Dear Bhante Sujato,

Thank you, I think you have raised an interesting angle on this that I had
never heard before.

> The Dhammapaada verse says that the eightfold path is the only way.
> This has nothing to do with the term ekaayana, and the verse
> does not mention satipatthana.

Yes, but if the eightfold noble path is the only way, does that mean that
satipatthana meditation, the "ekaayana magga" to realise nibbana, is the
wrong way? I think it must be one and the same way...

The point why I thought it good to bring up the Dhammapada verse is to show
that the Lord Buddha was certainly not against using such language. I think
this kind of language causes many scholars to bristle, thinking that there
must be many different ways to the same goal.

I may have been wrong to imply that the word "ekaayana" should be translated
as "the only way" but it surely has that implication anyway, even more so
after reading the venerable sir's last post about the oceans and so on. I
think the idea of "eka=only" fits well with these similes, don't you sir?

Further to the idea that the practice described in the Satipatthana Sutta is
"the only way", it is said in the Dhammapada Commentary that "sakalampi hi
tepi.taka.m buddhavacana.m aaharitvaa kathiyamaana.m appamaadapadameva
otarati."

The Anguttara (fours) says:

"abyaapanno sadaa sato, ajjhatta.m susamaahito;
abhijjhaavinaye sikkha.m, appamattoti vuccati"

which sounds quite close to the teaching of the Satipatthana Sutta.

Then the Samyutta "sati~nca khvaaha.m, bhikkhave, sabbatthika.m vadaamii."

The Commentaries are more direct, saying "appamaado vuccati satiyaa
avippavaaso".

Where this gets us? I think it is important to have a text we will not
doubt, it having the stamp of the Lord Buddha as "the one way". I think
there is no need to doubt satipatthana meditation as being the one way to
nibbaana...

Namasakaara,

Yuttadhammo