Dear John,

JK> You suggest: "What life is called best among lives?"
JK> for
JK> Katha.m jiivi.m jiivitamaahu se.t.tha.m?
JK> wheras I had "What life is best among lives?"
JK> Where did you get the "called" from?

From 'aahu'.

JK> Then you suggest apperception for sa~n~na. I think
JK> perception is a much clearer and better understood
JK> English word, and most English-speaking Pali scholars
JK> I know of translate it as perception too.

They created a modern Buddhist myth, a rational & poetic fantasy,
intriguing and easy to understand. In this process they stripped away
many psychological, philosophical and methodological intricacies,
severing the Buddhism from Indian roots and making it a romantic
ascetic legend, meant not for practice, but for the poetic longing.

Buddha warned about the grasping for elegant literary works:

They -- being undeveloped in bodily conduct... virtue... mind...
discernment -- will not listen when discourses that are words of the
Tathagata -- deep, profound, transcendent, connected with the Void --
are being recited. They will not lend ear, will not set their hearts
on knowing them, will not regard these teachings as worth grasping or
mastering. But they will listen when discourses that are literary
works -- the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric,
the work of outsiders, words of disciples -- are recited. They will
lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these
teachings as worth grasping and mastering.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/anguttara/an05-077.html

And now the PED is revered more than Atthakatha. I think Mr. Rhys
Davids would be disgruntled to witness that his pioneering work
became an object of blind faith.

Piya Tan wrote:

> (3) "Apperception" for sa~n~naa is too technical since it is a
> specialized psychological term. I think Rhys Davids or an earlier
> translator had used this term unsuccessfully. I'll stick to
> "perception". It is difficult to have an exact word for such
> technical Pali terms. Anyway, although the Pali texts are meant to
> be read alone, there is always the need for a communication with a
> living practitioner (preferably a renunciate) to bring spiritual
> life into these dead words.

So it's just a study of 'dead words', a system of deciphering the
crypt, watering down the technical and psychological terms.

Truly Ven. Soma Thera translated 'javana' as 'apperception', but that's a
totally different story.

JK> Just wondering what nuance you're trying to convey with
JK> apperception.

sa~n~naa is apperception, since its result is a designation (vohara)
See AN 6.63:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/anguttara/an06-063.html

Translation of sa~n~na as 'perception' dilutes the meaning
of this exact term. All the five khandhas are involved in 'perception'.
Vi~n~nana, phassa, and even sa'nkharaa with vedana can also be seen as
aspects of 'perception' process.

In the the suttas the terms aniccasa~n~na and asubhasa~n~na will be
used, and their translation as "perception" can be confusing.

Apperception (sa~n~naa): The mental process of discrimination and
categorization of the sense impressions, resulting in their labeling.
For example, the process in the result of which the color of the
visible object is designated as 'blue', 'yellow', or 'red'.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn22-079.html

For example, when a person in love sees everywhere his beloved, he
does not 'perceive' her. Rather he 'apperceives' anybody remotely
similar as the girl of his dreams.

Similarly the yogin, practicing asubhasa~n~naa, does not 'perceive'
the absence of beauty. Rather he 'apperceives' the absence of beauty,
being 'tuned' to this theme.

See also the article
http://sino-sv3.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/gomez.htm

Metta,
Dimitry