Dharma Pearls Updates

Thank you for your opinion, I’m trying to translate this EA 12.1 into Indonesian with reference from your English translation and others. I think I will make my own wording choice :grin:

Mine is probably going to change when I go back and review it. It’s not final, and I’m still getting a better feel for how the Ekottarika reads compared to the other Agamas. It’s like translating Anshigao.

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I put my web admin hat on this week and took things a bit further by setting up a bona fide webhosting account to serve as home to the root domain dharmapearls.net that points to the subdomains. The Github Pages site now has the canon.dharmapearls.net subdomain.

I’ve been wanting to move forward with creating a glossary and encyclopedia resource to help readers understand and study the Agamas (and other translations in the future). So, we now have a MediaWiki project set up at subdomain wiki.dharmapearls.net as a first step.

I know some of you here at SuttaCentral have experience working with wikipedia content and interests in Chinese Agamas, so feel free to become contributors. I want Dharma Pearls Wiki to focus on Buddhist content found in Chinese Agamas: A glossary of terms and encyclopedia entries for concepts, stock passages, characters, parables, and lore. Basically, if the content helps readers understand the context of what’s in an Agama translation, it’s fair game for this wiki.

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What a wonderful idea and resource! Anumodana!

I’m curious what you think of these books on Buddhist Chinese? Worth adding to your wiki? Or are they not so useful for understanding the agamas?

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It’s a good primer for getting a firm basis in learning Buddhist Chinese, I don’t see anything wrong with referencing it.

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Last month was genuine fun translating several Ekôttarika Āgama sutras with stories about the Buddha’s enlightenment and converting disciples. Being a creative writing guy, it was great to work on these stories and see the humor and poetry of these ancient storytellers.

I was mainly focused on the parallels to MN 22 and 26 in September, and I started doing some editing work on the SĀ sutras and their parallels, too. Altogether, I added another 14 translations, and made a start at building an index of SĀ on the Dharma Pearls wiki.

Here’s a quick list of what’s been added since August:

MĀ 200 Ariṣṭa
This is the Madhyama Āgama version of MN 22. The two suttas are very close parallels with only wording and details making up their differences. See my essay MN 22 The Simile of the Snake, Parallels of a Patchwork Sutta for some discussion of how they differ and agree.

Itvṛ 83 The Search
This is my first translation from Xuanzang’s Itivṛttaka translation (T765). It presents the ignoble and noble search that’s found in MN 26/MĀ 204. Reading his more accurate and precise way of translating Sanskrit was helpful in deciphering some unclear passages in MĀ 204, which I plan to edit soon.

EĀ 19.1 Brahmā’s Request
The Ekôttarika Āgama has the story of Brahma’s request for the Buddha to teach after his enlightenment when he wondered if it would be worth the bother. That it’s a separate sutra in EĀ might explain why it’s missing from MĀ 204. The Sarvâstivāda may have kept it separate, too.

EĀ 24.5 Miraculous Transformations
I really encourage anyone who enjoys reading Buddhist legends and literature to read this text. Like the beginning of the Mahavagga of the Theravada Vinaya, this text starts at the moment the Buddha wonders who to teach first and tells the story of his initial teaching career, converting the five monks, the three Kāśyapa brothers, and his father. It ends with Śuddhodana’s order for the Sakya clans to recruit more ascetics to train under the Buddha, which was when Ananda and other Sakyans became disciples. I especially like this version of the taming of the nāga story.

EĀ 43.5 The Parable of the Raft
The Ekôttarika has it’s own Parable of the Raft Sutra as well, which includes the story of the Buddha defeating Mara’s army at the bodhi tree. Another good piece of Buddhist legend.

EĀ 50.8 The Snake Parable
The Ekôttarika version of the Snake Parable is an alternative take on the MN 22/MĀ 200 sutra. It uses the story of Phalguna and the nuns instead of Ariṣṭa as inspiration, but the parable is quite close to the other versions.

SĀ 1.11 Past
SĀ 1.12 Past (2)
SĀ 1.13 Past (3)
SĀ 1.14 Past (4)
SĀ 1.15 Teaching Disillusionment
SĀ 1.16 Teaching Liberation
SĀ 1.17 Cause and Condition

These Saṃyukta Āgama sutras have been sitting as drafts for a couple months, so they were the first to add as I started a “house cleaning” exercise last month to stop randomly drafting sutras in my spare time and get everything done so far edited and published. I’m also checking parallels on SuttaCentral as I go and adding the translations to Bilara for future side-by-side publication. It’s a slow process, but the turtle wins most of the time.

SĀ 35.1 The Six Abodes of Views
This was a surprise parallel I stumbled onto while translation MĀ 200. It contains the six abodes of views that’s in both MN 22 and MĀ 200. While it’s a little difficult to parse into six distinct categories, it’s essentially a list of everything a person could try to base opinions about self.

