Dear Jim,

Thanks for your insightful and encyclopaedic response, which is very
helpful.

You are right about jhaanaabhiññaa as a dvandva. I notice ~Naa.namoli takes
it as a disjunctive dvandva ("jhana or insight"), thought I prefer "dhyana
and superknowledge".

There are 6 superknowledges but only the sixth is a "direct knowledge," is
supramundane. The ability to fly is in the first superknowledge. SO here I
take the meaning as that one would fly on account of dhyana or some other
power. The kamavacara gods clearly do not have dhyana, but they are able to
fly, and some lower beings like pretas, could fly too.

Yes, "pakkhikaa" is better rendered as "birds" as the context is clear.
Initially I was thinking that it is a generic term that includes supannas.

One easy way to learn Pali is to always relate it to the Suttas or texts.
Contextual Pali is both useufl and inspiring to me.

Thanks again.

With metta,

Piya

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 9:08 PM, Jim Anderson <jimanderson.on@...>wrote:

> Dear Piya,
>
> I thought 'vinaa' was constructed only with the instrumental but
> 'jhaanaabhiññaa' is not in the instrumental case. However, I see in Apte's
> Skt. dictionary that 'vinaa' can be constructed with the accusative and
> ablative in addition to the instrumental. Also, in Kacc 272 we find: "vinaa
> saddhammaa nattha~n~no koci naatho loke vijjati, vinaa saddhamma.m, vinaa
> saddhammena vaa. vinaa buddhasmaa, vinaa buddha.m, vinaa buddhena vaa". So
> perhaps 'jhaanaabhiññaa' is accusative plural? I read 'jhaanaabhiññaa' as a
> dvanda compound, "(without any) superknowledge or jhaana". Might not these
> winged beings be birds?
>
> Best wishes,
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Piya Tan" <dharmafarer@... <dharmafarer%40gmail.com>>
> To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>>
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 6:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [Pali] Re: Simu
>
> Dear Pali friends,
>
> This is a new thread. This is an interesting sentence from the
> Pa.tisa,bhidaa,magga Commentary explaining the lemma "Sabbesaṃ pakkhīnan"
> ti
> (in the Iddhikathaa of Pm):
>
> Sabbesaṃ pakkhīnan ti sabbesaṃ pakkhijātānaṃ jhānābhiññā vināyeva ākāsena
> gamanaṃ. (Pm 2:213)
>
> "Of all the winged beings" means all those of the nature of have wings,
> going through the air WITHOUT any superknowledge (or direct knowledge) of
> jhana. (Pm 2:212)
>
> I have taken "vināyeva" as VINAA + EVA, translating as "without any".
>
> This is an interesting section of Pm which summarizes all the iddhis into a
> set of 10. I a working on a Sutta study paper of "Miracles."
>
> Any comments are appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Piya Tan
>
>
>



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