Reading guide
An entire subcontinent, still insufficient
This project's own reading: the simile's own scale escalates beyond SN 56.35's own already-extreme hundred years of daily spear-wounds — here, the total vegetation of an entire landmass is exhausted before even beginning to address the ocean's own smallest life-forms, using an image of practical impossibility to convey a scope that resists ordinary comprehension.
Exemption, not merely escape
This project's own reading of the discourse's own closing claim: one accomplished in view is described as “parimutto” (“exempt, released”) from this vast plane of loss — a status of exemption from the entire scale just described, not merely a personal escape from one particular danger.
Key terms
The text
§1“Suppose a person was to strip all the grass, sticks, branches, and leaves in the Black Plum Tree Land, gather them together into one pile, and make them into stakes. Then they’d impale the large creatures in the ocean on large stakes; the medium-sized creatures on medium-sized stakes; and the small creatures on small stakes. They wouldn’t run out of sizable creatures in the ocean before
§2using up all the grass, sticks, branches, and leaves in the Black Plum Tree Land. There are far more small creatures in the ocean than this, so it wouldn’t be feasible to impale them on stakes. Why is that? Because of the small size of those life-forms. That’s how big the plane of loss is. An individual accomplished in view, exempt from that vast plane of loss, truly understands: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’.
§3That’s why you should practice meditation …”
Self-check quiz
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