Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c8.80

c8.80

The interpolative character of this para is proved by yet another fact. It is immediately followed by “Atha kho bhikkhave vipassissa bhagavato arahato samāsambuddhassa etadahosi yannūnāhaṃ dhammaṃ deseyyanti” but then he reflects—“adhigato kho me ayaṃ dhammo gambhīro duddaso....duddasam idaṃ ṭhānam yadidaṃ idappaccayatā paṭiccasamuppādo....” This implies the following sequence of events: the realization of Paṭiccasam°; the desire to preach it; hesitation. This sequence is however rudely broken by the intrusion of the para in question (para 22, p. 28 of DN. II, Nāg. ed.) according to which the Bodhisatta became a Sammāsambuddha not through the realization of the Paṭiccasam° (the culmination of which in the viloma order is reached in Nibbāna—see the quotation above “Nirodho nirodho ti kho,”) but through the practice of the feeling of impermanence in the Five Khandhas! The paragraph, in short, is not only unnecessary and inconsistent but also breaks the natural sequence of the context.