digha agama 28 (06)
TC Nguyen
IV. The question about the self.
Reading those lines and other lines about the self in the Chinese Agama,
I must
say that here the sutta is corrupted.
- Is thought the self ?
The Buddha said :
- Which kind of man is self ? (*)
- I don't say that man is self (**). I say that the body
compounded of 4
elements, of 6 entrences, born by parents, feed by parents, raised by
parents,
wearing clothes, impermanent, is the self.
The Buddha said :
- Brahmin, you say that the body etc.. is self. Let us put this
problem aside,
let us discuss the arising of thoughts in human, the anihilation of
thoughts in
human.
( Chinese Agama 09 TC Nguyen tr. )
(*) Original text :
O^ng ba?o : you say
ha.ng ngu+o+`i na`o : what kind of person
la` nga~ : is self.
(**) Original text :
To^i kho^ng ba?o : I don't say
con ngu+o+`i : human
la` nga~ : is self
Those 2 sentences are obscure. The last we don't need to have in the
sentence.
After that Po.t.thapa-da continued till : I don't say human is self, I
say the sphere
of with and without thoughts is self, he asked :
- Venerable Gautama, can I know the arising and the anihilation
of thoughts
?
And the Buddha said :
- Brahmin, it's difficult for you to know the arising, the
anihilation of
thoughts. Why is it so ? It's because you have different views,
different trainings,
different acceptances, you rely on different matters, you have different
lessons.
Po.t.thapa-da had asked this question before, the Buddha had replied.
If we read the Pali canon, we do not encounter this stupid
conversations. It's
clear there. At this point, the Chinese Agama is corrupted, the Pali
canon is not.
The Pali and the Pali are totally different here. In Pali Canon,
Po.t.thapa-da
postulate a self as : body, man-made, and formless, and the question is
:
21. 'Lord, is perception a person's self, or is perception one thing,
and self
another?'
And in each case of self postulated by Po.t.thapa-da, he said they are
different.
Now to the last question, where he did not posit the self as something :
24. 'But Lord, is it possible for me to know whether perception is a
person's self,
or whether perception is one thing, and self another?'
Gautama answer this way :
'Po.t.thapada, it is difficult for one of different views, of different
faith, under
different influences, with different pursuits and a different training
to know
whether these are two different things or not.'
( Maurice Walshe )
Don't we see the subtlety ?
Conclusion :
In this portion, the Pali canon is intelligible, clear, since the Agama
is corrupted.