MĀ 159: Some Notes on a Sūtra About the Basis of Heaven and Earth

MĀ 159 is a fairly brief sūtra without a known parallel in the chapter on priests in the Madhyama Āgama. After spending time drafting it, I thought it would make a good subject for an essay here, given how much these types of texts still seem to go unnoticed as everyone rehashes the Pali canon endlessly. Also because it’s one of those texts that challenges some modern views about Nirvana that seem to have become a consensus.

The sūtra is a fairly simple one. The Buddha reduces a superficial subject (in this case the brahmin scriptures, presumably Vedas) to its spiritual basis (in this case nirvāna). The path taken from beginning to end passes through a serious of cosmological steps along the way.

Aggilāyana or Agrahana?

Before I jump into the content of the sūtra, though, I want to address the first problem MĀ 159 presented me and anyone else who attempts to translate it: The priest’s name. It’s transliterated as 阿伽羅訶那, which was probably pronounced “a-gɪă-la-ha-na” in Early Middle Chinese. When I consult the translation published by BDK, I find that they have converted this transliteration to Aggilāyana. As far as I can tell, this is a “Palinization” of Sanskrit Agnilāyana, which would consist of aggi (“fire”) and lāyana (“cutting”) in Pali. While I can find Agnilayana in a couple sources on the Internet, it seems completely obscure in the usual references.

If anyone knows of an attestation of this name anywhere, I’d love to know the reference for it.

There are a couple problems with this back-transliteration, though. First, there’s no vowel “i” present that could support “agi” as a reading of 阿伽 (a-gɪă). 伽 typical transliterates the Indic sounds “ga” or “ka.” The second problem is that there is no “y” in the transliteration. Rather, there is an “h.” As a result, Aggilāyana doesn’t fit the pronunciation perfectly. It’s not impossible, but let’s consider another possibility that would be a better fit.

It’s quite possible that 伽羅 represents a consonant combination like gra or gṛ. If it were gṛ, I would expect an “i” to follow the “r” for a Prakrit pronunciation of “ṛ”, which in Chinese is usually represented with “li” (typically, 利). Instead, what we have here is a “la” or “ra” syllable.

When I consult a Sanskrit dictionary, I notice there are two words of basically the same meaning that fit the transliteration fairly well: grahana and gṛhana. They both mean someone with a house. This word apparently is negated to arrive at Agrahana (“someone without a house”). This is my working guess for the priest’s name in this sūtra.

The Earth Series of Bases

The priest asks the Buddha what place or abode is the basis for the priestly scriptures. This leads to a Q&A that traces scriptures back to empty space, which is the ultimate basis of the Earth that itself has no basis.

Basis of the Earth Ch.
Priestly Scriptures 梵志經典
:arrow_up: Humans 人住
:arrow_up: Grain 稻麥住
:arrow_up: Earth 地住
:arrow_up: Water 水住
:arrow_up: Air 風住
:arrow_up: Space 空住

This series has a downward trajectory, traveling through the earth and the layers of elements that it rests on. At the end, we reach the empty space below the wind that holds up the water that holds up the earth that supports the agriculture that supports the people who support the scriptures (by reciting them, presumably).

The Heavenly Series of Bases

The priest asks the Buddha what the basis of this empty space is, and he replies that it has no basis. It exists only because of the sun and moon (空無所依。但因日月故,有虛空). This point represents the pivot to the next series about the basis of the heavens that’s parallel to the basis of the earth.

The trajectory of this series is upwards, meaning that the higher heavens are the basis of the lower heavens.

Basis of the Heavens Ch.
:arrow_up: Sun and Moon 日月
:arrow_up: Heaven of the Four Kings 四王天住
:arrow_up: Heaven of the Thirty-Three 三十三天住
:arrow_up: Yama’s Heaven 㷿摩天住
:arrow_up: Tuṣita Heaven 兜瑟哆天住
:arrow_up: Nirmāṇarati Heaven 化樂天住
:arrow_up: Paranirmāṇarati Heaven 他化樂天住
:arrow_up: The Brahma World 梵世住
:arrow_up: Mahābrahmā 大梵住
:arrow_up: Patient Gentleness 忍辱溫良住
:arrow_up: Nirvāṇa 涅槃住

When the priest asks what the basis of Nirvāṇa is, the Buddha replies:

「梵志,意欲依無窮事。汝今從我受問無邊,然涅槃者無所依住。但涅槃滅訖;涅槃為最。梵志,以此義故,從我行梵行。」
“Priest, you want the basis for something that has no end. You could put questions to me that are limitless, but nirvāṇa has no place that’s its basis. Only nirvāṇa is the end of cessation; nirvāṇa is the highest. Priest, the religious life is practiced under me for this goal.”

