SuttaCentral
Dear @cdpatton,
Can you translate SA 560 which is a parallel of AN 4.170 Yuganaddha Sutta where Ananda explained 4 ways of attaining Arahantship? I’m curious whether the Chinese Agama version is same as the Pali version, especially on the fourth way (which I have questioned years ago about it)
Thank you 
Sure, I’ll try and release a translation around New Year’s.
The Chinese has four different paths, but it’s a bit different than the Pali. The first two are not so clearly about śamatha and vipaśyanā (though they are mentioned), and the second pair are reversed compared to the Pali, but much closer in meaning.
Your old question about the meaning of “dhamma agitation” (dhammuddhacca) in the Pali is somewhat cleared up by the Chinese, I think: It just mentions being agitated in general without reference to the Dharma in particular. So, it just means that the practitioner ends up needing to practice śamatha first to settle down and stop being so agitated. The Pali perhaps got the passage confused by inserting dhamma.
Also, I would say this is not an EBT but something written later in Buddhist history. I’m struck not just by the fact that it’s Ananda teaching or that śamatha and vipaśyanā practice is a subject, but also the attainment of liberation is defined as ending the anuśayas rather than the āsavās. That switch in philosophy is something well-documented in the development of Abhidharma in the Sarvâstivāda.
I decided today (Dec. 31 here in the US) to tabulate exactly where I’m at in terms of translating the four Āgamas after the past year working full-time on MĀ and various parallels to important Pali suttas. So here’s the numbers:
| Āgama | Sutras Translated / Total | Pages Translated / Total | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dīrgha (T1) | 2 / 30 | 4.2 / 148.5 | 2.8% |
| Madhyama (T26) | 47 / 222 | 57.3 / 388.3 | 14.8% |
| Saṃyukta (T99) | 84 / 1360 | 18 / 372.5 | 4.8% |
| Ekôttarika (T125) | 22 / 472 | 19.5 / 281.2 | 6.9% |
| Total | 155 / 2084 | 99 / 1190.5 | 8.3% |
To give a sense of scale, 1 page of Taisho Chinese usually translates to 1,000-1,200 words of English. So, I’d expect a translation of all four Āgamas to total at least 1.2 million words.
Looking at the numbers, it’s pretty clear I spent a good part of the year focused on the Madhyama, and I believe I’ve already translated more of the Ekôttarika Āgama that anyone has in the past.
It’s a pretty daunting amount of material to translate from classical Chinese. Another thing that’s been daunting about this project besides its size is the difficulty of translating four different ancient translations of lost texts and coping with their varying styles and vocabularies.
Looking forward to 2021, the project will continue, and I’m hoping to pick up the pace now that I’ve worked with all four Āgama texts. I’d like to reach a pace closer to 20% of the total in one year, which certainly seems doable if I can continue to work full-time on it.
I want to thank everyone who has supported this project, and Happy New Years to everyone around the world!
That is fantastic Charles 
Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu!
Fantastic work! Thanks again for all your gifts for us and for future generations.
Ah, finally, I have a new update for Dharma Pearls. The past month and a half has been … well … eventful here in the US, to say the least. However, the translation project continues. I’ve changed gears a bit, which is also part of why there’s been only the sound of crickets for the past month and a half. I’ve begun to work on the Dīrgha Āgama in earnest, which will probably continue for a couple more months.
Today, I posted a fairly literal translation of DĀ 21 Brahmā’s Shaking (aka, DN 1 Brahma’s Net). One of the things I’ve been doing behind the scenes is acquiring the Japanese translation of the Dīrgha Āgama (thank you Amazon Japan for shipping to America: 現代語訳「阿含経典」), which was produced by a team of scholars that included the late Dr. Karashima Seishi. As I suspected, it’s been indispensable for checking my readings of obscure Chinese passages. It seems to be the best translation available today.
Going forward, I’ll be giving DĀ 27 and 29 a new edit and then continuing to translate parallels to DN.
And, of course, I’ll add bits of SĀ and edit MĀ as time permits.
Thank you for your work. I’m a regular visitor to your website and enjoy reading the translations. I’ve become interested in the DN as of late, so your translation of the parallels has come at a good time for me.
May I ask, once you are done would you move on to translating the various Abhidharma texts?
I dabble in reading the Chinese Sarvâstivāda Abhidharma texts now and again in my spare time. It’s a little daunting as a translation project because the terminology is technical and no one has attempted it yet, so there’s not much available to check myself with.
But, yes, if the projects lasts long enough, I would eventually work on the Abhidharma texts, too. And the Sarvâstivāda Vinaya.
Yes I can imagine they add an extra level of complexity. That is good to hear. I would love to be able to read the Śāripūtrābhidharma one day, finally 
If you are interested to know . The text consisting of 33 chapters overall . This text basic format appear to resemble of the Dharmaskandha-sastra and Vibhaṅga . But comparing to Dharmaskandha-sastra it lacks of Sotāpattivagga、aveccaparādavagga
、ārya-vaṃśavagga . If compare to pakaraṇa it appear to without cattāro avecca-ppasādā、cattāro ariya-vamsā . In comparing to Vibhanga then dhamma-hadaya are not in the list . One can see many similarity of the contents of the suttas (of pali canon) with Śāripūtrābhidharma .
Last month, I added three new Dīrgha Āgama translations, a couple sutras from the Saṃyukta Āgama, and I also began work on the Chinese Dharmapāda, posting a couple commentary stories found in T211 for the first chapter. A quick list of the additions can be found on the What’s New page at Dharma Pearls.
