Dear Nina,

Thank you for your detailed explanation. It makes the topic more clear and specific.

I agree that "immortality" is not proper term in a Buddhist context. I've just quoted this passage what it was in the source - I suppose this is just a loose translation from the Burmese original.

I also back up your suggestion to use the Pali term nibbaana instead of more popular Sanskrit one. This, even if it may sound unusual to the general public, will let us keep the specific Buddhist connotations of the word. (I think the same applies to the cognates kamma and karma.) The Sanskrit words nirvaa.na and karma are used not only in Buddhism, but also in Hinduism, Jainism and more recent theosophical sects. I have found that most people usually have very bizarre notions about them and so using them in the translations of the suttas (or even in the works about Buddhism) would cause more confusion rather than understanding.

With metta,
Ardavarz

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nina van Gorkom <vangorko@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Ardavarz,
>
> Op 2-nov-2009, om 0:04 heeft ardavarz het volgende geschreven:
>
> > With the attainment of the three stages of knowledge, the meditator
> > becomes a Sotapanna, one who initially enters the stream leading to
> > Nibbana - the immortality. At this stage there arises in the
> > Sotapatti Path Consciousness the Supra-mundane Eightfold Path,
> > including Moral Path (Sila-magga) i.e. right speech (Samma-vaca),
> > right livelihood (Samma-ajiva)."
> ------
> N: This is correct. The three factors that are siila only arise
> together when the citta is lokuttara, experiencing nibbaana. At that
> moment the base of wrong siila is being cut off in accordance with
> the stage of enlightenment reached.
> When the citta that develops the Path is still lokiya, there is not
> always opportunity for abstention (then the Path is fivefold), or,
> there may be an opportunity for one kind of siila at a time: right
> action, right speech or right livelihood. Then the Path is sixfold.
> BTW I would prefer to use the 'deathless' for nibbaana, instead of
> immortality which may create confusion. People may think of eternalism.
> Nina.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>