At this point, the priest takes refuge and asks to be a layman in the Buddha’s teaching.

Heaven vs. Earth, Spiritual Development vs. Scripture

There’s a couple things to note: The first three (scriptures, people, and grain) and last two items (patient gentleness and Nirvāṇa) of the entire series are not cosmological items. The first three are the material basis of religion (texts, people, and food), and the last items are the spiritual basis of religion (good qualities and the place of liberation). Everything sandwiched between these two dimensions of religion is a tour-de-force of Heaven and Earth.

The earth, though, is decidedly material in nature, representing the elemental basis of the land on which we stand. There is no mention of the spiritual opposites of the heavens: hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. So, we might say that the cosmological series continues the materialistic point of view that it begins with: texts instead of meaning.

The Role of Nirvāṇa

This presentation of the heavens has it’s own curiosity: There is no formless realm. Or, perhaps there is! Perhaps Nirvāṇa represent the formless realm in this model of the heavens. This sūtra makes me wonder: The formless realm seems peculiar to Buddhist cosmology. Perhaps it was a later development that inserted a kind of heavenly “asymptote” that approaches but never reaches Nirvāṇa.

We should note too that while the Buddha says Nirvāṇa is the ultimate end goal, he doesn’t put this point in the context of ending rebirth, but rather in the context of the basis of the heavens. In fact, it could even be argued that this sūtra presents Nirvāṇa as an apex of rarefied heavenly existence akin to empty space that the earth rests upon.

Setting that aside, though, it’s also quite interesting to me that Nirvāṇa is presented as the basis for good qualities like “patient gentleness,” which support the existence of Brahmā when people develop them. The implication is that it would be impossible for such virtues to be cultivated without Nirvāṇa. This makes it a positive basis for spirituality and the higher development of human beings in general.

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Do you mean the view that nibbana = nothingness?

Also interesting sutra. Thanks for sharing. What’s your view on what some sutras are found in SA, MA or EA but not in the Pali canon? Are they fabrications or teachings preserved in one but not the other?

This is an interesting observation! I can’t seem to make a search on just Agamas on SC - are there other agamas that talk about āyatana realms?

Realistically, there were probably some fabrications, but it’s also quite possible of one tradition lost material that another managed to preserve. I was just reading a passage in the Mahāvibhāṣā about arguments over whether the 98 anuśayas should be included in the Abhidharma. Some argued that they were originally in a sūtra in the Ekottarika Āgama. They claimed that it once went to the Hundreds instead of just to the Elevens. But during the first couple generations of disciples, large amounts of scripture were lost when certain reciters passed away. It may well be an exaggerated story about real events.

So, I’m much less skeptical of texts without parallels. I think it would be best to combine in altogether rather than discard texts without parallels. But I’m also realistic about the urge of human creativity and the accidents of history that probably causes texts to change over the centuries.

[Edit: I realized I neglected to answer this question!] Yeah, I think in the context of modern debates of rebirth or no rebirth, Nirvana seems to have slid into being the oblivion the materialists imagine death must be among many western Buddhists. Maybe it’s just the intellectual tendency to discard the emotive side of things and reduce it to ideas that have to be logically consistent.

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It may be that the Brahmin (not all brahmins are priests by the way and must be usually referred to as a Brahmin, whether or not they are priests is a different issue) was named Āgrahāyaṇa (which is normally the name of a month) but some people are named after the month they are born in.

GIven that the Sanskrit Maudgalyāyaṇa , Kātyāyana etc become Moggallāna, Kaccāna etc in Pali, I think something similar may have happened to the name of Āgrahāyaṇa - i.e. the hāyaṇa may have been truncated to hāṇa - so imported into chinese as āgrahāṇa or something close to this.

Another possible name is Āgrāyaṇa but this name doesnt have a ‘h’ in it so probably unlikely.

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I feel that aligns with EBT, for example with:

Here, Ananda, a bhikkhu develops right view, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release” (SN3.18)

"And what, bhikkhus, is the path leading to the unconditioned? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu develops the faculty of faith, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release: this is called the path leading to the unconditioned… (SN43.12)

Also powers, enlightment factors, all those qualities are based upon dispassion and cessation.

You can also see this in MN117. The only path that leads to the end of suffering is based upon dispassion, purity, and is not connected with merit, unlike the mundane noble path.

