[Buddha-l] Re: Sati the fisherman's son

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Margaret,
>> It's the 
>> combination of refering to Sati's father and using an exemple of his 
>> profession of his or Sati's making a mess of it. Like he wants to say 
>> "with a father like that no wonder you're such an idiot". A reference is 
>> made to there being something congenital about Sati's idiocy. 
 
>Or maybe he refers to Sati as the fisherman's son in order to distinguish 
>him from the 17 other Sati's in the sangha, and uses images from his 
>father's profession (and hence his childhood experience) to bring the 
>lesson home to him? Who knows? 

That makes a lot of sense. The "Fisherman's son" as a sort of family name. 

But I have to disagree with the explanation of using images from his father's profession. There is more to it.

"But the bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, is caught in a vast net of 
craving, in the trammel of craving"

He could have said: "But the bhikkhu Sati, son of a fisherman, is ***like a fish*** caught in a vast net of 
craving, in the trammel of craving". But he didn't say that, he inverted the image like in medieval paintings by Breughel and Bosch where rabbits walk auround carrying a lance with a pierced hunter on it. Sati is caught in the net, and he is because he is a fool. 

Joy