binocular wrote: ↑Sat Mar 24, 2018 8:45 am
In the suttas, there are often lists of items.
These lists can sometimes be difficult to understand, as they don't always state in what succession the listed items apply or how the items are to be understood as relating to each other.
[...]
I presume there are methods for reading these lists properly. Does anyone know any teachings about this that they can share?
Suppose you were tasked with drawing up a list of a number of items and the particular order in which they were to be listed didn't really matter. How would you go about it? Instinctively what you would probably do is to list them in the order that sounded most natural and pleasing to the ear. Each language has its own (usually unstated) conventions governing this. English, for example, is an example of a "waning syllables language", which means that a native speaker will start by listing the items whose names have the most syllables and then gradually work down to those which have the least. For example, if you were listing the names of adherents of the world's religions, it would sound most euphonic if you put the Zarathustrians and Spiritualists first and the Sikhs, Jains and Jews last.
Pali and Sanskrit, on the other hand, follow the waxing syllables principle: begin with the shortest words and then gradually move up to the longest.
So, any time the Buddha lists a number of items, observe whether or not the list's sequence is waxing syllables-compliant. If it is, then it tells you that the order is probably of no doctrinal significance. For example:
nacca-gīta-vādita-visūkadassana
"dancing, singing, music, unseemly shows."
mālā-gandha-vilepana-dhāraṇa-maṇḍana-vibhūsanaṭṭhānā
"garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, ornaments and adornments."
āhuneyyo pāhuneyyo dakkhiṇeyyo añjalikaraṇīyo
"worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation."
But if the Buddha's list is non-compliant then it tells us that the order of items probably matters. For example, it might mean that they constitute a progressive sequence of development, as with the Maṅgalasutta's thirty-eight blessings or the seven
bojjhaṅgas:
sati, dhammavicayo, viriyo, pīti, passaddhi, samādhi, upekkhā
"Mindfulness, investigation of dhammas, energy, zest, calm, concentration, equanimity."
Or the factors of the Eightfold Path.
One caveat, however, is that the above only applies when the items are listed in one and the same sentence or paragraph. If they are listed in separate paragraphs, as is often the case with the lists in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, then all bets are off.
Attached files:
Ven. Anālayo,
Waxing Syllables (entry in the
Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. G.P. Malalasekera)
Mark Allon,
The Oral Composition and Transmission of Early Buddhist Texts (in Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism and Bhakti, ed. Peter Connolly and Sue Hamilton)