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**derinasderun** · 05-02-2012, 11:33 PM

No sorry I cant see it. But I am open for suggestions.

I suggest that you try to comprehend the sutta's meaning by considering the Buddha's teachings as a whole. His teachings usually reflect the importance of mental development and letting go. What the Buddha probably says here is that even when a body, which is nourished by wholesome food, gets weak, beaten up or eaten by animals, a mind that is nourished by relinquishment and discernment becomes noble and sublime.

In other words, if your mind is well cultivated, you will not experience mental suffering when you are physically harmed (note that the sutta doesn't necessarily mention death). This is why the Buddha tells his disciple not to fear death because for such a person, death or physical pain could be less suffering.

Then he uses a simile to emphasize how such a developed, cultivated mind is unspoiled and unaffected by physical tragedies. There are instances where the Buddha taught dhamma, specially to lay disciples, using similes such as these. Ghee in water is simile for a developed, cultivated mind. Ghee rises higher like a developed mind (implying noble and supreme, surpassing the mundane) and it doesn't get mixed in water like a mind unaffected by common tragedies. With such a mind, facing death is not to be feared. Sounds like a perfect teaching by the Buddha.

Also, just because vesesa has one meaning in one place, it doesn't need to have the same meaning everywhere it is used, even in the same sutta. For the record, I think that the primary meaning of visesa should be noble or eminent given the fact that the word is absorbed so by other languages which are influenced by pali. This is just a calculated guess. However, the word visesa also has secondary meanings. Sometimes in translations like these, you need to make a sensible judgment as to what one word could mean in a particular context. There is not much use in copying and pasting a set of words and making it bold to make a point which is irrational and does not complement the rest of the dhamma.

05-02-2012, 11:33 PM	#25
derinasderun Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 406 Senior Member	No sorry I cant see it. But I am open for suggestions. I suggest that you try to comprehend the sutta's meaning by considering the Buddha's teachings as a whole. His teachings usually reflect the importance of mental development and letting go. What the Buddha probably says here is that even when a body, which is nourished by wholesome food, gets weak, beaten up or eaten by animals, a mind that is nourished by relinquishment and discernment becomes noble and sublime. In other words, if your mind is well cultivated, you will not experience mental suffering when you are physically harmed (note that the sutta doesn't necessarily mention death). This is why the Buddha tells his disciple not to fear death because for such a person, death or physical pain could be less suffering. Then he uses a simile to emphasize how such a developed, cultivated mind is unspoiled and unaffected by physical tragedies. There are instances where the Buddha taught dhamma, specially to lay disciples, using similes such as these. Ghee in water is simile for a developed, cultivated mind. Ghee rises higher like a developed mind (implying noble and supreme, surpassing the mundane) and it doesn't get mixed in water like a mind unaffected by common tragedies. With such a mind, facing death is not to be feared. Sounds like a perfect teaching by the Buddha. Also, just because vesesa has one meaning in one place, it doesn't need to have the same meaning everywhere it is used, even in the same sutta. For the record, I think that the primary meaning of visesa should be noble or eminent given the fact that the word is absorbed so by other languages which are influenced by pali. This is just a calculated guess. However, the word visesa also has secondary meanings. Sometimes in translations like these, you need to make a sensible judgment as to what one word could mean in a particular context. There is not much use in copying and pasting a set of words and making it bold to make a point which is irrational and does not complement the rest of the dhamma.
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