[palistudy] Re: Pali grammatical terms & abbreviations

>
>from Eisel:
>According to Narada Thera, the reflexive-imperative is Pali's equivalent to
>the benedictive (there's a jargon-heavy statement!).  Thus, commanding
>oneself to do something is really equivalent to wishing one could do
>something ... so to speak.  The example he uses is along the lines of
>wishing one could become a Buddha.  This issue makes it into a footnote of
>the textbook I'm writing.

This appears to be the opinion of Aggava.msa also, though I'm not
completely confident in my translation below. AFAIK the quotations
are untraced, though the second quotation is reminiscent to Dhpa
I,47,19 (PTS), which uses the optative (7mi) instead of the
imperative (5mi). Thanks to H Smith's footnotes for this info.

  From the vutti to sutta 880 of Saddaniiti:

patthanaa naama sundarassa vaa asundarassa vaa aayati.m
upalabhitabbassa atthassa pihanaa, tissa.m patthanaaya.m:
"bhaavaabhavaabhinibbattiya.m me sati paritassanaajiivita.m naama maa
hotu, aya.m sumanamaalaa viya nibbatta.t.thaane piyaa va homii" ti
vaa "ima.m jiivitaa voropetu.m samattho homii" ti vaa icc aadi.

Wishing for a lovely or a wicked purpose to be obtained in the future
is 'aspiration' (patthanaa) by name. In this (sense of) aspiration:
"In whatever form of existence I am reborn let there not be a life of
fear; like this jasmine-garland may I be loved in my place of
rebirth," or "may I be capable of depriving him of life," etc.

By way of comparison, Dhpa I, 47:

"ito daani cutaa yakkhinii hutvaa tava daarake khaaditu.m samatthaa
hutvaa nibateyya.m" ti patthana.m .thapetvaa, kaala.m katvaa tasmi.m
yeva gehe majjaarii hutvaa nibbatti.


best regards,

/Rett