[Buddha-l] hiinam dhammam

[Jayarava]

Curiously I just stumbled upon this passage in the Dhammapada while looking up something else:

hīnaṃ dhammaṃ na seveyya pamādena na saṃvase (Dhp 167a)

I wouldn't have noticed except that I tend to use Radhakrishnan's translation because he provides the Pāli alongside. He translates this as:

Do not follow evil law. Do not live in thoughtlessness. (p.115)

Seveyya being the optative of sevati (practice, embrace, make use of) I think? I knew that the idea of a defective dhamma was common in the Pāli texts, as the Buddha so often criticises people who have it wrong. But this is the first time I've come across hīna as an adjective in this way (not that I'm that well versed in Pāli!) Interesting that Radhakrishnan chooses "evil" here, no? I think 'defective' probably fits the context as well, if not better. Certainly it is a *false* dhamma which encourages, or at least does not discourage, pamāda (intoxication with the senses).

In line 2 has micchādiṭṭim na seveyya which suggests that the composer wanted to equate hīna dhammaṃ and micchādiṭṭhiṃ. 

The phrase hīnaṃ dhammaṃ also occurs in SN 52.3 (PTS v.298) but seems there to simply mean "inferior state" in contrast to majjhima and paṇīta states. Bhikkhu Bodhi's notes (p. 1948, n.283) point further to AN 1.223-4 where hīna, majjhima, and paṇītaṃ reflect the kāma, rūpa and arūpa realms. Both hīnaṃ dhammaṃ and hīnā dhammā seem to be used more in the abhidhamma. Which may mean that they paved the way for being called hīnayāna in a kind of ironic reflection of abhidhammist views (and they do seem to be the target of Mahāyāna opprobium). hīna, kāma and pamāda all seem to go together don't they?

Someone off list has reminded me that much of the mahāyāna was not meant for public consumption, and that the mahāyāna was a small and private cult a lot of the time in India - so hīnayāna may have been a private term. I'm sure this is true, though I'm not sure that it affects the debate about it's use in the present.

All the best
Jayarava