So, now for the last passage...

Yassa raago ca doso ca avijjaa ca viraajitaa,
ta.m *bhaavitatta~n~natara.m* *brahmabhuuta.m* tathaagata.m,
buddha.m verabhayaatiita.m aahu sabbappahaayina.m.
(Iti 57)

which the Dark Zen people translate:

>"He who becomes the soul (bhâvitatta~n~nataram), he is Tathagata and
>Brahma-become."

Bhaavitatta is the same word found in the other Itivuttaka passage, and as
noted yesterday, the past participle bhaavita does not mean 'become', but
'made to become' or 'developed'. The Itivuttaka Commentary takes this
occurrence of bhaavitatta as relating to inward development. John Ireland
and Helmut Hecker both translate accordingly:

One who has destroyed attachment
Along with hatred and ignorance
Is called one *inwardly developed*,
A Tathaagata *become supreme*,
Awakened, past enmity and fear,
One who has abandoned all.
(Itivuttaka 46)

Reiz, Hass, Unwissen wer entreizt,
*entfaltet innen*, *brahmagleich*
Erwachter, frei von Feindschaft, Furcht:
so heisst man den, der alles liess.
(Sammlung der Aphorismen 69)

With the second half of the verse, I think Dark Zen's rendering of
brahmabhuuto as 'Brahma-become' is unobjectionable (though how they
interpret it is another question).

In glossing compounds beginning with brahma- the Commentaries commonly
define it as pure (visuddha), supreme (uttama) or best (se.t.tha);
occasionally all three adjectives are used together. From such glosses
comes the common English rendering 'sublime' (e.g. 'sublime abodes' for
brahmavihaara). Whether these commentarial glosses are supported in the
Canon itself I'm not really sure. Nevertheless I sense that something is
being lost when brahma in such compounds is translated, and so tend to
prefer Hecker's 'brahmagleich' or even Woodward's 'One become Brahma',
rather than 'sublime', or worse still, Nyanamoli's wordplays on 'divine'.

Well, that's all for now. I have no doubt that a much richer treatment of
the four passages posted by Lee could be undertaken, but it would require a
greater knowledge of Buddhism's Indian background than I have at
present.

Best wishes,

Robert