[Buddha-l] Re: Pudgalavada

[Dan Lusthaus]

Lance, Stephen, et al.

Still on the question of whether the first prajnapti involves some form of upaadaana, and whether it primarily means "relative to," "dependent on," or "appropriates," the third pudgalavada text, T.32.1649, which Stephen has said he will tackle next, provides some evidence -- though it is conflicting.

The name and identity of the translator of this text is unknown. It presents difficulties of its own (I'm curious to see how Stephen deals with them), but the most immediately obvious problems are:

1. It seems to be a very literal translation of an Indic original, as terse as the original apparently was. The original has numerous ellipses, assuming that an informed reader will provide the remainder of what is alluded to (from the cases I recognized, these seem to be Agama passages that, perhaps, became well known -- at least the ones I recognize are the better known ones.

2. In its literalism, it creates all sorts of syntactical ambiguities. Since syntax (word order, phrasing) serves for Chinese the same task as grammatical inflections do for Indic languages, unclear syntax can lead to serious ambiguity.

As for the section on this third text, titled Sammitiya-nikaaya-"saastra, that discusses the first prajnapti, we find some interesting indications.

1. We now have another non-standard equivalent for prajnapti. This text uses shuo 說, which means "says," "teaches, lectures," "explains," etc. This reinforces the long version's use of jiaoshou (teaching device, heuristic) for prajnapti, while still retaining the sense of "saying, expression." In the passage under consideration, shuo ("says") appears to be used both in a technical sense as prajnapti, and its it more ordinary usage as "says" and "expressed as."

2. It names the first prajnapti yi shuo ren 依說人. Ren means a "person," and is used for pudgala. Shuo I just explained above. Yi is the same term I mentioned in a previous message, which can mean "depends on" or "basis for."

3. So, initially, this might support Lance's sense of an upaadaaya, etc., meaning "in relation to, dependent on." But once the explanation begins, the key phrase becomes 得色人 de se ren. Ren, again, is person (pudgala), se = ruupa, and de means to "obtain, get, attain." This supports the reading of upaadhi (or whichever derivative of upaadaana) as "appropriation." So which term could have both meanings?

4. This passage provides some additional examples of what is meant (elliptically), and they are framed as aagama quotes. One is:

"The name "dependent prajnapti" is analogous to [the word "fuel" (upaadaana) being dependent on] fire."

This would again reinforce that upaadaana (a pun for "appropriation" here; cf. Nagarjuna's ch. on Fire and Fuel in MMK) or some derivative or cognate that, at least in part, retains the sense of appropriation, is the underlying term here.

5. That Lance's dependent relation is not precluded, however, is reinforced by another example that comes a few sentences later:

"As Buddha said to Śāriputra, 'There is a person named 象 (xiang: form, image, resemble, to imitate, pattern after, symbolize; elephant; Skt. gaja, hastin, nāga) [who is] white, pure and agreeable. What is established from the mahābhūtas is named "self." All of these are like the example of 'milk'."

The term xiang is suggestive here. It could be, as Thich T.C. takes it, to be a translation of the name Nāga, or it could mean something like a person's name bears some resemblance, or is patterned after his appearance and demeanor (pure, white, agreeable). Then the following line stating that "self" is established on the basis of the four mahābhūtas would follow suit.

The example of "milk," however, is a strong indication of the kind of proof-texts the Sammitiyas drew on from the Agamas, since it points to the Poṭṭapāda Sutta of the Digha-Nikaya (or its Agama equivalent), which has an interesting discussion of different types of "selves" that Buddha permits one to speak of. The names of the types of selves (in Walshe's translation: "gross acquired self," "mind-made self," past acquired self," present acquired self, and " future acquired self") are reminiscent of our passages. More intriguing, Buddha's conversation partner in this sutta is named "Citta, son of the elephant-trainer," perhaps indicating how we should understand the xiang (as a metonymy for "son of the elephant-trainer"). The milk example is well known in Mahayana sutras as well (e.g., the Nirvana Sutra), and runs, in this Pali sutta, thus:

"In just the same way, Citta, from the cow we get milk, from the milk curds, from the curds butter, from the butter ghee, and from the ghee cream of ghee. And when there is milk we don't speak of curds, of butter, of ghee or of cream of ghee, we speak of milkl when there are curds we don't speak of butter..." and so on.

>From this analogy, Buddha continues:

"So too, whenever the gross acquired self (oḷāriko attapaṭilābho) is present, we do not speak of the mind-made (manomayo attapaṭilābho) or formless acquired self (arūpo attapaṭilābho); whenever the mind-made acquired self is present, we do not speak of the gross or formless self; whenever the formless acquired self is present, we do not speak of the gross acquired self or the mind-made acquired self, we speak of the formless acquired self." 

But Buddha concludes this statement like, it would seem, a good pudgalavadin:

"But, Citta, these are merely names, expressions, turns of speech, designations [paññatti=prajnapti] in common use in the world, which the Tathagata uses without misapprehending them." (Imā kho citta lokasamaññā lokaniruttiyo lokavohārā lokapaññattiyo yāhi tathāgato voharati aparāmasanti.)
(Walshe's translation, my Pali interpolations)

So the de (obtain, acquire) may involve some form of paṭilābha (obtaining, receiving, taking up, acquisition, assumption, attainment). The milk example provides a way of talking about progressive purifying of something which is neither the same nor completely different from one stage to the next.

Dan Lusthaus
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