Dear Pāli friends ,
Do you know if there had ever been used in Ancient Buddhist History any additional "clarifying" or "theme-introducing" names for the Dīgha-nikāya / Dīrgha-āgama texts ? For instance , Brahmajāla - "On views" ... I don't find anything in ATThakathās, Tīkās and Anyas ....
Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
How good and wonderful are your days,
How true are your ways?
How true are your ways?
- Dhammanando
- Posts: 6492
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:44 pm
- Location: Mae Wang Huai Rin, Li District, Lamphun
Re: Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
I don't think so. In the Nettipakaraṇa and Peṭakopadesa you will find a lot of sutta passages being quoted and then classified as being an utterance of such-&-such type or serving such-&-such purpose. But neither work treats any whole suttas in this way and very few of the quoted passages are from the Dīgha Nikāya — just 2 in the Peṭakopadesa and 4 in the Nettipakaraṇa.sphairos wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:11 pm Dear Pāli friends ,
Do you know if there had ever been used in Ancient Buddhist History any additional "clarifying" or "theme-introducing" names for the Dīgha-nikāya / Dīrgha-āgama texts ? For instance , Brahmajāla - "On views" ... I don't find anything in ATThakathās, Tīkās and Anyas ....
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
Re: Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
Thank you very much , Bhante ! This is very helpful.
May I ask what in your opinion is the most plausible theory of creation of the Dīgha-texts ? What was the purpose of those ? Why is there so many literary elements , "literature" in general in them ? Who designed and elaborated all those complicated stories and teachings, at what time, in which circumstances and for what auditory? I am acquainted with pretty much all current research on the Dīgha/Dīrgha : Manné's theory, von Simson's, Allon's works, Anālayo's, Dīrgha-āgama research group's etc, but I still am nowhere close to any clear picture of its coming into being.
While the origination of the Saṃyutta/Anguttara (and of great deal of Abhidhamma) is very much explainable in terms of explication of mātikās, which code the system and sequence of required states and practices, as Cousins, Gethin etc. suggested.
May I ask what in your opinion is the most plausible theory of creation of the Dīgha-texts ? What was the purpose of those ? Why is there so many literary elements , "literature" in general in them ? Who designed and elaborated all those complicated stories and teachings, at what time, in which circumstances and for what auditory? I am acquainted with pretty much all current research on the Dīgha/Dīrgha : Manné's theory, von Simson's, Allon's works, Anālayo's, Dīrgha-āgama research group's etc, but I still am nowhere close to any clear picture of its coming into being.
While the origination of the Saṃyutta/Anguttara (and of great deal of Abhidhamma) is very much explainable in terms of explication of mātikās, which code the system and sequence of required states and practices, as Cousins, Gethin etc. suggested.
Last edited by sphairos on Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:29 am, edited 3 times in total.
How good and wonderful are your days,
How true are your ways?
How true are your ways?
Re: Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
I guess ven. Bodhi mentioned that Digha has a vivid proselytic spirit. Many episodes of speaking with brahmins, etc..
Re: Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
Yes, but many of the texts are quite complicated to be used for any "proselytizing" in a normal sense of the word. There were simply not many people who could understand them. For instance, Pāyāsi-suttānta or Mahānidāna. Brahmajāla, PoTThapāda, SatipaTThāna. The target auditory for many of those texts was just a handful of ascetics/teachers/philosophers of the time...
How good and wonderful are your days,
How true are your ways?
How true are your ways?
- Dhammanando
- Posts: 6492
- Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:44 pm
- Location: Mae Wang Huai Rin, Li District, Lamphun
Re: Names of Dīgha-nikāya suttas
I’m afraid I have no opinion at all. Moreover, it sounds as if you have already gone into this matter much more deeply than I ever have (or am ever likely to), and so even if I did have an opinion, telling it to you would be rather as if “a needle-seller would think he could sell a needle to a needle-maker,” to quote Tissā the Fat.
Having said that, if I ever did feel an uncontrollable urge to have an opinion on this, I think I should probably concur with Sāmaṇera Bodhesako that the Dīghabhāṇakas likely started out as bhikkhus who happened to live in close proximity to villages and were much more occupied than the other groups of bhāṇakas in preaching to householders.
Yena yena hi maññanti,
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)
tato taṃ hoti aññathā.
In whatever way they conceive it,
It turns out otherwise.
(Sn. 588)