Thanks Dimitry,
I have no time now to read the references cited below,
but will ponder your response later.
Clearly you've spent some time thinking about this
word!

Warm wishes,
John
--- "������� ���������� ��������� (Dimitry A.
Ivakhnenko)" <koleso@...> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>

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