[Buddha-l] 9. Attadiipaa Sutta (Joy Vriens)

[JKirkpatrick]

 "He also observed that references to the desirability of isolation and self-reliance are plentiful in the canonical literature."
	Yes, but is the term 'dviipa' used in these instances???? 
	I still think it's a far-fetched translation.

	OTOH, maybe diipa has become simplified in everyday Hindi, Bengali etc etc--as a 	term that once was more commonly pradiipa, so that one is more influenced to 	consider its Pali use as lamp rather than island. Just another devil's advocate idea.  

Lance did say, however: "That said, the rendering from Middle Indian into Sanskrit may be no older than the Pali commentarial tradition. So we do need to look at the context as well."
		Thank you Lance.

There does seem to be a tendency to clutch at accepted translations over historical eras when a new look might be productive (I consider Stephen Batchelor's _Confession of _ book to be a new look for sure)--this also has happened many times to Bible exegesis, as we all know.

Joanna K 
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On May 8, 2010, at 3:13 AM, L.S. Cousins wrote:

> In the corresponding Sanskrit version of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra we 
> have dvīpa which means 'island' or 'continent' or 'doab'.

My Pali teacher, A.K. Warder, used to point out that in Pali, 'dīpa' is rarely used in the sense of 'light' but that for 'light' one usually finds 'padīpa' (Skt pradīpa). He also observed that references to the desirability of isolation and self-reliance are plentiful in the canonical literature. He therefore felt the evidence was strongly in support of taking 'dīpa' in the sense of 'island' rather than 'light'. The further evidence you put forth convinces me he was probably right.


Richard Hayes







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