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While reading this it feels like a combination between the Simile of the Saw and the Simile of the Raft. To me it is not entirely clear how these work together.

“What’s the parable of the raft? If you’re traveling on a road and get captured by bandits, you must get hold of your mind and thoughts without producing bad feelings. You must produce kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that encompasses everything in all directions, that’s measureless, limitless, and indescribable."

The description of the conversation between Mara and the Buddha is very nice to read. I really like this reply:

“‘Kindness is my armor, concentration my bow,
And I hold in hand the arrows of wisdom.
Virtuous actions are my many warriors,
And now they will destroy your army.’

:pray:

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Oh, I didn’t notice that connection. EA and MN reverse their treatment of the Phagguna and Arittha stories for the snake parable; this may be a little more evidence of that, but this sutra doesn’t mention either story. Still, bandits and equanimity show up at the end of MN 21, you’re right. Interesting.

The logic here I think is an alternate interpretation of the last line of the parable. You’ll abandon good dharma, so why wouldn’t you abandon what’s not good dharma. Good and not-good dharma is being read as wholesome/unwholesome states of mind in this sutra, I think. Otherwise, it doesn’t make alot of sense to me, either.

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Hello! I have a translation request! I realize you prioritize donors’ translation request… but I have seen multiple nuns and Buddhist teachers cite DN 26 to help explain why we shouldn’t blame BLM protestors’ anger and violence on the protestors, but should focus on the cause of the violence (the oppressors).

So for the timeliness, I would love to see the parallels, MA 70 and DA 6, translated and possibly prioritized! Thanks!!!

PS for forum readers, please do not derail this thread with discussions on BLM and start a new thread if you want to discuss these suttas in the context of BLM, this is simply a translation request!

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I found it a bit puzzling that there’s nothing about these six abodes in the AN Sixes.

Now I happened to see than MN2 has another—different, but somewhat related—six “abodes” of views:

MN2:8.1: Tassa evaṁ ayoniso manasikaroto channaṁ diṭṭhīnaṁ aññatarā diṭṭhi uppajjati.
MN2:8.1: When they attend improperly in this way, one of the following six views arises in them and is taken as a genuine fact.
MN2:8.2: ‘Atthi me attā’ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati;
MN2:8.2: The view: ‘My self exists in an absolute sense.’
MN2:8.3: ‘natthi me attā’ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati;
MN2:8.3: The view: ‘My self does not exist in an absolute sense.’
MN2:8.4: ‘attanāva attānaṁ sañjānāmī’ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati;
MN2:8.4: The view: ‘I perceive the self with the self.’
MN2:8.5: ‘attanāva anattānaṁ sañjānāmī’ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati;
MN2:8.5: The view: ‘I perceive what is not-self with the self.’
MN2:8.6: ‘anattanāva attānaṁ sañjānāmī’ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati;
MN2:8.6: The view: ‘I perceive the self with what is not-self.’
MN2:8.7: atha vā panassa evaṁ diṭṭhi hoti:
MN2:8.7: Or they have such a view:
MN2:8.8: ‘yo me ayaṁ attā vado vedeyyo tatra tatra kalyāṇapāpakānaṁ kammānaṁ vipākaṁ paṭisaṁvedeti so kho pana me ayaṁ attā nicco dhuvo sassato avipariṇāmadhammo sassatisamaṁ tatheva ṭhassatī’ti.
MN2:8.8: ‘This self of mine is he who speaks and feels and experiences the results of good and bad deeds in all the different realms. This self is permanent, everlasting, eternal, and imperishable, and will last forever and ever.’
MN2:8.9: Idaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, diṭṭhigataṁ diṭṭhigahanaṁ diṭṭhikantāraṁ diṭṭhivisūkaṁ diṭṭhivipphanditaṁ diṭṭhisaṁyojanaṁ.
MN2:8.9: This is called a misconception, the thicket of views, the desert of views, the trick of views, the evasiveness of views, the fetter of views.

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Bhikkhu Analayo has analysed DN26 in his Dirgha-Agama Studies. He translated MA70 and DA6 and compared them to DN26. You can find his translation and analyses here: https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/dastudies.pdf (Starting from page 349)

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Thanks! I knew MA70 was available in BDK MA vol I. But didn’t know about DA nor this analysis. B. Analayo is so prolific it is hard to find what specifics are out there sometimes! I know what I will be reading today :slight_smile: !

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I’ll need to look at the length of these texts, but I’ll add them to my queue. Thanks for pointing them out.

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Ah, yes. Perhaps this was a more coherent version. The six abodes in SA 35.1 and the Snake Parable Sutra are kind of arbitrarily counted as six. It looks more like 4 items in Chinese, with one of them counted as three. In Pali, we can count the three kandhas, but in Chinese it’s more confusing. The SA version lists all five skandhas, and the MA version only lists two of them. So, it’s confusing. I should look at the Yogâcārabhūmi commentary to see if it’s explained at all.

