巴利《念處經》的「外觀」 -- 當代緬甸毗婆舍那修行傳統之間的一個諍論='Contemplating externally' in the Satipaṭṭhānasutta: A subject of debate among vipassanā traditions in modern Burma
'Contemplating externally' mentioned in the early Buddhist meditative text, Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, is a contentious subject with regard to Buddhist meditation. The later Buddhist exegetical texts, including the Pāli commentarial literature and the Abhidharma works preserved in Chinese translation, offered an interpretation of 'contemplating externally' as 'contemplating other person's mental and physical phenomena.' This incurs some practical questions: How can a meditator contemplate other persons during satipaṭṭhāna meditation? How could one observe through direct experience, not by conjecture and inference, other person's mental phenomena? Different interpretations have been given by vipassanā traditions of the 20th century Burma as to the meaning of 'contemplating externally.' Mahasi Sayādaw (1904-1982) and S.N. Goenka (1924- ), which represent the mainstream of vipassanā traditions in the 20th Burma, both hold that in vipassanā meditation it is sufficient to contemplate one's own mental and physical phenomena by direct experience, and that contemplating others by direct experience is either unnecessary or unreasonable. On the contrary, Pa-Auk Sayādaw (1935- ) argues that one cannot attain enlightenment without contemplating by direct experience others' mental and physical phenomena, and therefore raises a debate against the mainstream vipassanā traditions of the 20th Burma. This article discusses the text evidences given by these modern vipassanā traditions for their own explanations, and offers my own solution to this debate based on my study of the Pāli Canon and commentarial literature. I suggest that while the mainstream vipassanā traditions as well as Pa-Auk tradition are both able to find out text support from the Pāli Canon and exegetical literature for their own interpretation of 'contemplating externally,' the mainstream interpretation seems more reasonable and practicable. Nevertheless, it is unavoidable for Buddhist followers to set up their own traditions when debates as to meditative method such as 'contemplating externally' have been raised and no satisfactory compromise could be found.
