Dear Bhante Dhammanando,

You're response is very clear and extremely helpful. Thank you VERY
much.

With metta, John
--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Dhammanando Bhikkhu <dhammanando@...>
wrote:

> Dear John,
>
> > I've been puzzling over this small passage from the
> > Milindapa~nha - number III.5.4 (Miln 71):
> >
> > Raajaa aaha "bhante naagasena, dhammo tayaa
> > di.t.tho"ti.
>
> Tayaa is the instumental of tva.m. So the question is "Have
> you seen the Dhamma?" (lit. "Has the Dhamma been seen by
> you?")
>
> > Buddhanettiyaa kho, mahaaraaja, buddhapa~n~nattiyaa
> > yaavajiiva.m saavakehi vattitabban"ti.
>
> Rhys Davids translates:
> "Have not we disciples, O king, to conduct ourselves our
> lives long as under the eye of the Buddha, and under his
> command?"
>
> And then adds the footnote:
>
> "Mr. Trenckner thinks there is a lacuna here; and
> Hiinati-kumburee's version perhaps supports this. He renders
> the passage: "How can a man use a path he does not know? And
> have not we our lives long to conduct ourselves according to
> the Vinaya (the rules of the Order), which the Buddha
> preached, and which are called the eye of the Buddha, and
> according to the Sikkhaapada (ethics) which be laid down,
> and which are called his command?" But there are other
> passages, no less amplified in the Sinhalese, where there is
> evidently no lacuna in the Paali; and the passage may well
> have been meant as a kind of riddle, to which the Sinhalese
> supplies the solution."
>
> Horner translates:
>
> "Disciples have to proceed for as long as they live, sire,
> with the Buddha as guide, with the Buddha as [the one]
> laying down the rules."
>
> And adds a footnote repeating what Rhys Davids has said,
> then continuing:
>
> "....The words Buddhanetti and Buddhapa~n~natti may have a
> reference to D. ii 154: mayaa dhammo ca vinayo ca desito
> pa~n~natto. Cf. also: dhammaa Bhagava.mnettikaa at M. i 310,
> A. i 199, etc."
>
> Her translation seems fine to me. In the Kankhaavitara.nii
> (a commentary to the Paatimokkha) there is the gloss:
>
> Buddhapa~n~nattenaa' ti buddhena .thapitena, vihitenaa* ti
> attho.
> (* vihita: past participle of vidahati)
>
> 'By what has been laid down by the Buddha': by what has been
> fixed and prescribed by the Buddha is the meaning.
>
> And in the Milinda.tiikaa are the glosses:
>
> Buddhanettiiyaa' ti nibbaana.m neti etaaya sadevake loke' ti
> netti, suttantaabhidhammapaali.
>
> 'With the Buddha as guide': the guide by which one in this
> world, with its devas, is guided to Nibbaana: the text of
> the Suttas and Abhidhamma.
>
> (Buddhapa~n~natti) pa~n~naayapiiyati etaaya bhagavato
> aa.naa' ti pa~n~natti. Buddhassa pa~n~natti
> buddhapa~n~natti, vinayapaali.
>
> (Buddha's prescription): 'thereby it is prescribed.' The
> command of the Blessed One is the prescription. The
> prescription of the Buddha is the Buddha prescription: the
> text of the Vinaya.
>
> > By best translation attempt so far is:
> >
> > The king asked: "Venerable Nagasena, is the Dhamma to
> > be seen from a three-way perspective?"
> > Your majesty, as a conduit to awakening, as a
> > designation of the enlightened one, and something to
> > be practised by disciples all life-long."
> > You are clever, venerable Nagasena."
> >
> > Am I missing something here?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Dhammanando