Aggregates and bundles

I like this. Has a ring of department store to it. :grinning:

OK, here is my try: “Die fünf greifenden Bündel des Menschseins”
I like the word “greifen” because it has the hand connotation and it is simple. “Bündel” sounds a bit old but together with greifen it becomes something organic, which i could also picture in my mind as a metaphor. It also carries a meaning of something bound together like with a fetter or a shackle. And all five together define the human being.

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The term “Daseinsgruppen” has the advantage that it is an already established term, and it is facilitating further research (e.g. in Ñāṇatiloka’s Buddhist Dictionary) on the side of new readers and not putting off those who are already familiar with the commonplace translations for khandā as “Gruppen” oder “Daseinsgruppen”. When it comes to upādānakkhandā, I would personally go with “Gruppen des Anhaftens” or Gabriel’s suggestion of “Haftgruppen” as these renderings are closest to the Pāḷi and the meaning. “Zusammenwirkend” would be more of a paraphrase, which I think should be indicated as such by putting it, for example, in square brackets. It might suggest also, like the relative clause, that the khandā as a whole “fabricate together”. I am not aware of canonical passages which suggest that the khandā as a whole perform such function or are equivalent to upādāna, with the exception of saṅkhāra perhaps.

The commentaries seem to clearly explain them as the objects: ārammaṇavasena hi sabbepi atītādibhede […] khandhe ārabbha kilesā uppajjanti […] – “because on account of the object, the defilements arise even from all aggregate divisions of past [present, future] etc. […]” (Sn-a) or upādānānaṃ ārammaṇabhūtā khandhā upādānakkhandhā – “clinging aggregates: the aggregates that have become the objects of clingings” (Smp). I wouldn’t depart from that – all the translators you introduced took it that way too.

Mettā ins Saarland!

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A bit like Masefield’s “horny” for avassuta (filled with desire) …

I like those!

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