One puzzling line in the attadanda sutta

Q & A
1

i’m puzzling over the attadanda sutta again and the line i can’t get my head around is Entirely worthless/coreless (is) the world [or whatever translation you like] i take this to be a synonym for ‘sabbe dhamma anatta’ but i can’t see why it has suddenly appeared at this point in the poem.

.

2

Snp4.15 has

The world around was hollow,
Samantamasāro loko,

all directions were in turmoil.
disā sabbā sameritā;

Wanting a home for myself,
Icchaṁ bhavanamattano,

I saw nowhere unsettled.
nāddasāsiṁ anositaṁ.

What exactly is suprising about it?

3

I think the issue here stems from the commentary, which reads the passage in a philosophical sense, saying that the world, from the hells on up, were devoid of any permanent essence.

I think this is, as you suggest, an unwarranted intrusion of a philosophical context. At this point, the verse is talking about political and social instability, and how it seemed impossible to find any refuge or shelter there.

The next line refers to “all directions”, which suggests that samanta here means “all around” rather than “entirely”.

As for sāra, it has a wide range of meanings, which in philosophical contexts include that of not-self. Here, however, it means there is nothing stable or reliable in the world. Remember, the sāra was the heartwood, the solid core on which a reliable structure could be built.

To bring this out, perhaps translate as “unstable” or “volatile” rather than “hollow” or “coreless”.

The world around was volatile,
all directions were in turmoil.

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4

This is what I’ve made of the sutta over time, attempting to make a whole of it.

The Buddha is addressing two armed groups, set to fight each other, and he tells them that taking up arms to settle their dispute has upped the likely hood of physical violence [and the ongoing cycle of such]

After that he doesn’t mention physical violence again, instead he talks of the pervasive nature of human conflict, finally recognizing the root of that in his own heart. And that root, I think he might be saying, is something like restlessness or some such. Some irritation in the core of humans perhaps.
If I take out The world around was hollow, I don’t seem to lose anything ….but there it and so I would rather not take it out but see what it is there to tell me…to help me.

5

ps. i will take some time to digest what you have said Arjan.

6

thanks Ajhan, the past tense does make it work.
“As for sāra” it took me a bit to go back to the pali and notice asāro and then go to the PED to check out sāra. lovely alive metaphor for me as i do some work with wood.
Tony

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