Dear Flavio,
op 23-05-2003 05:02 schreef Flavio Costa op listas@...:

> N: The lokuttara magga-citta is lokuttara kusala kamma and it is succeeded
> by phala-citta, the lokuttara vipakacitta. [...]
>
> F: Indeed it was quite straightforward and helpful. Now my challenge will be
> to put these concepts in simple words for the people at large - after all,
> this is a great motivation for studying Pali: finding better translations in
> one's own language, to preserve the original meanings as much as possible.
>

Nina: Your remark is food for thought, I appreciate it. In the case of the
Abhidhamma there are several problems in translating the terms that denote
paramattha dhammas, ultimate realities, which each have their own
unchangeable characteristic. Paramattha dhammas are different from
conventional realities which refer to people and situations. There is
paramattha sacca and sammutti sacca. As to the paramattha sacca, so long as
one understands the reality referred to it does not matter how one names it,
because its characteristic does not change. For instance, dosa, hate or
aversion. It dislikes the object that is experienced, this is its
unchangeable characteristic, but there are many shades and degrees of it. We
can use different words to render these shades of meaning, but it is
important to know that dosa is dosa, it always dislikes the object and it is
always accompanied by domanassa, unpleasant feeling. That is why I would
prefer to use Pali next to the English translation. In different texts
different words are used and at times this creates confusion. We have to
know what reality is meant, the Abhidhamma is very precise.
Another example where a translation may create problems is sa~n~naa. Its
function is to mark or remember the object that is experienced; it marks it
so that it can be recognized later on. It is in different texts translated
as: recognition, remembrance, perception, apperception. It accompanies each
citta, it is one of the five khandhas that arise and fall away. However,
apperception is problematic, because in some texts the word apperception is
used for the kusala cittas and akusala cittas arising within the process of
cittas, and thus that excludes all the other cittas in a process, such as
seeing or hearing. Sa~n`naa also accompanies seeing and hearing. But of
course it is difficult to find one word that covers sa~n~naa's function at
all these different moments of citta. When it accompanies seeing it does not
categorizes yet, that happens when it accompanies cittas in mind-door
processes, and that is to say, several of them. I will go into this again
later on, in the context of the Mahaaraahulovaadasutta.
Here are just a few thoughts on translations,
Nina.