Thanks for your comments on this, Venerable Kumaara.

I am indeed still interested in this, and having just
returned from a brief 5-day retreat over the New Year,
I was delighted to find not just your message, but two
extremely elucidating emails about this from very
knowledgable 3rd parties, which I will now share with
the group.

First, from Prof. Andrew Olendzki, noted Pali scholar
and Director of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
in Barre, Massachussetts, USA, who is also a personal
friend:
" Although it is true that looking up du.t.thulla
and its related words in the dictionary yield the
sense of "wickedness," but if you unpack it another
way it can also suggest inertia. As you know, "du" is
a prefix meaning "difficult or bad" and is here
attached to .t.thulla, which can also be spelled
thulla which can also be spelled th-ula (see PED p.
309). This word has the sense of thick, heavy, and
other images suggesting something hard to move. When
you combine this with the context, which pairs the
word with an opposite of "elation," it seems
reasonable for the translators, either on their own
initiative or following the commentary (which I did
not check), to come up with "inertia."
Three points to remember: 1) context has a lot to
do with how best to translate a technical term; and 2)
there are alternate and related spellings of many Pali
words to consult; and 3) whenever you come across a
prefix always look up the word it is attached to.
Sounds like you are having fun with all this. Look
forward to seeing you soon."

This is now me (John) again. I think Andy's 3
suggestions for translating will be very helpful to
all of us struggling Pali translators on this list.

Then the coup-de-grace came this morning, when I got a
response from Bhikkhu Bodhi himself! (I obtained his
email through a friend, and just on the off chance he
might respond, sent him a message of inquiry about
this). I quote:
" "Du.t.thulla" in relation to speech, has the meaning
"wicked, lewd," as in the expression "du.t.thullaahi
vaacaahi". But in the compound "kaayadu.t.thulla" the
word takes on a different nuance. The commentaries
(including the comy to MN 127) consistently gloss this
compound as meaning
"kaayaalasiyabhaava", which might be translated
"lassitude of body." It was Ven. Nyanamoli who chose
"inertia" as the rendering, and given the comy gloss,
I saw no reason to change this."

Blessings to all,
John
--- Kumaara Bhikkhu <venkumara@...> wrote:

> Not if you're still interested in this, John. But
> anyway, Ven. Buddhadasa dictionary gave "inferior"
> as one of the meanings of du.t.thulla.
>
> I think the translator finds it somewhat inadequate
> a translation in the context of the sutta
> (Upakkilesa - Imperfections, of concentration), and
> so referred to the commentary for a more definite
> idea of it.
>
> The PED, which was compiled when Pali study in the
> English world was still relatively young, is still
> not a complete dictionary. That's why it's good to
> have Ven. Buddhadasa's dictionary as a supplement.
>
> Taking into account the meaning "inferior", the
> commentary's explanation (as posted by Nina), and
> the context of the sutta, I think the meaning
> "inertia" is quite justified.
>
> Happy New Year, everyone! (Can you imagine that I
> forgot that today's is a new year's day until a
> devotee at my pindapat told me?)
>
> metta,
> Kumaara
>
> At 06:42 AM 25-12-02, you wrote:
> >Dear Nina and Gabriel,
> >Thank you both for your responses to my question
> about
> >"du.t.thulla.m".
> >I find the commentary very interesting, but still
> not
> >very clear. Are you saying that the meaning of the
> >word is "the excitement associated by wickedness,
> that
> >causes one to get stuck"? Thus, inertia in the
> sense
> >used in physics, whereby a body in motion will
> remain
> >in motion, or a body at rest will remain at rest,
> >until some force acts upon it; rather than the
> common
> >English meaning of laziness?
> >
> >John
>
>

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