Beings, EBT renderings and its implications

I create this topic with the aim of aggregating all alternative renderings of the English noun “being in Pali and Chinese EBTs.

Moreover, I would like to suggest we investigate these renderings in a as much contextual manner as possible.

It would be great to understand if a same plurality of renderings is shared across the Pali and Chinese corpora.

:anjal:

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[quote=“SN 23.2”]I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi at Jeta’s Grove, Anathapindika’s monastery. Then Ven. Radha went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One: “‘A being,’ lord. ‘A being,’ it’s said. To what extent is one said to be ‘a being’?”

"Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for form, Radha: when one is caught up[1] there, tied up[2] there, one is said to be ‘a being.’[3]

"Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for feeling… perception… fabrications…

"Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for consciousness, Radha: when one is caught up there, tied up there, one is said to be ‘a being.’

"Just as when boys or girls are playing with little sand castles:[4] as long as they are not free from passion, desire, love, thirst, fever, & craving for those little sand castles, that’s how long they have fun with those sand castles, enjoy them, treasure them, feel possessive of them. But when they become free from passion, desire, love, thirst, fever, & craving for those little sand castles, then they smash them, scatter them, demolish them with their hands or feet and make them unfit for play.

"In the same way, Radha, you too should smash, scatter, & demolish form, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for form.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish feeling, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for feeling.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish perception, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for perception.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish fabrications, and make them unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for fabrications.

“You should smash, scatter, & demolish consciousness and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for consciousness — for the ending of craving, Radha, is Unbinding.”

Satta.
2.
Visatta.
3.
Satta.
4.
Lit.: “dirt houses.”[/quote]
I read the implication as: one is a ‘being’ until arahantship because only then is craving ended.

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Could we say beings are dependent originated streams of experiences doomed to suffer and found between birth and death in the mundane dependent origination?

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Could an arahanth be called a ‘being’ (as they have no craving), according to this definition?

With metta

[quote=“gnlaera, post:1, topic:5557”]
and Chinese EBTs.
[/quote]生 (shēng) is used in a few āgamāḥ for this purpose, for instance in SA 13 we have “若眾 生於色不味者” (Ven Anālayo: “If living beings did not find gratification in bodily form, they would not get defiled by bodily form.”), the parallel of which (SN 22.28) has this phrase preserved as “No cedaṃ, bhikkhave, rūpassa assādo abhavissa nayidaṃ sattā rūpasmiṃ sārajjeyyuṃ. Yasmā ca kho, bhikkhave, atthi rūpassa assādo, tasmā sattā rūpasmiṃ sārajjanti.

If anyone has better Pāli than I they might be able to find out where the āgama and nikāya match up, I am thinking rūpasmiṃ sārajjeyyuṃ might be 染於色.

Knowing 生 as standing for “beings” occasionally, though, isn’t necessarily much help in trying to nail down any single definition, because it can have many contextual meanings.

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