Re: AW: [palistudy] sesa-dvaya

Dear Bryan,

The passage is explaining the meaning of the word uposathe at DN I 47.
As commonly with the commentaries it gives various senses of the word
uposatha in various contexts and concludes that the meaning here is
upavasitabbadivaso. So here it refers to the days on which the uposatha
is kept (by observing eight precepts). There are similar passages at Spk
I 277 and  Ps IV 75f. So in this context it does not concern the
recitation of the Pātimokkha.

There are four such days i.e. the eighth in both fortnights, the
fifteenth in both fortnights and the fourteenth when there is no
fifteenth, making three kinds of uposatha day.

Such passages probably come from the old (Sinhaḷa) Aṭṭhakathā.

Lance
> Dear Lance and Petra,
>
> Thanks (Lance) for your detailed explanation. My confusion is based on
> the understanding that monks were to assemble twice during the month,
> on the fourteenth (new moon) and the fifteenth (full moon) to recite
> the /patimokkha/. This passage seems to be saying that the assembly on
> the fifteenth precludes or subsumes the assembly on the fourteenth and
> on the eighth (the eighth I thought was for the laity). But at the
> same time it says that the /Uposatha /is /tividho /(three-fold). If
> the monks are to assembly every fortnight, how can the fifteenth
> "prevent" the eighth and fourteenth? Or is this passage just a way of
> saying that "although the /uposatha /is three-fold, when this term is
> used, it only refers to the full moon day"?  (it seems to be a quote
> from somewhere -- see the quotes before it which are from the DN, MN,
> AN, etc -- perhaps from a lost work).
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Bryan
>