Dear Robert,

I too became fond of "Thus-gone" and "Well-gone",
not from Conze but from Warder's text.
My favourite translation of an epithet is "The
Fortunate One" from "Bhagavaa". Who was ever more
fortunate?

Thanks for your posting.
Paul O Cuana

--- Robert Eddison <robedd@...> wrote:

> Ven. Kum�ra wrote:
>
> >>Sugata - "faring well, happy, having a happy life
> after death".
> >> Frequent epithet of the Buddha.
> >
> >I too wonder how it should be best translated. Ven.
> Bhikkhu Bodhi uses:
> >- Sublime One, in his MN
> >- Fortunate One, in his SN
> >
> >Would be good if we could ask him why?
>
> In the case of 'Sublime One' in the MN this was
> actually Ven. ~Naa.namoli's
> choice. He also used this in his Visuddhimagga
> trans. In footnote 10 of
> chapter VII ~Naa.namoli remarks:
>
> "The following renderings have been adopted for the
> most widely-used
> epithets for the Buddha. 'Tathaagata' (Perfect One
> -- for definitions see
> MA i 45f.), Bhagavant (Blessed One), Sugata (Sublime
> One). These renderings
> do not pretend to literalness. Attempts to be
> literal here are apt to
> produce bizarre or quaint effect, and for that very
> reason fail to render
> what is in the Pali."
>
> I would guess that by 'bizarre or quaint' he had in
> mind such renderings as
> 'Well-gone' for Sugata and 'Thus-gone' for
> Tathaagata. Personally I'm not
> much bothered by these renderings. I got accustomed
> to them when I used to
> read Conze's translations of Praj~napaaramiita
> texts.
>
> Buddhaghosa gives four glosses on Sugata in his
> Visuddhimagga:
>
> He is called Sugata...
> sobhana-gamanattaa -- because of a beautiful manner
> of going.
> sundara.m .thaana.m gatattaa -- because of having
> gone to a beautiful place.
> sammaa gatattaa -- because of having gone rightly.
> sammaa gadattaa -- because of enunciating rightly.
>
> (For a fuller treatment of these see Path of
> Purification VII 33)
>
> and a similar set of four in his commentaries to the
> Khuddakapaa.tha and
> Suttanipaata:
>
> sobhanena gamanena yuttattaa -- because of being
> conjoined to a beautiful
> manner of going.
> sobhana.m .thaana.m gatattaa -- because of having
> gone to a beautiful place.
> su.t.thu gatattaa -- because of having gone the best
> [way].
> su.t.thu eva gadattaa -- because of enuciating only
> the best.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Robert
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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