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ATTHA NAMA KIM? What is Eight?
What eight Concepts, when seen to the Root with Penetrating Knowledge, and understood to the broadest limits, such that their repellant nature is seen as it really is and one has released them in their entirety, can bring one to the Uttermost Freedom of Detachment?
ARIYA ATTHANGIKA MAGGA -- The Multidimensional Way
NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY: The word so often translated "Right" has several problems that are avoided by the term High. The Pali word is SAMMA. SA=one AMMA=nursing, mothering. I will leave to the imagination how the real meaning comes to be summit (in the US we have a mountain range named by the French that will help you figure that one out.). The closest we could come to "right" understanding it this way is "consummate." High is better for this reason: the state to be attained throughout the MAGGA is that of detachment. Right is a concept fraught with attachments. It is right and all else is wrong, whereas in the MAGGA it is High and all else is Lower or Less. A thing with two sides like Right and Wrong cannot be abandoned -- those in the "wrong" will never let go, whereas, if you will imagine yourself with the ability to soar, reaching the summit is a place from which complete detachment is attainable.
Furthermore, while there might be some justification for the use of the word "right" (shy of it’s moralistic overtones) if one attributes its derivation to SAMA=even=straight=upright=right (and there is your progression from a carpenters term to a moralists term) (and certainly the two words are closely related) , there is absolutely no justification for using Wrong as it’s opposite (which is the problem with Right that makes me want to use another word -- very high moral behavior can be seen from the Buddhist view as MICCHA. MICCHA in no way comes to "Wrong", it means "opposite," and for the purposes of contrast with SAMMA would probably best be translated "contrary," and there is even some justification for the term I prefer, "low" in the meaning of MI=small, miniscule, "Wee" Even a Contrary way of behaving can be the Right way to behave, depending on the view held. ( . . . the right way to kill a man . . . ) whereas High behavior, being a relative concept, if followed, leads one ever upward from whatever starting point he may occupy.
What many are calling the Eightfold Path, I call the Multi-dimensional Way (although what I usually do to get around all the flap is to say ARIYA ATTHANGIKA MAGGA, and put both translations in after.)
ARIYA=is most closely related to English "Aristocratic"
ATTHANGIKA: ATTHA= eight, for sure, but also "unlimited," which is more accurate. Originally the Aristocrats only counted up to three. For heavy duty counting, they had accountants who could count up to a nahutam (1 with 100 zeros). All the numbers up past three began their life as meaning "a whole bunch," and that is the case with eight. This is important when we read the suttas and find that a good number of times the Eightfold path has Ten folds (adding High Vision and High Detachment to the usual eight).. Studying the MAGGA further reveals that each of the folds, or dimensions, is a complete path to detachment in and of itself, and, further, digging into the sub definitions of each of the terms, one will find that there are a limitless number of loopings back, such as is most clearly seen here in the SATIPATTHANA, which ends with the Eightfold Path which includes the SATIPATTHANA, and so forth. Thus we are, I believe, best guided by at least knowing the meaning of Eightfold to be Multi or Limitless. ANGIKA=angled, dimensioned, as in the arm bent at the elbow.
The Magga
SAMMA DITTHI: High View
High view is a "Working Hypothesis" by adopting High View, one drops attachment to all other Views (especially those of self and soul -- thus breaking the SAKKAYADITTHI View Attachment) then the High View itself is easy to drop. This is High View:
It’s All Painful, Ugly, Ukky, K-Kha
The Origin of this DUKKHA is HUNGER/THIRST
To get up out of the K-Kha, you gotta dig out the Root: TANHA: The Hunger/Thirst
This is The Way: High View, High Principles, High Talk, High Works, High Lifestyle, High Self Control, High Satisfaction, and High Getting High
SAMMA SANKAPPA: High Principles
One is said to have one’s intentions straight when one’s Principles are in alignment with one’s Views. These are High Principles based on High View:
Dump K-kha, Giving Up, Letting Go
No Tears, no mental cruelty
Be Harmless, No Intentional Harm
SAMMA VACA: High Talk
No intentional Untrue Talk, Cruel Talk, Slander, Harsh Talk, Useless Talk
SAMMA KAMMANTA: High Works
Work.
NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY:
What most are calling "Action," I call "Works."
KAMMANTA is, like most of the other important Pali words, really a MANTA, a magic charm that when repeated and studied reveals its inner meanings as well as it’s MULA: it’s Root. The Roots here are KAMMA=karma or making; MANTA=magic charms, or, works; and KAMMANTA=commerce, or, work. Thus my multi dimensional "Works." (And, of course, I am aware of the problems this will cause when up ahead we discuss SAMMA AJIVA: High Lifestyle).
At the first level we do not need to debate the meaning of KAMMMANTA, it is spelled out for us in the many suttas that give the MAGGA in detail.
In your deeds, works of magic, or work:
Do no Intentional:
Harm to living beings
Taking of other peoples ungiven things
Low deeds for pleasure’s sake (this last being most frequently translated "abstaining from adultery or carnal indulgence").
SAMMA AJIVA: High Lifestyle
(A = To, No; JIVA = Live, Calling; "To Live No Calling")
When one Dumps what one clearly sees is a Low element of one’s Lifestyle, what remains is High Lifestyle. High Lifestyle is the "style" or "process."
SAMMA VAYAMA: High Self Control
Strive, Make an Effort, Exert Energy and Endeavor to
Restrain low ways
That are in the here and now
Refrain from low ways
Not yet in the here and now
Retain High Ways
That are in the here and now
Obtain High Ways
Not yet in the here and now
SAMMA SATI: High Satisfaction: The preparation of the Mind for living Satisfied with Higher Things
Live in a Body
In Sensations
In Emotions
And in the Word
Seeing Bodies
Sensations
Emotions
And The Word
As they Really Are
Seeing how they come to be
Seeing how they burn out
Living Above It All
Watchful and Diligent (APPAMADA)
SATISFIED
Reviewing and Calming Down
Overcoming any TANHA that may appear
Downbound to Nothing At All in the World
SAMMA SAMADHI: High Getting High
Get High on the Appreciation of the Peace and Calm of Solitude
Get High on Getting High
Get High with Ease, on the sweet sensations of Ease
Get High off the All Roun
Clean Clear Through
Bright Shiny
Radiance
Of Detachment
This section has provided the beginner with the information necessary to build a solid foundation for progress, starting from the most fundamental practice (giving) and ending, at the end of the ATTHANGIKA MAGGA, with the most advanced concept in the system (Detachment). A person who knew and understood the DHAMMA this far could encompass all the remaining Teachings in this collection. Hereafter the instructions only become broader and deeper.
The exercise at this point should be to try and create a mental picture of the structure being described (Giving, Ethical Culture, Self-Discipline, Mental Development). As the picture in the mind becomes more complete, turn the mind upon itself and observe how it appears to "like" the "order", and how it "feels" like the mind is being exercised. This is the entry to the Second level of Getting High, Getting High on Getting High. Ask yourself if you have observed any internal contradictions (please let me know if you have! These will be errors made by me and should be corrected). What questions remain? How far have you begun to translate the information into practice?
It can be done, Beggars!
It can be done!
If it could not be done,
I would not say
‘It can be done.’
It can be done,
Therefore I say:
‘It can be done’
For Bhikkhu Thanissaro's version of this see: AN.2.19: Skillful
Here is the Access to Insight version of this same approach:
www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma.html
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Friday, October 03, 2003 3:45 AM
