numerology of EBT sutta numbering

Some sutta numbering patterns  may be coincidental in having a relevant connection to the subject matter of the sutta. But many of them, such as SN 12  seem to be deliberately placed and numbered that way. Ven. Dhammanando notes that Hindu-Arabic numbering system wasn't invented until early CE.

AN 3.60 Saṅgārava: (name of brahman): which of the 3 powers is best, 1. supernormal, 2. 4 types of psychic power, 3. miracle of instruction? connection: there are 360 degrees in a circle and sphere, suggestive of how the psychic power of mind reading is like having eyes that can see all around and everywhere.

AN 3.69 A-kusala-mūla: un-skillful-roots: The Trinity of unholy roots, AKA The Un-holy Trinity: “tīṇi-māni, bhikkhave, a-kusala-mūlāni... lobho ... doso ... moho... connection: 3, 6, 9, are powers of 3. 3 raised to the powers of 1, 2, 3, are 3, 6, 9. The exponential relationship and proliferation of the 3 unholy trinity proliferating is the message. Evil doesn't just grow slowly in a linear way, it explodes like a pandemic virus and kills all in its path.


MN 111: The sutta title is "one after another", and the topic seeing all the factors of jhana and samadhi arising 'one after another'.

SN 12: samyutta nikaya 12, the subject is the 12ps paticca samuppada dependent co-origination

SN 45.8: The eight sutta in SN 45, is the definitive sutta on the noble eightfold path.

11: These go to eleven

Re: numerology of EBT sutta numbering

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Post by frank k » Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:56 am

Dhammanando wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 12, 2020 2:28 pm

frank k wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:28 am

But many of them, such as SN 12 and MN 111, seem to be deliberately placed and numbered that way.

Given that the Hindu-Arabic decimal system wasn't invented until early in the Common Era, it's unlikely that the sutta-reciters would have thought of "a hundred and eleven" as comprising three ones, any more than they would have thought of the number as comprising a C, an X and an I (as it would have been in Rome).

It also occurred to me they wouldn't have been using the modern sutta numbering system either. The old sutta numbering system would have been 3,2,1. 3rd book of MN, 2nd vagga, 1st sutta. 3,2,1, is a descending sequence and perhaps a 'one after another' in that sense?