On tiracchana yoni

[Bundokji]

Venerables & friends,

Do we know why the animal realm is described as tiracchana yoni rather than tiracchana loka? and does that have any utility to differentiate Yoniso manasikara from manasikara?

Thank you

[Danny]

It seems to me quite literal, reborn in an animal womb. So yoni here has more the literal meaning of womb instead of the figurative meaning in ‘yoniso manasikara’.

[Bundokji]

The devas of tavatimsa depend on the human and animal wombs to from what i can recall to feed up their echelons in their war with the asuras. Would not that warrant calling the human realm manussa yoni?

Also we have kāya broken down into 31 body parts, which could resemble the 31 planes of existence. In SN12.61, it is said that it is better for the puthujjano to take kāya as a self than the mana (which is part of manasikara). Empirically, the animal realm seems to be the only visible realm while others are directly known by mendicants who attains supramundane abilities to see them.

Strangely, modern theories about human origins makes monkeys our closest ancestors, which is similar to the simile used in SN12.61.

[stephen]

Human’s closest species are not monkeys but rather the great apes chimpanzees and bonobos.

Interestingly, they are not literally tiracchana (the Pali word means ‘going horizontally’) but rather are more erect , like humans.

[Bundokji]

Maybe you are referring to tiracchānakathaṃ (animal talk) which has to do with governance and empiricism as embracing a horizontal view of existence?

Talk about kings, bandits, and ministers; talk about armies, threats, and wars; talk about food, drink, clothes, and beds; talk about garlands and fragrances; talk about family, vehicles, villages, towns, cities, and countries; talk about women and heroes; street talk and well talk; talk about the departed; motley talk; tales of land and sea; and talk about being reborn in this or that place

Maybe the utility of the 31 planes of existence is to offer a vertical view. This reminds of Ven. Nanavira Thera’s vertical view:

The scholar’s essentially horizontal view of things, seeking connexions in space and time, and his historical approach to the texts,[b] disqualify him from any possibility of understanding a Dhamma that the Buddha himself has called akālika, ‘timeless’.[c] Only in a vertical view, straight down into the abyss of his own personal existence, is a man capable of apprehending the perilous insecurity of his situation; and only a man who does apprehend this is prepared to listen to the Buddha’s Teaching. But human kind, it seems, cannot bear very much reality: men, for the most part, draw back in alarm and dismay from this vertiginous direct view of being and seek refuge in distractions.

[Bundokji]

Another problem we face when we translate yoniso manasikara is that yoni is not included in the 31 body parts. If we take MN50 as our guidance, and Ven. Moggallāna’s psychic powers come to our aid, would it not be proper to call it antaṃ manasikara considering that the evil one entered the venerable’s body through the intestine?

[Bundokji]

Moving on from MN50, i could find another hint in MN51:

It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing!
Acchariyaṁ, bhante, abbhutaṁ, bhante.
How the Buddha knows what’s best for sentient beings, even though people continue to be so shady, rotten, and tricky.
Yāvañcidaṁ, bhante, bhagavā evaṁ manussagahane evaṁ manussakasaṭe evaṁ manussasāṭheyye vattamāne sattānaṁ hitāhitaṁ jānāti.
For human beings are shady, sir,
Gahanañhetaṁ, bhante, yadidaṁ manussā;
while the animal is obvious.
uttānakañhetaṁ, bhante, yadidaṁ pasavo.
For I can drive an elephant in training,
Ahañhi, bhante, pahomi hatthidammaṁ sāretuṁ.
and while going back and forth in Campā it’ll try all the tricks, bluffs, ruses, and feints that it can.
Yāvatakena antarena campaṁ gatāgataṁ karissati sabbāni tāni sāṭheyyāni kūṭeyyāni vaṅkeyyāni jimheyyāni pātukarissati.
But my bondservants, servants, and workers behave one way by body, another by speech, and their minds another.
Amhākaṁ pana, bhante, dāsāti vā pessāti vā kammakarāti vā aññathāva kāyena samudācaranti aññathāva vācāya aññathāva nesaṁ cittaṁ hoti.
It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing!
Acchariyaṁ, bhante, abbhutaṁ, bhante.
How the Buddha knows what’s best for sentient beings, even though people continue to be so shady, rotten, and tricky.
Yāvañcidaṁ, bhante, bhagavā evaṁ manussagahane evaṁ manussakasaṭe evaṁ manussasāṭheyye vattamāne sattānaṁ hitāhitaṁ jānāti.
For human beings are shady, sir,
Gahanañhetaṁ, bhante, yadidaṁ manussā;
while the animal is obvious.”
uttānakañhetaṁ, bhante, yadidaṁ pasavo”ti.
“That’s so true, Pessa! That’s so true!
“Evametaṁ, pessa, evametaṁ, pessa.
For human beings are shady,
Gahanañhetaṁ, pessa, yadidaṁ manussā;
while the animal is obvious.
uttānakañhetaṁ, pessa, yadidaṁ pasavo.

[stephen]

While “shady” and “obvious” are clever renderings for Pāli’s gahana and uttānaka, (because of gahana’s literal sense of a thicket or jungle,) “shady” seems to miss the human quality of being ‘tangled up’, ‘opaque’, and ‘impenetrable’, vs. ‘clear’, ‘open’, and ‘unobstructed.’

It’s not just that humans are duplicitous, they are also very complicated and conflicted. Their minds are like dense tangled jungles.

[Bundokji]

Yes. I also noticed that pasava is more of a domesticated animal. It has no equivalence in pali, so the translator probably referred to its meaning in Sanskrit.

Taking it at face value, and having faith that the noble ones had first-hand knowledge of higher realms, we could interpret the passage from a higher vantage point even if it is less straightforward than your explanation:

So, we have tiracchana yoni as the only visible realm to humans, which also breed sexually, so humans cover up the genitalia as the “zone” to be revealed only to the initiated. Such behavior speaks volume of their deceptive nature - by creating scarcity from abundance. As a protest to such deception, some ascetics went naked as if they have nothing to hide.