DĀ 11 Increasing One by One
This mātṛkā sutra is essentially the Daśottara abbreviated to half it’s size. A direct parallel doesn’t exist in Pali, but the format, questions, and sets of dharmas all conform to both DĀ 10 and DN 34. It’s interesting that the five questions that are asked for each set of lists are the first four and the last question asked in the Daśottara, which is a pattern I see fairly often with lists that appear to have grown at some point.
Beyond that, there’s nothing especially remarkable other than the occasional differences between DĀ 10/11 and DN 34, which aren’t many. One thing I do note is that DN 34 tends to add more descriptions and explanations for the lists than DĀ 10/11, suggesting it may be a bit later in composition. Buddhist texts tended to get larger in that way over time.
DĀ 12 Three Categories
This is another DĀ sutra without a direct parallel in DN. It’s a brief mātṛkā sutra that presents lists of 1-10 items in three categories: Things leading to bad destinies, things leading to good destinies, and things leading to Nirvāṇa.
DĀ 22 Śroṇatāṇḍya
This sutra is a direct parallel to DN 4. The two sutras match each other closely in overall meaning and story events. As is usual, the details differ a bit when compared closely. For example, the 11 qualities of Śroṇatāṇḍya match DN 4 in both content and order for about 7 items, and there’s two/three that are different towards the end. The Pali version also tends to “put down” or cast the priest in a more negative light than DĀ does, which is also a pattern I’ve seen comparing other parallels like the Lohitya and Fruits of the Ascetic Sutras.
SĀ 25.57 Crossing the Flood
SĀ2 180 Crossing the Flood
These are two direct parallels to SN 1.1. What’s perhaps most surprising about the parallels to this sutra is that it’s the Buddha’s answer that varies across all of them. The Pali has him expressing the middle way, but the other parallels say other things like “I didn’t try too hard” or “I wasn’t too lax.” The Pali seems like a compromise between them.
Also, for those who are curious, SĀ2 is thought to be a partial translation of the Kāśyapīya Saṃyukta Āgama. It’s saṃyuktas are arranged very closely with SĀ, but like SN it has the Sagatha division first. Because it’s saṃyuktas otherwise match SĀ closely, it was another way Yinshun confirmed how SĀ should be reordered.
Dvs 1.1 Śakra Attains Stream Entry
Dvs 1.2 King Prasenajit’s Queen
Finally, I translated the first two stories found in T211 Dharma Verse Stories. As I began to work on the first chapter of the Chinese Dharmapāda (T210), I decided to translate the stories in T211 as I edit and check myself, so they’ll be released before the actual Dharmapāda chapters.
What’s Coming in March?
More of the same is planned. I’ve begun working on a translation of the Parinirvāṇa Sutra (DĀ 2), but it will take until April to complete and release. In the meantime, I’ll be translating other short DĀ sutras as well and continuing to work on the Dharmapāda as time allows.
It’s interesting that in DA 11 the Buddha is giving the teaching. In DN 34 it’s Sariputta.
Thanks for all your work, Charles!
Thank you very much.
Fyi, DA 11 has been translated by Analayo too in here:
Analayo’s translation are definitely better than the BDK translation of DA, which adds material and omits quite often. I would say, though, that aside from the Lohitya and Fruits of the Ascetics sutras (which I still need to edit), these translations I’m publishing are based on readings from the Japanese translation that was made by a team of scholars in the 90s and early 2000s. So, when my readings differ from his (like “achieved” instead of “greatly successful” in DA 11), it’s not just my opinion. In fact, Analayo recommended that we use the Japanese translation as a guide, and I’m glad I am. Dr. Karashima, who was on the team that produced it, was going to head up an English translation with the Agama Studies Group before he passed away (which left the project stalled last I knew).
How would you say your approach differs from Analayo’s? I get the feeling that you prefer to translate the Chinese as is, whereas Analayo tries to get at the Indic terms that the Chinese texts are translating and translates that way.
Well, the trouble for me is how exactly were the Indic terms understood by the translators who produced the Chinese? Analayo generally uses Pali interpretations, and there’s nothing wrong with that; but it sometimes ignores the Chinese readings that differ. A good example is the term prahāṇa (P. pradhāna), which is most often translated in Chinese as “to end/cease” not “exertion” or “effort.” This gets awkward for the four right efforts; in Chinese, they are either “methods” or “eliminations.”
The question becomes, do we ignore this and translate the Chinese as though it were Pali in modern times, or do we preserve these different readings. The Japanese translators agreed with my method. I mean, what’s really the point of translating these texts if we sidestep the differences?
Yes I agree. There’s no way to “restore” the original, so the best thing to do is to translate what we have.
Yeah, and there’s also a more academic issue that I think the Sarvastivada texts interpret terms differently than Pali commentators. I’ve written a couple essays about that when I notice it. So, then translating the Madhyama Agama like it’s Pali kind of erases the Sarvastivada readings. That’s really my only criticism of Analayo’s translations. Overall, they are accurate and get the gist across to the reader. But if a reader cares about these issues, they won’t know it’s happening.
Yes, the Dirgha Agama project is suspended till now (afaik). But they don’t want to include the translation of DA 30 which is no parallel in Pali. As you rightly pointed out, the BDK translation of Dirgha Agama is poorly translated.
And I hope you can also translate the DA 30 (its title is “Lokaprajnati Sutra” as rendered by some) which is about Buddhist cosmology and corresponded with the Abhidharmakosabhasya chapter on analysis of the world. But it’s a long and massive text, the longest sutra of all sutras in Chinese Agamas 