[KCI-Indexed] A Study on the Function of Dhammānupassanā in Meditative Practice

Abstract

This study employs sutta-internal comparative hermeneutics — an analysis confined to the grammar and predicate usage of the Pāli texts themselves, independent of later commentaries — to examine the Ānāpānasatisutta (MN 118) and the Satipaṭṭhānasutta (MN 10), and elucidates the function of Dhammānupassanā as the locus where active formation gives way to non-interventive observation. Previous scholarship has tended either to divide the two texts along the samatha-vipassanā dichotomy or to read the sixteen steps as a strictly linear progression.

This study argues instead that the two suttas form a complementary pair of "generative conditioning" and "interpretive diagnosis." First, although both share pajānāti (clearly understands) and sikkhati (trains), their distribution differs structurally. MN 118 sustains sikkhati, together with the future ending -ssāmi, throughout steps 3–16 (87.5%), and embeds within this training frame a cluster of transitive formative participles governing accusative objects, thereby constructing samādhi intentionally, whereas MN 10 employs pajānāti, a verb cognate with paññā, to discern arisen phenomena through doctrinal categories without fabricating or altering them, thus functioning diagnostically.

Second, cross-referencing MN 119, MN 44, and MN 52 confirms that the first three tetrads (body, feeling, mind) form not a single linear ladder but a pluralistic, open structure: each can independently fulfill samādhi and the seven factors of awakening according to the practitioner's disposition, so that the apparent non-linearity reflects the inclusivity of Nikāya praxis rather than a sequence internal to MN 118.

Third, all pathways converge upon the fourth tetrad. The training frame — sikkhati with the future -ssāmi — persists into steps 13–16; what disappears at step 13 is the transitive syntax of formative participles taking accusative objects, replaced by anupassī, whose prior member shifts from experiential contents to doctrinal categories (anicca, virāga, nirodha, paṭinissagga). Thus the practitioner deconstructs even the constructed samādhi, culminating in ultimate letting go (paṭinissagga).

In conclusion, the Buddha's meditation forms an overarching structure progressing from preliminary training (MN 62) through generative expansion (MN 118) to diagnostic deconstruction (MN 10), thereby reilluminating the inclusivity and philosophical depth of early Buddhist praxis.

Keywords

How to Cite