> I've long been curious about these two kinds of
> contemplation, since they are both comprised under the idea
> of mindfulness, yet they seem to exclude each other. While
> focussed on raw sensations it's hard to reflect in wider
> philosophical terms, yet while drawing those wider lessons
> it's hard to pay attention to raw physical sensations, at
> least for me.
>
> It seems to me that the commentary has come into being in an
> agglutinative way: that any new interpretation of a passage
> has been admitted, as long as it's judged to fit with the
> teachings as a whole. This could explain the impression
> described by Bhante Kumara, that the interpreters seem to
> stretch the interpretation beyond the most simple and obvious
> reading. Two or more different practices seem at times to
> have been catalogued under one heading. This makes the
> commentary more of a storehouse of teachings at times than an
> elucidation of the original text.

Dear Rett and friends,

I have another idea from our City Monk's road atlas (of course I'm talking
about everyone's favourite road kill, Ajaan Buddhaghosa). Please look up
the "material septad" in the 20th chapter of the Visuddhimagga. There,
there are said to be seven ways of contemplating the arising and ceasing:

1) aadaananikkhepanato: as taking up (birth) and putting down (death)
2) vayovu.d.dhatthagaamito: as growth and decline in every stage (dividing
life up into parts in 14 ways, down to six-part stepping)
3) aahaarato: as nutriment
4) ututo: as temperature
5) kammato: as kamma
6) cittato: as consciousness
7) dhammataaruupato: as natural materiality

satta, vitthaarena vipassatii"ti.

So it could be taken that the text:

"Vayadhammaanupassii vaa"ti yathaa bhastaaya apaniitaaya gaggaranaa.liyaa
bhinnaaya tajje ca vaayaame asati so vaato nappavattati, evameva kaaye
bhinne naasaapu.te viddhaste citte ca niruddhe assaasapassaasakaayo naama
nappavattatiiti kaayaadinirodhaa assaasapassaasanirodhoti eva.m passanto
"vayadhammaanupassii vaa kaayasmi.m viharatii"ti vuccati.

is simply giving the first of seven types of contemplation, assuming that
the reader is familiar with this group of seven. After all the
Visuddhimagga verse does say "tenaahu poraa.naa" - "by the ancients it was
said:" Must have been before our time...

Sumangalaani,

Yuttadhammo