Dear Nina,
Thanks for your response. It's wonderful to hear from you too and to see
that you posted a question to the group near the end of June which got an
excellent response from Bhikkhu Bodhi.
I'm afraid I'm in no position to elaborate on kāyaviññatti (bodily
communication) and vacIviññatti (verbal communication) as I hardly know
anything about them other than that they are included in the
materiality-aggregate. For further study I have turned to the
Abhidhammatthavibhāvinīṭīkā (ed. H. Saddhatissa) along with its translation
by Wijeratne & Gethin. The term "viññatti" came up in my reading of the
Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna commentary to the Iriyāpathapabba in the following passage:
Kiṃ kāraṇā gacchatīti cittakiriyavāyodhātuvipphārena gacchati. Tasmā esa
evaṃ pajānāti–“gacchāmī”ti cittaṃ uppajjati, taṃ vāyaṃ janeti, vāyo
viññattiṃ janeti, cittakiriyavāyodhātuvipphārena sakalakāyassa purato
abhinīhāro gamananti vuccati. --- Sv 2.357 BCS CD version. (= PTS Sv II 767)
Some Thera (The Way of Mindfulness, p.78) translates a similar passage from
the commentary to MN 10 as follows:
<< On account of what does the going take place? On account of the diffusion
of the process of oscillation born of mental activity. Because of that this
yogi knows thus: If there arises the thought, "I shall go," that thought
produces the process of oscillation; the process of oscillation produces
expression (the bodily movement which indicates going and so forth). The
moving on of the whole body through the diffusion of the process of
oscillation is called going. >>
The part I'm having trouble understanding (among others) is "taṃ vāyaṃ
janeti, vāyo viññattiṃ janeti," which I translate as: "this (citta)
produces the wind (-element), the wind (-element in turn) produces or
generates (bodily) expression or communication."
I should explain how my motivation to study the Iriyāpathapabba with its
aṭṭhakathā & ṭikā came about. Mid-way during the 9-day retreat with Ven. U
Thitzana in June, he gave us some instructions on the walking practice which
included mentally labelling the three parts of moving one step at a time
(i.e. lifting, pushing, dropping). I asked him for a canonical source for
this practice and he quoted "gacchanto vā gacchāmīti pajānaāti" and also
mentioned the Mahasi Sayadaw. It has since become an issue for me as I tend
to be wary of so-called Buddhist pracitces that seemingly have no basis or
support in the canonical or commentarial sources. The commentarial teaching
on the modes of deportment as I see it so far is mostly about knocking out
the notion of a Self in the varying postures one assumes. I have no trouble
going along with that.
Best wishes,
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nina van Gorkom" <vangorko@...>
To: <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2012 3:30 AM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] update
Dear Jim,
Op 3-aug-2012, om 21:56 heeft Jim Anderson het volgende geschreven:
> Lately, I've been devoting my
> attention to the iriyāpathapabba section of DN 22 where the
> commentary gets
> into the notion of a self and using Abhidahamma to explain a world
> without a
> self. I'm having trouble grasping the concept of the two viññattis.
--------
N: Wonderful to hear from you. I appreciate your comments on various
messages. If you have time could you elaborate on the vi~n~nattis?
Which sentences of the commentary you are referring to? As you know,
they are mere ruupas produced by citta, and are a means to convey a
meaning. But it would be interesting to elaborate on this, if
possible, before you leave us.
Nina.