Re: sati meditation

This is, perhaps, an obvious point, but I will add below...

> In fact, I think that the passage
> means "he lets (his) sati attend upon (him)
> assiduously". This is important
>because upa.t.thaa generally means to attend
> upon and upa.t.thap is a
> causative. This means that we do not have to
>make dubious assumptions about
>the meaning of upa.t.thap in this particular
>passage, meaning that are not
>attested elsewhere.

Without reference to the Sanskrit, one could defend this reading of
the Pali "Upa.t.tha-" by construing "pari-" as "in the range of...".
In Pali, we have familiar usage of attendants keeping "in ear's
range", or even "in a whisper's range"; it therefore does not seem so
unnatural to be attended upon within the range of one's breath, or
indeed within the mouth's range --i.e., very close to oneself indeed.

I am not convinced that this particular sutta has the overweening
importance that modern authors seem to assign to it.  However, a small
class of western layperson seems to now earn money by teaching this
method of meditation in much the same way that Hindu "Yoga" has become
a bourgeois passtime at the Y.M.C.A.

Well, we've come a long way from _The Religion of the Samurai_ being
the predominant Western evaluation of Buddhism.  But change is
empirical, progress ideological; I cannot say if we are any better off
at this stage of transition.

E.M.