Dear Keren,

A belated welcome to Pali-L.

> It is the first time I realize that there is such a thing as
> "Pali discussion group" and I am delighted! I am also a pali
> student, and while trying to translate sutta 138 of the MN I
> already have some problems. Since I don't have a teacher
> here in Israel,

Do you plan to translate Pali texts into Hebrew in the future?

>I will appreciate any help.

Let me start by answering your final question:

> p.s. how do you write the different Pali fonts here?

The Velthuis system seems to be the preferred one. The
characters requiring diacritics are represented thus:

long vowels: aa, ii, uu,

guttural nasal (n with overdot): `n or "n
palatal nasal (n with tilde): ~n
cerebral (t, d and n with underdot): .t, .th, .d, .dh, .n

cerebral semi-vowel (l with underdot): .l
niggahiita (m with underdot, or n with hook): .m

The remainding ones are the same as in the printed text.

> I have few questions, but first let me write the sentence:

> tathaa tathaa bhikave, bhukkhu upaparikkheyya, yathaa
> yathaassu upaparikkhato bhiddhaa cassa vinnaanam
> (conciousness) avikkhittam avisatam ajjhattam asanthitam
> anupaadaaya na paritasseyya.

In Velthuis:

tathaa tathaa, bhikkhave, bhikkhu upaparikkheyya yathaa
yath'aassu upaparikkhato bahiddhaa cassa vi~n~naa.na.m
avikkhitta.m avisa.ta.m, ajjhatta.m asa.n.thita.m
anupaadaaya na paritasseyya.

Before coming to your questions, I will offer a quick
translation of the Majjhima Atthakathaa's gloss on the key
terms and a trilinear translation of the sutta passage itself.

_______________________

Atthakathaa (MA. v. 28):

_upaparikkheyyaa_ ti tuleyya tiireyya parigga.nheyya
paricchindeyya.

_Upaparikkheyya_ (should investigate): should weigh up,
measure, ascertain, discriminate.

_bahiddhaa_ ti bahiddhaaaaramma.nesu.

_Bahiddhaa_ (externally): means in regard to external
aaramma.nas.

_avikkhitta.m avisa.tan_ ti nikantivasena aaramma.ne
ti.t.thamaana.m vikkhitta.m visa.ta.m naama hoti, ta.m
pa.tisedhento evamaaha.

_Avikkhitta.m avisa.tan_ (non-distracted and
non-diffused): distracted [consciousness] fixed on an
aaramma.na through the power of attachment is called
diffused. Negating that [diffuseness], the Blessed One]
spoke thus.

_ajjhatta.m asa.n.thitan_: ti gocarajjhatte
nikantivasena asa.n.thita.m.

_Ajjhatta.m asa.n.thitan_ (internally not settled
upon): means not settled upon an internal resort*
through the power of desire.

[* 'gocarajjhatte' is another term for an internal
aaramma.na]

_anupaadaaya na paritasseyyaa_ ti anupaadiyitvaa
aggahetvaa ta.m vi~n~naa.na.m na paritasseyya. "yathaa
vi~n~naa.na.m bahiddhaa avikkhitta.m avisa.ta.m,
ajjhatta.m asa.n.thita.m anupaadaaya na paritasseyya,
eva.m bhikkhu upaparikkheyyaati" vutta.m hoti.

_Anupaadaaya na paritasseyyaa_ (because of not holding
it would not be disturbed): not having held and not
having grasped, that consciousness would not be
disturbed. "In that manner whereby consciousness,
neither distracted externally and diffused, nor settled
upon [an aaramma.na] internally, owing to none-holding
would not be disturbed, in that manner should the
bhikkhu investigate," is said.
_______________________

Trilinear translation:

tathaa tathaa, bhikkhave, bhikkhu upaparikkheyya
in that manner / O bhikkhus / a bhikkhu / should investigate

Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu should investigate in that manner

yathaa yathaa'ssu upaparikkhato
in which manner / just / when investigating

in just which manner, when investigating,

bahiddhaa c'assa vi~n~naa.na.m avikkhitta.m avisa.ta.m,
externally / and / his / consciousness / not distracted /
not diffused

his consciousness, not distracted externally and not diffused,

ajjhatta.m asa.n.thita.m anupaadaaya na paritasseyya.
internally / not settled upon / because of non-holding / not /
would be disturbed

and not settled upon [anything] internally, through
non-holding would not be disturbed.

"Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu should investigate in just that manner
whereby, when investigating, his consciousness, neither
distracted externally and diffused, nor settled upon
[anything] internally, through non-holding would not be
disturbed."

And here is the ~Naa.namoli/Bodhi rendering, in more natural
English:

"Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu should examine things in such a way that
while he is examining them, his consciousness is not
distracted and scattered externally nor stuck internally,
and by not clinging he does not become agitated."

> 1. is assu in the combination yathaassu is the indiclinble?

Yes, I think so. It's an emphatic particle to be translated
'really', 'very', 'indeed', 'definitely', 'just so'. But if
the English sentence seems emphatic enough already, then it
can be left untranslated, as Bodhi has. In this case I have
rendered it 'just'.

> 2. As I understand, upaparikkhato is a peresent participle
> Dative or Genetive, but I have a problem translating it in
> this meaning.

One use of the genitive is to indicate the time of an
action. Alternatively, we could take it as a participle noun
and translate "upaparikkhato ... assa vi~n~naa.na.m" as "the
consciousness of this one [who is] investigating."

> 3. I'm not sure if bhiddhaa is an adverb reffering to
> upaparikkhato: "while he is investigating external
> [objects]...".

It is an adverb, but it is one that stipulates the direction
of avikkhitta.m and avisa.ta.m. If we were to replace the
participles with finite verbs, then the manner of
investigation the Buddha recommends is one that will entail
neither "vi~n~naa.na.m bahiddhaa vikkhipati", nor
"vi~n~naa.na.m bahiddhaa visa.tati", nor "vi~n~naa.na.m
ajjhatta.m santi.t.thati."

> 4. Do avikkhittam avisatam refer to the vinnaanam, and
> asanthitam to ajjhattam?

Avikkhitta.m, avisa.ta.m, and asa.n.thita.m are all
adjectives qualifying vi~n~na.na.m. Bahiddhaa is an adverb
modifying avikkhitta.m and avisa.ta.m. Ajjhatta.m is an
adverb modifying asa.n.thita.m.

> My suggested translation is: "In this way monks, a monk
> should investigate in such a way that while he is
> investigating external [objects] his consciousness is
> composed and not dispersed [nor] unsettled internally, and
> by not clinging he would not be agitated".

I don't think this can be right. If you read on in the sutta
you will see that "not unsettled internally" is the very
opposite of what is being said. The internal aaramma.na is
the jhaanic sukha and jhaanic n'eva sukha na dukkha, and
upon these the bhikkhu is *not* to settle (or become stuck,
as ~Naa.namoli has it).

> My problem is with ajjhattam asanthitam. I did like Bhikkhu
> Bodhi in his translation and added the "nor", but it does
> not appear in the text.

I think the 'nor' is the result of the combination of 'ca'
with the privative a-prefixes in a-vikkhitta.m, a-visa.ta.m,
and a-sa.n.thita.m.

> I hope that these kind of questions is what you do in the
> group...

Well, I've had a go, but I'm not confident all the above is
correct, so hopefully some others will now chime in.

Best wishes,

Dhammanando