[Buddha-l] Query on Non-Local Consciousness

[Stephen Hodge]

Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> What I searched for were occurrences in Buddhist
> texts of 生 and 熟 in tandem and/or opposition, and any other occurrence of
> 生而 in which the 而 formed an integral unit with 生 instead of in its usual
> function as a conjunction. I discovered, among other things, how common a
> formula 未成熟眾生而成熟之 and minor variations thereof actually is, which
> surprised me.   And I found no occurrence of 生而 as an integral unit.

Dear Dan,
I am not deluded to the extent that I think every word I write is a precious 
pearl of wisdom, but I do wish you would at least read what I write with a 
modicum of attention -- I do try to give some thought to what I write. First 
you wrongly assumed I was insisting on a meaning of "raw" for āma and 生 , 
when I actually gave a number of possible equivalents to show the semantic 
range of the words which are all well attested in standard reference works. 
And now we have the above !

You say that you have found no "occurrence of 生而 as an integral unit". Not 
surprising, as I never said you would -- so more wasted time. If you had 
been reading a little more attentively at the time, you might have later 
recollected the gist of the following, when I first mentioned this 
phenomena: "but 而 also came to be widely used as a topic marker in Buddhist 
translation texts, which can be either grammatical subject, or as here, 
object" (though, actually, not so "widely" as to occur on every other page).

Perhaps I ought to have spelt this out a bit more clearly, but the use of 而 
which I was highlighting is a usage I have noticed in a number of Chinese 
translations where it does not seem to function in any of the standard ways 
that are described, but rather seems to function as a *kind* of enclitic. It 
was in that sense that I later indicated to you that "the 而 goes with 生", 
since enclitics always "go with" the preceding word.   Pulleyblank mentions 
another enclitic use of the word -- though not this one -- in his Outline of 
Classical Chinese Grammar. These are possible influences from the colloquial 
langauage.   But I think that my meaning here should have been reasonably 
clear when taken in conjunction with my earlier comment. So, sorry for the 
wild goose chase -- more haste, less speed, perhaps ?

But, out of interest, how would you interpret the 而 in the whole phrase ? 
Obviously, if you construe 生 as a verb, then there is no problem. On the 
other hand, I think that 生 is most likely to be a noun, so the 而 is unusual 
in conventional classical terms.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge