Why doesn't the Buddha give credit to the first senior mendicant in AN 6.61

Discussion
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I think that for the Chinese version, the unenlightened man has the sequence: arising of contact, contact, feeling, avoidance of cessation of contact, rinse and repeat.

The enlightened man has the sequence:
arising of contact, contact, avoidance of feeling, cessation of contact implied implied, rinse and repeat.

It looks like they jumped through hoops to get it to work.

Based in the Parable of the Two Arrows, I believe the enlightened one still feels pleasure and pain. They just do not cling. They dodge only the second arrow. They are still hit by the first. I do not think the Chinese solution works for the Pali canon.

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I think the idea is that the unenlightened gets stuck in feelings by clinging to it and thereby never reaching cessation of contact.

The enlightened feels, but does not cling, and implicitly there is a cessation of contact.

I think that works for the Chinese. I think in Pali, cessation of contact is always explicit so it does not work for Pali. But I suppose we can assume it was meant to be implied in this case.

Stuck in feeling, that is clinging, works!

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Here are Venerable Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda’s thoughts on this passage from the 33rd Sermon of the series: Nibbana - The Mind Stilled Books Archive - seeing through the net

The Buddha’s explanation happens to coincide with the interpretation given by the first speaker at the symposium. However, since he ratifies all the six interpretations as well said, we can see how profound and at the same time broad the meaning of this cryptic verse is.

Let us now try to understand these six explanations. One can make use of these six as meditation topics. The verse has a pragmatic value and so also the explanations given. What is the business of this seamstress or weaver?

According to the first interpretation, craving stitches up the first end, contact, with the second end, the arising of contact, ignoring the middle, the cessation of contact. It is beneath this middle, the cessation of contact, that ignorance lurks. As the line majjhe mantā na lippati, “with wisdom does not get attached to the middle”, implies, when what is in the middle is understood, there is emancipation. One is released from craving. So our special attention should be directed to what lies in the middle, the cessation of contact. Therefore, according to the first interpretation, the seamstress, craving, stitches up contact and the arising of contact, ignoring the cessation of contact.

According to the second interpretation, the past and the future are stitched up, ignoring the present. The third interpretation takes it as a stitching up of unpleasant feeling and pleasant feeling, ignoring the neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant feeling. The fourth interpretation speaks of stitching up name and form, ignoring consciousness. For the fifth interpretation, it is a case of stitching up the six internal sense-spheres with the six external sense-spheres, ignoring consciousness. In the sixth interpretation, we are told of a stitching up of sakkāya, or ‘existing-body’, with the arising of the existing-body, ignoring the cessation of the existing-body.

We mentioned above that in sewing as well as in weaving there is an attempt to reduce a gap by stitching up or knitting up. These interpretations show us that ignoring the middle is a common trait in the worldling. It is there that ignorance lurks. If one rightly understands this middle dispassion sets in, leading to disenchantment, relinquishment and deliverance.

Let us now turn our attention to a few parallel discourses that throw some light on the depth of these meditation topics. …

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24

Thank you for providing the commentary.

I think the issue may go back to the word lippati being translated as stuck. See below:

‘The sage has known both ends,
‘Yo ubhonte viditvāna,
and is not stuck in the middle.
majjhe mantā na lippati;

Being stuck in something implies being in that thing.
“lippati” can be defined as stains. Not staining something can mean not being in that thing. This resolves the issue.

The unenlightened cling to pleasure and so never enter cessation of contact. They do not stain it with clinging because they never enter it.

The enlightened are free of clinging and enter cessation of contact but do not stain it because they are free for clinging.

I think this resolves everything.

Does everyone agree?

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25

Yes, presumably this is a difficult line:

Perhaps Bhante @Sujato has some thoughts on this, since he translated this relatively recently.

Here is Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation:

  1. “Having directly known both ends,
    by reflection one does not get stuck in the middle.
    I call him a great man:
    he has here transcended the seamstress.”

And Commentary

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Question: Why doesn’t the Buddha give credit to the first senior mendicant in AN 6.61?

Answer: In my opinion, it’s because the mendicant who gave the first answer is an arahant. His answer about cessation of contact is the proof.

Meanwhile, the other mendicants are not arahants yet and they can only give answers according to what they have learned, not from direct experience. They don’t have access to such experience of cessation of contact. Note that, their answers are not wrong, although the contents are not yet perfect.

The Buddha only needed to give the same answer to confirm the arahant’s answer. So, after all, no credit is needed for an arahant. :sweat_smile:

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27

Being stuck in the cessation of contact would be stuck in a coma or meditation.
Being stuck in the origin of contact would be lost in the sense fields.

MN148:7.3: Eye consciousness arises dependent on the eye and sights. The meeting of the three is contact.

Being stuck in the middle would be grasping at contact.

DN34:1.2.9: Contact, which is accompanied by defilements and is prone to being grasped.

Contact is just food for sentient beings

DN34:1.5.14: Four foods:
DN34:1.5.15: solid food, whether coarse or fine; contact is the second, mental intention the third, and consciousness the fourth.

Getting stuck is therefore just being spiritually constipated. This too shall pass.

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28

I think the idea is that they are stuck by clinging to pleasure and this is considered to be part of the cessation of contact. They never complete the process. I think this is why the Chinese version has feeling in place of cessation of contact.

Looks like I have to redraw my picture again.

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