[Anakattawl]

dear forum

despite having no expertise, i have tried to examine the Pali about the doctrine of "seven more lives" but cannot find the word "lives" in the Pali

do we have any ideas about what the Buddha may have been saying about the stream enterer that has broken the first three fetters?

thanks





Translator: Bhikkhu Bodhi That which remains in the state of having at most seven remaining lifetimes is next to nothing: it's not a hundredth, a thousandth, a one hundred-thousandth, when compared with the previous mass of suffering.

Translator: Bhikkhu Thanissaro Neva satimaṃ kalaṃ [1/100 part] upeti na sahassimaṃ kalaṃ [1/1000 part] upeti na satasahassimaṃ kalaṃ [1/100,000 part] upeti purimaṃ dukkhakkhandhaṃ parikkhīṇaṃ pariyādiṇṇaṃ upanidhāya yadidaṃ sattakkhattuṃparamatā.

Neva (indecl.) [na+eva] neither

Satima (adj.) the hundredth

Kalā 1. a small fraction of a whole

Upeti [upa + i] to go to (with acc.), come to, approach, undergo, attain

Purima (adj.) [compar. -- superl. formation fr. *pura, cp. Sk. purima] preceding, former, earlier, before (opp. pacchima)

dukkhakkhandhaŋ vyapānudi Th 2, 162. -- (b) lobha˚ dosa˚ moha˚ the three ingredients or integrations of greed, suffering and bewilderment, lit. "the big bulk or mass of greed"

Parikkhīṇa [pp. of parikkhīyati] exhausted, wasted, decayed, extinct

Pariyādinna exhausted, finished, put an end to, consummated

Upanidhāya (indecl.) [ger. of upa + nidahati of dhā] comparing in comparison, as prep. w. acc. "compared with"

Yadidaṃ : [(yaṃ + idaṃ), ind.] which is this; that is; namely.

Sattakkhattuŋ (adv.) seven times

Paramatā (f.) [fr. parama, Vedic paramatā highest posi- tion] the highest quantity, measure on the outside, minimum or maximum