Re: vibhuta in AN 11.10

Friends,

I think my point about Sanskrit meanings has not really been taken.

There is actually a range of meanings in use for vibhavati and vibhūta
in earlier Sanskrit (or Vedic, if you prefer.) We do not need to go back
to the Ṛgveda. What is relevant for Pali is the language of the
Brāhmaṇas and older Upaniṣads.

So we have meanings for the basic verb like:
to arise, be developed or manifested, expand, appear; to suffice, be
adequate or equal to or a match for; to pervade, fill; to be able to or
capable of (so Monier Williams Dictionary). Other meanings for the
causative.

We do not have the meaning of 'extinguished'. That is listed in
Edgerton's Dictionary (for vibhūta) as a specifically Buddhist sense.
And it may be a relatively late development.

What we do know is that the root verb means 'to be' or 'to become'. The
prefix vi has the meanings 'apart, asunder, away, out' (Whitney). It can
(but doesn't normally) have a privative sense. So one can easily see how
such senses as 'develop', 'manifest' and the like are generated. This
means that there are various possible meanings in Pali in particular
contexts.

In the Aṅguttara context we are discussing, the idea that every kind of
mental experiencing has to disappear seems rather annihilationist to me.
How would this differ from becoming an asaññasatta ? So I am much
happier with the Niddesa's interpretation of it as going beyond or
transcending. And that seems to me to fit well with the background
Sanskrit use: to become separate from.

What is striking is that there is no such ambiguity when the extinction
of craving is discussed. There would be no need to use vibhūta if it
does not mean something different to 'ceasing to be'.

The case of vibhava seems rather different, since that is used in
apposition to bhava.

Lance Cousins