Dear Nina

You wrote:

> Veberable Bhante Pandita,
> Your explanations are clear, but I had a problem with the
> Visuddhimagga text that came first.
>
> Text Vis.: amoho yathaasabhaavapa.tivedhalakkha.no
> and this is already translated by Ven. Nyanamoli as:
>
> 'Non-delusion' has the characteristic of penetrating [things]
> according to their individual essences,
>
> After that sentence I take up the Tiika that explains it. I repeated
> the Vis. translation of yathaa as: according to...
> Perhaps this translation could be improved on?
> I am in a forum where most people do not know Pali and then it is
> difficult for them if I leave terms untranslated. But I understand the
> reasons you give for not translating them.
> Moreover, I do not translate word by word, that would be far too
> difficult and time consuming for me.

I don't mean that Pali terms must left untranslated. Only certain terms
called sa.mva.n.netabbas ( words quoted to be explained) should undergo
consideration whether suitable for translation or not. The terms that
should be left untranslated are those expounded from a linguistic point
of view, for, it is not possibe to really understand these expositions
when these terms are rendered into another language.

In your example of Vism, it is only a conceptual explanation of amoha. A
translator can choose either to translate the term amoha or not.

> I am not familiar with bhaavasaadhana. saadhana is effect?

"Saadhana" is an old Sanskrit term found in Vaakyapadiiya and other
grammatical treatises. It means the power / ability of an entity to
accomplish a certain action (which is denoted by a verb). For instance:

Puriso gaava.m hanati = The man kills the cow (Here the ability of the
man to perform the killing is kattusaadhana. It is denoted by the
nominative case of "puriso")
Hanako raaja.m anugacchati = The assasssin follows the king (When you
notice that "hanaka" is derived from the root "han" meaning to kill plus
the noun-forming suffix "aka", and that the whole word is to be
literally translated as "killer", it would be clear to you that the
ability of the assassin to kill is also kattusaadhana. It is denoted by
the suffix "aka" of "hanaka")

In the two examples above, kattusaadhana in the first is at syntactic
level since it depends on the relation of "puriso" to "hanati" in Active
Subject (ASV) relation. On the contrary, kattusaadhana in the second is
inherent the word "hanaka". In Sanskrit and older Pali grammars, as well
as the commentarial literature, view these two as the same, but in later
Pali grammars popular in Burma such as Saddatthabhedacintaa, the first
type is termed "kaaraka" while the second, as "saadhana".

In the Burmese way, saadhanas are a key concept in understanding the
usage of primary derivatives. I intend to upload my lecture notes on
Primary Derivatives to the Pali list. You can find how saadhanas are
applied in learning Primary Derivatives. At present, the file area of
Pali list seems too crowded, making Yong Peng have a headache. But I
would soon send to you an offlist message with that file attached.

with metta

Ven. Pandita