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- Majjhima Nikaya 18
- Madhupindika Sutta
- The Ball of Honey
- For free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma
Translator's Introduction
This discourse plays a central role in the early Buddhist analysis of conflict. As
might be expected, the blame for conflict lies within, in the unskillful habits of the
mind, rather than without. The culprit in this case is a habit called papańca.
Unfortunately, none of the early texts give a clear definition of what the word papańca
means, so it's hard to find a precise English equivalent for the term. However, they do
give a clear analysis of how papańca arises, how it leads to conflict, and how it can be
ended. In the final analysis, these are the questions that matter -- more than the precise
definition of terms -- so we will deal with them first before proposing a few possible
translation equivalents for the word.
Three passages in the discourses -- DN 21, MN 18, and Sn IV.11 -- map the causal processes that
give rise to papańca and lead from papańca to conflict. Because the Buddhist analysis of
causality is generally non-linear, with plenty of room for feedback loops, the maps vary
in some of their details. In DN 21, the map reads like
this:
the perceptions & categories of papańca > thinking > desire >
dear-&-not-dear > envy & stinginess > rivalry & hostility
In Sn IV.11, the map is less linear
and can be diagramed like this:
perception > the categories of papańca
perception > name & form > contact > appealing & unappealing >
desire > dear-&-not-dear > stinginess/divisiveness/quarrels/disputes
In MN 18, the map is this:
contact > feeling > perception > thinking > the perceptions &
categories of papańca
In this last case, however, the bare outline misses some of the important implications
of the way this process is phrased. In the full passage, the analysis starts out in an
impersonal tone:
Dependent on eye & forms, eye-consciousness arises [similarly with the rest of the
six sense]. The meeting of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition,
there is feeling.
Starting with feeling, the notion of an "agent" -- in this case, the feeler
-- acting on "objects," is introduced:
What one feels, one perceives (labels in the mind). What one perceives, one thinks
about. What one thinks about, one "papańcizes".
Through the process of papańca, the agent then becomes a victim of his/her own
patterns of thinking:
Based on what a person papańcizes, the perceptions & categories of papańca assail
him/her with regard to past, present, & future forms cognizable via the eye [as with
the remaining senses].
What are these perceptions & categories that assail the person who papańcizes? Sn IV.14 states that the root of the
categories of papańca is the perception, "I am the thinker." From this
self-reflexive thought -- in which one conceives a "self," a thing corresponding
to the concept of "I" -- a number of categories can be derived: being/not-being,
me/not-me, mine/not-mine, doer/done-to, signifier/signified. Once one's self becomes a
thing under the rubric of these categories, it's impossible not to be assailed by the
perceptions & categories derived from these basic distinctions. When there's the sense
of identification with something that experiences, then based on the feelings arising from
sensory contact, some feelings will seem appealing -- worth getting for the self -- and
others will seem unappealing -- worth pushing away. From this there grows desire, which
comes into conflict with the desires of others who are also engaging in papańca. This is
how inner complications breed external contention.
How can this process be ended? Through a shift in perception, caused by the way one
attends to feelings, using the categories of appropriate attention [see MN
2]. As the Buddha states in DN 21, rather than
viewing a feeling as an appealing or unappealing thing, one should look at it as part of a
causal process: when a particular feeling is pursued, do skillful or unskillful qualities
increase in the mind? If skillful qualities increase, the feeling may be pursued. If
unskillful qualities increase, it shouldn't. When comparing feelings that lead to skillful
qualities, notice which are more refined: those free of thinking (directed thought) and
evaluation, as in the higher stages of mental absorption, or jhana. When seeing this,
there is a tendency to opt for the more refined feelings, and this cuts through the act of
thinking that, according to MN 18, provides the basis for papańca.
In following this program, the notion of agent and victim is avoided, as is
self-reflexive thinking in general. There is simply the analysis of cause-effect
processes. One is still making use of dualities -- distinguishing between unskillful and
skillful (and affliction/lack of affliction, the results of unskillful and skillful
qualities) -- but the distinction is between processes, not things. Thus one's analysis
avoids the type of thinking that, according to DN 21,
depends on the perceptions and categories of papańca, and in this way the vicious cycle
by which thinking and papańca keep feeding each other is cut.
