01 Meditation Panel Preface.indd - United Nations Day of Vesak 2013

Conference
2. Preliminary (2): Pahāna and epokhē
2.1. Pahna
In EB, the assutav puthujjana is the ordinary, common person (puthujjana) who has either not
heard or not understood (assutav) the ‘transcendental’ 11 instruction of the Dhamma. Such a person
is contrasted to the ariya svaka, the ‘noble hearer’ or disciple of the Dhamma. The Mlapariyya
Sutta provides an apt ‘phenomenological’ denition of the assutav puthujjana:
He perceives ‘earth’ from ‘earth’; having perceived ‘earth’ from ‘earth’, he conceives ‘earth’,
he conceives ‘in earth’, he conceives ‘from earth’, he conceives ‘earth is mine’, he delights
in ‘earth’. 12
This same formula is then applied to ‘absolutely everything’; even, indeed, to Nibbna;
as though to say: if a person gets this one thing wrong, they get absolutely everything wrong, even
the ‘ultimate truth’.
The rst essential ‘antidote’ to this problem is pahna, ‘abandoning’. The Sabba Sutta
and Pahna Sutta teach, respectively, ‘the All’ (sabba) and the ‘Dhamma for abandoning
All’ (sabba-pahnya dhamma). 13 The Natumhka Suttas of the Khandhasayutta and
the Sayatanasayutta 14 also teach exactly this same Dhamma in terms of the ve clung-to
aggregates (pañc-updna-kkhandh) and the six sense spheres (sayatana), respectively; but,
as the title of these suttas, ‘Not Yours’ (na tumhka), indicates, they teach it with an especially
interesting twist. The former sutta says:
Monks, what is not yours, abandon that. When you have abandoned that, it will be for your
benet and happiness. And what, monks, is not yours? Form . . . feeling . . . perception .
. . constitutions . . . consciousness is not yours, abandon that. When you have abandoned
that, it will be for your benet and happiness.’ 15
11
In this context, the term ‘transcendental’ could legitimately be understood as a translation of the term lokuttara
(lit., ‘higher than, above, beyond [uttara] the world [loka]’), as this sometimes occurs in the EB suttas (as distinct from
the ‘technical’ sense that this term is later given within the Abhidhamma system). The term is also often translated as
‘supramundane’. Thus, e.g., MN 96 (at M II 181): evameva kho aha . . . ariya lokuttara dhamma purisassa
sandhana paññapemi, “I . . . declare the noble supramundane Dhamma as a person’s own wealth” (Ñamoli and
Bodhi 2009, p. 789, §12); MN 117 (at M III 72): atthi . . . sammdihi ariy ansav lokuttar maggag, “[T]here is
right view that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path” (Ñamoli and Bodhi 2009, p. 934, §5). It is quite
possible and plausible to argue that, in connection with the Dhamma, the term lokuttara can be understood to have certain
fundamental implications that it shares in common with the TP sense of the term ‘transcendental’; indeed, this point can
already be discerned through the correlation between EB pahna and TP epokh that is outlined in this present section;
but cf. also §2.3 below.
12
Unless otherwise cited, translations from the Pi are by the present author. MN 1 (M I 1): pathavi pathavito
sañjnti; pathavi pathavito saññatv pathavi maññati, pathaviy maññati, pathavito maññati, pathavi
meti maññati, pathavi abhinandati. Bodhi (2006, p. 27) and Ñamoli and Bodhi (2009, p. 83, §3) translate this
formula, in accordance with the interpretations of the commentary and sub-commentary, with interpolations, thus: ‘he
conceives [himself as] earth, he conceives [himself] in earth, he conceives [himself apart] from earth’, etc. While this
reading is certainly valid, I nevertheless prefer a quite literal translation of the text, as I believe that this makes good
(phenomenological) sense, just as it is.
13
SN 35.23-24 (S IV 15-16).
14
SN 22.33 (S III 33) and SN 35.101 (S IV 81), respectively.
15
SN 22.33 (S III 33-34): ya, bhikkhave, na tumhka, ta pajahatha. ta vo pahna hitya sukhya bhavissati.
kiñca, bhikkhave, na tumhka? rpa . . . vedan . . . saññ . . . sakhr . . . viñña na tumhka, ta pajahatha.
ta vo pahna hitya sukhya bhavissati.
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