audio pali chanting here:
🔗🔊 Chap-pāṇak-opama: 6 animals simile
SN 35.247 sutta text
Pali word for 'simile' is 'upama'
Let's start with the sutta title:
| upama: (in cpds.) like; similar; having the qualities of. () |
Upama (adj.) [compar. -- superl. formation fr. upa, cp. Lat. summus fr. *(s)ub -- mo] "coming quite or nearly up to" i. e. like, similar, equal D
But because of sandhi rules,
recall recent lesson pali what-cha-ma-callit (sandhi rules):
You might see 'upama' in compound words as opama or opamma.
Cha-p-pāṇak-opama = 6 animal similes
You probably also recognize "pāṇa" from breath meditation 'ana-pana-sati' (inhale-exhale-sati).
There's probably a relationship there, animals have to breathe after all.
'opama' and 'upama' occurs often in the suttas. Here in the 3rd vagga of Majjhima Nikaya, most of the suttas here are based on similes. Look at the sutta titles carefully. I've added hyphens, but in the wild on your own in the vicious pali jungle, they're not so easy to spot.
✴️MN 21 Kakacū-pama: the saw-simile: (🤖 16m): (simile of expert chariot driver) (simile of removing weeds) (story of maid testing queen’s anger) (5 ways of criticizing) (simile of bucket collecting all of earth) (simile of painting the sky) (simile of torching ganges river) (simile of catskin bag) (simile of saw)
✴️MN 22 Alagaddū-pama: snake-simile: (🤖 25m): Seems to be the same Arittha of SN 54.6, since both cover the theme of sensual pleasure not being obstruction. “Is it really true, Reverend Ariṭṭha, that you have such a harmful misconception: ‘As I understand the Buddha’s teachings, the acts that he says are obstructions are not really obstructions for the one who performs them’?” “Absolutely, reverends...”.
✴️MN 23 Vammika: Ant hill: (🤖 6m): A deva gives a riddle to a monk: “Sir, what is the ant-hill? What is the fuming by night and flaming by day? Who is the brahmin, and who the sage? What are the sword, the digging, the bar, the bullfrog, the forked path, the box, the tortoise, the axe and block, and the piece of flesh? And what is the dragon?”
✴️MN 24 Rathavinīta: 7 relay chariots (🤖 9m): There don't seem to be any other EBT suttas that explain what these 7 stages are. It seems you have to read the non-canonical Vism. to find out the details.
✴️MN 25 Nivāpa: Fodder: (🤖 11m) simile of Mara as deer hunter trapping with 5kg: ‘When these deer intrude on where I cast the bait, they’ll recklessly enjoy eating it. They’ll become indulgent, then they’ll become negligent, and then they’ll be vulnerable on account of this bait.’ And indeed, the first herd of deer intruded on where the trapper cast the bait and recklessly enjoyed eating it. They became indulgent, then they became negligent, and then they were vulnerable to the trapper on account of that bait.
✴️MN 26 Ariya-pariyesanā [Pāsarāsi]: noble-search (🤖 33m): And what is the noble search? It’s when someone who is themselves liable to be reborn, understanding the drawbacks in being liable to be reborn, seeks the unborn supreme sanctuary, nirvana. Themselves liable to grow old, fall sick, die, sorrow, and become corrupted, understanding the drawbacks in these things, they seek the unaging, unailing, undying, sorrowless, uncorrupted supreme sanctuary, nirvana.
✴️MN 27 Cūḷa-hatthipad-opama: short footprint simile (🤖 19m): “Suppose that a skilled elephant tracker were to enter an elephant wood. There he’d see a large elephant’s footprint, long and broad. So niṭṭhaṃ gaccheyya: ‘This must be a big bull elephant.’
✴️MN 28 Mahā-hatthi-pad-opama: large footprint simile (🤖 17m) : (mostly going into detail on 4 elements) “The footprints of all creatures that walk can fit inside an elephant’s footprint, so an elephant’s footprint is said to be the biggest of them all. In the same way, all skillful qualities can be included in the four noble truths.
✴️MN 29 Mahā-sāropama: larger discourse heartwood simile (🤖 9m): When they’ve gone forth they generate possessions, honor, and popularity. They’re happy with that, and they’ve got all they wished for. And they glorify themselves and put others down because of that:
✴️MN 30 Cūḷa-sāropama: shorter discourse heartwood simile (🤖 11m): “Suppose there was a person in need of heartwood. And while wandering in search of heartwood he’d come across a large tree standing with heartwood. But, passing over the heartwood, softwood, bark, and shoots, he’d cut off the branches and leaves and depart imagining they were heartwood. If a person with good eyesight saw him they’d say: ‘This gentleman doesn’t know what heartwood, softwood, bark, shoots, or branches and leaves are.
