tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post9193255974085345790..comments2024-03-22T14:47:42.501+02:00Comments on Tibeto-logic: Itches & Scratches: Part TwoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-82816581739029122802009-12-13T14:11:08.347+02:002009-12-13T14:11:08.347+02:00There is pleasure when a sore is scratched,
But to...There is pleasure when a sore is scratched,<br />But to be without sores is more pleasurable still.<br />Just so, there are pleasures in worldly desires,<br />but to be without desires is more pleasurable still.<br /><br />Verse no. 169 in Nāgārjuna's Ratnāvalî, as translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, <i>Buddhist Advice for Living & Liberation: Nāgārjuna's Precious Garland</i>, Snow Lion (Ithaca 1998).<br /><br /><i>g.yan pa phrugs na bder 'gyur ba //<br />de bas g.yan pa med pa bde //<br />de bzhin 'jig rten 'dod ldan bde //<br />'dod pa med pa de bas bde // //</i><br /><br />Tibetan commentators usually take this itching to be the itching of wounds, sometimes even the itching of the leprous person's sores. Still, there is actually no word in the Tibetan verse to correspond with 'sore' or 'wound.'Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-83904923492399489982009-08-06T23:48:01.153+03:002009-08-06T23:48:01.153+03:00Oh, look! Here's a new news story about how s...Oh, look! Here's a new news story about how scientists have identified cells with the specific purpose of sending 'itch' messages to the brain.<br /><br />http://tinyurl.com/ll9qs4Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32671574.post-37712912552614328052009-08-01T15:11:04.913+03:002009-08-01T15:11:04.913+03:00Everybody seems to be enjoying the hot-as-hell sum...Everybody seems to be enjoying the hot-as-hell summer weather, and perhaps for that reason or another nobody wants to send comments. I did get some offline comments from people in the private sector, who raised doubts or objections to two of my points: [1] that 'the Sangha' doesn't include laypeople, and [2] that we ought to go for refuge to the 'highest' or 'supreme' among the sangha.<br /><br />I think I can defend myself and answer both the objections by pointing to the same source.<br /><br />"Sangha" entry by C. Witanachchi contained in <i>Encyclopedia of Buddhism</i>, vol. 7, Fascicle 4 (Colombo 2006), pp. 699-704.<br /><br />Actually, I hadn't considered the idea before that the "best of the sangha" was shared by other Buddhists besides Tibetans. I just hadn't given it any thought. Pali sources, too, use expressions such as Ariya Sangha, which ought to mean monks or nuns who have achieved sublime states of awakening. Also, paramattha Sangha, or 'ultimate' monastics, monastics of 'supreme purpose' or 'ultimate meaning,' or, as Witanachchi puts it, 'ideal' Sangha.<br /><br />Of course you can go back to the Sanskrit roots of the word, and just say sangha means 'group' of any kind. But we're in a Buddhist context. As it's used in Buddhism, it's just a shortened way of talking about the Bhikkhu Sangha and Bhikkhuni Sangha (or to speak of both at once, the ubhato Sangha).<br /><br />The Tibetan word Gendun (Dge-'dun) doesn't translate Sangha in any literal way, as far as I can see. The Tibetan may be analyzed as 'those who work at virtue.' But regardless of the etymological reading, it's still used just like Sangha, to mean the community/ies of monks and nuns.<br /><br />Oh, and anyway, my translation 'best of Sangha' in the Tibetan refuge prayer is not unique to me. Just about everybody translates it this way, or to the same effect. (I did notice one Buddhist prayerbook that just skips the "best of" part in the English version, but that is just an exception.) I'm not lending any new or special meaning to the phrase.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10453904366382251766noreply@blogger.com