Dear John,

I too was a bit surprised when I came across this translation - not that I
cannot see inertia as being some sort of impediment, but the meaning seemed
more like (from the vedic roots):

dus - yat

aka BAD aiming

Now perhaps commentarial tradition has made of the pp. of dus-sati
something like badly aimed at -- thus NOT aimed at -- thus sloth (or even
"lewd" :-) ?

Whatever...

Metta-cittena,

Dr Gabriel Bittar

PS On Sunday the 22nd 01h15 UT it's the December solstice - my best wishing
to everyone on the spiritual path.


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Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 14:48:00 -0800 (PST)
From: John Kelly <palistudent@...>
Subject: du.t.thull.m

Dear Friends,
At our sutta study group last night, we were going
through MN 128 (Upakkilesa - Imperfections) - in
English, and when we got to the part where the Buddha
was describing to Anuruddha all the ways in which he
noticed imperfections preventing his concentration,
there was one which ~Nanamoli/Bodhi translate as
"inertia". Trying to fathom what this was all about,
I looked up the Pali word being translated, and it was
"du.t.thulla.m". (See PTS M.iii.159). The PED
translated this as "wickedness", and in adjectival
form as "wicked, lewd". Does anyone have an idea
where "inertia" might come from? And what is the
sense of this as an imperfection?

Thanks,
John


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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
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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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