[Buddha-l] Re: Attan.com

[Wong Weng Fai]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Malcolm Dean wrote:

> The author provides a lengthy list of quotations regarding "soul." Is
> his translation correct, or are there divergent opinions? If correct,
> how are we to understand a set of early writings which can be
> interpreted as diverging from later teachings?

One of the quote is from the Digha Nikaya (Mahaparinibbana Sutta - pp. 253
of Maurice Walshe's "Thus Have I heard"):

  	"Pahaaya vo gamissaami
  	 katam me saranamattano"

(Walshe:)
	"Now I go from you
	 Having made myself my refuge"

The problematic phrase is "saranamattano" - "saranam" is "refuge" and
"attan" has the dual meaning of "self" (in the more innocuous meaning
of refering to oneself) and "soul" (as in the loaded word). I guess if
every occurence of "attan" in the scripture is interpreted as "soul" then
you will get a very different reading of the text.

I feel that if the Buddha had really meant "soul", he would not just slip
in a single word and leave it like that - the rest of the text do not
elaborate anything in this direction of the semantics.

Would someone more knowledgable in Pali mind clarifying this?

W.F. Wong