"And how, Ananda, does a bhikkhu who has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path? Here, Ananda, a bhikkhu develops right view, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release.7 He develops right intention … . right speech … right action … right livelihood … right effort … right mindfulness . . . right concentration, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release. It is in this way Ananda, that a bhikkhu who has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path. (SN45.2)

"And how does a bhikkhu do so? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu develops right view, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release. He develops . … right concentration,
which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release.
"It is in this way, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu with a rightly directed view, with a rightly directed development of the path, pierces ignorance, arouses true knowledge, and realizes
Nibbana. (SN45.9)

What does this mean? For me…Dhamma is in the end not about conditioning. It is not about endlessly repeating the same patterns. We do not have to become a machine. We are allready machine-like and this does not have to become even worse.

Dhamma, in the end, is just not a matter of conditioning. How can conditioning ever lead to freedom?
Dogs are conditioned, and that makes them unfree to do what they want. They just are driven by conditionings, habitual forces instincts. Conditioning does not lead to freedom.

Ofcourse we can have an idea of what it is to be friendly, compassionate, loving and practice that idea but it never becomes real friendliness, compassion, love because this is not in the domain of conditioning but based upon dispassion and cessation, which describes the unconditioned, asankhata domain.

It is also not difficult to see and feel when one speaks and acts in a habitual way, based upon passion and when one speaks and acts in an authentic and free way, based upon dispassion.
I have seen for myself that the first can be meritorious, for example, care for animals and people.
But i have also seen this is not really pure. It is very much appreciated in the world but i also understand why the Buddha does not call this pure. Such meritorious deeds are still not pure.
Conditionings will never become pure. They cannot represent freedom and Nibbana.

Indeed, i believe it is true and in line with the suttaa’s: real virtues are based upon Nibbana, purity, dispassion, cessation.

An ambitious unknowing person thinks he must develop at least heaven and earth to possess all these qualities but a noble knows that one must let go of all such ambition and have faith that all these beautiful qualities are our birthright. People are afraid to be simple, but that is the nature of dispassion.

Ofcourse we can invest in habits, conditioning and that can be useful but EBT teaches that all real qualities are not based upon conditioning but purity, dispassion.

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That is very interesting. I also agree that we shouldn’t ignore something just because it has no parallel. There is also evidence for the Pāli suttas having lost some texts. For example the commentary to the AN mentions a sutta which now no longer exists, but of course it once did since the commentary acknowledges it.

[Edit: I realized I neglected to answer this question!] Yeah, I think in the context of modern debates of rebirth or no rebirth, Nirvana seems to have slid into being the oblivion the materialists imagine death must be among many western Buddhists. Maybe it’s just the intellectual tendency to discard the emotive side of things and reduce it to ideas that have to be logically consistent.

I agree. I said on another thread that nibbāna was always framed as being beyond conceptualising, yet it has positive and negative portrayals. Leaving a bit of mystery in the practice is fine IMO. We are told we get to find out in the end. Personally, I like a bit of mystery.

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Hi Charles,

Thanks for the post! I’m not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but your translation doesn’t come up for me on either Dharma Pearls or Sutta Central. Perhaps I just have to be patient… :rofl:

I did find it in the BDK The English Tripitaka – BDK America version. I have a question about this passage:

The BDK version has:

I was initially puzzled by your: “Only nirvāṇa is the end of cessation” vs the BDK version: “Nirvana is total cessation”.

However, In the context, I gather I should read your translation as: “Once we get to nirvāṇa, there is nothing else left to cease (because everything has ceased)”? Then the contradiction vanishes. Am I correct, or is there some subtlety that I’m missing?

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Interesting! Thank you! This I think is a more likely candidate. I know that in Gandhari there was a tendency to weaken -h- and -y-. -y- could become -h-, and -h- sometimes became silent altogether. So, the word we are looking at may be:

S. Āgrahāyaṇa < G. Agra’ahaṇa < C. Agrahana

Chinese transliteration not being able to represent it precisely, it becomes simply Agrahana. It’s too bad there’s no attestation for the word at gandhari.org!

I notice, too, that S. Agrahāyaṇa means “commencement of the year” which would fit the brahmin’s role in the discourse as the person who commences the Q&A cycle by asking the first question.

No, the translation isn’t published yet, but it will be in the next week or two, depending on how long SC is about updating their website.

Yes, that’s the gist of it. The original Chinese is 但涅槃滅訖, which lit. means “only (但) nirvāṇa (涅槃) finishes (訖) [with] cessation (滅),” where the verb is placed at the end of the sentence as it would be an Indian language sentence. 訖 is a verb used most frequently for “finishing” a meal in the sūtras. So, I think BDK is being imprecise, but it’s also awkward to translate. It seems to imply that as one goes up through the heavens, there is a process of cessation, and nirvāṇa is the endpoint of that process. Their translation isn’t wrong, but it loses some of the meaning IMO.

