Re: AN I.51-52, translation

op 05-07-2001 03:18 schreef Jim Anderson op jimanderson_on@...
> 1. 6. 1.
> pabhassaramida.m bhikkhave citta.m ta~nca kho aagantukehi upakkilesehi
> upakkili.t.tha.m.
N: This consciousness, monks, is luminous, and it is indeed corrupted by
oncoming defilements.

>ta.m assutavaa puthujjano yathaabhuuta.m nappajaanaati.
N:The ordinary person who has not learned (the Dhamma, not listened to it)
does not understand it as it really is.
> tasmaa assutavato puthujjanassa cittabhaavanaa natthiiti vadaamiiti.
N:Therefore I say that for the ordinary person who has not listened there is
no mental development (literally. free: the ordinary person who has not
listened to the Dhamma has not developed the mind.)
  
> 1. 6. 2.
> pabhassaramida.m bhikkhave citta.m ta~nca kho aagantukehi upakkilesehi
> vippamutta.m.
N: This consciousness, monks, is luminous, and it is indeed released from
oncoming defilements.
>ta.m sutavaa ariyasaavako yathaabhuuta.m pajaanaati.
N: The learned noble disciple understand it as it really is.
>tasma sutavato ariyasaavakassa cittabhaavanaa atthiiti vadaamiiti.
N: Therefore I say that the learned, noble disciple has developed the mind.

Remarks: sutavaa seems to be from sutavant, just like mahaa from mahavant.
Ta~nca: a niggahita before the c. Aagantuka: who has arrived, a visitor. The
upakilesas, defilements arising with the citta (different from the anusayas,
latent tendencies who do not arise with the akusala citta but can condition
akusala), are like visitors from outside. It seems disturbing, but we have
to note: the ariyan knows the citta as it really is: yathaabutta. One has to
know also akusala citta as it is, otherwise one cannot become an ariyan,
this is stressed in this short sutta.
Yathaabhuuta: bhuuta: that which has grown, is, exists, the truth.
yathaabhuuta: in its real essence, according to the truth.
vippamutta: pamu~ncati: to release. The prefix vip is usually a negation,
but what is it here?
   
The Atthasalini speaks about the bhavangacitta as being pure, using the word
pa.n.dara (I, Book I, Part IV, Ch II, 140) : "Mind also is said to be clear
in the sense of exceedingly pure with reference to the Bhavanga-citta." Now
I like to quote from Acharn's Survey of Paramattha dhammas where she
explains about the bhavanga-citta which is different from the cittas
experiencing objects impinging on the six doors. She explains that when one
is fast asleep one does not know who one is or where one is, one does not
experience the world. When one wakes up the world appears, one experiences
all the objects impinging on the six doors and then these objects give rise
to defilements. The bhavanga-citta, life-continuum, that has the function of
keeping continuity in the life of an individual, arises when fast asleep and
also in between the processes of cittas. Thus our life, consisting of an
uninterrupted series of cittas, goes on. The bhavanga-citta experiences the
same object as the rebirth-consciousness, and this object is like an echo of
the object experienced shortly before the dying-consciousness of the
previous life. This citta is pure, but it does not mean that there are no
latent tendencies of defilements, anusayas, which lie dormant in the citta.
It is called pure or luminous, because at that moment no defilements arise.
I quote: 
< The citta is pure only at the moment it does not experience an object
through the doors of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense or mind. Everybody
who is fast asleep looks innocent, pure, he does not experience like or
dislike, he is not jealous, stingy, conceited, he has no lovingkindness nor
compassion; thus, unwholesome or wholesome qualities do not arise because he
does not see, hear, experience tangible object or think. However, it should
be known that whenever the citta which arises experiences an object through
one of the six doors, citta is not pure. The reason is that many different
defilements have been accumulated in the citta and these condition the
arising of pleasure and attachment when one sees something pleasant, and the
arising of displeasure and annoyance when one sees something unpleasant.>

The person who is enlightened, the ariyasaavako, has eradicated anusayas by
the development of pa~n~naa of the eightfold Path. It is pa~n~naa which
knows realities as they are, yathaabhuuta, no other way. Anusayas are
eradicated at the different stages of enlightenment, and only the arahat is
freed from all defilements, he has no more latent tendencies of defilements,
no conditions for their arising. Nina.