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

[L.S. Cousins]

  On 11/05/2010 19:29, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
> If you put attadīpā (plural form) in the search box, you will get 9 hits
> (not counting the title of the attadipa sutta, which would make it ten).
> Three in the Digha Nikaya, five in the Samyutta, and one in a post-Nikaya
> text, the Sotabbamalini.

Yes, this is the problem with using search engines without reading the 
texts. That is why I spoke of contexts rather than instances. In the 
Mahāparinirvāṇasutta for example we have:
Therefore dwell attadīpā (plural) etc.
How does a monk dwell attadīpo (singular) etc.
In this way a monk dwells attadīpo etc.
Whatever monks dwell attadīpā now or after me etc.

So we have four instances in one context. Or, two if you search only for 
the nominative plural. The repetitive nature of Indic oral literature 
means that counting hits in a computer search can be wildly misleading.

> If one does a search for dīpa alone, adjusting for different grammatical
> forms, one founds many instances, including *numerous* instances in the
> Apadāna, etc. A search for the 3 letter combo dīp yields 1966 hits, from
> which false positives would have to be weeded out.

I get 14, 198 hits in all the Pali texts on my machine, but the majority 
will be false positives — forms of dīpana and the like.

> In a discussion that tended to reinforce the idea that the term occurs only
> twice, pointing out that at least seven additional instances are to be found
> justifies (for me) the use of the word "numerous." And these additional
> seven do not include the Sn and Ap. citations given by Lance.

But my point is precisely that your six additional instances correspond 
to only four contexts, one of which is identical to the passage in the 
Mahāparinirvāṇa and two more are similar in relating to the Buddha's 
last year. The remaining one simply quotes the attadīpa passage and 
relates it to the four establishings of mindfulness.


(I have ignored the Sotabbamālinī which I think is a post 1,000 A.D. text.)

So my argument is that rather than a saying that occurs in numerous 
places in different contexts what we have is a passage which is found in 
a few rather specific contexts relating to the end of the Buddha's life.

Lance Cousins