Dear Mahinda and friends,

once again, thank you for your kind support for this Saddaniti study. I respect your decision not to venture away from Saddaniti.

When we first began this discussion group, there were some who argued that Pali was a language almost impossible to master. But, we had worked through many of the modern Pali texts, and now we are studying one of three great Pali grammar classics. It is like using English to learn English grammar, without using any other language. This, I believe, is an important achievement for us. And, yes, I am ready to keep working through the text. However, because I have other priorities too, so if I am the only person providing the translation, then it has to be the pace I set.

As an online discussion group with an open membership, all members can post freely and participate in any group discussion. Moderation is provided to prevent abuse of this facility.

When we started with Saddaniti, there were suppose to be three threads in parallel. (Jim has completed the introductory verse, but the third thread did not start.) Because of the differences in individual's time and proficiency, style of translation varies from person to person. This can be seen from our group's sutta translations in the past. As I recall, out of about a dozen people who had shared with us sutta translations, only I used the trilinear method. I retained trilinear in sutta translations as an enabling mechanism so that those weak in Pali but good in sutta knowledge can also join the discussion.

For Saddaniti study, or study of any classical Pali grammar, I think the trilinear method is unnecessary. I believe that Saddaniti is an advance text, and all participants should be able to use Pali dictionaries and other tools well. I also expect that participants are already capable of acquiring new words with some level of ease. This may require at least some elementary Pali knowledge, which is needed to learn more (advance) Pali grammar. Also, without trilinear, we focus on the technical content of the text, not so much about which English word is the best rendering for a non grammatical term. However, that does not mean we should forbid such discussions. I will not provide translation of individual words in my original posts, but in subsequent replies, if anyone raises any such question, I may choose to discuss based on the merit of the question. In the same way, you decide what is necessary for the understanding of the text and what to discuss in your mails.

I will still highlight the grammatical terms, such as vikarana. I will also provide a line-by-line literal translation. And, as you suggest, I will make a full renderings at suitable points as I did for the most recent post (within braces).

Btw, Mahinda, would you mind sharing with us what you think is the best approach in learning from the classics. What are some of the prerequisites, and what are the tools which are useful. Thank you.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Mahinda Palihawadana wrote:

No, let's not go for another grammar text. Let's plod along with Saddaniiti. I am just wondering whether we can have a less confusing format. Do we need to translate all the words separately, or comment on the difficult terms only, prededed or followed by a complete rendering of the passage as a whole?

> Our experience tells us that capability and functionality limits us to only one classical text at a time, at least at this initial stage. It will get overwhelming and messy if we start having multiple threads on the classics... I am happy to suspend Saddaniti, and let you start postings on Balavatara.