Pali prefix 'a' and 'an' have four main semantic functions: negative, privative, invertive and idiomatic.

Re: Skilful Thoughts of Renunciation

Post by Dhammanando » Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:31 pm

asahi wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 7:59 pmThat is commentary explanation .

In Pali and Sanskrit the a- and an- prefixes have four main semantic functions: negative, privative, invertive and idiomatic.

In other words: (1) not-X, (2) free-from-X / without-X, (3) opposite-of-X, and (4) of unpredictable meaning that needs to be contextually determined..

Examples:

1. Negative: channa, covered; acchanna, not covered.

2. Privative: agha, fault; anagha, free of faults.

3. Invertive: aggava, superior, anaggava, inferior.

4. Idiomatic: manussa, human; amanussa, "non-human", but not any kind of non-human; the word is limited to petas, yakkhas, pisācas and suchlike, and so is often translated as "spirit".

Now to come to my point, even if there was no commentary telling us that the a- in abyāpāda and avihiṃsā is an invertive a-, and that abyāpāda therefore means mettā and avihiṃsā means karuṇā, a competent translator would still need to at least reckon with this possibility. The fact that the a- prefix can be used in an invertive sense is indisputable.

Comments

Lucid24.org: What's new?

Link to lucid24.org home page : 4👑☸ Remember, you may have to click the refresh button on your web browser navigation bar at to get updated website. 2024 9-17 Lots of new stuff in the last 2 and a half years. Too many to list. Main one justifying new blog entry, is redesign of home page. Before, it was designed to please me, super dense with everything in one master control panel. I've redesigned it to be friendly to newbies and everyone really. Clear structure, more use of space. At someone's request, I added a lucid24.org google site search at top of home page. 2022 4-14 Major update to lucid24.org, easy navigation of suttas, quicklink: the ramifications 4-2 new feature lucid24.org sutta quick link 3-28 A new translation of SN 38.16, and first jhāna is a lot easier than you think 🔗📝notes related to Jhāna force and J.A.S.I. effect AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here? 3-13 Added to EBPedia J.A.S.I. ('Jazzy...

AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here?

What these 3 suttas have in common, AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111, is the very interesting feature of explicitly describing doing vipassana, while one is in the jhāna and the first 3 formless attainments. LBT (late buddhist text) apologists, as well as Sujato, Brahm, claim that the suttas describe a jhāna where one enters a disembodied, frozen state, where vipassana is impossible until one emerges from that 'jhāna'. Since Sujato translated all the suttas, let's take a look at what he translated, and how it supports his interpretation of 'jhāna'. AN 9.36: Jhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) ‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ ‘Paṭhamampāhaṁ, bhikkhave, jhānaṁ nissāya āsavānaṁ khayaṁ vadāmī’ti, iti kho panetaṁ vuttaṁ. That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Kiñcetaṁ paṭicca vuttaṁ? Take a mendicant who, q uite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskill...

Pāḷi and Sanskrit definition of Viveka

'Viveka', Sanskrit dictionary Primary meaning is ‘discrimination’. Other meanings: (1) true knowledge, (2) discretion, (3) right judgement, (4) the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties’. Wikipedia (sanskrit dictionary entry 'viveka') Viveka (Sanskrit: विवेक, romanized: viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination.[1] According to Rao and Paranjpe, viveka can be explained more fully as: Sense of discrimination; wisdom; discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent and the impermanent; discriminative inquiry; right intuitive discrimination; ever present discrimination between the transient and the permanent.[2]: 348 The Vivekachudamani is an eighth-century Sanskrit poem in dialogue form that addresses the development of viveka. Within the Vedanta tradition, there is also a concept of vichara which is one t...

notes on the Dhamma

Search This Blog