Re: Trans. & Philosophy of SN-1:18:5 [Ko.t.thita Sutta]

Nyanatusita wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I noticed that so far Ven. Bodhi's translation has not been mentioned at
> all so I attach a copy of his translation. It might be of use. More later.
> Regards,
> Bh Nyanatusita
>  

Thanks for this. I don't have that; so it was interesting to see.

I do have one definite disagreement here.

> "How is it, friend Sariputta, is the eye the fetter of forms or are
> forms the fetter of the eye? Is the ear the fetter of sounds or are
> sounds the fetter of the ear?… [163] Is the mind the fetter of mental
> phenomena or are mental phenomena the fetter of the mind?"
>  

I do not believe that mental phenomena is a possible translation of
dhammā in this context. We would not normally consider 'a doctrine' to
be a 'mental phenomenon'. So whereas for me 'mental objects' include
'doctrines', this would seem to exclude them. That must be wrong.

To take this a little further, in Abhidhamma and in the commentaries,
the dhammāyatana includes materiality as well as every kind of mentality
(cittacetasika), nibbāna and concepts. This goes farther than any normal
understanding of 'mental phenomena'.

I rather doubt that Bhikkhu Bodhi intends to imply that the meaning here
is different in Suttanta. But just in case he does, I would feel that
for Suttanta texts, or at least most of them, dhammā in the context of
this list is intended to cover any object of the mind apart from the
objects of the five senses (and possibly even those in the case of
dreams, etc.). So this rendering is too limiting and misleading.

Lance