✴️MN 22 Alagaddū-pama: snake-simile: (🤖 25m): Seems to be the same Arittha of SN 54.6, since both cover the theme of sensual pleasure not being obstruction. “Is it really true, Reverend Ariṭṭha, that you have such a harmful misconception: ‘As I understand the Buddha’s teachings, the acts that he says are obstructions are not really obstructions for the one who performs them’?” “Absolutely, reverends...”.
✴️MN 23 Vammika: Ant hill: (🤖 6m): A deva gives a riddle to a monk: “Sir, what is the ant-hill? What is the fuming by night and flaming by day? Who is the brahmin, and who the sage? What are the sword, the digging, the bar, the bullfrog, the forked path, the box, the tortoise, the axe and block, and the piece of flesh? And what is the dragon?”
✴️MN 24 Rathavinīta: 7 relay chariots (🤖 9m): There don't seem to be any other EBT suttas that explain what these 7 stages are. It seems you have to read the non-canonical Vism. to find out the details.
✴️MN 25 Nivāpa: Fodder: (🤖 11m) simile of Mara as deer hunter trapping with 5kg: ‘When these deer intrude on where I cast the bait, they’ll recklessly enjoy eating it. They’ll become indulgent, then they’ll become negligent, and then they’ll be vulnerable on account of this bait.’ And indeed, the first herd of deer intruded on where the trapper cast the bait and recklessly enjoyed eating it. They became indulgent, then they became negligent, and then they were vulnerable to the trapper on account of that bait.
✴️MN 26 Ariya-pariyesanā [Pāsarāsi]: noble-search (🤖 33m): And what is the noble search? It’s when someone who is themselves liable to be reborn, understanding the drawbacks in being liable to be reborn, seeks the unborn supreme sanctuary, nirvana. Themselves liable to grow old, fall sick, die, sorrow, and become corrupted, understanding the drawbacks in these things, they seek the unaging, unailing, undying, sorrowless, uncorrupted supreme sanctuary, nirvana.
✴️MN 27 Cūḷa-hatthipad-opama: short footprint simile (🤖 19m): “Suppose that a skilled elephant tracker were to enter an elephant wood. There he’d see a large elephant’s footprint, long and broad. So niṭṭhaṃ gaccheyya: ‘This must be a big bull elephant.’
✴️MN 28 Mahā-hatthi-pad-opama: large footprint simile (🤖 17m) : (mostly going into detail on 4 elements) “The footprints of all creatures that walk can fit inside an elephant’s footprint, so an elephant’s footprint is said to be the biggest of them all. In the same way, all skillful qualities can be included in the four noble truths.
✴️MN 29 Mahā-sāropama: larger discourse heartwood simile (🤖 9m): When they’ve gone forth they generate possessions, honor, and popularity. They’re happy with that, and they’ve got all they wished for. And they glorify themselves and put others down because of that:
✴️MN 30 Cūḷa-sāropama: shorter discourse heartwood simile (🤖 11m): “Suppose there was a person in need of heartwood. And while wandering in search of heartwood he’d come across a large tree standing with heartwood. But, passing over the heartwood, softwood, bark, and shoots, he’d cut off the branches and leaves and depart imagining they were heartwood. If a person with good eyesight saw him they’d say: ‘This gentleman doesn’t know what heartwood, softwood, bark, shoots, or branches and leaves are.
Fun words from SN 35.247
Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, puriso chappāṇake gahetvā nānāvisaye nānāgocare daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope. |
Ahiṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐍 They’d catch a snake, |
Susumāraṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐊 a crocodile, |
Pakkhiṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐦a bird, |
Kukkuraṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐕 a dog, |
Siṅgālaṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐺 a jackal, |
Makkaṭaṃ gahetvā daḷhāya rajjuyā bandheyya. | 🐒 and a monkey, |
1. First look at this word that occurs so many times: bandheyya
| bandha: bound; fetter; attachment; imprisonment. (m.) |
That word is almost a freebie. bound, bind, bandha look and sound very similar and probably have common roots.
2. 'kukkura' = dog. Probably that word is an onomatopoeia
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).
Some dogs bark with sounds that sound like 'kukkura'.
3. makkata = monkey: both words start with "m" and have "k" in the middle.
4. pakkhī: a bird; the winged one. (m.)
You might recognize that word from
satta bodhi pakkhiya dhamma
Seven Buddha-fication wings (of) Dharma (7 sets with 37 factors)
B. Thanissaro has "wings to awakening".
Or some translators prefer the much more boring "aids to enlightenment".
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