Bhante Nyanatusita,

Yes, I am interested to help in making a better translation of Vimuttimagga.

Although I don't know Chinese, I have worked with Chinese text,
consistently replacing Chinese terms with Pali equivalents, and
compiling a Chinese-pali glossary.

I have also done similar work with Tibetan translation of
Samskrta-asamskrta-Vini"scaya by Da"sabala"sriimitra, which contains
chapters 10,11,12 of Vimuttimagga. (See the relevant article by Peter
Skilling in Buddhist Studies Review, Vol. 4, No.1, 1987).

I can share the results of my work.

Several scholars have suggested improvements in the translation of
Vimuttimagga in following works:

Vimuktimarga dhutanuga-nirdesa edited in Tibetan and translated into
English by P.V.Bapat, Delhi University Buddhist Studies 1, 1964

P.V.Bapat, Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga, a comparative study. Poona 1937

Vimuttimagga, edited by Galkatiyagama Siri Ratnajoti and Karalliyadde
Siri Ratnapala. Colombo 1963. Reviewed by Purusottama Visvanath Bapat in
Journal of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon 1, 1972, 172-190

Toshiichi Endo, "The Asgiriya manuscript of the Pali Vimuttimagga" an
inquiry into its authenticity", Kalyani. Journal of Humanities and
Social Sciences of the University of Kelaniya 1, 1983, 100-108

Peter Skilling, "Vimuttimagga and Abhayagiri: the form-aggregate
according to the Samskrtasmkrtaviniscaya", JPTS 20, 1994, 171-210

Also see full bibliography at
http://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/ckeyt/txt.html , number 123

Peter Skilling wrote to me that the comparison of the Tibetan texts
(only parts available) and the Chinese show that the English translation
is often inaccurate, and that the Pali terms inserted in parentheses are
not always correct. He thinks that "the only solution is a new English
translation from the Chinese by someone who is steeped in Sanskrit and
Pali, and also knows Tibetan to compare the excellent Tibetan excerpts.
To render terms correctly one needs a profound knowledge of Abhidharma,
including Sarvastivadin, and research tools such as the trilingual (Skt,
Tibetan, Ch) glossaries of Abhidharmakosa and Yogacarabhumi, etc.,
produced in Japan in recent years, plus a deep knowledge of the Pali
Abhidhamma tradition, more or less from reading through the whole.
For example, where the English translation has the unattested
khanda-, ayatana-, dhatu-upaya, the Tibetan has mkhas pa = kaushalya.
Lexicons based on the comparison of translations with Sanskrit texts
show that while the Chinese character in question often translates
upaya, it is also attested for kushala, kaushalya, Pali kosalla."

As for me, I hope to see the new translation with more comrehensive
reconstruction of Pali texts and passages. Some of the key Pali terms
like 'nimitta' are habitually wrongly translated in English. However
with Pali terms available the reader has a chance to reconstruct the
meaning.

In Sri Lanka you can contact Toshiichi Endo from Postgraduate Institute
of Pali and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya, who has studied
Vimuttimagga and related works.

Metta, Dmytro

http://dhamma.ru/sadhu/