tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post813342830234451485..comments2024-03-22T14:47:42.501+02:00Comments on Tibeto-logic: Padampa's Animal Kingdom — Part TwoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-3414093161204919932008-11-16T16:38:00.000+02:002008-11-16T16:38:00.000+02:00Dear Early, Also wanted to say something in respo...Dear Early, <BR/><BR/>Also wanted to say something in response to your suggestion 'blood-sated leech' for the words in the Root Text, <EM>padmas khrag ngoms</EM>...<BR/><BR/>You suggest we should translate "'the blood-sated leech' rather than 'blood-sucking'."<BR/><BR/>I don't translate it either way. But I think you're right, anyway.<BR/><BR/><EM>Rngub</EM> would be your verb for sucking (with most general meaning of inhaling).<BR/><BR/>There may be a quibble about the grammar of it (perhaps we would want to emend the text to read <EM>pad-pa khrag-gis ngoms</EM>, or something like that, taking the instrumental ending off of one noun and attaching it to the other), but I would still just translate, "The leech, sated with blood, doesn't go after meat that is in the water."<BR/><BR/>But we have to visualize leeches as ordinarily (in their unsated state) doing what <EM>prapañca</EM>s do...<BR/><BR/>Thanks for writing, and thank you for your help.<BR/><BR/>Yours,<BR/>DanDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-85351232783803895112008-11-16T16:16:00.000+02:002008-11-16T16:16:00.000+02:00Dear Early, I sincerely hope that someday and som...Dear Early, I sincerely hope that someday and somewhere, with the right professional help, you might finally be able to move your mind past the leech. It just won't do to get your mind stuck with creatures of the lowest phylum. I'm afraid I am unable to offer you all the equipment and prescriptions that may be required. That is, unless you can first explain to me and to the viewing audience at home in very simple but precise English what the real meaning of <B>prapañca</B> (Tibetan <I>spros-pa</I>) might be. Then and perhaps only then we might be able to take you to the physical therapists for a recovery program so you'll stop all that squirming and get your legs working again (really, I don't think you are getting out enough). But no, I really mean the part about not getting stuck on something when it doesn't entirely make sense. If I had followed that method I would have never made sense of or learned anything. Yours, DanDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-12531374433765960872008-11-14T22:10:00.000+02:002008-11-14T22:10:00.000+02:00Oops. I guess those links I put in that last comme...Oops. I guess those links I put in that last comment were to temporary URLs. Anyway, if you're so inclined, google "leech" alongside "diuretic" and you get a whole host of scientific articles. Wow - I think perhaps there really are Two Cultures.Sam van Schaikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00056636306127814762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-24116493286011209142008-11-14T15:40:00.000+02:002008-11-14T15:40:00.000+02:00Dear Dan,Thank you for the translation of the comm...Dear Dan,<BR/><BR/>Thank you for the translation of the commentary. It helps, though I wonder how much faith we ought to have in the author of the commentary? And how much you have?<BR/><BR/>Back to the leech. I find I can only approach these materials one animal at a time. Perhaps I will never get past the leech. In the light of the commentary, it seems that we could, and probably should, translate the root verses with 'the blood-sated leech' rather than 'blood-sucking'.<BR/><BR/>I also think that 'meat' or 'flesh' (sha) could well mean living flesh, as in our phrase 'flesh and bone'. I'm still attracted to the 'water illness' translation but I'm not sure how to defend it. <BR/><BR/>Here's an interesting thing though: leeches are studied by modern scientists precisely because they produce diuretic and anti-diuretic chemicals. That is, they are experts in 'hydric balance' and should never themselves suffer from fluid retention.<BR/><BR/>For some abstracts see <A HREF="http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120768419/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0" REL="nofollow">here</A> and <A HREF="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T07-3YSXRKR-M&_user=836873&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=836873&md5=1822489f6c7c30aec01cc6190998bb0c" REL="nofollow">here</A>. (I'm not pretending to any actual understanding of these abstracts!)<BR/><BR/>Now, were leeches used in Tibet, or India, for the cure of fluid retention? If so, the (surface) meaning of the text could be that there's no point trying to use a leech who's sated with blood to cure water retention because he/she simply won't be interested in the piece of (living) flesh you're trying to stick him/her on to.<BR/><BR/>And this might help us understand the hidden or spiritual meaning, but I won't attempt that. I'm exhausted with all this thinking and my mental juices are leeching away.<BR/><BR/>S.Sam van Schaikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00056636306127814762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-85981299915162786122008-11-06T18:48:00.000+02:002008-11-06T18:48:00.000+02:00Dear Person,I put up a response and then took it d...Dear Person,<BR/><BR/>I put up a response and then took it down again, thinking I would try to respond to at least some of your questions in the next blog entry. I don't know how long that will be. <BR/><BR/>Yes. Virtuous disciplines result in suffering. It's the rule. I can see how that could be hard to accept, though.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for writing, and thank you in advance for your patience.<BR/><BR/>Yours, DanDanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-59560165305950112632008-11-02T19:27:00.000+02:002008-11-02T19:27:00.000+02:00Well, I may have swallowed the same species of wil...Well, I may have swallowed the same species of wild bee that EarlyTibet talked about earlier. Although many of these sayings are understandable, I am still amply bamboozled.<BR/><BR/>In the "Insects, Worsm, Spiders" Section:<BR/><BR/>Saying #1: Sorry, I still don't get it (even with your notes). How does this pun(?) work again?<BR/><BR/>#2: Do I read the commentator aright that this leech's behavior is helpful? I thought the saying was warning about the danger of obsession.<BR/><BR/>#3: A nice one.<BR/><BR/>#4: Love this one.<BR/><BR/>#5: Speaking of the bee, whaaaaaat? Virtuous discplines results in suffering, eh. Okay, now what was Padampa really getting at?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com