[Buddha-l] Prapanca

[Richard Hayes]

On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 20:50 -0500, Jim Anderson wrote:

> 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:

Jim, what are the dates of the texts you are citing? Is there any chance
the notion of papa~nca evolved from the time of its use in the canon to
the time of later texts, such as the commentaries?

> 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).

Surely, the actual derivation of prapañca is pra + pañca. The verbal
root prapañcayati is a denominative verb, that is, a verb derived from a
noun.

In grammatical literature, a prapañca is a restatement of an obscure
passage in clearer language. It also has a pejorative sense of saying
more than is necessary to make a point, or using useless words (vyartha
paada). This is how Dharmakîrti uses the term. I have seen nothing in
Nâgârjuna suggesting that the term means anything other than that to
him, except that it seems to connote not only using more words than
necessary but having more thoughts than necessary.

I think the word prapañca may be a good example of what Luis Gómez has
called cypher terms, that is, terms that have no fixed meaning but that
convey either approval or disapproval. Clearly prapañca is invariably
negative in Buddhist usage, but it is not at all obvious that the term
has a fixed meaning. Indeed, it is obvious from passages that you and
Dan and I have cited that it had very different denotations to different
Buddhists. And so I think it is quite acceptable for modern Buddhists to
continue the tradition of using the word as a pejorative label for
whatever kind of thinking they happen to find pointless or
counterproductive.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico