Skip to main content

MA Madhyama Āgama (Chinese parallel to MN majjhima nikāya) corrected sutra translations with jhāna meditation that works

4👑☸ → 🏛️ → MA → MA-bdk  

Lucid24.org version has all 222 English sutras (as a single html file).

For e-ink devices:
MA (bdk) - bdk.azw3 
MA (bdk) - bdk.epub



Lucid24.org version of MA was derived from free PDF files available from on BDK's website:

Madhyama Ãgama (Middle-Length Discourses)
Vol. I Vol. ll Vol. III Vol. IV




Unfortunately, their publications contain a grave error in the standard jhāna formula.

The error,  in great detail here:

https://lucid24.org/sted/8aam/8samadhi/vitakka/index.html

It's important for publishers not to misrepresent the Buddha's teachings, especially on such an indispensable critical key to the whole enlightenment process, jhāna meditation.

Until they publicly retract and disavow their errors on jhāna meditation, 

I'm publishing the corrections for them.

Using a few simple 'search and replace'  word substitutions, this did the trick.


Egregious errors:


vitakka & vicāra  ≠ initial and sustained application of THE mind -

V&V =  directed-thought and evaluation


vitakka & vicāra  ≠  initial and sustained application of mind 

V&V =  directed-thought and evaluation (same as previous one, sometimes they had 'application of THE mind' and sometimes 'of mind'). 


vitakka ≠ [directed] awareness 

vitakka =  directed-thought: you don't lose awareness, nor directed-awareness after first jhāna into the higher jhānas and formless attainments. Unless you die. See MN 111. Cetana (volition), attention, sati, are present in all four jhānas. You don't lose 'awareness' or the ability to 'contemplate' after first jhāna and into the higer samādhis. 


vicāra ≠ [sustained] contemplation 

vicāra = evaluation: On it's own, "sustained contemplation" is perfectly fine translation, but in conjunction with "initial application" it's invoking a wrong view of Theravāda Commentary interpretation that removes verbal thought. Also, 'contemplation' gets used elsewhere in their Agama translations for 'sampajāno' in satipaṭṭhāna, so this ambiguity results in an error of sampajāno ('contemplation') still being present in 3rd jhāna, when first jhāna vicāra ('contemplation') was supposedly abandoned. 


Minor errors

1. absorption -> jhāna (absorption is a workable translation, but since 'jhāna' is already widely in use and acccepted, it's better to keep it untranslated. 'Zen' would work just as well)

2. (ekaggata) one-pointedness -> singular-focus

 The English phrase 'one-pointedness' already has well estabished meaning in corrupted meditation instructions from Theravāda Buddhism, otherwise the English on its own is not necessarily a wrong translation.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex
Post a Comment
Read more