Arahant Mahā Kotthita: Foremost in analytical knowledge
By Dr. Ari Ubeysekara
Introduction
Lord Gautama Buddha lived and taught in India during the sixth and fifth century BC. Being a Sammā Sambuddha, the Buddha had gained enlightenment through the realization of the four Noble Truths with no assistance from any teacher. During the ministry of forty five years from enlightenment at the age of 35 years to passing away at 80, the Buddha had vast numbers of monastic and lay disciples spread around most of the Indian sub-continent. The disciples of the Buddha belonged to one of four groups.
- Buddhist monks (bhikkhu)
- Buddhist nuns (bhikkhunī)
- Male lay disciples (upāsaka)
- Female lay disciples (upāsikā)
Among the Buddhist monks and nuns, there were many who had attained enlightenment and the final supra mundane stage of Arahant by the cultivation of the Noble Eight-fold Path. Among the Arahant monks, there were several who are well known within the Buddhist literature either because they were the chief disciples such as Arahant Sāriputta and Arahant Mahā Moggallāna or they were foremost in different spiritual qualities and skills. In the Buddhist scriptures, one such well-known Arahant was Arahant Mahā Kotthita who was included in the list of the foremost disciples as the foremost monk in analytical knowledge.
Family background
Mahā Kotthita was born into a very wealthy brahmin family in the city of Sāvatti which was the capital of the ancient Kosala kingdom. His father’s name was Assalayatana while his mother’s name was Candavati. As a young man, he developed a great proficiency in the Vedas which was a large body of Sanskrit scriptures in ancient India.
Ordination and enlightenment
Mahā Kotthita happened to listen to a discourse delivered by Lord Gautama Buddha to his father Assalayatana. After listening to that discourse, he developed a desire to practise the Buddhist path of liberation that the Buddhas was preaching, but realised that it could not be properly practised while living a householder’s life. So he decided to ordain as a Buddhist monk in the Buddha’s dispensation and went forth with Arahant Mahā Moggallāna as his teacher and Arahant Sāriputta as his preceptor. After becoming a monk, he practised the Buddhist path diligently and soon was able to eradicate all his mental defilements and attain enlightenment as an Arahant.
Foremost in analytical knowledge
Arahant Mahā Kotthita became an expert in the analytical knowledge (patisambhidā). In the Buddhist teaching there are four kinds of analytical knowledge.
- Analytical knowledge of the true meaning (attha-patisambhidā)
- Analytical knowledge of the Dhamma (dhamma-patisambhidā)
- Analytical knowledge of language (nirutti-patisambhidā)
- Analytical knowledge of ready-wit (patibhāna-patisambhidā)
The Buddha had recognised his expertise in the analytical knowledges and in a congregation of monks, was named as the foremost monk who has attained the methods of analytical knowledge.
“Monks, the foremost of my monk disciples who have attained the methods of analytical knowledge is Mahākoṭṭhita.” (1)
In the book of Apadāna or Legends of Buddhist saints, one of the fifteen books of the Khuddaka Nikāya (collection of the Buddha’s minor discourses), Arahant Mahā Kotthita has referred to him being declared as the foremost in analytical knowledge as follows:
“Because my thought was developed,
in meaning and the Teaching,
etymology and preaching,
the World-chief placed me in that place.” (2)
Past aspiration
During the dispensation of a past Sammā Sambuddha named Padumuttara, Mahā Kotthita was born as a learned brahmin in the city of Hamsavati. He became a master of the Vedas. When the Buddha visited the city of Hamsavati, he also went to listen to the Buddha’s teaching. While listening to the Buddha’s sermon, he witnessed the Buddha declaring a particular monk as the foremost in analytical knowledge. He developed an aspiration to be the foremost in analytical knowledge in the dispensation of a future Sammā Sambuddha and with that in his mind, he offered food and robes to the Buddha and the order of monks for one week. At the end of the week, he disclosed his aspiration to the Buddha who prophesied that his aspiration will be fulfilled during the dispensation of a future Sammā Sambuddha named Gautama.
Arahant Mahā Kotthita theragāthā
In Theragāthā, which is another book of the Khuddaka Nikāya containing the poems of elder Buddhist monks, the following verse by Arahant Mahā Kotthita describes his enlightenment having eradicated the mental defilements.
“Calmed, restrained,
giving counsel unruffled,
he lifts off evil states of mind,
as the breeze,
shakes off a leaf from the tree” (3
In the Mahā Kotthita thera apadāna, Arahant Mahā Kotthita has described his enlightenment as follows:
“My defilements are burnt up,
all existence is destroyed,
like elephants with broken chains,
I am living without constraint.”
Discourses linked to Arahant Mahā Kotthita
It appears from the Buddhist scriptures that Arahant Mahā Kotthita was an extremely wise and intelligent monk with a thorough knowledge of the Buddha’s teaching and it’s practice. There are several discourses in the basket of the Buddha’s discourses (sutta pitaka), which have recorded conversations that he has had with the Buddha as well as other senior Arahants on a variety of complex topics from the Buddha’s teaching. A few of those discourses are described below.
