Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 54 | 2018
Research Article | Osservazioni sull’esposizione della creazione del corpo fatto di mente (manomaya-kāya) all’interno del Sāmaññaphala-sutta
Abstract
This article will analyse in detail some features of a passage which describes the creation of a mind-made body (manomaya-kāya) within the Sāmaññaphala-sutta. The study starts from the translation of the term ‘manomaya’, which could have more than one grammatical interpretation. The point at issue is that both the commentarial tradition and a scholar who discussed this problem (Sue Hamilton) understand the compound with the first term (mano/manas) inflected in the instrumental case. I will argue that an interpretation, according to the genitive case, cannot be completely disregarded. Subsequently, the translation of a couple of terms (muñja and isīkā) will be discussed, having a look to modern translation, to the Buddhist world view, and to the use of these terms within some Vedic texts. Finally, an odd wording of a passage will be analysed, and the comparison with the use of the same passage in a later exegetic text will highlight the conservative feature of the tradition of Pāli texts.
Submitted: Jan. 16, 2018 | Accepted: Feb. 5, 2018 | Published June 25, 2018 | Language: it
Keywords Sāmaññaphala-sutta • Manomaya-kāya • Buddhism
Copyright © 2018 Bryan De Notariis. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2018/01/009