Dear Nina, Jim and friends,

Jim, you are probably right. If only others can also throw a light
into this.

Technically, if 'te' is genitive, and since 'bhaavayato' present
participle, then "te bhaavayato" is <quote Warder page 58> a
construction called the "genitive absolute" consists of a noun
followed by a participle, both inflected in the genitive <end quote>.

In that case, "te bhaavayato" becomes "as/while you are
cultivating/developing/practising".

Here is the abstract from the suttas provided by Dimitry at the
beginning of the project:

"Pathaviisama.m, Raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavehi. Pathaviisama~nhi te,
Raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavayato uppannaa manaapaamanaapaa phassaa
citta.m na pariyaadaaya .thassanti.

(a) Ven. Anzan Hoshin sensei and Tory Cox
Practise like the earth, Rahula. If you become like the earth then
the sensations which arise, whether pleasant or unpleasant, do not
take hold of the mind, nor do they establish themselves.

(b)
Rahula, develop a mind similar to earth, when you develop a mind
similar to earth arisen contacts of like and dislike do not take hold
of your mind and stay.

I have tried to redo it again:

According to PED:
bhaavanna=producing, dwelling on something, putting one's thoughts
to, application, developing by means of thought or meditation,
cultivation by mind, culture.

"Rahula, cultivate the mental quality that is like the earth. Rahula,
while you are cultivating the mental quality that is like the earth,
pleasant and unpleasant impressions that have arisen will not
overwhelm the mind and persist.

Please correct me if I am wrong.


metta,
Yong Peng

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Jim Anderson wrote:
You've both gotten away ahead of me on this thread. Although I
consider "bhaavayato" to be a present participle, I pointed this out
at a time when I still had yet to consider it carefully in the
context of the passage. I have since done some of that and I agree
that "te" belongs with "bhaavayato" and that both are in the same
case and number. However, I question that they are in the dative
case. Could this not be a genitive absolute construction as described
by Warder, p. 58 or Duroiselle, no. 603?
>
pathaviisama~nhi te, raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavayato, . . . -- M I 423
>
For while (or when, as) you, Rahula, are developing the development
that is like the earth, . . .
>
I'm not too clear on a number of parts in the sentence. I
find 'develeping the development' awkward in English. Also, the
placement of the 'na' before 'pariyaadaaya' instead of
before '.thassanti' seems unusual to me.
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, nina van gorkom wrote:
> > N: pathaviisama~nhi te, raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavayato
> > >pathaviisama~nhi te, raahula, bhaavana.m bhaavayato
> > For you (te, dative) , Rahula, who is developing (bhaavayato, from
> bhaveti, present participle and also dative), the development
> (bhaavana.m) that is like the earth (pathaviisama ~nhi), agreeable
> and disagreeable, etc.