Papanca is the Pali word for the way that thoughts seem to arise on their own, often uncontrollably, and free associate more or less endlessly. How shall we meet this tendency, this force?
To really get hold of this elusive topic, Sam recommends a bit of reading, a brief and telling article titled “What is Papanca” by Andrew Olendski at https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-papanca/
Sam played excerpts of these three talks:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/13466.html
Christina Feldman 2011-07-15 53:19
53:19 Mana Papanca
Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center: Mindfulness, Insight, Liberation: Insight Meditation Retreat
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/68004.html
Joseph Goldstein 2021-07-16 1:16:07
1:16:07 “Papanca 1: Craving, Conceit, and Wrong View”
Spirit Rock Meditation Center: “July Insight Meditation Retreat” with Kamala Masters, Joseph Goldstein, bruni dávila, Shelly Graf and Walt Opie
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/66476.html
Joseph Goldstein 2021-04-05 1:28:19
1:28:19 08 Papanca, Part 2
Insight Meditation Society – Retreat Center: Insight Meditation and the Forces at Play in Our Lives – 21JG0
I read “The All”, SN 35.23:
At Savatthi. “Bhikkhus, I will teach you the all. Listen to that….
“And what, bhikkhus, is the all? The eye and forms, the ear and sounds, the nose and odours, the tongue and tastes, the body and tactile objects, the mind and mental phenomena. This is called the all.
“If anyone, bhikkhus, should speak thus: ‘Having rejected this all, I shall make known another all’—that would be a mere empty boast on his part. If he were questioned he would not be able to reply and, further, he would meet with vexation. For what reason? Because, bhikkhus, that would not be within his domain.”
and part of the Bahiya Sutta (Udana 1.10):
“Then, Bãhiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bahiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress.”
Leigh Brasington expressed his interpretation of this passage: I take this to mean, “if you don’t go creating an object, you won’t be creating yourself as the subject”. This is my interpretation, not what it literally says. Subject-Object duality was not an idea at the time of the Buddha, so he had to come up with some way of expressing it. Given the limitations of language/ideas, this is what he came up with.
I tend to translate this as “You will not be in that (the object), you will not be in this (the subject), you will not be in-between.”
