[Buddha-l] Prapanca

[Jim Anderson]

Hi Dan,

> Thanks for this succinct statement on *types* of papanca. I'm not sure it
> sheds light on what papanca is or how it does what it does. The three
> types are three types of causes, each of which causes people to continue
> to cycle through the rounds of suffering rebirth. Desire, arrogance and
> wrong view is a nice commentator's move to "proliferate" the types of
> papanca into correlates of greed, hatred, delusion, i.e., the three
> poisons.

I think the commentator (Saariputta) would reject the notion of the three 
types of papa~nca being correlates of the three unwholesome roots or poisons 
because "di.t.thi" and "maana" are both accompanied by lobha or greed 
according to the Abhidhamma --- see, for instance, the following in the 
Abhdhammatthasa"ngaho:

21. Lobho a.t.thasu lobhasahagatacittesveva labbhati.
22. Di.t.thi catuusu di.t.thigatasampayuttesu.
23. Maano catuusu di.t.thigatavippayuttesu.

Papa~nca (or Skt. prapa~nca) is often translated as "proliferation" but the
nibbacana or etymological definition uses the active verb "papa~ncenti"
which makes the noun an agent-noun (kattaasaadhana). That is why I think
"proliferators" is preferred to the usual "proliferations". Other
definitions can also be found in various texts, e.g., see under "paci
vitthaare" in the Dhaatumaalaa of the Saddaniiti. My special area of
interest is in Pali grammatical texts and their commentaries.

Jim Anderson

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