[Buddha-l] Prapanca

[Gruenig, Hans Werner]

Richard Hayes writes:

> If we look at how the word "prapanca" is used, it
> is pretty clear that one's own doctrinal commitments 
> are never characterized as prapanca.

As I understand it, papanca involves tanha (and often a lack of mindfulness).  Obsessive (tanha-ridden) thinking about one's own doctrinal commitments is papanca, too.  Clinging to views (even the views of the Buddha) generates dukkha.  If Buddhists are committed to the cessation of dukkha (rather than doctrines), then "doctrinal commitments" get in the way if one goes into obsession and craving around those commitments rather than using the teachings as medicine.  

> For a Buddhist, the doctrines of the Brahmanical schools are
> prapanca, but the doctrines of the Buddha (or at least the doctrines as
> understood by one's own particular school) are not. 

As I understand it, it's not the doctrines that define papanca, but how we relate to them.  Even Buddhists who obsess about the doctrines as understood by their own particular school are still engaged in papanca/tanha/dukkha.

> So if one became very learned in all the doctrines of one's own school, that would not entail
> generating prapanca. 

That would also not entail *not* generating papanca.  One could be a learned student who obsessed about the doctrines.

> In fact, the more one knew one's own schools doctrines, 
> the less one would be prone to falling for prapanca. 

If one knows these doctrines intellectually but this knowledge does not translate into actual skill in spotting papanca in one's own mind and/or skill in preventing or calming it, such knowledge would not make one less prone to falling for papanca.  Within Theravada Buddhism, this is a useful distinction, as the Theravadins would certainly see a difference between reading suttas on mindfulness vs. actually cultivating mindfulness, etc.

> Some might well hold that the more one studies, 
> and the better one understands what one has 
> studied, the more liberated one is from prapanca. 

Studying, understanding, and liberation can happen together -- but so can studying, (at least some kinds of) understanding, and papanca / obsessive thinking.

Best wishes,
-Hans.