Dear Ma Vajira,
Many thanks for your excellent and lucid explanation of the levels of
knowing and the three kinds of akkhara which demonstrates not only your
deep learning but also your ability to teach Pali and Dhamma
together---rarely seen for a Westerner. I was aware of the large
Pali-Myanmar Dictionary as a Burmese member on our list told us about it
some years ago and even provided an excerpt for us to see what it was like.
With best wishes, Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ma Vajira" <vajiranani@...>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2009 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Kaccaayana: introductory verses (2)
Dear Jim and George,
Yes, of course there are many levels of knowing: there is knowledge
gained from reading or hearing, knowledge gained by deduction, and
knowledge gained experientially, to mention a few. Here, the
knowledge of path, fruition and nibbāna gained by the wise is not mere
book-learning, but experiential, gained through practice of the three
trainings of morality, concentration and wisdom taught by the Buddha.
Ashin Janakābhivaṃsa says of "budhā labhanti" in his ṭīkā to the
Kaccāyana, "Because the attainment (getting) of path and fruition =
knowing penetratingly, the meaning of labhanti is explicated as
"paṭivijjhanti = having penetrated, they know." This use of the verb
to know is rooted in the understanding that the mind has the
characteristic of knowing an object, and that direct realization of
Nibbāna happens when the mind takes Nibbāna as its object. This is
knowing, but not a type of knowing that can be gained just by reading.
I would like to add to the discussion of the meaning of akkhara by
referring to the Tipiṭaka Pāḷi-Myanmar Dictionary [as you may know,
this is a work of nearly 20 large volumes containing every word used
in the Tipiṭaka and (I think) Commentaries, which was produced
following the sixth Saṃgha Council.] It says that there are three
kinds of akkhara, 1. conceptual, 2. spoken, and 3. written, and
follows by citing the use of the word akkhara in each of these
meanings in the Pāḷi and Commentaries. In the time of the Buddha, his
teaching wasn't written down but was transmitted orally. But now it
exists in written form as well as oral. And whether we are talking
about akkhara as mental, spoken or written, what is important is that
they must be pronounced and written correctly, otherwise the meaning
of the Pāḷi will become corrupted.
with metta,
Ma Vajira