In three discourses of the Samyutta Nikāya (collection of the Buddha’s connected discourses), named Anicca Kotthita sutta, Dukkha Kotthita sutta and Anatta Kotthita sutta, Venerable Mahā Kotthita has approached the Buddha and requested a brief teaching so that he can go into isolation and practise it. The Buddha instructed him to give up desire for the six internal sense bases, their external sense objects, their awareness (vinnññā), sense contact (phassa) and feelings (vedanā) arising from sense contact as they are all impermanent (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and not-self (anatta). (4)
In Kotthita sutta of the Salāyatana vagga of the Samyutta Nikāya, there is a conversation between Arahant Mahā Kotthita and Arahant Sāriputta in which Arahant Mahā Kotthita has asked Arahant Sāriputta whether the six internal sense bases and the six external sense objects can be fetters (samyojanā) to each other. Arahant Sāriputta has replied that they are not fetters to each other but that any desire and lust (canda-rāga) dependent on them is the fetter. The simile of a black ox and a white ox yoked together was used by Arahant Sāriputta to explain it. When a black ox and a white ox are yoked together by a single yoke, the yoke is the fetter rather than either of the two oxen. Arahant Sāriputta has also stated that if the internal sense bases and the external sense objects happen to be fetters, the holy life for the complete destruction of suffering could not be practised. (5)
The six internal sense bases are the eye (cakku), ear (sota), nose (ghāna), tongue (jivhā), body (kāya) and the mind (mana). The six external sense objects received by the six internal sense bases are forms (rūpa), sounds (sadda), smells (gandha), tastes (rasa), touches (pottabba) and mental objects (dhamma) respectively.
Sīlavant sutta of the Samyutta Nikāya contains another Dhamma discussion between Arahant Mahā Kotthita and Arahant Sāriputta. Arahant Mahā Kotthita has asked what a virtuous monk should attend to in an appropriate way and Arahant Sāriputta replied that a virtuous monk should attend in an appropriate way to the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent, suffering, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness and not-self. Through that practice, it is possible that a virtuous monk will attain Stream Entry (Sotāpanna). Arahant Sāriputta further stated that a Stream Enterer, a Once Returner (Sakadāgmi), a Non-Returner (Anāgāmi) and even an Arahant should continue to attend to the five aggregates in a similar way. (6)
In three discourses in the Nidāna vagga of the Samyutta Nikāya, all named Kotthita sutta, there is a Dhamma discussion in which it is Arahant Sāriputta who is the questioner and Arahant Mahā Kottitha replies explaining what ignorance and wisdom are. Arahant Mahā Kotthita has described ignorance (avijjā) as not knowing as they really are, the origination (samudaya), cessation (atthangama), gratification (assāda), danger (ādīnava) and escape (nissarana) from the five aggregates of clinging: Form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), mental formations (sankhāra) and consciousness (viññāna). Knowledge of them as they really are has been described as wisdom (vijjā). (7)
According to Buddha’s teaching, these five aggregates together constitute the Psycho-physical complex or mind and matter (nāma-rūpa) described as a being or personality. The first aggregate of form represents the material aspect while the other four aggregates represent a variety of mental actions. They arise due to physical and mental antecedent conditions only to cease instantly and are in a constant state of flux with no stable or permanent entity. They constantly arise and cease, so they are impermanent (anicca), and because they are impermanent they are suffering (dukkha) and lack any stable entity or self (anatta). One has no ownership or control over them and when one identifies with them as “I” or “me”, it can only lead to suffering (dukkha) due to their very transient nature.
In three other discourses in the Samyutta Nikāya called Sāriputta Kotthita suttas, Arahant Sāriputta has questioned Arahant Mahā Kotthita regarding the four unanswerable questions about whether beings exist or not after death.
Another conversation between Arahant Mahā Kotthita and Arahant Sāriputta is recorded in the Mahā Vedalla sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya (collection of the Buddha’s middle length discourses), which clearly shows the intelligence and analytical knowledge that Arahant Mahā Kotthita has possessed. In a series of questions, he has questioned Arahant Sāriputta on a wide range of topics such as wisdom (paññā), consciousness (viññāna), feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), mind consciousness (mano viññāna), first deep absorption (Jhana), mental hindrances (pancha nīvarana), five internal physical sense bases, right view (sammā ditthi), fabrications (sankhāra) and various liberations (ceto vimutti). (8)
References
- https://suttafriends.org/sutta/an1-188/
- Jonathan S. Walters 2018, “Legends of the Buddhist Saints”, A translation of Apadana, http://apadanatranslation.org/
- https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thag/thag.01.00x.than.html#passage-2
- Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999, Anicca Kotthita sutta, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.
- Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999, Kotthita sutta, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.
- Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999, Sīlavant sutta, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.
- Bhikkhu Bodhi 1999, Kotthita sutta, Nidāna vagga, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Samyutta Nikāya, Wisdom Publications.
- Bhikkhu Nānamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, Mahā Vedalla sutta, Translation of the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Publications.
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