[Buddha-l] A vocabulary question for Stephen and Lance(oranyoneelse)

[jkirk]

Stephen, your discussion is certainly illuminating. I've always been 
suspicious of the deployment of the English word 'wisdom" whenever 
encountered.
You wrote:
.......the AbhSBhasya
says it has the function of "removing doubt" because "praj~nayaa
pravicinvato ni"scaya-laabhaat" -- "having analytically investigated by
praj~naa, certitude is attained"."

So which shall it be in English? Could it be both?  It seems to me that 
praj~naa should be made intelligible (considering how often it appears in 
various romanized  bits of Buddhist text here and there)  to those of us who 
don't have Sanskrit, Chinese or Pali via the definition of it in English.
So would it not be useful to define praj~naa not only as 'removal of doubt' 
but simultaneously as 'establishing certititude'? Sanskrit seems so often 
(to this uninitiate anyway) to operate on the basis of the negative 
expression ---the absence of whatever--rather than the positive or the 
presence of whatever--whereas common English tends to operate in the latter 
mode,  unless it is forced to do otherwise.
Or is this idea way off the mark?
Joanna
================

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Hodge" <s.hodge at padmacholing.plus.com>
To: "Buddhist discussion forum" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] A vocabulary question for Stephen and 
Lance(oranyoneelse)


In part reply to Richard's question, "praj~naa" is tricky to translate so
that all its nuances are covered, but the way it is defined in mainstream
abhidharmic / shastric literature seems to cover a different semantic field
to the English "wisdom".   As I believe Richard himself once mentioned, as
one of the factors involved in all object-related mental activities,
everybody has praj~naa but not everybody has wisdom.

I am not sure about the Pali usage, though here again I suspect some kind of
incisive insight or understanding is involved.  Likewise, the use of
praj~naa as in praj~naa-paaramitaa may also involve other nuances.  However,
a fairly standard type of definition can be found in the
Abhidharma-samuccaya: "upapariik.sya eva vastuni dharmaa.naa.m pravicaya.h
sa.m"saya-vyaavartana-karmikaa" -- "[Praj~naa] is the analytical
investigation of the dharmas (qualities / factors) associated with things
being examined.  Its function is to remove doubt".   The key word here is
"pravicaya" (analytical investigation) -- in other words, praj~naa is a
mental process.   Casting some light on Richard's "nis"cita", the AbhSBhasya
says it has the function of "removing doubt" because "praj~nayaa
pravicinvato ni"scaya-laabhaat" -- "having analytically investigated by
praj~naa, certitude is attained".

Also, when Dan quoted the Sanskrit line from the AK -- nāmobhayārthaviṣayā
śrutamayyādikā dhiyaḥ -- he omitted to draw attention to the use of dhii as
a causa metri substitute for praj~naa.   Looking at the verbal root from
which "dhii" derives, its meaning should be something like "thinking" or
"reflecting", which again suggests that pra~naa is a process.

As for "āpta-vacana-prāmāṇya-jāta-niścayaḥ śrutamayī", Xuanzang's rendering
謂修行者依聞至教所生勝慧名聞所成 is rather loose.  I would also suggest that he has
translated "niścayaḥ" in his own fashion, misreading the Sanskrit as
"niśrayaḥ", which yields his 依.   I would also translate 修行者 differently as
"yogin" rather than "bhāvanā" as Dan suggests.  It should also be noted that
至教 is "āpta-vacana".  I am not sure what Xuanzang has done with "prāmāṇya"
unless he has conflated this with 至 or has somehow converted it into 聞 !

In passing, it should be mentioned that the mental function mentioned
immediately prior to praj~naa in the AbhS is samaadhi which is defined thus:
"upapariik.sya vastuni cittasyaikaagrataa |
j~naana-sanni"sraya-daana-karamaka.h" -- "It is the one-pointedness of
thought/mind upon objects being examined.  It has the function of providing
the basis of knowledge".   This, in effect, is exactly the same as the idea
expressed by BG 2.58 that Joanna cited.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge


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