Dear Nina,

I am very sorry for my mistakes. Please forgive me.

I mean to ask: Do you also mean that this term, Suttanta Maatikaa, is not actually appeared in the Abhidhamma pitaka, Sutta pitaka, and their Pali commentaries? If this term does not actually exist or present in those collections, then the Pali tradition does not really preserve the tradition or concept (the term) regarding "Suttanta Maatikaa". It is here (by Ven. Nyanatiloka?) just making up the expression or phrase for the his Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitaka.

In other words, Suttanta Maatikaa, i.e. Suutra-maat.rkaa in Skt., is "only" appeared in the "Mahayana" Yogacara-bhumi-sastra or "Sarvastivada" tradition, but not in the Pali tradition. The Pali tradition simply regards all subject headings/fundamental topics shown in the Sutta pitaka are maatikaa (of the Buddha teachings).

The topics (subject headings) of the Suutra-maat.rkaa found in the Yogacara-bhumi-sastra/Sarvastivada tradition correspond quite closely to the structure of some Pali Abhidhamma books, including non-Pali Abhidharmas, and the major part of Samyutta-nikaya/Samyukta-agama. I get this information from the books, The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism (by Choong Mun-keat), and The Buddhist Path to Awakening (by R. M. L. Gethin).

However, if this term, Suttanta Maatikaa, is not appeared in the Abhidhamma and Sutta pitakas, and their Pali commentaries, then the Pali tradition does not really preserve or maintain the tradition of "Suttanta Maatikaa". It may be just lost in the Pali tradition, but found only in the maatikaas (subject headings or the structure) of some Abhidhamma books, such as Vibhanga.

Hope you can understand my questions. Any advice?

Sincerely,

Thomas Law

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nina van Gorkom <vangorko@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Thomas,
> Op 11-aug-2010, om 4:19 heeft thomaslaw03 het volgende geschreven:
>
> > Do you also mean that the term, Suttanta Maatikaa, does not
> > actually exist or presented in the Abhidhamma pitaka, Sutta pitaka,
> > and their Pali commentaries? If this is correct, then, the Pali
> > tradition does not really have the tradition of `Suttanta
> > Maatikaa'(It is just making up the term)?
> ------
> N: Maatika just means table of contents. I do not quite understand
> your question. As Ven. Nyanatiloka explains in his Guide through the
> Abhidhamma Pi.taka, the Suttanta Maatrix may be regarded as a kind of
> appendix. I do not know more about it, but just render what I found.
> Nina.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>