Re: The Buddha's last meal, no 1/footnote from the Chinese

Hi Nina and folks - Just a minor footnote from the Chinese
translation of the Mahaparinirvana-sutra (Dirghagama): For
sukkaramaddava the Chinese text in Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo
Vol1, pg 18b reads "mei t'an shu erh" ( a type of tree fungus?).

The Pali commentary you provided is fascinating! Thank you!
With great difficulty I am struggling to follow along with the Pali
grammatical analysis. Much appreciated!

-Rodney



--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, nina van gorkom <nilo@...>
wrote:

> Dear friends,
> On Dhamma Study Group list we had a long discussion about

the Buddha's last

> meal, Mahaaparinibbaana sutta, Diighanikaaya.
> Some people believe that the Buddha became sick because of

the

> sukkaramaddava (tender pork) Cunda gave him. The

Commentaries interprete: he

> became sick, not because of,
> but after the meal. Then we returned to the sutta text itself and

studied

> the Pali with the grammar. Suan helped us with the grammar

and quoted rules

> of the Saddaniitii. Since several of you are interested in the

Saddaniiti, I

> will, with Suan's kind permission, reproduce our

correspondence in different

> sections.
> First I shall give some quotes from the commentaries.
> It was discussed what the súkaramaddava consisted of.
> In the Commentary to the 3Mahåparinibbåna Sutta2 (Ch 4,

translated by

> Yang-Gyu An) it is said:
>
> 3Pork stew (súkaramaddava): the fresh meat (pavattama.msa)

from a prize pig

> that is neither too young nor too old. That, people say, is both

tender and

> succulent. The meaning is that he had it prepared and carefully

cooked. But

> some teachers say that Œsúkaramaddava1 is the name of a

recipe for cooking

> soft-boiled rice with the five liquid products of the cow, just as

cow1s

> milk is the name of a beverage. Others say that

Œsúkaramaddava1 is the name

> for a kind of elixir.2
> .......
> 3 Cunda prepared the súkaramaddava with an elixir, thinking,

ŒLet the

> Blessed One not attain parinibbåna1. And the deities of the

four great

> continents and their twothousand surrounding islands infused

nutritive

> essence into it.2
>
> The same Commentary explains the words of the Sutta text:

3Bhuttassa ca

> súkara-maddavenå2, and after he had eaten from the súkara-

maddava, a dire

> sickness fell upon him...2 We read:
>
> 3It happened to him when he had eaten, but not because he

had eaten. If he

> had not eaten, the pains would have been too strong ; but

because he had

> eaten the succulent food, his pain was slight, which is why he

was able to

> walk on foot.2
>
> We read in 3The Questions of King Milinda2 (175) that King

Milinda discussed

> the last meal with the venerable Någasena. Milinda said:

3How could that

> alms, Någasena, be of great fruit when it turned to poison,

gave rise to

> disease...2
> Nagasena answered:2 ...For that alms is full of virtue, full of

advantage.

> The gods, O king, shouted in joy and gladness at the thought:

ŒThis is the

> last meal the Tathågata will take,1 and communicated a divine

power of

> nourishment to that tender pork. And that was itself in good

condition,

> light, pleasant, full of flavour, and good for digestion. It was not

because

> of it that any sickness fell upon the Blessed One, but it was

because of the

> extreme weakness of his body, and because of the period of

life he had to

> live been exhausted, that the disease arose, and grew worse

and worse....So

> this was not, O king, the fault of the food that was presented,

and you can

> not impute any harm to it."
> (to be continued)
> Nina.