Buddhist Hybrid Chinese Study 2: SA 501

I think Gunabhadra used that for samāpatti in quite a few sutras of the SA. But there is no guarantee that was always the original Indic term, because 正受 is so generic.

Another way to look at it is that this is as a fixed list: dhyanas, liberations, samadhis, ____. Searching SuttaCentral for “absorptions” and “liberations”, I’m seeing a parallel list in SN 52.21:

“… And it’s because of developing and cultivating these four kinds of mindfulness meditation that I truly understand corruption, cleansing, and emergence regarding the absorptions, liberations, immersions, and attainments.”

“Imesañca panāhaṁ, āvuso, catunnaṁ satipaṭṭhānānaṁ bhāvitattā bahulīkatattā jhānavimokkhasamādhisamāpattīnaṁ saṅkilesaṁ vodānaṁ vuṭṭhānaṁ yathābhūtaṁ pajānāmī”ti.

So at least in this context, the original Indic term seems to have been samāpatti.

Bhante Sujato seems to be using “attainments” for this, which seems like a good generic translation for 正受 as well.

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I think 當 rarely means 'undertake or perform" in Classical Chinese. I would take 當 here as modal aux. “ought to”, “should”. This of course then begs the question of what then is the main verb. Perhaps we can interpret 默然 as a stative verb.

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Sorry, I don’t know why my reply isnt linked to the comment I was intending to reply to. I’m new to this.

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I’ve discovered how to comment on quotes!!! I’m so happy to have found a discussion of Buddhist Chinese that takes the grammar seriously. I learned huge amount from my teacher and I am very grateful to him, but he always refused to engaged with the grammar. He would just say “you need to learn to think like a Chinese”.

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Good catch! I usually read it as future tense when it’s by itself. In this case, though, “should” or “must” might be better. “You should be nobly quiet”?

What do you think Bhante @sujato? Can you shed any more light on this word?

Hmm, now I’m not sure where I found that meaning of 當. Looking through some of the books/dictionaries I have, I don’t see that listed. Weird…

Not exactly sure of the question, but yes, samāpatti is commonly used as a word for meditation “attainments” inclusive of jhanas, etc.

It’s a bit hard to search for, I get 1445 hits across the canon.

Typically it would be an umbrella term including the various attainments, but we might find it listed alongside them as well.

Oh, sorry. I was just hoping for more background on the word, which you provided. Thanks!

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The Vietnamese translator of the Agama has this note:

正受, or 等至, a state of concentration, unification of mind. A level of concentration. Pali: samāpatti.

Another one said:

等 (samā) means to part away from the drifting mind of restlessness, drowsiness, and is in the equality of body and mind.

And another: 等至 is the translation of the Sanskrit samāpatti, a term for meditation that refers to a condition of equanimity of body and mind. Transliterated as 三摩鉢底

I believe 正受 is the old translation of 等至. What do you think @cdpatton ?

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The DDB has a bit more info for 三摩鉢底:

Basic Meaning: meditative equipoise
Senses:
A transliteration of the Sanskrit samāpatti. A term for meditation. A condition of calm abiding. Equanimity attained due to a unification of mental energies. Translated into Chinese as 等至. Also transliterated as 三摩鉢提; 三摩拔提, 三摩跋提, and 三摩越. Lit. ‘attainment,’ ‘arrival,’ ‘completion.’ Translated as 等至 and 等持 referring to complete dhyāna; similar to 三摩半那 samāpanna, attainment. Eitel says: “a degree of ecstatic meditation preparatory to the final attainment of samādhi.” Clough speaks of eight samāpattis, i.e. attainments— ‘eight successive states induced by the ecstatic meditation.’ (Tib. snyoms par 'jug pa) [Charles Muller; source(s): Soothill, YBh-Ind]

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以少方便 “,” 得禪、解脫

I would eliminate this “,” so we would have: 以少方便得禪、解脫

And it could be rendered as: Thanks to a little effort/mean that [I have] attained to Dyana, Release,…

Punctuation mark in Chinese is rather a new invention, and the Taisho compilers could be wrong sometimes on where to put these little nuggets

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I did a search for 以少方便 in the T section of the CBETA Tripitaka, where the Agamas live. That phrase turned up many times. However, I think most of the sutras it showed up in weren’t sutras in the Agamas. They might have been Mahayana sutras, and so referred to “skillful means.” Anyway, that search didn’t clarify anything for me.

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方便 renders as “means”, or “the device to get something achieved” in my native tongue and still in use.

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In modern Chinese it usually means “convenient,” which isn’t of much use here, ha-ha.

