A śrāvaka prototype for the threefold contemplation?

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Caoimhghín
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A śrāvaka prototype for the threefold contemplation?

Post by Caoimhghín »

Something just occurred to me.

The breaking down of oppositions, inner and outer, in smṛtyupasthāna/mindfulness-establishment, is something like the breaking down of oppositions between the ultimate and the conventional in the threefold contemplation.
Coëmgenu wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:46 pm SF 293 (Sanskrit Sarvāstivāda Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra) & SA 176 (Chinese Sarvāstivāda Smṛtyupasthānasūtra):

1) adhyātmaṃ kāye bahirdhā kāye ’dhyātmabahirdhā kāye / 內身 [...] 外身 [...] 內外身 [...]
2) adhyātmaṃ vedanāsu bahirdhā vedanāsu adhyātmabahirdhā vedanāsu / 內受 [...] 外受 [...] 內外受 [...]
3) adhyātmaṃ citte bahirdhā citte ’dhyātmabahirdhā citte / 內心 [...] 外心 [...] 內外心 [...]
4) adhyātmaṃ dharmeṣu bahirdhā dharmeṣu adhyātmabahirdhā dharmeṣu dharmānupaśyī viharati / 內法 [...] 外法 [...] 內外法法觀住

Adhyātma is inner, bahirdhā is outer. Kāya, vedanāḥ, citta, & dharmāḥ (body, sensations, mind, phemona) are in the locative case, indicating "where", or the "location" that the action, the meditation, or viharati, is taking place at.

For an English rendering we have:
[In this way they meditate by observing an aspect] of the body inside; [...] of the body outside; [...] of the body inside and outside [... an aspect] of sensations inside; [...] of sensations outside; [...] of sensations inside and outside [...] of mind inside; [...] of mind outside; [...] of mind inside and outside [...] of phenomena inside; [...] of phenomena outside; [...] of phenomena inside and outside[.]
(hybrid translation from Ven Sujato adapted here by me with significant editorial additions for the purposes of this post)

To quote Ven Sujato, the translator of part of the above:
Internally means in one's own self; externally means outside one's self; and internally/externally means seeing with wisdom that inside and outside are essentially the same, for example, that the earth element inside and outside are just the earth element.
Does anyone else see the three truths mirrored here?

1) adhyātmaṃ (dharmeṣu)
2) bahirdhā (dharmeṣu)
3) adhyātmabahirdhā (dharmeṣu)
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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