Re: update

Dear Jim,

>For a translation of  "evarūpena attanā bhavitabbaṃ", I'm thinking along the
>lines of "there must be such a self" (in the mind of one who has the notion
>of a self (attasaññā)). Or, "there has to be a self of such kind.". It stops
>short of saying: there exists a self, a doer, an ecperiencer (atthi attā
>kārako vedakoti as in the commentary to DN 22).

Thanks for this suggestion. I had settled on "the self must be of such a form" which is very close to what you suggest,

Metta, Bryan




________________________________
  From: Jim Anderson <jimanderson.on@...>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, August 3, 2012 3:56:20 PM
Subject: [palistudy] update


 
Dear List-members,

My apologies for not having posted anything since April 6th and for my long
absence. This is partly due to my being busy organizing a June retreat with
Sayadaw U Thitzana and partly because I hadn't been receiving any of the
group postings since early April. As you know, ii's not unusual for this
group to go for a long period without any activity and so I thought nothing
of it until a few days ago when I went to check on the group's website and
discovered to my horror (and relief!) that a 110 messages had been posted
during my absence. I don't know how it happened but my email setting was set
to receive no mail---something I would never do as a moderator.

So I'm now just catching up on the postings I missed (another 66 to go). I
have some comments to make on what I've read so far. The first one relates
to the matter of top-posting especailly in long threads where the messages
just keep getting longer and longer after each exchange so you end up with a
single sentence or paragraph at the top of a message followed by a large
accumulation of previous messages which aren't at all necessary. It's also
bad for achiving. I would encourage everyone to be mindful of the messages
they post and to trim off what is not really necessary leaving just enough
to identify the message you're responding to. Top-posting is fine as long as
it's done  thoughtfully. Looking through the membership list I see that many
members have their email preference set to fully-featured (html). There is
an optional setting for plain text (traditional) in case you're unaware of
it. Let me know if you ever need help in changing this setting.

Some omments on the following two threads::

1) April 17-19, Mahasatipatthana Sutta in MN?, initiated by Ven.
Yuttadhammo, 6 messages #3340-5.

I find the 6th Council revision of MN 10 to match the longer DN 22 version
disturbing and unwarranted.

2) May 2-9, Question on Sabhiya sutta commentary, initiated by Bryan, 26
messages #3347-62,3367-8,3370-4,3376-8.

For a translation of  "evarūpena attanā bhavitabbaṃ", I'm thinking along the
lines of "there must be such a self" (in the mind of one who has the notion
of a self (attasaññā)). Or, "there has to be a self of such kind.". It stops
short of saying: there exists a self, a doer, an ecperiencer (atthi attā
kārako vedakoti as in the commentary to DN 22).

I'll likely have more comments on the messages I'm catching up on.

Besides my long-termed project for studying the Brahmajāla Sutta with the
commentaries and Kaccāyana's grammar with its commentaries, I've added to my
list the Dhammacakkappavattana and Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Suttas which came about
from my involvement with the June retreat. Lately, I've been devoting my
attention to the iriyāpathapabba section of DN 22 where the commentary gets
into the notion of a self and using Abhidahamma to explain a world without a
self. I'm having trouble grasping the concept of the two viññattis.

I'm planning on heading up to the cottage in about a week's time for 3-4
weeks of solitude in the backwoods and offline.

It's great that Bhikkhu Bodhi accepted Ven. Yuttahammo's invitation to join
our group.

Best wishes,

Jim Anderson




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