[Buddha-l] 9. Attadiipaa Sutta (Joy Vriens)

[L.S. Cousins]

  On 11/05/2010 01:00, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> It is especially disappointing that after a discussion of Nagarjuna the
> buddha-hell regulars start applying either/or insistence to a delicious
> hermeneutic aporia, otherwise known as a pun. -dīpa has both meanings, and,
> while it has a traditional interpretation that probably reflects the more
> basic sense, the other senses dance in the margins of our considerations,
> enriching our thinking. The advice by Lance and Richard in that regard is on
> target. Take note as well, that this phrase was oft-repeated, and does not
> just occur in this sutta and the Nibbana sutta. It recurs numerous times in
> the Nikayas.


Well not really, Dan. It is never found in the Vinaya or Abhidhamma 
Piṭakas, nor in the Majjhima and Aṅguttara Nikāyas. So the contexts are 
quite limited.

It is found, as noted, in the Mahāparinirvāṇasutta and once elsewhere in 
the Dīghanikāya: at the very beginning of the Cakkavattisīhanādasutta 
where the whole sequence from attadīpo onwards is cited and the 
explanation that one is attadīpa, etc. by practising the four 
establishings of mindfulness follows immediately.

It is found in two additional places in the Saṃyutta Nikāya. One is the 
Gilānasutta (S V 152–154) which may appear to the reader as an extract 
from the same passage in the Mahāparinirvāṇasutta. (I myself think it is 
one of the short suttas from which the Mahāparinirvāṇa was compiled.) 
Then it is found in the Cundasutta where the Buddha is consoling Ānanda 
and Cunda immediately after the parinirvāṇa of Sāriputta. Here too it is 
directly associated with the four establishings of mindfulness.

We have already met it in the Attadīpasutta (S III 42f.) where it is 
associated with the development of insight.

Otherwise it is found only in two verse contexts in the Khuddaka Nikāya. 
One is in the (rather late) Apadāna (Ap II 543):

         Have self as your island and the the establishings of 
mindfulness as your pasture.
         Practising the seven factors of awakening, you will make an end 
of suffering.
This is obviously based upon the same kind of sutta context we have been 
discussing.

That leaves only the verse in the Mahāvagga of the Suttanipāta (Sn 501) 
which refers to 'those who wander (vicaranti) in the world with self as 
their island, possessing nothing, completely liberated in every 
respect'. That is in parallel with the earlier verse at Sn 490 which has 
asattā 'unattached' as a match to atta-. The context is one of 
describing the behaviour of enlightened beings.

So overall it is found in a rather limited number of contexts and always 
in  relation to rather advanced practice.


On the meaning of dīpa itself, we find the simile spelt out in the 
Pārāyaṇa of the Suttanipāta (Sn 1092):
         Those who are overcome by old age and death
         are standing in a lake ... when a deadly flood has arisen.
         Tell me, sir, of an island for them
         and announce to me an island such that this might be no more.

The answer is:

         Having nothing, taking nothing is that island with no match.
         I declare that it is nibbāna, the complete destruction of old 
age and death.


Lance Cousins