Dighanikaya 2.190_2

2.190_2

‘‘Idheva tiṭṭhamānassa, devabhūtassa me sato;
Punarāyu ca me laddho, evaṃ jānāhi mārisā’’ti. (dī. ni. 2.369);

In some places, it is a mere expletive, as he said: “Here, monks, I might have eaten and declined [further food].” But here it should be understood as spoken with reference to the world. “Great king”: in order to give the teaching as promised, he addresses him again: “Great king.” This is what is meant: “Great king, in this world a Tathāgata arises, an arahant … and so forth … an awakened one, a Blessed One.” There, the word “Tathāgata” was explained in the Brahmajāla. “Arahant” and so on were elaborated in the Path of Purification. In “arises in the world,” the world is threefold: the world of spatial location, the world of sentient beings, and the world of conditioned formations. Here, the world of sentient beings is intended. And even when arising in the world of sentient beings, a Tathāgata does not arise in the world of the devas, nor in the world of the Brahmās, but only in the human world. Even in the human world, not in another world system, but only in this world system. Even there, not in all locations, but in the Middle Country delimited thus: “In the eastern direction is the market town named Gajaṅgala, and beyond that Mahāsāla; past that are border regions, on this side the middle; in the south-eastern direction is the river named Salaḷavatī; past that are border regions, on this side the middle; in the southern direction is the market town named Setakaṇṇikā; past that are border regions, on this side the middle; in the western direction is the brahmin village named Thūṇa; past that are border regions, on this side the middle; in the northern direction is the mountain named Usīraddhaja; past that are border regions, on this side the middle”; three hundred leagues in length, two hundred and fifty leagues in width, nine hundred leagues in circumference. And not only the Tathāgata: paccekabuddhas, chief disciples, the eighty great elders, the Buddha’s mother, the Buddha’s father, a wheel-turning king, and other brahmins and householders who have attained substance arise only here.