Musila and Narada (SN12.68)

Q & A
1

Quick question to anyone who might now:

I heard that there’s an English translation to Louis de la Vallée-Poussin’s Musila et Narada somewhere out there (besides the Gombrich one, which seems to be just a snippet). Is it (or, even, the original) accessible at all? Years I’ve been searching and have not even come close.

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Not exactly what you are looking for, but might be of interest to you as well. A recent article by Johannes Bronkhorst (2019) regarding Musila and Narada:

Abstract

The puzzle presented by Musīla and Nārada (both have attained the same knowledge/insight, but one is an Arhat, the other one is not) has raised questions regarding the Buddhist path to liberation from the time of La Vallée Poussin onward. The present paper argues that the final stages of this path had become obscure to at least certain members of the Buddhist community from an early date onward. It then raises the question of whether modern psychological understanding may shed light on this issue. It concludes with the observation that we may need some theoretical scaffolding, to be provided by modern scholarship, to understand what the early Buddhist texts are talking about.

Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies

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Thank you very much. I just found this today and am about to begin reading it right now.

4

What’s the sutta in which we find these characters?
:anjal:

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Kosambī Sutta (SN 12.68)

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In the same journal there was also this article, which has a similar starting point: (PDF) The Blind Arhat and the Old Baby: Liberation by Wisdom, the Dry-Insight Practitioner, and the Pairing of Calm and Insight | David Fiordalis - Academia.edu

And here is a topic to discuss the first paper I shared earlier: Johannes Bronkhorst (2019): "What can we learn from Musīla and Nārada?"

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Thanks, Danny–for both.

Sorry I missed that thread. I just finished the Bronkhorst article a few days ago, but I’m going to switch over to the other thread to talk about it. Hope to see you there!

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Tks. I suggest a change to the topic’s title, just add the sutta number in brackets so it helps indexing this discussion in search engines. :anjal:

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