Ultimately, by following this program to greater and greater levels of refinement
through the higher levels of mental absorption, one finds less and less to relish and
enjoy in the six senses and the mental processes based on them. With this sense of
disenchantment, the processes of feeling and thought are stilled, and there is a
breakthrough to the cessation of the six sense spheres. When these spheres cease, is there
anything else left? Ven. Sariputta, in AN IV.173, warns us not to ask, for to ask if there
is, isn't, both-is-and-isn't, neither-is-nor-isn't anything left in that sphere is to
papańcize what is free from papańca. However, this sphere is not a total annihilation of
experience. It's a type of experience that DN 11 calls
consciousness without feature, luminous all around, where water, earth, fire, & wind
have no footing, where long/short, coarse/fine, fair/foul, name/form are all brought to an
end. This is the fruit of the path of arahantship -- a path that makes use of dualities
but leads to a fruit beyond them.
It may come as cold comfort to realize that conflict can be totally overcome only with
the realization of arahantship, but it's important to note that by following the path
recommended in DN 21 -- learning to avoid references to
any notion of "self" and learning to view feelings not as things but as parts of
a causal process affecting the qualities in the mind -- the basis for papańca is
gradually undercut, and there are fewer and fewer occasions for conflict. In following
this path, one reaps its increasing benefits all along the way.
Translating papańca: As one writer has noted, the word papańca has had a wide
variety of meanings in Indian thought, with only one constant: in Buddhist philosophical
discourse it carries negative connotations, usually of falsification and distortion. The
word itself is derived from a root that means diffuseness, spreading, proliferating. The
Pali Commentaries define papańca as covering three types of thought: craving, conceit,
and views. They also note that it functions to slow the mind down in its escape from
samsara. And, as our analysis has shown, it functions to create baneful distinctions and
unnecessary issues. For these reasons, I have chosen to render the word as
"complication," although some of the following alternatives might be acceptable
as well: self-reflexive thinking, reification, proliferation, exaggeration, elaboration,
distortion.
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was living among the Sakyans
near Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Park. Then in the early
morning, having put on his robes and carrying his bowl & outer robe, he went into
Kapilavatthu for alms. Having gone for alms in Kapilavatthu, after the meal, returning
from his alms round, he went to the Great Wood for the day's abiding. Plunging into the
Great Wood, he sat down at the root of a bilva sapling for the day's abiding.
Dandapani ("Stick-in-hand") the Sakyan, out roaming
& rambling for exercise, also went to the Great Wood. Plunging into the Great Wood, he
went to where the Blessed One was under the bilva sapling. On arrival, he exchanged
courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he
stood to one side. As he was standing there, he said to the Blessed One, "What is the
contemplative's doctrine? What does he proclaim?"
"The sort of doctrine, friend, where one does not keep quarreling with anyone in
the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives & priests,
its royalty & commonfolk; the sort [of doctrine] where perceptions no longer lie
latent in the brahmin who remains dissociated from sensual pleasures, free from
perplexity, his uncertainty cut away, devoid of craving for becoming & non-. Such is
my doctrine, such is what I proclaim."
When this was said, Dandapani the Sakyan -- shaking his head, wagging his tongue,
raising his eyebrows so that his forehead was wrinkled in three furrows -- left, leaning
on his stick.
Then, when it was evening, the Blessed One rose from his seclusion and went to the
Banyan Park. On arrival, he sat down on a seat made ready. As he was sitting there, he
[told the monks what had happened]. When this was said, a certain monk said to the Blessed
One, "Lord, what sort of doctrine is it where one does not keep quarreling with
anyone in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, & Brahmas, with its contemplatives &
priests, its royalty & commonfolk; where perceptions no longer lie latent in the
brahmin who remains dissociated from sensual pleasures, free from perplexity, his
uncertainty cut away, devoid of craving for becoming & non-?"
