Papers by David and Nancy Reigle
The variant readings that go with the edition posted separately.
The Vajrasattva mantra is very widely used, so it comes as no surprise that many variants are fou... more The Vajrasattva mantra is very widely used, so it comes as no surprise that many variants are found in its Sanskrit wording and in how it is understood. Despite its importance, I am not aware of any detailed investigation of its wording and its meaning. 1 In view of this need, I have made an attempt to do so here. 2 The results of my investigation are given first, since these are perhaps all that some readers will require. oṃ vajrasattva, samayam anupālaya, vajrasattvatvenôpatiṣṭha, dṛḍho me bhava, sutoṣyo me bhava, supoṣyo me bhava, anurakto me bhava, sarva-siddhim me prayaccha, sarva-karmasu ca me cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru hūṃ, ha ha ha ha hoḥ, bhagavan sarva-tathāgata-vajra, mā me muñca, vajrībhava mahā-samaya-sattva, āḥ |
easterntradition.org
... 1, Baroda: Central Library, 1925; Gaekwad's Oriental Series no. ... p. 160: buddhaµ ... more ... 1, Baroda: Central Library, 1925; Gaekwad's Oriental Series no. ... p. 160: buddhaµ dharma∆ ca saµghaµ bhava-bhaya-harañaµ bodhi-sîmna˙ prayåmi, I go to the Buddha, the dharma, and the sa∫gha, removing the fears of cyclic existence, until the summit of enlightenment. For ...
Indo-Iranian Journal, 1997
The benedictive or precative is one of the ten lakåras or verb tenses/modes of Påñini's system of... more The benedictive or precative is one of the ten lakåras or verb tenses/modes of Påñini's system of Sanskrit grammar, where it is termed å≈îr-li∫. Yet it is extremely rare in classical Sanskrit in its active, or parasmaipada form, and is thought to be nonexistent there in its middle, or åtmanepada form. W. D. Whitney in his still standard Sanskrit Grammar (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1879, 2nd ed. 1889) states: "The precative active is a form of very rare occurrence in the classical language.. .. The precative middle is virtually unknown in the whole later literature, not a single occurrence of it having been brought to light." (paragraph 925). The Abhisamayåla∫kåra, a Buddhist work attributed to Maitreya (or Maitreyanåtha), though written down by Asa∫ga, circa fourth century C.E., was first edited and published in 1929 by Th. Stcherbatsky and E. Obermiller, in the Bibliotheca Buddhica series, Leningrad. Its opening two verses include two occurrences of the benedictive middle. Here are these two verses, with the benedictive middle verbs in italics. sarvåkåraj∆atå-mårga˙ ≈åsitrå yo 'tra de≈ita˙ | dhîmanto vîkßißîraµs tam anålî∂haµ parair iti || 1 || sm®tau cådhåya sütrårthaµ dharma-caryåµ da≈åtmikåm | sukhena pratipatsîrann ity årambha-prayojanam || 2 || Because of the rarity of the benedictive, it will be useful to review its formation for the two examples cited. After resolving sandhi, these stand as vîkßißîran and pratipatsîran. The conjugational ending,-îran, is recognizable as that of the optative or
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2012
Prajnaquest, 2018
There was much interest in the Kālacakra-tantra when it appeared in India about a thousand years ... more There was much interest in the Kālacakra-tantra when it appeared in India about a thousand years ago. So when it was brought to Tibet a short time later, it was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan several times. The translation that would become standard was the one by the Sanskrit paṇḍita Somanātha and the Tibetan translator 'Bro Shes rab grags. This translation was at some point revised by Shong ston Rdo rje rgyal mtshan, and it is only this revised version that we have. This revised Shong version was again revised when the Jonang teacher Dolpopa asked Blo gros rgyal mtshan and Blo gros dpal bzang po to do so. Shong ston says in his colophon that he used two Sanskrit manuscripts when making his revision, and the two Jonang translators say in their colophon that they used many (mang po) Sanskrit manuscripts when making their revison. So the Jonang revised translation of the Kālacakra-tantra is a revision of the Shong ston revision of the translation by Somanātha and 'Bro lo tsā ba (Dro lotsawa). The Kālacakra-tantra is a text of unusual difficulty, not only because of its arcane subject matter, but especially because it is written entirely in the sragdharā meter. In this long meter every syllable is regulated as to its length, long or short. So the writer cannot just say things as he would in prose, but must make every syllable fit the meter. The Tibetan translation, too, is regulated by meter, in this case by the total number of syllables allowed per line. This means that syllables giving important grammatical information often had to be omitted to fit the meter. Somanātha and 'Bro lo tsā ba when making their translation had to fit the meaning into the required number of Tibetan syllables. Likewise, when Shong ston and the two Jonang translators were making their revisions, they could not just say what they thought was meant, but rather had to somehow fit this into the meter. As already said, the unrevised translation of the Kālacakra-tantra by Somanātha and 'Bro lo tsā ba is no longer available. The revision of it by Shong ston is found in several editions or recensions of the Kangyur, including the Lithang, Narthang, Der-ge, Cone , Urga, and Lhasa blockprint recensions, and also in a blockprint with annotations by Bu ston. The Jonang revision of the Shong revision is found in the Yunglo and Peking blockprint recensions of the Kangyur, and also in a modern typeset edition with annotations by Phyogs las rnam rgyal. All of the editions or recensions have a number of typographical errors. This must be carefully taken into account when trying to ascertain the differences between the Shong version and the Jonang version. Sometimes even the differences between two or more recensions of the same version, such as the Narthang and Der-ge recensions of the Shong version, are such that the correct reading can only be ascertained by comparision with the original Sanskrit. Once the texts are established, it is only by comparison with the original Sanskrit that we can try to determine what the Jonang revisers were attempting to clarify or correct. Here follows the edited and corrected Sanskrit text, an English translation (by myself), the edited and corrected Tibetan text as revised by Shong ston, and the edited and corrected Tibetan text as revised by the two Jonang translators. The differences between the Shong and Jonang versions are underlined. Some comments on these are then given. For access to the eight blockprint recensions mentioned above, I have used the comparative Bka' 'gyur published in China, vol. 77 (2008). Six of these give the Shong version and two of these give the Jonang version. Since two textual witnesses for the Jonang version are not sufficient, I have used the edition with annotations by Phyogs las rnam rgyal published in the Jonang Publication Series, vol. 17 (2008), and the manuscript with annotations by Phyogs las rnam rgyal reproduced in Dus 'khor 'grel mchan phyogs bsgrigs, vol. 4 (2007). This same manuscript was also reproduced in Dus 'khor phyogs bsgrigs chen mo, vol. 25 (2014).
