[Buddha-l] Prapanca

[Richard Hayes]

On Wed, 2008-02-13 at 19:12 -0600, Gruenig, Hans Werner wrote:

> As I understand it, in Theravada Buddhism papanca is a descriptive
> term used in their meditative phenomenology to describe the occurrence
> of mental proliferation of attached obsessive thinking -- usually
> without mindfulness. 

Yes, that is my understanding of the Theravada tradition as well. The
practical psychological problem I see with that is that it is impossible
to know of oneself that one is in the grip of attached obsessive
thinking. If one is not being mindful, there is no possible way of
KNOWING that one is not being mindful. It requires someone else to point
it out, or one realizes later that previous thinking was unmindful.
Perhaps that is why the term "prapanca" underwent semantic drift and
simply became a derogatory term---especially in Mahayana, the world
champions at derogation.

> 'This Dhamma is for one who is modest, not for one who is
> self-aggrandizing.'

You're trying to make me say "Mahayana" again, aren't you?

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico