[Buddha-l] Aupapaduka

[Piya Tan]

Thanks Lance,

for the helpful feedback. "Direct birth" for opapaatika is a useful
rendition and very easy to imagine.

I am investigating whether it is possible that the Pali opapaatika
could, besides referring to the spontaneously born non-returner, and
the spontaneously-born yoni (M 1:73L Vbh 416), could also include the
sense of antaraabhava, esp in the "wrong view" pericope:

n'atthi dinna.m, n'atthi yi.t.tha.m, n'atthi huta.m,
There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed.

n'atthi sukata,dukka.taana.m kammaanam. phalam. vipaako,
There is no fruit or result of good or evil actions.

 n'atthi ayam. loko, n'atthi paro loko,
There is no this world, no next world [hereafter].

n'atthi maataa, n'atthi pitaa,
There is no mother, no father.

n'atthi sattaa opapaatikaa,
There are no sattaa opapaatikaa.

n'atthi loke sama.na,braahma.naa sammaggataa sammaa,pa.tipannaa
There are no recluses and brahmins who, living rightlyand practising
rightly, having known and realized for themselves his world and the
hereafter, proclaim them.
      (D 2.22/1:55) = SD 8.10; etc

The Abhidharma,kośa says, "Beings in hell, intermediate beings, and
the gods are apparitional [upapāduka], too." (Abhdhk 3.9-bc). In other
words, the antarā,bhava, like the hell-beings and the gods, are
opapātika. As already pointed out, the Sanskrit cog¬nate of opapātika,
according to the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary, is upapāduka or
aupapāduka.

If we accept this, then it is possible to take opapaatika to mean or
at least include the meaning of antaraabhava. Which makes more sense
of "There are no sattaa opapaatikaa" in the above passage.

We can then conclude of "there ARE sattaa opapaatikaa" (the right view
version) as follows:

(1) There is rebirth.
(2) There is the intermediate state.

I have a written a paper on on the notion of antaraabhava in Pali
Canon, and my ideas also coincide with Ajahn Sujato's whose paper can
be found here:

http://www.c2rc.org/papers/C2RC2008-P2S1-EarlyBuddhismPersp-Sujato.pdf

Thanks again for your valuable presence.

With metta & mudita,

Piya


On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 5:06 PM, L.S. Cousins <selwyn at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> One or two quick comments on the history of these words.
>
>
> Piya Tan wrote:
>> (2) What do you think of Pali "opapaatika" and "aupapaaduka" being
>> synonyms. As such, the Pali term opapaatika would both mean "spontaneously
>> born" (for non-returners" as well as "intermediate being".
>>
>
> In the form of written Middle Indian current especially from the second
> century B.C. to the first century A.D. words derived from Sanskrit
> upapaata and from Sanskrit upapaada were often identical in form. But
> there was no standardized spelling.  From the second century A.D. or so
> onwards) there was a general move towards a more standardized and
> literary form of written language. This eventually produced the
> languages we know as Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali (and probably others).
>
>
> In the case in question it meant that those who were tidying up the
> texts needed to make a choice between a derivation from upapaata and one
> from upapaada. The ancestors of the Pali tradition chose the former
> (perhaps seeing a connexion also to upapatti), while the ancestors of
> the Sanskrit texts known to us chose the latter.
>
>
> Originally, there was not much difference in meaning. Both effectively
> mean 'taking rebirth' and one has to understand this as meaning 'taking
> rebirth directly' i.e. not going to an egg or a womb or some kind of
> generative fluid. 'Direct rebirth' seems to be the default mode for
> everything except human beings and animals.
>
>
> Lance Cousins
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