A large section of the otherwise lost Kālacakra-mūla-tantra has now been rediscovered. It is appr... more A large section of the otherwise lost Kālacakra-mūla-tantra has now been rediscovered. It is approximately three times as large as the only other section known, the Sekoddeśa. It is the Para-guruguṇa-dhara section, the section on "the good qualities possessed by the best guru." This text is itself called a tantra in the one manuscript we now have, the Para-guru-guṇa-dhara-nāma-tantra, since the tantra it comes from is not extant. Perhaps this title is the reason why it does not yet seem to have been noticed as a section of the Kālacakra-mūla-tantra, although it became available in 2014. It had been out of circulation for centuries. What led me to it was a quoted verse that for long I could not trace.
While the Tibetan lotsawas of old translated even Sanskrit names in their renowned translations o... more While the Tibetan lotsawas of old translated even Sanskrit names in their renowned translations of the Buddhist canonical texts, they left Sanskrit mantras untranslated. This is because the power of mantras is believed to derive from their sounds, sounds that could not be altered if this power was to remain intact. Thus we find that the mantras in the Kålacakra sådhana, like in all sådhanas, are in Sanskrit, not in Tibetan. Yet it is just here that, because of how foreign these sounds are, errors are most likely to creep in. Indeed we find that, over the centuries, the pronunciation of these sounds has altered, and, due to unfamiliarity with the words, even the spellings have been subject to scribal errors. One of the clearest examples of altered pronunciation may be seen in the case of the famous Vajrasattva mantra, widely used on its own for purification, and found as an integral part of many sådhanas, including most of the fuller versions of the Kålacakra sådhana. The 100-syllable Vajrasattva mantra as now pronounced may be seen in recent books on Tibetan Buddhism where it is given phonetically. From these, we see that the word Vajrasattva has become Benzar sato, 1 Benzar satto, 2 or Bedzra sato. 3 These transformations of its pronunciation are largely due to it being pronounced as in modern Tibetan. We see the same thing in English, where Vajrasattva is pronounced as if it is an English word. But it is a Sanskrit word, and as such, the first syllable of Vajra should rhyme with " judge, " and the first syllable of sattva should rhyme with " hut. " If the early Tibetan translators gave such importance to preserving the Sanskrit sounds, we should make an attempt to pronounce them correctly. 4 Then there is the question of meaning. The great majority of Sanskrit mantras have clear meanings that were meant to be
The most serious objection to Kamaleswar Bhattacharya’s thesis that the Buddha did not deny the u... more The most serious objection to Kamaleswar Bhattacharya’s thesis that the Buddha did not deny the universal ātman may be put in the form of this question: Why, then, did Buddhists down through the ages think he did? Reply: Actually, they did not think this, as far as we can tell from their writings that refute the ātman and teach the anātman or no-self doctrine. The idea of the ātman as the impersonal universal ātman did not become dominant in India until some time after the eighth century C.E. Before then, throughout the Buddhist period, the dominant idea of the ātman in India was that of a permanent personal ātman. Judging from their writings, the Indian Buddhist teachers from Nāgārjuna to Āryadeva to Asaṅga to Vasubandhu to Bhavya to Candrakīrti to Dharmakīrti to Śāntarakṣita thought that the Buddha’s anātman teaching was directed against a permanent personal ātman.
EDITOR OF FOTA NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE by David and Nancy Reigle
FOTA
FOTA (The Friends of Theosophical Archives) is a charitable organisation being formed to promote ... more FOTA (The Friends of Theosophical Archives) is a charitable organisation being formed to promote knowledge of, and support for, the Theosophical archives across the world. For this purpose,
“Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country. For more information visit this link: http://www.
hypatia.gr/fota/
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Papers by David and Nancy Reigle
EDITOR OF FOTA NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE by David and Nancy Reigle
“Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country. For more information visit this link: http://www.
hypatia.gr/fota/
“Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country. For more information visit this link: http://www.
hypatia.gr/fota/
being formed to promote knowledge of, and support for, the Theosophical archives across the world. For this purpose, “Theosophy” is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages of Theosophical History, and is not restricted to any tradition or country. (For more information visit this link: http://www.hypatia.gr/fota/