Knowing my thoughts,
the Teacher, unexcelled in the cosmos,
came to me through his power
in a body made of mind.
He taught in line with my thoughts,
and then further.
The Buddha,
delighting in non-objectification,
taught non-objectification.
Knowing his Dhamma,
I kept delighting in his bidding.
The three knowledges
have been attained;
the Buddha’s bidding,
done.
Notes
1. “Objectification” is a translation of papañca. Although in some circles papañca has come to mean a proliferation of thinking, in the Canon it refers not to the amount of thinking, but to a type of thinking marked by the classifications and perceptions it uses. As Sn 4:14 points out, the root of these classifications and perceptions is the thought, “I am the thinker.” From this assumption grow such classifications as “me/not me,” “existing/not existing,” which frame experience in terms conducive to further becoming. DN 21 and MN 18 discuss the relationship between objectification and conflict. AN 4:173 states that the range of objectification is identical with the range of the six sense media. SN 43 lists non-objectification as one of many epithets for unbinding.
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