Dear Nina, Charles and friends,

thanks. I agree with what you say, but that will likely depend on the
context of individual suttas. So, it can mean praising another
Buddha, praising Buddha Gotama himself, or praising Buddha(s) in
general.

In other words, when the Buddha speaks of the quality of a Buddha, it
can be any of the three cases, but it is certainly in the form of a
praise. The only problem is va.n.na.m is in singular. I wonder if it
is one quality to represent all qualities, or it is an idiomatic form
in Pali. What do you think?


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nina van Gorkom wrote:

I am inclined to take to va.n.na.m: praise. I recently met this in a
sutta.

I found difficult: the Buddha praises a Buddha, but, when we think of
past Buddhas, the Buddha Gotama can praise the enlightened Ones of
the past.

There can only be one Buddha in one Buddha era.

> Nina: what do you think of Charles' suggestion? I think the key
here is the phrase "Buddhassa va.n.na.m". The word va.n.na.m can
refer to appearance and colour too.