3 as One-who-gains-

knowledge-from-what-is-condensed, etc.                                    745

—Instruction, etc., graded to the 3 types                                    746-52

a. Corruption: 12 triads all subsumable under the 3 Roots

of Unprofit                                                                              753

b. Cleansing: 12 triads all subsumable under the 3 Roots of

Profit                                                                                      754

(iii) Reduction of the 3 types of person to 2 under Craving and View          755

a. Corruption: 15 dyads all subsumable under Craving and Ignorance   756

b. Cleansing: 18 dyads all subsumable under Quiet and Insight           757

—Summary verse                                                                            758

PART VI

Chapter iv.—The Pattern of the Dispensation

First Grouping                                                                                       759

Schedule:

1. Type of Thread dealing with Corruption

2.         „          „          „          Morality

3.         ,,          „          „          Penetration

4.         „          ,,          „          the Adept

5.         ,,          „          ,,          Corruption and Morality

6.         ,,          „          ,,          Corruption and Penetration

7.         „          ,,          ,,          Corruption and the Adept

8.         „          ,,          „          Corruption, Penetration and the Adept

9.         ,,          „          „          Corruption, Morality and Penetration

10.       „          „          „          Morality and Penetration

11.       „          „          „          Corruption by Craving

12.       „          „          „          Corruption by View

13.       „          „          „          Corruption by Misconduct

14.       „          „          „          Cleansing from Craving

15.       „          ,,          „          Cleansing from View

16.       „          „          „          Cleansing from Misconduct

Examples by quotations                                                                                  761

Discussion                                                                                                     855

Second Grouping                                                                                            860

Schedule:

i. (a) Belonging to worlds, (b) dissociated from worlds,

(c) both

ii. (a) Expressed in terms of creatures, (b) in terms of ideas,

(c) both

iii. (a) Knowledge, (b) the knowable, (c) both

iv. (a) Seeing, (b) keeping in being, (c) both

v.  (a) Our own statement, (b) someone else’s statement,

(c) both

vi. (a) The answerable, (b) the unanswerable, (c) both

vii. (a) Action, (b) ripening, (c) both

viii. (a) The profitable, (b) the unprofitable, (c) both

ix. (a) The agreed, (b) the refused, (c) both

x.    Eulogy

Examples by quotations                                                                                 861

Discussion and Conclusion                                                                             941

THE GUIDE

(Nettippakarana)

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambuddhassa

[A. COMPREHENSIVE SECTION]

1.                          [1] Wise men can know the Dispensation

Glorious of the Glorious Man,

Whom the world and world-protectors

Ever honour and revere. (1)

*

Twelve terms1 [do represent] the Thread,2 [Whose] phrasing and [whose] meaning all Should in both instances be known:

What is the phrasing ? What the meaning ? (2)

Sixteen conveyings3 [as] a guide4

[And] five guide-lines the dispensation’s

Search [and] eighteen root-terms,5 [too],

Maha-Kaccana6 demonstrated (Pe 3). (3)

____________________________________________________________

1/1 The ‘12 terms’ are those in §§27-8 and 49ff. See Intro, (sect. 7b).

1/2 For this rendering of sutta by ‘Thread’ or ‘Thread-of-Argument’ see Intro, (sect. 8). The word is used in three ways in this work, namely as ‘the Thread’ in the sense of the entire (‘ninefold’) utterance of the Buddha, as a ‘type of Thread’ (e.g., as used in the last chapter), and as ‘a Thread’ meaning any individual discourse or part of a discourse. In this verse ‘Thread’ is in the first sense, indicating that the entire utterance is covered by the ‘6 phrasing-terms’ and ‘6 meaning-terms’, which make up the ‘12 terms’ (see n. 1/1 above). To render this clause by ‘twelve words (are) a Thread’ would thus be grammatically quite right and semantically quite wrong.

1/3 See Intro, (sect. 8).

1/4 See Intro, for this rendering. The word 1 netti' (‘guide’) is to be taken here primarily as the noun rather than as a proper name, to which it is elevated in the terminal title of the work in §965.

1/5 For the ‘18 Root-Terms’ see Intro, (sect. 7b), also n. 764/2.

1/6 NettiA, mentioning the existence of a reading Kaccayanagottaniddittha (a reading appearing also at Pe p. 3), adds ‘This verse can be regarded as having been placed here, as a summary of the work’s purpose, by those who recited the Guide, and similarly with the concluding phrase terminating each Mode of Conveying’ (p. 10).

The Guide

Conveyings investigate the Thread’s

Phrasing, three Guide-Lines the Thread’s meaning;7

Comprised in both these ways, a Thread

Is called ‘according to the Thread’.8                                       (4)

♦

[So since] the Teaching and the Taught

Should both be known, the order can

Now follow here in which to test

The Ninefold Thread-of-Argument.9                                      (5)

♦

The Comprehensive Section.

______________________________________________

1 /7 The other 2 Guide-Lines, the Plotting of Directions and the Hook, deal only with phrasing (§§29-30); see Intro, (sect. 7b).

1/8 Presumably an allusion to the four Principal Appeals to Authority (§§120ff.).

1/9 ‘Ninefold Thread-of-Argument’ refers to the classification given at, e.g., M. i, 133 as ‘Thread-of-Argument, Song, Prose-exposition, Verse, Exclama­tion, Saying, Birth-Story, Wonderful and Marvellous Idea, and Answers to Questions’. These nine must not be confused with the ‘nine terms’ mentioned in §29.