Dear Pali friends,
Sorry for the blank emails, some Netscape problem.
Here is the mail: any comments from anyone?
Sukhi.
P.
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Subject: Anapanasati Sutta
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 12:55:40 -0800
From: "Michael Olds" <
MikeOlds@...>
To: "Piya Tan" <
libris@...>
Piya Tan,
Your translation of The Anapanasati Sutta is now available on BuddhaDust at:
http://www.buddhadust.org/sutta/mn/118-anapanasatisutta.htm
BuddhaDust is an organic website...please feel free to send in revisions as
you see fit.
I have made a number of notes as I was doing the reformatting of this. I
submit them below with the hope that they will be taken in the spirit of
brotherhood in the Dhamma. Most are minor matters of English grammar. A
couple are points of discussion. The points of discussion I have included as
footnotes to the version placed on BuddhaDust, and here too, I welcome your
debate should you wish to have it included.
I have included my notes as a separate page, so the only intrusion on your
presentation is a small superscript number that is the link. I have tried to
follow your style as much as possible. For the Pali I have used my own
MozPali font, and I have also joined together most of the compound Pali
words you present using comma-separations as this is the style people are
used to on BuddhaDust.
Here are my notes:
1. Numbers in [79] brackets refer to what text?
2. page 5: "Monks, such is this community of monks, such is this assembly,
that it is worth going many leagues with only a travelling bag just to see
such a one."
The phrase "such is this assembly, that it is worth..." should be "such
is this assembly, that it would be worth..."
The phrase "...just to see such a one." is used when one is refering to
an individual. We need to hear "...just to see such an assembly." "such a
thing" could be used here, or to use what would be used in speech today, one
would say: "such a sight".
3. page 7 and following: In the phrase "Monks, when the mindfulness of the
In-and-out Breath is developed ..." it should be "...when mindfulness of the
In-and-out Breath..."
3a. "exertive" is not a real word
4. page 11: "That is why, monks, when a monk dwells contemplating the body
as body, exertive, fully understanding, mindful, having put away
covetousness and displeasure for the world."
is not a complete sentence.
5. page 11, footnote 45: "Vineyya, this means that the five hindrances have
to be abandoned prior to practising satipaÂÂhana."
I hope you will not object to my discussing a point of dhamma?
As stated, this is not correct. Satipatthana practice clearly starts out as
a method of training for beginners. The hindrances are traditionally (and
logically, and necessarily abandoned prior to the entrance to the first
jhana, and jhana practice is not encountered in the satipatthana until one
encounters the fourth of the satipatthanas (and it is there, also, that one
first encounters the hindrances). Something like this might be said: The
hindrances must be abandoned before the Satipatthanas can be brought to
perfection.
What is said is that one sits down putting away the coveting and dejection
(here displeasure) for the world. What is being spoken of in the
Satipatthana (indeed in the whole of the Dhamma) is a process. One sits down
with the intent of... The instruction is: "How does one so live in a body,
etc...that one abandons. Clearly a method is being described, not an
accomplished state.
Finally, putting away the hindrances prior to practicing the satipatthana is
impossible, it is precisely practicing the satipatthana that is the method
for putting away the hindrances. This is why it comes before Samma Samadhi.
"The full development of Samma Satipatthana brings, as a matter of course,
the development of Samma Samadhi."
So this goes back to the wording in the previous note where I would make it
a complete sentence by reading it:
"--it is then, monks, that a monk dwells...
That is how it is, monks, that when a monk dwells contemplating the body as
body, exertive, fully understanding, mindful, he has put away covetousness
and displeasure for the world."
You essentially make this point yourself in the next note (#46).
With regard to this passage, Horner has:
"And how, monks, when mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing is
developed, how when it is made much of, does it bring the four applicatins
of mindfulness to fulfilment? At the time, monks, when a monk breathing
in...comprehends, 'I am breathing in...when he trains himself thinking "I
will breath in ... at that time, monkks the monk is faring along
contemplating the body in the body ardent, clearly conscious (of it),
mindful (of it) so as to control the covetousness and dejection in the
world."
And Nanamoli/Bodhi has:
"And how, bhikkhus, does mindfulness of breathing, developed and cultivated,
fulfil...? ...on whatever occasion a bhikkhu, breathing in long,
understands...--on that occasion a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as
a body, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and
grief for the world.
Meaning that after having done the developing, then there is fulfilment and
putting away of covetousness and grief...
6. page 11, note 48: (sorry about this...my Pali font)Kayesu kay
a¾¾atar¢ha·, bhikkhave, eva· vadami yad-ida·: ass¤sa,pass¤s¤.
In the body / the-body all-kinds I / O monks/ thus / I say / that is to say:
/ in-breath out-breath.
Monks, this in-and-out-breath is one of the bodies, I declare.
HORNER:
I say, monks,that of bodies this is one, that is to say breathiing-in and
breathing-out.
Who footnotes: kayesu. MA. iv. 140, among the four bodies of extension and
so on, this is one (a¾¾atara), I say it is the body of mobility (v¤yok¤ya).
Or, the body that is material shape consists of twenty-five classes of r¬pa
(mentioned at Dhs §585): r¬p¤yatana· . . .pe . . . kabi²iºk¤ro ¤h¤ro.
Of these, breathing is a body because it is included in the field of touch.
NANAMOLI/BODHI:
I say that this is a certain body among the bodies, namely, in-breathing and
out-breathing.
Who footnotes with the same reference which he translates: MA:
In-and-outbreathing is to be counted as the air element among the four
elements making up the body. It should also be included in the base of
tangibles among bodily phenomena (since the object of attention is the touch
sensation of the breath entering and leaving the nostrils).
The Pali (PTS):
K¤yesu k¤ya¾¾atar¤ha·, bhikkhave, eta· vad¤mi yadida· ass¤sapass¤sa·.
MO:
The first thing to remember here is that this same line is later used for
vedana (sensation), so whatever explanation is given for the one must fit
the other.
I say, beggars, that in- and out-breathing is a body of sorts.
or
I say, beggars, that in terms of bodies, in- and out-breathing is a sort of
body.
or, I would say, aiming at the meaning:
I say, beggars, that thinking in terms of body, in- and out-breathing can be
seen as representative of body.
7 & 8. page 12. Incomplete sentences...I would correct as above note 5:
That is why, monks, when a monk dwells contemplating feelings as feelings,
exertive, fully understanding, mindful, having put away covetousness and
displeasure for the world.
and
That is why, monks, when a monk dwells contemplating mind as mind, exertive,
fully understand-ing, mindful, having put away covetousness and displeasure
for the world.
9. page 13: That is why, monks, when a monk dwells contemplating
mind-objects as mind-objects, exertive, fully understanding, mindful, having
put away covetousness and displeasure for the world.
Incomplete sentences.
10. page 13, note 59: "dhammavicaya. Sometimes this is taken as
"investigation of the Doctrine", but the meaning here is rather
"investigation of bodily and mental phenomena" (Walshe 1995n690)."
Think about this. What do we, as Buddhists do when we think about
investigating bodily and mental phenomena? We investigate with the idea of
understanding impermanance, not-self, and change, and what is this but
doctrine?
To read it your way would be to necessitate investigating things in such a
way as an ordinary person investigates and the result could be no better
than ordinary knowledge.
Best Wishes!
Michael Olds
Los Altos California
http://www.BuddhaDust.org
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