"If, monk, with regard to the cause whereby the perceptions & categories of
complication assail a person, there is nothing there to relish, welcome, or remain
fastened to, then that is the end of the underlying tendencies to passion, to irritation,
to views, to uncertainty, to conceit, to passion for becoming, & to ignorance. That is
the end of taking up rods & bladed weapons, of arguments, quarrels, disputes,
accusations, divisive tale-bearing, & false speech. That is where these evil,
unskillful things cease without remainder." That is what the Blessed One said. Having
said it, the One Well-gone got up from his seat and went into his dwelling.
Then, not long after the Blessed One had left, this thought occurred to the monks:
"This brief statement the Blessed One made, after which he went into his dwelling
without analyzing the detailed meaning -- i.e., 'If, with regard to the cause whereby the
perceptions & categories of complication assail a person, there is nothing to relish
... that is where these evil, unskillful things cease without remainder': now who might
analyze the unanalyzed detailed meaning of this brief statement?" Then the thought
occurred to them, "Ven. Maha Kaccayana is praised by the
Teacher and esteemed by his knowledgeable companions in the holy life. He is capable of
analyzing the unanalyzed detailed meaning of this brief statement. Suppose we were to go
to him and, on arrival, question him about this matter."
So the monks went to Ven. Maha Kaccayana and, on arrival exchanged courteous greetings
with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, they sat to one side.
As they were sitting there, they [told him what had happened, and added,] "Analyze
the meaning, Ven. Maha Kaccayana!"
[He replied:] "Friends, it's as if a man needing
heartwood, looking for heartwood, wandering in search of heartwood -- passing over the
root & trunk of a standing tree possessing heartwood -- were to imagine that heartwood
should be sought among its branches & leaves. So it is with you, who -- having
bypassed the Blessed One when you were face to face with him, the Teacher -- imagine that
I should be asked about this matter. For knowing, the Blessed One knows; seeing, he sees.
He is the Eye, he is Knowledge, he is Dhamma, he is Brahma. He is the speaker, the
proclaimer, the elucidator of meaning, the giver of the Deathless, the lord of the Dhamma,
the Tathagata. That was the time when you should have questioned him about this matter.
However he answered, that was how you should have remembered it."
"Yes, friend Kaccayana: knowing, the Blessed One knows; seeing, he sees. He is the
Eye, he is Knowledge, he is Dhamma, he is Brahma. He is the speaker, the proclaimer, the
elucidator of meaning, the giver of the Deathless, the lord of the
Dhamma, the Tathagata. That was the time when we should have questioned him about this
matter. However he answered, that was how we should have remembered it. But you are
praised by the Teacher and esteemed by your knowledgeable companions in the holy life. You
are capable of analyzing the unanalyzed detailed meaning of this brief statement. Analyze
the meaning, Ven. Maha Kaccayana!"
"In that case, my friends, listen & pay close attention. I will speak."
"As you say, friend," the monks responded.
Ven. Maha Kaccayana said this: "Concerning the brief statement the Blessed One
made, after which he went into his dwelling without analyzing the detailed meaning --
i.e., 'If, with regard to the cause whereby the perceptions & categories of
complication assail a person, there is nothing there to relish, welcome, or remain
fastened to, then that is the end of the underlying tendencies to passion, to irritation,
to views, to uncertainty, to conceit, to passion for becoming, & to ignorance. That is
the end of taking up rods & bladed weapons, of arguments, quarrels, disputes,
accusations, divisive tale-bearing, & false speech. That is where these evil,
unskillful things cease without remainder' -- I understand the detailed meaning to be
this:
"Dependent on eye & forms, eye-consciousness arises. The meeting of the three
is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one feels, one
perceives (labels in the mind). What one perceives, one thinks about. What one thinks
about, one complicates. Based on what a person complicates, the perceptions &
categories of complication assail him/her with regard to past, present, & future forms
cognizable via the eye.
"Dependent on ear & sounds, ear-consciousness arises ....
"Dependent on nose & aromas, nose-consciousness arises ....
"Dependent on tongue & flavors, tongue-consciousness arises ....
"Dependent on body & tactile sensations, body-consciousness arises ....
