a new member and an update

Dear Members,

First, I'd like to welcome Suan who has just joined today as a new member of
our group which now stands at 15. I'm sure his wide knowledge of Pali and
his translations will be very helpful and much appreciated by all of us
here.

My plans to go away to Toronto for acupuncture treatments has been
postponed for at least another two months as advised by my acupuncture
doctor. So that leaves me with some extra time on hand to work on some more
contributions to psg. In view of the ongoing luminous mind thread on dsg,
Suan's recent postings of his translation of the commentary and
subcommentary on the white radiant mind, and the fact that I still have work
to do on many of Nina's translations previously posted, I think that I
should devote my attention for the next while to Suan's and Nina's
translations. I'll first begin with AN I.49 along with its com. and subcom.
and also review some of the work already done previously.

I have been working on the problem of how to present layers of texts in
order to make it easier for us to follow them for careful study. It's so
easy to get lost trying to sort out which phrasing a comment goes with
especially when you have 2 or 3 layers of commentaries! Here's an example
of what I think might work better for students of Pali:

AN 1.49> pabhassaramida.m bhikkhave citta.m ta~nca kho aagantukehi
upakkilesehi upakkili.t.thanti.

nina> This consciousness, monks, is luminous, and it is indeed corrupted by
oncoming defilements.

suan> "Monks, this mind is radiant. And, that very mind is tarnished by
guest blots."

Mp> 49. navame pabhassaranti pa.n.dara.m parisuddha.m.

suan> 49. In the ninth statement, the term `radiant' signifies whiteness or
purity, and means complete cleanness.

Mp-p.t> 49. navame pabhassaranti pariyodaata.m sabhaavaparisuddha.t.thena.
tenaaha--'pa.n.dara.m parisuddhan'ti.

suan> 49. In the ninth statement, the expression `radiant' means complete
purity due to natural complete cleanness. That is why the commentator said
"pure, completely clean."

Mp> cittanti bhava"ngacitta.m.

suan> The term `mind' refers to the life-cause consciousness.

Mp> ki.m pana cittassa va.n.no naama atthiiti? natthi.

suan> How is there such a thing as the color of the mind?  There isn't.

Mp-p.t> pabhassarataadayo naama va.n.nadhaatuya.m labbhanakavisesaati
aaha --  'ki.m pana cittassa va.n.no naama atthii'ti?

suan> Because the qualities like radiance are attributes available in the
color element, the commentator posed the question "How could there be such
a thing as the color of the mind?"

I included Nina's early translation of the sutta but left out her
commentarial translations for now because I don't know where to look for her
latest corrected ones. I just put in Suan's translations as an example. The
translations of others could also be inserted for comparison. In order to
indicate the source I put a > at the end of an abbreviation or first name
(or initials) so as to avoid confusion. Mp refers to Manorathapuura.nii, the
name of the Anguttaranikaaya a.t.thakathaa. Mp-p.t is Dhammapaala's
Puraa.na.tiikaa on Mp. There is a later .tiikaa by Saariputta (12th cent.)
that goes by Mp-.t. The PTS has at least the first three volumes of this
later commentary published. I only have the first volume which covers to the
end of the first ten suttas only. I'm planning to order the volume
pertaining to AN I.49-52 which should be of interest for comparing with the
earlier .tiikaa.

Best wishes,
Jim


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