[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Joy Vriens]

>The favorite example of this public humiliation is the 
>Mahatanhasakhaya sutta, where the unhappy recipient of the Buddha's 
>humiliation was a fisherman's son. But that sutta is my prime example of 
>the Buddha correcting someone for misunderstanding him, and not calling 
>them anything like a jerk or an idiot. The phrase used was 
>"moghapurisa," which just means "mistaken man" or "confused person."  

I was simply translating "moghapurisa" in contemporarian. You know with the inflation and erosion of language...

What would someone in the Buddha's time have said in Pali or Sanskrit to call someone an "idiot" of a "jerk"? Did such words exist at all? Probably yes. Were they written down at all? Probably not. Writing often filters out the strongest emotions, especiually religious writings. Would the written version "moghapurisa" somehow translate a similar emotional impact as the contemporary spoken version "idiot" and "jerk"? Could it be that it is interpreted as such by those reading it? I am not affirming anything, simply trying to look at it with an open and honest mind. Can the treatment given to a "moghapurisa", namely public humiliation and temporary exclusion, be compared with the treatment of an "idiot" and a "jerk" in a classroom situation. Could the reactions and feelings of the co-bikkhus and co-students towards their faulty colleague be similar?

Joy