"Dependent on intellect & ideas, intellect-consciousness arises. The meeting
of the three is contact. With contact as a requisite condition, there is feeling. What one
feels, one perceives (labels in the mind). What one perceives, one thinks about. What one
thinks about, one complicates. Based on what a person complicates, the perceptions &
categories of complication assail him/her with regard to past, present, & future ideas
cognizable via the intellect.
"Now, when there is the eye, when there are forms, when there is
eye-consciousness, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of contact.[1] When there is a delineation of contact, it is possible that one
will delineate a delineation of feeling. When there is a delineation of feeling, it is
possible that one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is a delineation
of perception, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When
there is a delineation of thinking, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation
of being assailed by the perceptions & categories of complication.
"When there is the ear ....
"When there is the nose ....
"When there is the tongue ....
"When there is the body ....
"When there is the intellect, when there are ideas, when there is
intellect-consciousness, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of contact.
When there is a delineation of contact, it is possible that one will delineate a
delineation of feeling. When there is a delineation of feeling, it is possible that one
will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is a delineation of perception, it
is possible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is a delineation
of thinking, it is possible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by the
perceptions & categories of complication.
"Now, when there is no eye, when there are no forms, when there is no
eye-consciousness, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of contact. When
there is no delineation of contact, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation
of feeling. When there is no delineation of feeling, it is impossible that one will
delineate a delineation of perception. When there is no delineation of perception, it is
impossible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there is no delineation
of thinking, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of being assailed by
the perceptions & categories of complication.
"When there is no ear ....
"When there is no nose ....
"When there is no tongue ....
"When there is no body ....
"When there is no intellect, when there are no ideas, when there is no
intellect-consciousness, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of
contact. When there is no delineation of contact, it is impossible that one will delineate
a delineation of feeling. When there is no delineation of feeling, it is impossible that
one will delineate a delineation of perception. When there is no delineation of
perception, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of thinking. When there
is no delineation of thinking, it is impossible that one will delineate a delineation of
being assailed by the perceptions & categories of complication.
"So, concerning the brief statement the Blessed One made, after which he entered
his dwelling without analyzing the detailed meaning -- i.e., 'If, with regard to the cause
whereby the perceptions & categories of complication assail a person, there is nothing
there to relish, welcome, or remain fastened to, then that is the end of the underlying
tendencies to passion, to irritation, to views, to uncertainty, to conceit, to passion for
becoming, & to ignorance. That is the end of taking up rods & bladed weapons, of
arguments, quarrels, disputes, accusations, divisive tale-bearing, & false speech.
That is where these evil, unskillful things cease without remainder' -- this is how I
understand the detailed meaning. Now, if you wish, having gone to the Blessed One,
question him about this matter. However he answers is how you should remember it."
Then the monks, delighting & approving of Ven. Maha Kaccayana's words, rose from
their seats and went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down to him, they sat to
one side. As they were sitting there, they [told him what had happened after he had gone
into his dwelling, and ended by saying,] "Then Ven. Maha Kaccayana analyzed the
meaning using these words, statements, & phrases."
"Maha Kaccayana is wise, monks. He is a person of great discernment. If you had
asked me about this matter, I too would have answered in the same way he did. That is the
meaning of this statement. That is how you should remember it."
When this was said, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, "Lord, it's as if a man -- overcome with hunger, weakness, & thirst --
were to come across a ball of honey. Wherever he were to taste it, he would experience a
sweet, delectable flavor. In the same way, wherever a monk of capable awareness might
investigate the meaning of this Dhamma discourse with his discernment, he would experience
gratification, he would experience confidence. What is the name of this Dhamma
discourse?"
"Then, Ananda, you can remember this Dhamma discourse as the 'Ball of Honey
Discourse.'"
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, Ven. Ananda delighted in the Blessed
One's words.
Note
1. The artificiality of this phrase -- "delineate a
delineation" -- seems intentional. It underlines the artifice implicit in the process
by which the mind, in singling out events, turns them into discrete things. [Go
back]
See also: DN 21; AN III.73; Sn IV.8.