Dear Yong Peng,
I shall reproduce the Pali for those who did not follow from the
beginning:
<19. "Akusala.m, bhikkhave, pajahatha. Sakkaa, bhikkhave, akusala.m
pajahitu.m. No ceda.m, bhikkhave, sakkaa abhavissa akusala.m
pajahitu.m, naaha.m eva.m vadeyya.m - 'akusala.m, bhikkhave,
pajahathaa'ti. Yasmaa ca kho, bhikkhave, sakkaa akusala.m pajahitu.m
tasmaaha.m eva.m vadaami - 'akusala.m, bhikkhave, pajahathaa'ti.
Akusala~nca hida.m, bhikkhave, pahiina.m ahitaaya dukkhaaya
sa.mvatteyya naaha.m eva.m vadeyya.m - 'akusala.m, bhikkhave,
pajahathaa'ti. Yasmaa ca kho, bhikkhave, akusala.m pahiina.m hitaaya
sukhaaya sa.mvattati tasmaaha.m eva.m vadaami, " 'akusala.m ,
bhikkhave, pajahathaa'"ti.>
Op 27-mrt-2010, om 15:29 heeft Ong Yong Peng het volgende geschreven:
> I have another look at the Pali passage and noted an interesting
> pattern. The passage is made up of two parts, each containing six
> sentences. The last four sentences of the first part look like this:
>
> [1] No ceda.m, bhikkhave.....
> [2] Yasmaa ca kho, bhikkhave.....
> [3] Akusala~nca hida.m, bhikkhave.....
> [4] Yasmaa ca kho, bhikkhave.....
>
> I notice that the 'ca' in the last three sentences are linking
> these four sentences together, but I think there is a special
> pattern involves:
>
> ([1] and [2]) AND ([3] and [4])
>
> So, [1] and [2] are linked and formed a set of two sentences.
>
> Similarly, [3] and [4] are linked and formed another set of two
> sentences.
>
> Finally, [1&2] is linked with [3&4] to form a superset of two
> sentences.
Therefore, I am deducing that the 'if' in our English for sentence
[3] is related to 'ce' in sentence [1].
---------
N: It is certainly good to look for special patterns in the whole of
the sutta. It is striking that the 'ca' is repeated with so much
emphasis. I looked it up in PED and found more meanings of 'ca'. The
third meaning is conditional: if. The optative of the verb can help
us too. The PTS translation has also: if.
------
Nina.
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