WorkBuddhaghosa

Paramatthajotikā II

Behind the verses that urge wandering alone like a rhinoceros, it finds the lives of the solitary Buddhas who spoke them.

by Buddhaghosa1,555 passages held

Pali, the original language

Original language: Pali

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Overview

Ānanda, the Buddha's attendant, once wondered, the commentary says, why the aspirations of Buddhas and of their disciples are on record but those of the paccekabuddhas, the solitary Buddhas who wake without a teacher and found no community, are not. He asked the Buddha, and the answer is the Rhinoceros Discourse: verses spoken one by one by solitary Buddhas, some in answer to a question, others unasked, as a cry over the path each had found. Tradition ascribes the Paramatthajotikā II, the Pāli commentary on the Suttanipāta, an early anthology of seventy discourses in five chapters, to Buddhaghosa in the fifth century, and modern scholars divide over it: Maria Heim counts it among his works, while Oskar von Hinüber doubts that the commentaries on this part of the scriptures are his. Helmer Smith edited the work for the Pali Text Society, and Bhikkhu Bodhi's English Suttanipāta of 2017 carries it beside the discourses. It works as a teller of origins. Before explaining a discourse it asks what occasioned it, and sorts the answers into four kinds: the Buddha's own wish to teach, the needs of a listener, an incident, or a question put to him. For the rhinoceros verses this lets it recount the lives of solitary Buddhas one after another. For the last chapter, the questions of sixteen young brahmins whom their teacher Bāvari sent to find the Buddha, it gives Bāvari's history and his pupils' journey. Where the scriptures already hold an older commentary on parts of the anthology, the Niddesa, it cites that commentary by name and builds on it.

Key concepts

What is a solitary Buddha?

A solitary Buddha, paccekabuddha, is someone who wakes to the truth by his own effort, without a teacher, but who does not found a community or teach the path widely. The commentary tells many of their stories, often of kings who renounce their thrones, and holds that all their virtues together do not reach a sixteenth part of one fully awakened Buddha's.

What are the four reasons a discourse is spoken?

The commentary sorts every discourse by what set it off: the Buddha's own wish to teach, the needs or disposition of someone else, an incident that called for comment, or a question put to him. The rhinoceros verses mostly answer questions, though some were spoken unasked. Knowing which of the four applies tells the reader whom a discourse addresses and why it says what it does.

What does "like a rhinoceros horn" mean?

It is the refrain of the Rhinoceros Discourse, "wander alone like a rhinoceros horn", and the commentary glosses it simply: to be like the animal's single horn is to be solitary. The verses apply it to company: avoid a companion who holds harmful views or lives heedlessly, and, failing a wise friend, live independently rather than in bad company.

What makes someone a muni, a sage?

A muni is one whose wisdom shows in silence and restraint, above all in having let go of attraction and aversion. The commentary's example is the begging monk who neither praises a donor for giving early nor blames one for giving late. The word can also be used, it notes, for someone still practising toward that state, so the sage's conduct is both a goal and a training.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

Those Who Woke Alone

The rhinoceros verses urge a seeker to wander alone, and the commentary says solitary Buddhas spoke them, one verse each. What made each of them leave company behind is the question their stories answer.

For each verse of the Rhinoceros Discourse the commentary tells how a solitary Buddha woke, and many of them begin as kings. One hears two golden bracelets clink together and sees that two always rub where one is silent. Another notices his greed for a rich taste has made him forget his companions. Each traces his sorrow to attachment and leaves. Buddhaghosa honours them and still ranks them below the Buddha, since they woke without a teacher but left no community to carry the path.

solitude
renunciation
attachment
craving
awakening
liberation
buddhist narrative

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Why Each Discourse Was Spoken

The Suttanipāta's discourses are addressed to farmers, herdsmen, brahmins and demons, each with a problem of their own. Hearing who asked and why turns a verse from a general maxim into an answer.

Before glossing a word, the commentary asks what occasioned a discourse, and the answers make the anthology a gallery of people. A brahmin farmer wants to know what the Buddha ploughs. A herdsman rejoices in his roofed house and his fire against the rain. A demon threatens to throw the Buddha across the Ganges unless he answers. A brahmin teacher named Bāvari sends sixteen pupils across India with his doubts. Buddhaghosa reads every reply as fitted to its hearer, which is why the same teaching sounds so different in each.

teaching
faith
views
ethical conduct
karma
generosity
virtue
nirvana

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Within this work

passages held: 1,555
distinct concepts: 1,137
by passages held, corpus-wide: #38

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “craving” and “liberation”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 28 pairings. 81 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
craving	liberation	43
defilements	liberation	33
arahantship	liberation	31
liberation	rebirth	27
craving	rebirth	20
arahantship	craving	19
craving	renunciation	19
meditation	renunciation	19
liberation	wisdom	17
craving	defilements	16
liberation	renunciation	16
arahantship	defilements	15
liberation	meditation	13
arahantship	meditation	11
defilements	rebirth	11
arahantship	renunciation	10
defilements	wisdom	9
arahantship	wisdom	7
defilements	meditation	7
arahantship	rebirth	5
craving	wisdom	5
defilements	renunciation	5
craving	meditation	4
meditation	wisdom	4
rebirth	renunciation	4
renunciation	wisdom	4
rebirth	wisdom	2
meditation	rebirth	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

Manorathapūraṇī
The last of his four commentaries on the collections of discourses: its closing verses name it the Manorathapūraṇī, "fulfiller of the wish", because it completed his wish to explain them all.
PI
Pañcappakaraṇa-aṭṭhakathā
Five commentaries gathered as one work, ascribed to Buddhaghosa, completing the explanation of the Abhidhamma that the Aṭṭhasālinī and the Sammohavinodanī begin.
PI
Papañcasūdanī
Written for a monk Buddhaghosa had once lived with in a port town, probably in South India, and the home of his reading of the mindfulness discourse.
PI
Paramatthajotikā II you are here PI
Sāratthappakāsinī
Made for the elder Jotipāla, and home of the "dry insight" gloss on the Susīma discourse that is still argued over.
PI
Sumaṅgalavilāsinī
Begins with history, the council that first recited the texts, before explaining the long discourses, the first collection in the canon's order.
PI
The Dispeller of Delusion (Sammohavinodanī)
Explains the Vibhaṅga, the Abhidhamma's second book: the middle of the three commentaries ascribed to Buddhaghosa, between the Aṭṭhasālinī and the one on the five remaining books.
PI
The Expositor (Aṭṭhasālinī)
The first of the three Abhidhamma commentaries ascribed to Buddhaghosa, said by a Sri Lankan chronicle to have been written in India, before he crossed to the island.
PI
The Illustrator of Ultimate Meaning (Paramatthajotikā I)
The smaller of two commentaries sharing one name, both ascribed to Buddhaghosa: this one explains the nine recitations that open the Minor Collection.
PI
The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)
His one treatise rather than a commentary: the book his commentaries on the long and middle-length discourses send the reader to whenever meditation comes up.
PI

— or open another of their works