Kvaci

Renderings

• kvaci: anywhere

• kvaci: in any way

Introduction

Tautology: ‘all directions anywhere’

Kvaci means ‘anywhere’ (PED), but it is commonly paired with another locative adverb so it becomes redundant. For instance, ‘all directions anywhere’:

• On traversing all directions with the mind one finds no one anywhere more beloved oneself.
☸ Sabbā disā anuparigamma cetasā
Nevajjhagā piyataramattanā kvaci (Ud.47).

Tautology: ‘in any place anywhere’

Or ‘in any place anywhere’ in the mocking, ironic, improbable verse:

• If there exists any place anywhere where without work one won’t decline, that indeed is the Untroubled’s path.
☸ Sace atthi akammena koci kvaci na jīvati nibbānassa hi so maggo (S.1.218).

Emphasis: ‘in any way’

Sometimes kvaci implies the emphasis, ‘in any way’:

1) Though a youth, he is not attached in any way.
☸ yo yobbane nopanibajjhate kvaci (Sn.v.218).

2) May attachment to charming things of any kind never in any way or in any place surge within me;
☸ Mā me kvacani katthaci kiñcana rajanīyesu dhammesu rāgo udapādi (A.3.170).

Other renderings: DOP and Bodhi

DOP seems to reject the emphatic effect of kvacani, because it explains it as ‘somewhere, anywhere, in or regard to anything.’ But Bodhi accepts it, saying ‘Let no lust at all arise in me anywhere in any way regarding things provocative of lust’ (NDB p.762).

Illustrations

kvacani, in any way

• I am not in any way anything “belonging to anyone”
☸ nāhaṃ kvacani kassaci kiñcanatasmiṃ

… And not in any way is there anywhere anything “belonging to me.”
na ca mama kvacani katthaci kiñcanatātthī ti (M.2.263-4, A.1.206, A.2.176-7).

Comment:

The Uposatha Sutta (A.1.206) says the particular application of this contemplation is in personal relationships, where:

1) a man’s parents know him as their son, and he knows them as his parents
☸ ayaṃ amhākaṃ putto ti so pi jānāti ime mayhaṃ mātāpitaro ti.

2) a man’s slaves and servants know him as their master, and he knows them as his slaves and servants
☸ ayaṃ amhākaṃ ayyo ti. So pi jānāti ime mayhaṃ dāsakammakaraporisā ti.

This reflection therefore helps overcome the idea that beings possess each other.