The Buddha's brilliant way of teaching

Bhikkhu Bodhi, introduction to Maha Kaccana: Master of Doctrinal Exposition (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel 405/406, BPS.lk); edited and expanded by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

As a skilled and versatile teacher, the historical Buddha adopted different styles of presentation to communicate the Dhamma (Dharma, Teaching, Doctrine) to his disciples.

Often he would explain a teaching in detail (vitthārena). Having introduced his topic with a short statement or synopsis (uddesa), he would then explain it at length (niddesa), analyzing it, drawing out the implications, and sometimes attaching a simile (upamā) to reinforce the point.

Finally, he would restate the introductory declaration as a conclusion (niggamana), now supported by the entire weight of the foregoing analysis.

I'll leave it to Maha Kaccana to explain in detail.

On other occasions, however, the Buddha would not teach in detail. Instead, he would present the Doctrine briefly (saṅkhittena), offering only a short, sometimes even cryptic, statement charged with a profound but highly concentrated meaning.

The Buddha did not teach the Doctrine in this way to conceal any esoteric message. He used this technique because it sometimes proved more effective than a detailed elaboration in shaking and transforming the minds/hearts of his listeners.

Although direct explanation of the meaning may have transmitted information more efficiently, the purpose of the Teaching is not to convey information. It is to lead on — to liberating insight, higher wisdom, and full deliverance (from all suffering).

By requiring disciples to reflect upon the meaning and to draw out the implications by sustained inquiry and mutual discussion, the Buddha ensured that his utterance would serve its real purpose.

While such brief teachings would escape the understanding of the great majority of monks and nuns hearing him, those disciples with sharp faculties of wisdom could readily fathom their meaning.

Under such circumstances, ordinary monastics, reluctant to trouble their Teacher (the "Master Physician" able to cure all ill), would request an explanation.

Masha Kaccana: Master of Doctrinal Exposition (BPS)

For clarification they would turn to more senior monastic disciples whose comprehension of the Doctrine had already been confirmed by the Buddha.

So important did this function become in the early Monastic Community (Sangha) that the Buddha himself established a separate category of eminent disciples called “the foremost of those who analyze in detail the meaning of what was stated in brief” (aggaṃsaṅkhittena bhāsitassa vitthārena atthaṃ vibhajantānaṃ).

The monastic whom the Teacher assigned to this was Venerable Mahā Kaccāna — “Kaccāna the Great,” so called to distinguish him from others who bore the common Brahminical clan name of Kaccāyana (shortened to Kaccāna) [1]. More