Thanks very much, Lennart for your observations and comments; the phrase seems to make sense now, at least to me,

Metta, Bryan







________________________________
From: Lennart Lopin <novalis78@...>
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, June 30, 2010 2:51:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Pali] Re: About 'neta.m mama, nesoham asmi, na meso attaa'ti


Hi Bryan,

Yes, that is exactly correct. Unfortunately, in German too, the Self is
neuter...and so it sounds again exactly like in the English translation (if
one uses 'Selbst') so it would read "*Das *ist nicht mein, *Das *ist nicht
mein Selbst". The distinction is much more obvious in Pali/German or any
other inflected language if I'd say

"*Das *ist nicht mein (neuter nom.) - na etam mama. Here I am clearly
pointing back to the list of items...

Ich bin *dieser *nicht (masc nom) - na eso aham asmi [but in German, if you
do it that way, it sounds more like: I am not such a one, I am not thus ->
"so whatever I might be, I am definitely not thus". Which does not mean you
believe in a soul outside of what you observe, you just make a rational
observation of what you definitely cannot be from the view point of
self-delusion]

Nicht *dieser *(ist) mein Seelenkern (masc nom) - na eso me atta - Here too
it sounds as if I want to say something like "not of such a nature is my
soul or rather "not of such a nature can my soul be".

Sounds overall a little bit more like the emphatic semantics of etad are
used here "not such (a one) I am" - "not such is my self". Maybe the Pali
demonstrative pronoun expresses such a shade of meaning here.

metta,

Lennart

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]