For reasons given earlier I disagree that the idiomatic interpretation is without basis. Anyways, I have no problem potentially reading this as mind-body given your points earlier. It’s a valid possible reading for this specific usage if we take dhamma to refer to the sense sphere instead of ‘teachings’ or ‘things’.Ceisiwr wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 6:16 pm It seems the commentary does indeed disagree with you:
"kāyenāti nāmakāyena. Sacchikaraṇīyāti paccakkhaṃ kātabbā.
Performed by the body with the nāmakāya. What ought to be done becomes evident and is able to be realised." - Manorathapūraṇī
This makes more sense than your "personally" interpretation. To know dhammā one first has to have mental contact with them. Theravāda has always preferred a literal interpretation of buddhavacana. I see that is apt here. There seems to be no basis for your hypothetical idiomatic interpretation of kāyena as "directly/personally".
It doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of usages of kayena are clear-cut examples meaning ‘with/by means of body’, contrasted with either verbal and mental actions or contrasted with the other sense spheres. Although, I guess you may disagree that this is the common usage. In which case you should search for each of the usages above and see how many times they occur relative to each other.
So yes, context matters to determine the meaning of kayena, but the default translation should be the most common usage, unless the context demands we change it.
