Buddhist Hybrid Chinese Study 2: SA 501

Discussion
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我亦如是，為佛之子，不勤方便，得禪、解脫、三昧、正受，於一日中，世尊以神通力三至我所，三教授我，以大人處所建立於我。

In this sentence Maudgalyayana is presenting a Dharmic twist on the previous sentence, which was about the prince of a wheel-turning monarch.

我亦如是 - Literally, this would be “I [am] also like this…” Although less literal, I think we could collapse this down to “Similarly, I…” So,

我亦如是，為佛之子, 不勤方便，得禪、解脫、三昧、正受
Similarly, I, as a son of the Buddha, effortlessly attained dhyana, liberation, samadhi, and (correct) attainments.

於一日中 - within a single day

This last part is quite confusing:

世尊以神通力三至我所，三教授我，以大人處所建立於我

The first section is referring to when the Buddha spoke to Maudgalyayana (via psychic powers) and encouraged him to pursue noble silence. 世尊 is Bhagavan, and 神通力 is supernatural powers. 以 here is “to use.” So “The Bhagavan, using his supernatural powers…” But then the 三 throws me. 至我所 I believe is something like “to my location.” I don’t know how to get the 三 to fit in.

三教授我 - this is also confusing, as 三教 means 3 teachings. In Chinese, this seems to have many meanings. However, all of the examples I found were from a much later period of Buddhism. Maybe the 三 in 三教 refers back to the 三 in 世尊以神通力三至我所?

以大人處所建立於我

Here we have 以 again. However, I think it’s meaning here is “in order to.” 大人 is mahā-puruṣa in Sanskrit. If I’m parsing this right, 處所 should go together, meaning place. 建立 means to establish. If I got this right, this last section is

in order to establish me in the place of a great man

I’m pretty sure “the place of a great man” is far too literal. Maybe this is meant to parallel the coronation of a king?

A lot of questions about this last part of the sutra. Any help @cdpatton, @UttamaSanti, or anyone else can offer is greatly appreciated!

It just occurred to me that the 三 might be referring to 三昧？

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Ah ha! I did a search through a bunch of sutras, and found this:

文殊師利以神通力三昧之力

I found that here T1489 , 24 , 1 , 清淨毘尼方廣經 , 後秦 鳩摩羅什譯. So I think all of the 三s that appeared in SA 501 were an abbreviation of 三昧 (samadhi).

So then,

世尊以神通力三至我所，三教授我
The Bhagavan, using his powers of samadhi, came to me, and taught me samadhi.

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Tough sentence, 大人處所 has a
meaning in Classical Chinese that can be directly translated into Vietnamese without adding anything, 處所 has an idiomatic meaning when placing it next to a noun, strangely that it works for both languages (Classic Ch and Vn), it means that one’s understanding, one’s expertise,…

so 大人處所 means (roughly) the understanding/knowing of the Great Man

So my Vietnamese translator translated it as:

Within one day the Lord have three time used his majestic powers to come to my place, three times he taught me, he took the understanding/knowing of the great man to establish [it] for me.

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Oh, the translator understood 三 as meaning 三次 (three times). Interesting.

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I edited my post when you are reading it, so please read it again.

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世尊 means “Lord” by the way, it’s still in use in my native.

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Yeah, that’s why I like reading English translations of the sutras, because it uses day-to-day and less archaic and technical words, much easier to understand.

Anyway, translating meditative terms is very much like translating medical terms. Sometimes it feels like being a man without going to medical school and tried to understand a term from the medical book written for highly-trained doctors. Terms like onychocryptosis, rhinorrhea or proctalgia fugax.

Too bad that my own old Zen tends to emphasize on getting right view more than anything else, so not much room for meditative ecstasy!

Also reminds me of a classical Buddhist translation story: (If my memory serves me.)

“A group of Chinese monks and Central Asian monks were debating about the proper way to translate the name “Nigrodha tree”, some said it should be translate this way, some said it should be translate that way, without a unified voice, the monks decided that it was best to transliterate the name. After a while, an Indian monk came to visit, they immediately asked him how to translate the name of the tree, the Indian monk went to the garden and looked around, after sometimes pointed to a tree, and said: “That’s the tree you’re talking about.” And from then on everybody realized that the Nigrodha tree is the same as the Willow tree.”

Hopefully they’ll find a native speaker someday. :wink:

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