Hello again, Gunnar.

Occurrences of "sovaca" in other contexts in suttas in the Majjhima
Nikaya are translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi as "easy to admonish".
Another good translation of this would be "able to take
correction". Thus, "obedience" works for "sovacassataa" in a fairly
rough sense. Unfortunately there is no good English word that
captures the essence of the Paali fully.

Metta,
John

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Gunnar Gällmo <gunnargallmo@...> wrote:
> Working with the Mangala Sutta, I am finding some
> difficulties with the word "sovacassataa" in the 1st
> line of the 9th stanza (or 10th, if you coun't the
> prose introduction as one, as does the CSCD). Both
> Narada/Kassapa, in "The Mirror of the Dhamma", and
> Saddhatissa, in "A Buddhist's Manual", translate it
> with "obedience", which I find a little hard to
> swallow (if Prince Siddhattha had been obedient,
> there would be no Buddhism and no Mangala Sutta); on
> the other hand, when downloading Thanissaro's
> translation of the Khuddaka Patha, I find he
> translates it with "composure", which of course is
> something else.
>
> What's your opinion?
>
> Gunnar
>
>
>
> =====
> gunnargallmo@...
>
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