Since finishing my translations, and writing introductions for them, I’ve focused on annotating the translations. This has been going for a few years already. I started with DN, then MN, now I’ve just finished SN. This is a big milestone for me!
For the next couple of weeks, I’ll look at the thread on here with the mistakes and so on, and when that’s done, I’ll start with AN.
As I go, I am revising the translations. Often, I find there are things that I did influenced by earlier translations, especially those of Ven Bodhi, and I can now take more time to dwell on the specifics. This lets me fix a bunch of mistakes, and overall aim for greater lucidity, precision, consistency, and disambiguation.
My long term goal is to finish annotating the four nikāyas, then revise the current annotations for the KN books. Next, I’ll go back to the introductory essays, which by then will be a decade old(!). I’ll revise them, bringing them up to date with any changes or new discoveries I’ve made since then. I’ll also revise the notes accordingly.
After that, well, who knows. But that’s as far as my plans take me.
During this process, did you update samma sankapppo to ‘right purpose’? I just spotted this, in the wild, this morning. Are there notes about your thoughts behind this?
While proceeding with my own translations I sometimes encounter new terms, and on search, find that they are general changes, not just inconsistencies. In many cases I feel appreciation because they make things clearer, but sometimes I look at them with question marks in my eyes because I don’t understand the rationale behind that change; in which cases I am not adopting them for my own translations for the time being.
And many of the changes I may not have noticed yet. After finishing the last collection I will go for revisions myself more systematically, and then I’ll probably still find a few surprises …
Thank you for all your work—which is in fact an excellent support for my own work!
I did indeed. Mainly for disambiguation. “Intention” overlaps cetanā, “thought” overlaps vitakka, citta, etc. “Purpose” is a spiritually meaningful concept, it is what drives a life of the spirit. Even Justin Bieber thinks so.
Of course!
Saṅkappa is normally a synonym of vitakka in the suttas, hence it may be rendered “thought” (sn14.8:3.3, mn60:24.2). It is, however, not just verbalized thought, but the direction in which one applies the mind, hence “intention” (mn41:14.3), “resolve”, or “purpose”. It has a directionality to it: in Rig Veda 10.164.5 it is the “evil intent” wished upon those who we hate, whereas in Atharva Veda 3.25.2 it is a quality of the arrow of love. For this reason, I usually render it as “purpose”. This factor is the emotional counterpart of right view, ensuring that the path is motivated by love and compassion.
Oh yeah,. I’d love to finish that project. Hmm. Maybe I’ll do a few before starting AN.
Indeed. There are some cases where it’s just correcting a mistake. Most times it’s really a matter of taste. It certainly isn’t the case that every detail needs to be reflecting in second-generation translations, but it is good to reflect on them.
One thing amazing about Bhante’s notes is that, he gives background info and other curiosities, besides just providing scholarly notes; making them quite useful for a practitioner / dilletante.
Sadhu sadhu! Thank you as always, Bhante, for the beautiful contributions to our understanding of these texts.
This isn’t for SN, but something I noticed on DN notes that I felt was a bit unfortunate. At DN 16:3.7.4, you have the following note on the Buddha’s statement that he would not pass away until establishing the fourfold assembly:
Māra is citing the Buddha’s words for his own purpose. The Pali tradition does not say when this encounter took place, but the Sanskrit Sarvāstivāda Catuṣparisatsūtra places it shortly after the Buddha’s awakening.
However, in that very sutta, later on the Buddha himself says that this conversation happened right after his awakening, at DN 16:3.34.1!
So the Pali tradition agrees with the Sarvastivada, as confirmed in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta itself.
Nor can I. I have this theory that if anyone were to realistically estimate the work it takes for anything meaningful, they’d give up right away and never start. That’s why we’re chronically unable to estimate projects.
Yes, they are, or very shortly will be. Normally the site’s updated every week or so. Looks like the notes for the last collections aren’t there yet, I’ll remind Hongda.
Thanks! I always love learning new things along the way.
Thank you, Bhante. Is there any plan to update the books with the new annotations? The PDF version is more than one year old! I reckon those who want to print the books may find the notes useful.
The printing will be an evolving situation. For the printing project we’re doing in Sri Lanka this year, the notes will not be included.
As for the files on Lulu, these should be updated, but I haven’t got around to it.
Ultimately it would probably be sensible to offer both annotated and unannotated versions. I feel like the main purpose of the print editions is contemplative reading, for which notes may be a distraction. Also I’d like to finish the project off as described above, rather than offering partial notes, which in some respects will differ from the Introductions.
So if you want the proper finished version, I guess, wait ten years?
That’s the version I’m looking for. Thank you. I just hope that when Theravada Buddhist Council of Malaysia (TBCM) decides to re-run a new batch of printing (for free distribution), they can pick up a new version with annotations, at least for SN. I prefer having real physical books. The best part of having new books is sniffing the scent of new books.
I’m not sure if I’ll still be around. It’s more likely that I’ll kick the bucket first.
Thank you! I meant more that I don’t know how things are updated, what was or wasn’t there before, so I couldn’t tell whether there was already something new published. What you share there is also useful, cause I forget sometimes that there are more options! I appreciate the help
There isn’t a perfect system for knowing this. A translator can publish to our GitHub repository very quickly, but there is often a lag of one or maybe two weeks before it actually shows up on the live website. It’s a semi-automated process, but not always a perfect one. But for a user of the website there really isn’t any way to tell what’s new or when something new is published.
Thank you as always, Bhante, for the beautiful contributions to our understanding of these texts.
