Re: kaama.m tasmimpi vissaseti

"Äìèòðèé Èâàõíåíêî (Dimitry Ivakhnenko)" wrote:

>
> Dear Rick and friends,
>
> Yasmi.m mano nivisati, cittañcaapi pasiidati.
> adi.t.thapubbake pose, kaama.m tasmimpi vissaseti.
>
> yasmi.m - (Locative of relative pronoun)
> mano - intellect
> nivisati - settles down on (locative)
> citta - mind
> api - then
> pasiidati - brightens up
> adi.t.thapubbake - adi.t.tha 'not seeing' + pubbaka 'former, previous'
> pose - purisa, man (Locative)
> kaama.m - sense-desire
> tasmimpi - tasmi.m + pi (Locative of relative pronoun)
> in yasmi.m ... tasmi.m ... construction
> vissaseti - to confide in, to put one's trust in (loc. or gen.), to be
> friendly with.
>
> In whomever intellect is settled, mind is brightened as well,
> He has not seen sense-desire before, and to him sense-desire is a
> friend.
>
> Commentary says:
>
> Kaama.m tasmimpi vissaseti - anubhuuta pubba sinehe n'eva
> tasmimpi puggale eka.msena vissase, vissaasa.m aapajjatiyevaati attho.
>
> To the person who has not experienced affection before one-pointedness
> is friendly, and this frienship is produced by such attainment (?)
>
> Please take in account that I'm a beginner in Pali and don't know the
> context of this Saaketa Jaataka (Jaatakapali-1 68).
>
> Metta,
> Dimitry

Hi Dimitri,

Let me give the Cowell (PTS) translation of it and the general context
as it would help clarifying it.
The translation is from 1895, so you can imagine how is the language :)

The man thy rests on, with whom thy heart
Is pleased at first sight, - place thy trust in him


Now, here the context of the Jataka indicates that the Buddha is trying
to say that when you feel affection towards someone not seen before
(adi.t.thapubbake), you must "kaama.m tasmimpi vissaseti".

The story is about a visit to Saaketa when a brahmin couple call him
their son. The Buddha later on explains to his disciples that such a
couple were his parents for 500 sucessive lifes. So this was the reason
they could recognize him immediately.

Now my difficulty is exactly with the "kaama.m" as I, like you, was
trying to see kaama.m as sense-desire. But it doesn't seem to fit in the
Cowell translation or any other meaning.

My tentative translation was following along these lines: "When the mind
is settled on [someone] and your heart is pleased (another meaning of
pasiidati) - [about] a person not seen before - then....kaama.m
tasmimpi vissaseti


metta,

Rick