Dear Ven Yuttadhammo, Dmytro, and all

> > It means "leading to only one place", i.e. Nibbana. For another
> > context see Mahasihanada sutta (MN I 74):

Is there anywhere in the Pali where Nibbana is referred to as
the 'one'? As far as i know, this term had been so thouroughly
subsumed by the Vedic tradition (ekam sat, etc.) that the Buddha
studiously avoided using it for Nibbana, but was happy to use it in
samaadhi contexts. As i mentioned before, the only significant
meaning of eka in satipatthana contexts is 'one pointedness of
mind'.

Thanks to Ven Yuttadhammo for his many interesting quotes. There are
other quotes in the Sanskrit, too. In one place it is given as the
name of a Brahmanical text, explained by Sankara as niitisastra. The
conclusion seems to be that there are many different meanings
of 'ekaayana', so we should look to see which is relevant in the
satipatthana context.

In the Brahmanical scriptures, the other meanings (single path,
etc.) only seem to occur in direct contexts (as also in the Jataka
examples), not in the mystic/spiritual/meditative contexts. There,
the meanings seems to be, as i said before, 'convergence'. Since the
suttas virtually tell us to read this phrase in Brahmanical context,
i think we can be as confident as can be expected that this is the
right meaning here.

Again, it is a complex textual argument, but try this as an
experiment. Leave aside the Satipatthana Sutta, and go back to the
Satipatthana Samyutta. See how the term 'ekaayana' is used there -
you can even do a statistical analysis. This will demonstrate just
how important the Brahmanical context is. The Chinese versions
substantially reinforce this.

in Dhamma
Bhante Sujato