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Oh, yes, it seems clear that it’s a translation of Skt. samāpatti from the Pali parallels. It’s just a little mystifying the way it’s translated to Chinese. I’ve noticed that the early translators seem to consider sam- and samma as interchangeable, and so we see sam- translated like it was samma (正) in this case, and in the Ekottarika Agama, samma is translated like sam- (等) in the angas of the eightfold path.

My guess is that the actual words they were translating didn’t make a distinction between the two, which made it confusing. But mainly, I haven’t sat down and tried to study the context of 正受 in SA (and there’s plenty of it, it occurs about 250 times). From skimming a couple sutras, it seems like it has a nuance that’s not clear to me yet.

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譬如轉輪聖王長太子,雖未灌頂,已得王法,不勤方便,能得五欲功德。

This sentence is a bit better than the last one, but there are still a few ambiguous things. The first part is, I believe, fairly straight forward. I’m reading 長 as eldest, which makes sense given what the next section says:

譬如轉輪聖王長太子
[Take], for example, the eldest prince of a wheel turning king.

雖未灌頂

Here we have 雖, which is still used in modern Chinese, and has the same meaning: although. However, it’s a 2 character word in modern Chinese - 雖然. 未 means not yet. 灌頂 refers to an Indian coronation ceremony where water is poured on the head. This can also refer to the ritual of sprinkling water on the head during a tantric initiation. It’s clear that it means coronation in this context, though.

although not yet crowned

已得王法

Like 雖, 已 is still used in modern Chinese, has the same meaning, and is also usually used with another character - 已經. It means “already.” 王法 is literally “the king’s law.” Here I think it refers to the power of a king, though. Am I right?

[he] already has attained the power of a king

Following UttamaSanti’s example, I’m removing the comma:

不勤方便能得五欲功德。

Now things get a bit fuzzy. In modern Chinese, 勤 means diligent or hardworking. However, I’m also seeing it as a translation of viriya, which is similar to diligent since it means energy or zeal. My feeling is that 不勤方便 means something like “effortlessly,” though. 能得 is straightforward: “able to get.” 五欲 means the five pleasures/desires. The Sanskrit is pañca-kāma, which should be familiar to most of us. 功德 refers to virtue and merit. The 漢英英漢英英佛教詞彙 has:

(1) Excellent virtue, merit; meritorious virtue(s), valuable quality (guna); which is accumulated according to one’s good actions. (2) Blessedness, virtue, fortune, goodness (punya).

So what’s confusing is that it follows 五欲, which generally isn’t something regarded as meritorious. Since the next sentence has Maudgalyayana contrasting what he attains as a son, or disciple, of the Buddha with what the prince of a wheel turning king attains, maybe it’s saying that the results of the prince’s deeds are attaining the 五欲? If so, then this would be,

[he] effortlessly attains sensual pleasures [as a] result

Putting it all together:

譬如轉輪聖王長太子,雖未灌頂,已得王法,不勤方便,能得五欲功德。
[Take], for example, the eldest prince of a wheel turning king. Although not yet crowned, [he] already has attained the power of a king, [and] effortlessly attains sensual pleasures [as a] result.

Does that seem right?

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In Modern Chinese 當 can mean “perform (a certain role)” This is probably what you were thinking of.

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Buddhist Chinese have what I call is the semi-transliteration, it means that a word is transliterated by translating each component part of its compound. For example, transliterate Samāpatti into English in this way we will have: “Equal-arrived”. Of course, transliterate that way is much more suitable with monosyllabic Chinese than with English, but it can sometimes cause translators headache.

I know of a translator who had a policy of never translating important terms into English, he said that rather to let the readers to not understand the term (perhaps right away), than let them misunderstand it. Yes, it could be elitist, but sometimes quite essential. It’s like teaching math to kids, sometimes a term can only be understood when the student is able to solve for his or herself some certain important exercises.

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Really good find.

勤方便 has Pali equivalence, as in the four foundations of mindfulness formula (Satipatthana):

Chinese: 精勤方便,正念正知,調伏世間貪憂

Pāli: ātāpi sampajāno satimā, vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṁ

Bodhi’s English translation:
Ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed covetousness and displeasure in regard to the world.

I believe the full term must be 五欲功德, it refers to the five sensual pleasures (as the result of merit?) that kings enjoy.

五欲功德 also has Pāli equivalence: Pañca-kāmagunā

Translated by Thānissaro as: Five strings of sensuality.

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I much prefer to determine how a text or author actually uses a term and then translate it accordingly. Translators do have an interpretive function to move meaning from one language to another. It’s of course inevitably as subjective as the original source, which is why translations are considered original works. I have begun to give up on terms like dhyana and samadhi and transliterate them, mainly because the English audience has become so opinionated about how they should be translated. I’ll let such common terms just sit in their original languages in cases like that even though it goes against my inclination to translate them generally.

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