Dighanikaya 1.7_2

1.7_2

Tattha appamattakanti parittassa nāmaṃ. Oramattakanti tasseva vevacanaṃ. Mattāti vuccati pamāṇaṃ. Appaṃ mattā etassāti appamattakaṃ. Oraṃ mattā etassāti oramattakaṃ. Sīlameva sīlamattakaṃ. Idaṃ vuttaṃ hoti – ‘appamattakaṃ kho, panetaṃ bhikkhave, oramattakaṃ sīlamattakaṃ’ nāma yena ‘‘tathāgatassa vaṇṇaṃ vadāmī’’ti ussāhaṃ katvāpi vaṇṇaṃ vadamāno puthujjano vadeyyāti. Tattha siyā – nanu idaṃ sīlaṃ nāma yogino aggavibhūsanaṃ? Yathāhu porāṇā –

Here, 'trifling' (appamattakaṃ) is a designation for what is slight. 'Of secondary importance' (oramattakaṃ) is a synonym for the very same thing. 'Measure' (mattā) is called the limit. That which has a small measure is 'trifling' (appamattaka). That which has an inferior measure is 'of secondary importance' (oramattaka). 'Mere morality' (sīlamattakaṃ) means simply morality. This is what is meant: 'It is a trifling matter, monks, of secondary importance, mere morality' by which an ordinary person, while speaking praise, might speak even after making an exertion, saying: 'I speak the praise of the Tathāgata.' Here it might be asked: Is not this thing called morality the supreme ornament of the practitioner? As the ancients said: