Help with literal translation of a line in SN 12.12 please

Q & A
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Dear Pali friends,
there is a line in SN 12.12 I don’t quite get the literal meaning of and would be grateful for a clarification…

viññāṇāhāro āyatiṃ punabbha­vā­bhi­nib­bat­tiyā paccayo, tasmiṃ bhūte sati saḷāyatanaṃ, saḷāya­tana­pac­cayā phasso (https://suttacentral.net/pi/sn12.12/2.927-2.1391)
The nutriment consciousness is a condition for the production of future renewed existence. When that which has come into being exists, the six sense bases [come to be]; with the six sense bases as condition, contact. (transl. B. Bodhi)

some links are clearer to me than others…:
viññāṇāhāro = vinnana-nutriment
āyatiṃ = in future
punabbha­vā­bhi­nib­bat­tiyā = puna/again + bhava/becoming + abhinibatti/ rebirth
= vinnana-nutriment is the condition for a future renewed-becoming-rebirth?

bhūte sati saḷāyatanaṃ = ?
bhūte = bhūta, locative? = in the produced?
sati = not our normal sati I guess?

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This is a special construct called the locative absolute. It’s even more special on account of the existential verb atthi in it. Sati = locative of santa. Santa = present participle of atthi.

See Wijesekara p.238 on how to REALLY translate this.

PS - You might recognise this existential locative absolute from the more well-known formula -

imasmiṃ sati idaṃ hoti

You’re looking at the actual content of Stream Entry itself!

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Thanks a lot, I’m still struggling with the actual translation though
The Wijesekara “Syntax of the Cases in the Pali Nikayas” I found here (http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Textual-Studies/Syntax-of-the-Cases/) has the Loc.Abs. on pages 302-310 and I couldn’t find the exact sentence there…

Could you give me your rendering of tasmiṃ bhūte sati saḷāyatanaṃ?

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On condition that that which has come to be exists, the Six Bases (comes to be).

For “imasmiṃ sati idaṃ hoti”, I would similarly translate as “On condition that this exists, that comes to be.”.

The Phenomenologists will be up in arms with Wijesekara. But, he would be vindicated by DN 15.

PS - I was using my hard copy of the book. Try s.184.

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Again, thanks so much! I’m very grateful for the support of skillful grammarians

What a peculiar passage…
An uninterrupted vinnana conditions the next rebirth. And when that rebirth is ‘successful’ it conditions the salayatana, then vedana etc.

Isn’t this a proof for the 3-lifes-interpretation of the paticcasam.? Is there any way to interpret this as a linear one-life process?

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