Dighanikaya 1.1_25

1.1_25

Kasmā panettha yathā abhidhamme ‘‘yasmiṃ samaye kāmāvacara’’nti (dha. sa. 1) ca, ito aññesu ca suttapadesu – ‘‘yasmiṃ samaye, bhikkhave, bhikkhu vivicceva kāmehī’’ti ca bhummavacananiddeso kato, vinaye ca – ‘‘tena samayena buddho bhagavā’’ti karaṇavacanena, tathā akatvā ‘‘ekaṃ samaya’’nti upayogavacananiddeso katoti? Tattha tathā idha ca aññathā atthasambhavato. Tattha hi abhidhamme ito aññesu suttapadesu ca adhikaraṇattho bhāvena bhāvalakkhaṇattho ca sambhavati. Adhikaraṇañhi kālattho, samūhattho ca samayo, tattha tattha vuttānaṃ phassādidhammānaṃ khaṇasamavāyahetusaṅkhātassa ca samayassa bhāvena tesaṃ bhāvo lakkhīyati, tasmā tadatthajotanatthaṃ tattha bhummavacananiddeso kato.

Why here, instead of making an exposition with the locative case as in the Abhidhamma—‘at a time when belonging to the sense sphere’—and in other discourse passages—‘At a time, monks, when a monk quite secluded from sensual pleasures’—or with the instrumental case as in the Vinaya—‘At that time, the awakened Blessed One’—is an exposition made with the accusative case as ‘at one time’ (ekaṃ samayaṃ)? Because the meaning occurs there in that way, and here in another way. For there, in the Abhidhamma and in other discourse passages, the locative sense (adhikaraṇa) and the sense of an action characterizing another action (bhāvalakkhaṇa) occur. For the locative is the temporal sense, and ‘time’ has the meaning of an assembly; and by the occurrence of time, reckoned as the moment, conjunction, and cause of the dhammas such as contact mentioned in each passage, their occurrence is characterized; therefore, to indicate that meaning, the exposition there is made with the locative case.