From: Ong Yong Peng
Message: 2139
Date: 2003-03-17
--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Rene Salm wrote:
> I would like to bring attention to the word "honti," which might
often (generally?) be translated with the dynamic "become" rather
than the more static "be." I found a whole book devoted to just this
(!) by Mrs. Rhys Davids called "To Become or not to Become, That is
the Question" (publ. 1925). What brought me to this subject is the
suspicion that bhavati has often been, and is, (mis-)
translated "rebirth," when a simple "becoming" suits the context
admirably or better. But that is, of course, a whole other matter.