I would very much like to see an alternate translation of this analogy this excerpt from SN 22.83:
“It is by clinging, Ānanda, that the notion ‘I am’ occurs, not without clinging. And by clinging to what does ‘I am’ occur, not without clinging? It is by clinging to form that ‘I am’ occurs, not without clinging. It is by clinging to feeling … to perception … to volitional formations … to consciousness that ‘I am’ occurs, not without clinging.
“Suppose, friend Ānanda, a young woman—or a man—youthful and fond of ornaments, would examine her own facial image in a mirror or in a bowl filled with pure, clear, clean water: she would look at it with clinging, not without clinging. So too, it is by clinging to form that ‘I am’ occurs, not without clinging. It is by clinging to feeling … to perception … to volitional formations … to consciousness that ‘I am’ occurs, not without clinging.
I never really understood this analogy, but then I saw the parallel SA 261 (excerpt):
’Ānanda, it is by clinging to states that one conceives ‘I am this’, not without clinging to states. Ānanda, by clinging to what states does one conceive ‘I am this’, not without clinging to them? Clinging to bodily form one clings to it as ‘I am this’, not without clinging to it. Clinging to feeling … perception … formations … consciousness one clings to it as ‘I am this’, not without clinging to it.
’Just as a person who holds in his hand a clear mirror or clean water in a bowl as a mirror and clings to it to see his own face, who sees because of clinging to the mirror, not without clinging to it.
’Therefore Ānanda, clinging to bodily form one clings to it conceiving it as ‘I am this’, not without clinging to it. […]
I thought the person in the Pali analogy looked at her own face ‘with clinging’, but it seems to me that the point of the analogy is that like someone would grasp a hand mirror to see their own face, the khandas are grasped in order to conceive of them ‘I am this’.
Can the Pali analogy justifiably be translated into something like:
“Suppose, friend Ānanda, a young woman—or a man—youthful and fond of ornaments, would examine her own facial image in a mirror or in a bowl filled with pure, clear, clean water: she would look at [the mirror or bowl] by grasping it, not without grasping it. So too, it is by grasping form that ‘I am’ occurs, not without grasping. […]
?
If so it would seem to really tie upadana to the act of making a self out of the khandas.