Re: consciousness unestablished

Dear Nina,

>Nina: After your remarks, I shall try:
>
>With consciousness unestablished the clansman Vakkali passed finally away.
>
>Co: appati.t.thitenaa ti pa.tisandhivi~n~naa.nena appati.t.thitena.
>
>with consciousness <unestablished>, with the rebirth-consciousness not
>re-established.

The first part 'with consciousness' isn't in the text. It should probably be
bracketed like this: '<with consciousness> unestablished'. The 'not
re-established' could be just 'not established'. I'm not sure if the meaning
of 'pati' is 're-' in this context although Woodward does translate the word
as 'not stationed anew anywhere' at KS iii 106 and Mrs. Rhys Davids has 'not
reinstated' at KS i 152.

>appati.t.thitakaara.naa ti attho.
>because of being unestablished, is the meaning.

I'm tempted to place 'consciousness' within: 'because of
<consciousness> being unestablished'.

>subco: appati.t.thitenaa ti pati.t.tha.m alabhantena.
>
><by being unestablished>, by not obtaining establishment (literally:
>established).

I would put it this way: "<with consciousness> 'unestablished' -- not
obtaining an establishment." Pati.t.tha.m is the accusative sg. of fem.
pati.t.thaa (establishment, footing, foundation, basis, support).

>itthambhuutalakkha.ne eta.m kara.navacana.m, anuppattidhammenaa ti attho.
>
>This wording gives the reason  that consciousness has this kind of
>characteristic, that it has the nature of no rebirth. This is the meaning.

In the first part Dhammapala is giving a technical term
(itthambhuutalakkha.ne) for a special use of the instrumental case
(kara.navacana.m) and there is even a rule for this usage in the Saddaniti.
My translation: 'this is the instrumental case with respect to the
characteristic of being this way; not subject to arising is the meaning.'

>Sati hi uppaade pati.t.thita.m naama siyaa, a.t.thakathaaya.m pana yadeva
>tassa vi~n~naa.nassa appati.t.thaanakaara.na.m, tadeva
>parinibbaanakaara.nan ti vutta.m appati.t.thitakaara.naa ti.

I find this last Pali sentence very hard to make sense of as a coherent
whole and wonder if there might be a word or two missing. Unfortunately
when it comes to the tikas I only have one version to work with and so I
can't compare it with other versions.

>If there would be rebirth, it would indeed be established, but in the
>commentary the condition of no foundation is stated, in so far as it is the
>condition of the final passing away, thus the condition for being
>unestablished.
>
>Remarks: I thought that in translation the yad and tad should better be
>turned around, just as yena...tena... I was not sure whether the vutta.m
>refers to the preceding or following. Nina.

yad . . . tad . . . are a pair of correlative pronouns. In English
translation the clause starting with 'tadeva' is the main clause and the
'yadeva' clause would be the subordinate or relative clause. You will note
that I have embedded the 'yadeva' clause within the 'tadeva' clause below
(just that which . . .). I read 'yad' as a 'ya.m' with the niggahita changed
to 'd' before 'eva' but in some other passages one might have to read the
'yad' as 'yadaa' (when) with the 'aa' elided before 'eva'.

'vutta.m' (said/stated/expressed) is a problematic word here and, like you,
I'm not sure if it goes with the preceding or the following part. Only the
following part (appati.t.thitakaara.naa) is in the commentary while 'yadeva
. . . parinibbaanakaara.na.m' is only in this passage. I give a literal
translation based on what I read in the text. It doesn't make a lot of sense
and that could be due to a faulty text or just my poor understanding of it.

"For when there is arising there must indeed be 'establishing', but in the
commentary 'that alone which is the cause of the non-establishing of this
consciousness is the cause of parinibbaana' is stated thus 'because
of <consciousness> being unestablished'."

The last part makes more sense after rearranging the parts and adding the
phrase <by reason of>:

". . . but in the commentary: 'because of <consciousness> being
unestablished' is said <by reason of> that alone which is the cause of the
non-establishing of this consciousness is the cause of parinibbaana."

I will now start going through your translation of the commentary on AN
I.49.

Best wishes,
Jim


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