Re: Give one's life for a friend - in Paali

>
> > >When we go back to the sutta: A true friend abandons even
>> >his own life for you.
>>
>> Can I ask how you get 'for you'? The closest I can find is 'atthaaya'
>> for (someone's) sake. Is it clear from context that that someone is
>> the listener to the discourse? Or do you have a slightly different
>> version of the text?
>
>I think it is clear from the context. "assa atthaaya" = for his sake,
>right?

Yes that looks like the smoothest way to read it to me. It's just bit
strange because in the rest of the passage 'assa' refers to the good
friend, not the listener. That's why I wondered if the point of the
last one was that a good friend is one for whom the listener would
offer his life, not the other way around as it has been translated.
Even your first translation here assumed the assa was attached to
jiivam (which would be less problematic, except that then atthaaya
would be free-standing)

If you would like to continue off-line that's fine. rett@...