Pracalit lipi updated

Yesterday I got notified by The Newah that two more Pracalit lipi lessons are available on their website.

Kula tree (kulavṛkṣa)

KulacūḍāmaṇiTantra:

1.33 I will speack of the purification of knowledge acording to the kula practice. Having got up early and bowed to the kula tree (kulavṛkṣa), the sādhaka ....

What the kulavṛkṣa means?

rāgaraktaparīkṣa 1 - the commentary

For a better understanding of this first verse, I'll try to translate Candrakīrti's commentary.

tatra rāgaḥ saktiradhyavasānaṁ saṅgo'bhiniveśa iti paryāyāḥ |
There (in the above verse), the desire is attaching attempt, touching and devotion ...
Later Edit:
There (in the above verse), the desire is attaching attempt, touching and devotion. These are synonyms.
[Thanks Peter!]

rakto rāgāśrayaḥ |
The desiring one is closely connected to desire.

sa yadi rakto rāgātpūrvaṁ rāgatiraskṛto rāgarahito bhavet, tadā taṁ rāgatiraskṛtaṁ raktaṁ pratītya rāgo bhavet |
If this desiring one would be anterior to the desire and without desire, that is free from desire, then the desire would be dependent on that desiring one that is without desire.

evaṁ sakti rakte rāgo bhavediti yuktam |
Thus it makes sense that the desire would be in the desiring one who desire.

na tvevaṁ saṁbhavati, yadrāgarahito raktaḥ syāt |
but it doesn't appear in this way, in which the desiring one would be free from desire.

arhatāmapi rāgaprasaṅgāt |
even the pure ones have .... (I can't make sense of this either)

yadyevaṁ sati rakte na rāgaḥ, asati tarhi rakte rāgo'stu | etadapyayuktamity |
If thus in an existing desiring one there is desire, then let there be desire in an nonexistent desiring one. Even this is illogical.

Musical excursus

The oldest Sanskrit grammar writen by an european

I just learned about it from "The Sanskrit Grammar and Manuscripts of Father Heinrich Roth S.J. 1620-1668: Facsimile Edition of Biblioteca Nazionale Rome Mss or 171 and 172". This grammar was never printed, the first page of the manuscript can be seen bellow.

The above mentioned book also contains two manuscripts, one of Sadānada's Vedāntasāra and one of Veṇīdatta's Pañcatattvaprakāśa along with Father Roth's commentary.

āryasatyaparīkṣā 11

vināśayati durdṛṣṭā śūnyatā mandamedhasam |
sarpao yathā durgṛhīto vidyā vā duṣprasādhitā || 24.11 ||

vināśayati = pres. 3 sg. caus. cause to perish
durdṛṣṭā śūnyatā = N. sg. emptiness wrongly understood
mandamedhasam = Acc. sg. the one with low intelligence
sarpo = N. sg. snake
yathā = in the way
durgṛhīto = N. sg. wrongly grasped
vidyā = N. sg. magic spell
vā = or
duṣprasādhitā = N. sg. wrongly prepared

Emptiness wrongly understood cause to perish the one with low intelligence, in the way as a wrongly grasped snake or a magic spell wrongly prepared.

Sanskrit manuscripts online

• Tokyo University library. It hosts almost the entire scanned collection from Matsunami's catalog. As far I remember one exemplar of Bodhicaryāvatāra is missing.
• Sanskrit Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania Library;
• Digitale Bibliothek - Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (for more details see Daniel Stender's post on the subject)
• Research Institute of Sanskrit Manuscripts & Buddhist Literature, Peking University. Here you can find: Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā and Saddharmapuṇḍarikasūtra

rāgaraktaparīkṣa-1

rāgād yadi bhavet pūrvaṁ rakto rāgatiraskṛtaḥ |
taṁ pratītya bhaved rāgo rakte rāgo bhavet sati ||1||
If (yadi) the desire agent (raktas), which is distinct of desire(rāga-tiraskṛtas), would be(bhavet) anterior(pūrvaṁ) to desire(rāgād), the desire would be in dependence(pratītya) to it(taṁ);
in a real(sati) agent there would be desire.

prasannapadā (madhyamakavṛtti)

Bellow you can find two cleaned up pages from the manuscript no 251 in Tokyo of Candrakīrti's Prasannapadā. In red is Nāgārjuna's text, in blue is the vṛtti.

Nepal and Kathmandu

In the next year's spring I'll have a two weeks trip to Nepal. In the mean time I have to gather and assimilate all the information I can find about these places.

Please leave your ideas regarding the "must do in Nepal" here.






High resolution Nepal map