Thank you Dimitry, you're a treasure.

I am only a bit perplexed by the root da.ms. You give from Monier-Williams
the meaning "to destroy", which would make sense. In Childers, a da.mso is
a gad-fly. In Sanskrit, the root da.msj has a meaning of to prick, bite.
Could the idea be of "pricking the darkness" and blowing it, like some sort
of balloon?

The complete text for this puuja would thus be, with a litteral-linear
translation (not meant to be elegant - if there is agreement on the
litteral meaning, I'd be happy to have proposals for a more litterary
English translation - I can take care of the French one):

Ghana-saara pa'dittena
Through this camphor set ablaze,

diipena tama-da.msinaa
through this light which abolishes the gloom,

Tiloka-diipa.m Sam'Buddha.m
to Him who illuminated the Universe, to the Self-Awakened One,

Puuja-yaami Tamo-nuda.m
I pay homage to the Dispeller of obscurity.

Any comment by anyone is most welcome. In particular, it seems this text,
recited in Sri Lanka, is not practised in Thailand. Could those who know
confirm this to me?

Metta-cittena

Gabriel Jivasattha Bittar

-------------------------

Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 13:30:23 +0300
From: "ŸÏËڕËÈ ¿ÎÂÍÒÂ’˗ »’ýžÌÂÌÍÓ (Dimitry A. Ivakhnenko)"
<sangha@...>
Subject: Re: Padipa-puja

Dear Gabriel,

BGJB> Ghana saarappa dittena
BGJB> diipena tama-da.msin’

Acccording to Monier-Williams dictionary:
ghana-saara - camphor;
Rhys-Davids:
paditta - kindled, set on fire, blazing;
da.msinaa - dassin - seeing, finding, realizing, perceiving?
Monier-Williams:
da.ms - to destroy.

Metta-cittena,
Dimitry


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Jacqueline "Gotamî Jîvarakkhî" Bittar
Dr Gabriel "Ananda Jîvasattha" Bittar,
PhD University of Geneva
phone +61 8 8553 7442 , fax +61 8 8553 7444
mob. ph. +61 4 2743 5148

Institut Suisse de Bioinformatique
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
http://www.isb-sib.ch/DEA/plan_etudes.html
email: bittar@...

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a'niccâ vata san'khârâ
( a'niccaa vata san'khaaraa )
"impermanent are structural processes"
"instables sont les flux structurels"
Siddhârtha (Siddhaartha) Gautama Buddha
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