Help with expanding AN11.30-69

Q & A
1

I was reading random suttas from AN, and stumbled across AN11.30-69 which I couldn’t figure out to expand.

… “… ear … nose … tongue … body … mind …”

I have found that sometimes viewing the pali can expand the ellipses, however it wasn’t much help either.

… Sotasmiṁ… ghānasmiṁ… jivhāya… kāyasmiṁ… manasmiṁ…

Additionally, are there any strategies for figuring out how to expand these sections when there aren’t context clues in the sutta?

Thanks

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2

In this case (and in many others too) the clue lies in the preceding sutta(s). If you go to AN11.22-29, you will find a description how a mendicant is unable to observe impermanence and various other factors in the eye—which in AN11.30-69 is then expanded for the other senses and in AN11.70-117 for the outer sense spheres. These texts of course don’t make much sense as such.

Towards the end of the books of both AN and SN you will find so-called “abbreviation series” that often consist of single words that have to be expanded according to the pattern of preceding suttas. Sometimes in the SN, there are instructions on how to expand them, but not so in the AN.

As you note, the abbreviations are already in the Pali manuscripts that we have, so it is not easy to just find ready-made expansions at hand.

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