Hi Bryan

Very helpful. So you read .thitataa as a bahuvriihii as well, and take it to refer to the cycling around? 'An enduring attaa'.

I have been thinking more, and wondered about reading ".thitattaa parikkhaati vuccati" as "it is called having a moat in place"? Taking .thitattaa as an abstract noun in -tta, in the ablative. In my reading going around and around *creates* a moat/trench (or rut even). I'm slightly puzzled that the one going around *is* a moat. Presumably this is a metaphor?

Again I was reading that sa.mki.n.nattaa as abstract/ablative; literally 'from it's filled-in-ness'. "Because the moat is filled and scattered: 'filled in moat' is said."

Your translation seems to accept that a being in samsara has an enduring attaa, and that the attaa is somehow destroyed with liberation. Would that not be an unusual position for Buddhaghosa to take?

Thanks for your help, look forward to getting your response to this.

Jayarava

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Jayarava
>
> MA 2.115 So hi punappuna.m uppattikara.navasena parikkhipitvaa
> .thitattaa parikkhaati vuccati, tenesa tassaa sa.mki.n.nattaa
> viki.n.nattaa sa.mki.n.naparikkho ti vutto.
>
> For he who again and again is surrounded/encircled by the power of > undergoing rebirth has an enduring attaa, he is called a moat; now
> then the moat's attaa that has been dispersed and and filled up, is
> known as a filled in/destroyed moat.
> parikkhaa = moat, sa.mki.n.nparikkho is a bahuvriihii.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Bryan