Re: MN 12

Doing a little searching, I found that simile in two other suttas, linked below. In the first, AN4.45, it reads, "My speed was as fast as that of a strong archer — well-trained, a practiced hand, a practiced sharp-shooter — shooting a light arrow across the shadow of a palm tree." And in the other, AN9.38, it reads, "Suppose that there were four men standing at the four directions, endowed with supreme speed & stride. Like that of a strong archer — well-trained, a practiced hand, a practiced sharp-shooter — shooting a light arrow across the shadow of a palm tree: Such would be the speed with which they were endowed."

It doesn't seem to shed all that much light on the meaning in MN 12, but my (rather uneducated) guess would be that these four hypothetical disciples would be capable of utilizing "mindfulness, retentiveness, memory and lucidity of wisdom" with as much ease as a skilled archer finds in shooting an arrow across the shadow of a palm. I take it to mean that even after a hundred years, these very special four disciples, with perfect memory, having spent their time questioning the Buddha and never asking the same question twice, would be unable to find a single contradiction or fault in any of the Buddha's wisdom.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.045.than.html
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an09/an09.038.than.html

On Sat, Sep 17, 2016 at 3:49 AM, Branislav Kovacevic ja_sam_branko@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Dear All,

I came across the following simile in Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the MN 12: Mahasihanada sutta

"Just as a skilled archer, trained, practised, and tested, could easily shoot a light arrow across the shadow of a palm tree, suppose that they were even to that extent perfect in mindfulness, retentiveness, memory, and lucidity of wisdom."

I do not get this simile. What does it want to convey? Something which is done easily? But what shooting an arrow across the shadow of a palm tree has to do with that?

Could you please help with this.

Many thanks
Branko