Origin of Atthakathā

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Namo Buddhāya :folded_hands::folded_hands::folded_hands:
May the great Saṅgha allows me to explain few things about Pāḷi atthakathā ( explanations of the meaning of texts) :innocent::folded_hands::gem_stone::gem_stone::gem_stone:

Atthakathā, commentaries, provide details on how to practice what is contained in suttas.
Suttas are guidelines, but they do not provide much details.
For exemple, the Buddha mentioned 10 kasiṇas, but never explained what is it.
How to attain jhāna with ānapānasati, not mentioned in suttas, only steps wich can be interpreted in many ways. How to attain the psychic powers( abhiññā ): not explained in suttas, only mentioned.
How to discern the paticcasamuppāda, directly with anicca dukkha anattā or to discern it separately before? In many sutta the Buddha said materiality (rūpa) is great essentials (cattāro mahā bhūthā ) and derived materiality from the four great essentials (catunnañ ca mahā bhūtānaṃ upādāya rūpaṃ) but in no suttas you can find details explanation and how to discern it.
How it was in time of the Buddha? Some bhikkhus could understand the meaning as soon as the Buddha would teach, and they would get suitable teachings for them personally. But some did not understood, and went to clever and learned mahātherā such the Venerable Sāriputta, venerable Mahā Mogallāna to get details about the meaning and practical details.
This was the very beginning of the commentaries, right from the time of the Buddha. Later when the Venerables would teach the Buddha’ s words, many questions arised also: the answers were the commentaries.
These commentaries in the past were teached together with the Tipiṭaka, because the correct interpretation of the texts was necessary for the dispensation to last long, otherwise personal interpretation would have lose the real practice, especially about the deep Dhammas, such as khanda, salāyatanas, dhāthū, paticca samuppāda, jhāna, bodhipakkiya, magga, phala: all those things would have been submitted to " self interpretation" by news teachers, and the real Buddha sāsana would have been lost.
Nowadays some make their own commentaries and interpretation… Rejecting the old one, saying they are more clever…

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Great article.

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Yes precisely. It is clearly stated in the suttas that some beings were easy to understand the Dhamma, others were not so much. In the same way that making a point about something to a PhD student must be done differently than with a HS grad or a child.

A high schooler cannot read a PhD level textbook and expect to understand what is being said perfectly. In the same way an unlearned layman cannot read a sutta directed at a spiritually developed people like many of the Buddha’s disciples and expect to get it right away.

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