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Thank you so much for your work in translating these suttas!

I noticed what I think is a typo in EĀ 43.5: fist instead of first
35. “How is that called the parable of riding a raft? It refers to relying on conceit to cease conceit. Once conceit is fully ceased, there are no more thoughts of vexation and confused ideas. It’s like a jackal skin that’s hard to work with. When it’s hit with a first, there’s no sound, and the leather lacks toughness. This is likewise. When a monk’s conceit is gone, there’s nothing to uplift or lower [his mind].

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Fixed. Thanks for reading and reporting the typo!

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Since my last update, I’ve been focusing on translating Chinese parallels to MN 12.

T757 Hair-Raising Joy

This is the complete parallel to MN 12 that we have in Chinese. It’s clearly a later version of the same sutra preserved in Pali. The two texts have almost identical structures with only a couple substitutions like the nine successive concentrations in T757 instead of the psychic powers in MN 12. Aside from a couple variations like these, T757 is essentially an expanded version of MN 12. Despite the fact that MN 12 has a different title, both versions include the “naming of the sutra” section at the end and agree that it’s a hair-raising discourse.

EĀ 27.6 Four Kinds of Fearlessness

The four kinds of fearlessness became closely associated with the ten powers of the Tathāgata in later texts, but we can find independent sutras like this one that present this list by itself. The direct parallel for this sutra is AN 4.8 in Pali. This version is very similar to the Pali list except for the third item, though the upshot is similar in both sutras.

EĀ 31.8 The Bodhisattva’s Austerities

This is an interesting sutra because it appears to be the source of some of the material we find in larger sutras like MN 12, MN 36, and T757. It collects together various stories about the extreme austerities the Buddha had practice prior to discovering the right way to enlightenment. Many of these stories, like exposing himself to extreme weather, eating cattle dung, and nearly starving himself to death with an extended fast reappear in MN 12 and T757. It also includes the story of the Buddha finally achieving awakening, which is included in T757 but not MN 12.

EĀ 46.4 The Ten Powers

This is the Ekôttarika version of the ten powers list as an independent sutra. It’s direct parallel in Pali is AN 10.21, although it lacks the simile of the lion at the start. I plan to create a comparative table of various versions of the ten powers when I have more versions translated, but a pattern has already emerged that I wrote about on SC’s forum. Most versions agree completely on the first two and last three powers, but the five powers in the middle are all different. This suggests to me that the Tathāgata’s powers began as five and then later were expanded to ten. Each Buddhist tradition seems to have a different version of those added powers.

EĀ 50.6 Knowledge of Rebirth

This is another EĀ sutra that’s surprising in that it presents a large chunk of what we find in MN 12 and T757 about the knowledge of rebirth as an independent sutra. It includes Nirvāṇa as a non-destination of rebirth as a contrast to the five forms of rebirth. We also find the parables illustrating how rebirth is directly observed by the Buddha in remarkable agreement with what is included in MN 12 and T757. Clearly, then, this section of MN 12 had circulated as an independent text.

SĀ 612 (7.10) The Archer

The simile of the archer shooting at the shadow of a tree is found in this brief SĀ sutra, which is about how the Buddha’s teachings are endless without anything to block them, like that archer’s arrow. This simile was included in MN 12 and T757. In T757, though, the same story has evolved into something almost unrecognizable about the disciples of the previous Buddhas of the present kalpa.

SĀ 684 (11.41) The Tathāgata and the Arhat

This is the SĀ version of the ten powers. Again, we see the pattern I mentions earlier, but the five middle powers do match fairly well to the Theravada list (but in a different order). We see here another example of how close the Theravada and Sarvâstivāda canonical lineages were. Another interesting thing about this sutra is that the ten powers are offered as a direct contrast to the five training powers that are part of the 37 factors of the path.

SĀ 701 (11.58) The Ten Powers

This sutra repeats the ten powers we find in SA 684 (as an abbreviation). It’s a simpler presentation that’s a direct parallel to AN 10.21.

I also translated the second chapter of EĀ, which covers the ten recollections. These ten sutras are direct parallels to the ten recollection suttas found at AN 1.296-305 in a slightly different order.

Lastly, I translated a few other SĀ sutras when time allowed, including:

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It is interesting that in this text we don’t find the recollection of the meditative experience the bodhisatta had as a child found in MN36.

Do we find that story elsewhere in the Agamas, maybe EA 31.8?

:anjal:

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Similar stories do occur in Agamas. In EA 31.8, he remembers sitting under a tree in his father’s garden, so that suggests it was before he left home. In T757, the Buddha remembers meditating right after he left home, which would put it later in life.

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Yes, you are right, it is there! :anjal:

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