Also a good point! I hadn’t made this connection, but this common pericope does imply nirvāṇa in my opinion.

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By the way this dialogue between Gautama (the Buddha) and Āgrahāyaṇa the Brahmin nearly imitates (the questions and the answers are similar to) the dialogue between the sage Yājñavalkya and the lady Gārgī Vācaknavī (in the Br̥hadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad 3.6.1)

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@cdpatton Thanks for introducing this fascinating sutra.

Could you elaborate on this part?

:elephant: :pray:t2:

Yes, there seemed to have been this curiosity or obsession with what things were “based” or “founded” or rested on. I’m sure Bhante @sujato would be interested in this connection.

It would be an interesting research project. Usually, they are brought up in the context of meditative attainment from my experience reading EBTs. There was much more interest in the lower heavens and the form realm, in general. The formless realm was usually treated like a trap since being reborn there meant being stuck in limbo for a very, very long time. I think the lifetime in the highest formless heaven was 84,000 eons in some passages that describe it.

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I may be over-interpreting the distinction between the way the earth and heavens are described, especially in light of the Upanishadic parallel that @srkris has pointed out. Still, the negative spirit realms associated with the earth, like hell, the hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras are missing from the description. Instead, we are given a purely materialistic description of earth and human existence.

Buddhists tended to depict brahmins as not being very spiritual and lacking in personal development despite their recitation of ancient texts. They are almost comically arrogant and childish characters in many stories, such as the longer ones collected in the Digha Nikaya/Dirgha Agama. So, it’s interesting in that light that the brahmin asks about scriptures, and the Buddha ends the discussion with “patience and gentleness” that’s based on Nirvana.

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I don’t know much about reconstructing names, but is there any particular reason why we wouldn’t take the phonetics at face value and consider a + garahaṇa, -ṇā, -na, - (neg. + “reproach, reproof”)?

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Hmm … I guess because I was looking in a Sanskrit dictionary rather than a Pali one. Garahana is also in Gandhari (defined as “complaint”), where I see the Skt. form is garhaṇa. Yeah, I guess this is another candidate. Boy, my footnotes on this sutra are continuing to grow thanks to all these great finds by everyone!

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To follow up on this translation issue, I tracked down several parallels between MA and Pali suttas that makes the underlying Indic word clearer:

AN 4.23 anupādisesāya nibbānadhātuyā parinibbāyati =>
於無餘涅槃界, 當取滅訖 (T26.1.645b19)
AN 3.60 ekamattānaṁ dameti, ekamattānaṁ sameti, ekamattānaṁ parinibbāpeti =>
自調御,自息止,自滅訖 (T26.2.650b19-20)
MN 140 tasseva telassa ca vaṭṭiyā ca pariyādānā aññassa ca anupahārā anāhāro nibbāyati =>
彼若無人更增益油,亦不續炷,是為前已滅訖 (T26.2.692a6-7)

So, yeah, it’s basically translating the verb forms of nirvāṇa or parinirvāṇa. I guess a better translation might be:

Only (in) Nirvāṇa is (a person?) completely extinguished.

Or perhaps:

It’s only Nirvāṇa that completely extinguishes (a person?).

It’s awkward because the verb seems to be missing an object that’s left understood. Literally, it means “Only Nirvāṇa is completely extinguished.”

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This is quite a Zen phrasing - Zazen sits Zazen, Overwhelming Overwhelms Overwhelming, etc.

So “Only Extingushment is Extinguished” sounds quite something a Zen teacher would say. Though it’s not something I’d expect to read in Āgamas (still possible, I guess!).

Or perhaps, seeing cessation as an event in itself without an object - that certainly has its roots in early texts. So I guess it could be “Only Nirvana finishes the cessation process”, cessation being something of a synonym to existence.

Could it not be something like, one is extinguished (parinibbanized) only in regard to nibbana without remainder?

I.e. it’s only nibbana ‘where’ one is extinguished, only nibbana is complete extinguishment?

Yeah. Understood, unspoken subjects and objects are par for the course in Middle Chinese, and sometimes in Pali too from what I’ve seen, so I wouldn’t take the literal reading as correct. But the meaning depends on what we fill the blanks with. It also makes it a little questionable to me whether Nirvana really should be translated as “extinguishment.” It’s more like, “the relief of not being on fire anymore” I think. But that’s mouthful, obviously! Being a translator is a no-win situation sometimes.

Yeah, in the context of the Upanisad parallel that @srkris found, I would take it that way. “There’s no relief until you reach that point. The heavens don’t completely put out the fire. It just smolders until it gets more fuel to burn.” That’s the message that I get from the whole sutra.

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