Dear Bhante,
Sometimes ago I found an interesting short article by Thanissaro Bhikkhu which strikes me with the unusual interpretation based on the literal meaning of words "upaadaana" and "khandha". Here is an excerpt:
"However, when teaching his own disciples, the Buddha used nibbana more
as an image of freedom. Apparently, all Indians at the time saw burning
fire as agitated, dependent, and trapped, both clinging and being stuck
to its fuel as it burned. To ignite a fire, one had to "seize" it. When
fire let go of its fuel, it was "freed," released from its agitation,
dependence, and entrapment — calm and unconfined. This is why Pali
poetry repeatedly uses the image of extinguished fire as a metaphor for
freedom. In fact, this metaphor is part of a pattern of fire imagery
that involves two other related terms as well. Upadana, or clinging, also refers to the sustenance a fire takes from its fuel. Khandha
means not only one of the five "heaps" (form, feeling, perception,
thought processes, and consciousness) that define all conditioned
experience, but also the trunk of a tree. Just as fire goes out when it
stops clinging and taking sustenance from wood, so the mind is freed
when it stops clinging to the khandhas." (
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/nibbana.html).
I think that maybe because we study Pali as a foreign language we often consider just the abstract techincal meanings of the terms and miss the connotations which in the minds of native Indian speakers from the Buddha's time could create very colourful and vivid metaphors.
With metta,
Ardavarz
--- On Thu, 11/12/09, Kumâra Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...> wrote:
From: Kumâra Bhikkhu <kumara.bhikkhu@...>
Subject: Re: [Pali] Dhammacakkappavattanasutta, no 7.
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009, 12:02 PM
It's sometimes quite a challenge to translate compounds. In this case, it's 'pa~ncupaadaanakkha ndhaa', which is translated below (and many other places) as 'five aggregates of clinging'. I remember reading it for the first time when I was very much a beginner. Couldn't understand it. Immediately the mind decided that it's beyond it's comprehension then and went on. Now looking at it again, in itself, it still pretty much the same. What does it mean to an ordinary reader?
* 5 clinging aggregates (which doesn't really help!)
* 5 aggregates that clings (doh!)
Assuming it's tappurisa, let me play around a little further
* 5 aggregates with clinging
* 5 aggregates for clinging (I know, I know. Just brainstorming. )
* 5 aggregates in clinging
* 5 aggregates' clinging
* 5 aggregates due to clinging
* 5 aggregates from clinging
Preferably I can offer a suggestion, but I don't have any. Can someone, perhaps with the help of the above, come up with something more meaningful and easily understood?
kb
Nina van Gorkom wrote thus at 16:02 12/11/2009:
>Dear friends,
>Pali text:
>
><Ida.m kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkha.m ariyasacca.m - jaati'pi dukkhaa,
>jaraa'pi dukkhaa, byaadhi'pi dukkho, mara.nam'pi dukkha.m, appiyehi
>sampayogo dukkho, piyehi vippayogo dukkho, yam'p'iccha. m na labhati
>tam'pi dukkha.m - sa"nkhittena pa~ncupaadaanakkhan dhaa dukkhaa.>
>
>----------- -
>Ida.m kho pana/, bhikkhave/,/ dukkha.m/ ariyasacca.m/ jaati'pi dukkhaa,/
>Now this,/ monks/ suffering/ noble truth/ birth
>also/ suffering/
>
>jaraa'pi dukkhaa/, byaadhi'pi dukkho/, /mara.nam'pi/
>dukkha.m,
>old age also/ suffering/, sickness also/ suffering/, death also/
>suffering,
>
>appiyehi/ /sampayogo/ dukkho, /piyehi/ /
>vippayogo/ dukkho,
>with unbeloved/ association/ suffering/, from beloved /dissociation/
>suffering
>
>yam'p'iccha. m/ na labhati/ tam'pi dukkha.m
>what wanted/ not obtains/ also suffering
>
>sa"nkhittena/ pa~ncupaadaanakkhan dhaa/ dukkhaa.
>in short/ five aggregates of clinging/ suffering.
>-----------
>
><Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is
>suffering, old age is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is
>suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation
>from the pleasant is suffering, not getting what one wants is
>suffering; in short, the five aggregates of clinging are suffering.>
>
>Remark: Included in the five khandhas are all mental phenomena and
>physical phenomena of our life which arise and fall away at this
>moment. No matter it is seeing, visible object, attachment, aversion
>or generosity, they all arise and then fall away, they are
>impermanent. What is impermanent cannot be of any refuge, it is dukkha.
>*********** ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *******
>**
>Nina.
>
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