Bhikshu Dharmamitra on the 10 Grounds Sutra

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Leo Rivers
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Bhikshu Dharmamitra on the 10 Grounds Sutra

Post by Leo Rivers »

Bhikshu Dharmamitra kindly responded to my e-mail asking about the several versions of the Ten Grounds sutra, the Chapter in the Avatamsaka and Vasubandhu's Commentary - and again kindly gave permission to share his tak
The Avatamsaka Ten Grounds Chapter and the Ten Grounds Sutra via Kumarajiva et al are both very complete and also track very well with the Sanskrit, as does the Bodhiruci edition and Vasubandhu's highly detailed commentary. So, practice wise, they all deliver the goods. :namaste:

As for the specifics of the really very major and really very amazing problems with Cleary's work on "The Avatamsaka," "Stopping and Seeing," etc., I'm deliberately abstaining from public comment on Cleary until my print edition comes out, at which point the evidence will be presented in extenso. Stay tuned.
I, for one, will stay tuned. First Tillemans review of Powers version of the Samdhinirmocana is confirmed by Keenan, and now we can look forward to a whole new world of insight opening up like the Tower of Maitreya in reading the Avatansaka!
:woohoo:
Leo
cdpatton
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Re: Bhikshu Dharmamitra on the 10 Grounds Sutra

Post by cdpatton »

Cleary's translation is basically a lightly edited rough draft. I spent some time using his English as a comparison while translated some passages and it's pretty amazing. He jumps between versions of the Chinese without any warning, omits whole lines of gatha (if you see odd numbered verses in his text, it's probably because he dropped a line or combined a couple into one,etc). And on top of these basic quality issues, he was experimenting with unusual, literal, or just uninsightful English translations of Sanskrit.

This is just the objective situation with his translation of that text. I've no desire to demean his effort. That text represents an incredible amount of time spent producing. Unfortunately, it takes at least an equal amount of time to edit such a text. And, honestly, the publisher bears just as much responsibility for what is in print as the author does.

I'll be glad to see a good translation of that chapter done. I had worked on it once, quite a few years back, before my skills were really up to the task. These days I wish I could clone myself and work on five different projects at once.

Charlie.
Dharma Pearls Translation Project

"Supposing is good. But finding out is better." -Mark Twain
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