(sutta text link) ● MN 23 - 🔗🔊 16m, Vammika: Ant hill
summary of the sutta:
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 (nāga)?”
The Buddha answers the question for the monk later, and two major items of interest are the sword of noble wisdom/discernment (pañña), and the dragon (nāga).
‘Satthan’ti kho, bhikkhu, ariyāyetaṃ paññāya adhivacanaṃ. | ‘Sword’ is a term for noble wisdom. |
About the dragon, the Buddha said:
‘Nāgo’ti kho, bhikkhu, khīṇāsavassetaṃ bhikkhuno adhivacanaṃ. | ‘Dragon’ is a term for a monk who has ended the defilements. |
Tiṭṭhatu nāgo, mā nāgaṃ ghaṭṭesi; namo karohi nāgassāti ayametassa attho”ti. (15) | This is the meaning of: ‘Leave the dragon! Do not disturb the dragon! Worship the dragon.’” |
Idamavoca bhagavā. | That is what the Buddha said. |
Attamano āyasmā kumārakassapo bhagavato bhāsitaṃ abhinandīti. | Satisfied, Venerable Kassapa the Prince was happy with what the Buddha said. |
And the sutta ends like that, prematurely without further explanation.
Why?
Here's my opinion.
The commentary shares that the deva who speaks to the monk Kassapa, was a monk buddy of his in a previous life when both were Buddhist monks striving diligently. That deva is now a nonreturner. Clearly his advice is going to be something worth paying attention to. Advice that helps the monk overcome a current obstacle and get closer to nirvana.
Why do devas give strange riddles instead of speaking plainly?
1. who can you trust?
Some devas do give plain simple advice in plain language, in a dream, in a vision, or just a voice in either dream or waking consciousness. But here's the problem. Whenever you get advice from beings in higher dimensions, how do you know if you can trust them? How do you know it's not a malevolent being with intent to harm or trick you? You might get a vision of a Buddha, an Arahant, or Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, how do you know they're real? You don't.
2. help you learn to think critically
Something that wise beings do, human or devas, is they will just give a hint or help you think through a problem without telling you the answer. They want you to develop dhamma-vicaya samobojjhanga, vimamsa, etc., the ability to think critically and come to the right answer on your own.
3. plausible deniability
Also, another great benefit of that is they have plausible deniability in case you can't come to the right answer yourself, it's not their fault you chose wrong and now have to learn from your mistake.
4. haunting, memorable, validation
The strange riddle tends to stick your mind for days, weeks, even months as you continue to ponder it, and even after you think you've come to a solution, there's still some element of uncertainty and you continue to ponder and look for tangible ways to validate your solution.
If the deva had given you simple plain commands to follow, you don't learn to solve problems yourself, you don't learn to check, double check, critically examine the Dharma to ascertain whether it's genuine Dharma.
Here's what the sutta left out, intentionally.
Again, my opinion.The sutta uses vivid and interesting imagery for how one uses the noble sword of wisdom to remove 9 things. Those 9 similes are meant to haunt your memory over a long time (you'd much more quickly forget plain advice) and draw out nuances of the nature of those 9 things and why you'd want to remove them.
The tenth item, the dragon (nāga), is the arahant. And unlike the first 9 things which are to be removed, for the dragon, the exact instruction is: (B. Sujato translation)
‘Nāgo’ti kho, bhikkhu, khīṇāsavassetaṃ bhikkhuno adhivacanaṃ. | ‘Dragon’ is a term for a monk who has ended the defilements. |
Tiṭṭhatu nāgo, mā nāgaṃ ghaṭṭesi; namo karohi nāgassāti ayametassa attho”ti. (15) | This is the meaning of: ‘Leave the dragon! Do not disturb the dragon! Worship the dragon.’” |
The Pali verb for “spite” (ghaṭṭesi; 3rd sg ghaṭteti) is interesting and has two main senses, the literal and the figurative.
Literally, ghaṭṭeti means “he strikes, beats, knocks against, touch”;
figuratively, “he offends, mocks, objects to.”
So the sutta, IMO, ends on a cliff hanger. The deva gave a fascinating, haunting riddle, the Buddha explains the basic elements, but still leaves much to ponder, especially how do you not disturb the dragon, and what is the dragon experientially in your spiritual practice, since the other 9 elements are very concrete entities and specific?
A cursory reading of the sutta, one would just think, "OK, the dragon is the arahant, we should remove 9 types of defilements and worship the arahant. Got it."
But if that's all you came away with, how does that improve specifics of your meditation and understanding right now? What did the deva and Buddha tell you that you didn't already know?
The big question that left you hanging, How does one become the dragon (arahant)?
(I'll wait a few days before sharing my ideas on the answer )
Forum discussion
B. Thanissaro recent audio talk mentions Ajahn Lee talking about nagas on a full moon day at end of vassa, and how breath meditation and 7 awakening factors are used to become an arahant.
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