[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Joy Vriens]

Dan,
>The shaming doesn't come from calling him "son of a fisherman" -- though 
>there has been some debate about that -- but from calling Sati a moghapurisa 
>in front of everyone, then making him sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap 
>while Buddha instructs the OTHER monks, reminding everyone at the end of the 
>lesson that Sati is a hopeless dummy. 
> 
>The PTS Pali-Eng Dict gives this for mogha: 
> 
>empty, vain, useless, stupid, foolish; stupidity, dullness of mind & soul, 
>delusion, bewilderment, infatuation. 

But it does say something about the Buddha, doesn't it? He is speaking to people who left their respective roles in society behind them and went to the homeless life. The Buddha teaches not to appropriate anything, the Buddha knows about the tathagatha, he knows about right speech, yet makes a reference to Sati's life before being a monk and even to Sati's father who doesn't have anything to with this. Is such speech conducive to anything good, is it simply futile or is it meant as some sort of an insult or at least an attempt to infantilise Sati?

Joy