[Buddha-l] Aupaduka

[Dan Lusthaus]

Piya,

Perhaps one of our Tibetan specialists can give you more precise or accurate
information. Which of Vinitadeva's texts does Deeg claim this passage is
found?

As for the terms themselves:

brdzus te ske ka'i sems can (notice, it is ka'i, not k'ai) breaks down
something like this:

brdzus = transformed into, miraculous
te = continuative particle
ske ka'i = neck and head, origin, root
sems can = sattva

So this could be taken as equivalent to "spontaneous born" of the four types
of birth (i.e., aupapaaduka = upapaaduka).

bar ma do'i srid pa'i = antarabhaava

Identifying the spontaneously-born with the antarabhaava is an interesting
exegetical idea (since later Buddhists have been hard-pressed to find any
known actual sentient beings that fit that description -- most candidates
are curious, nonempirical "beings"). If Vinitadeva does that, he is probably
drawing somehow on the Abhidharmakosa.

In the Abhidharmako"sa, see  2.14 and bhasya for discussion of upapaaduka
beings. And see 3.8c-d-bhasya for a precise definition (and the claim that
it is the best of the four types of birth, followed by an apologia for why
bodhisattvas when born in the life they are to become Buddhas are
nonetheless womb-born; it is also the worst of the births since it can
happen in the lower gatis as well). This is followed (3.10 and followng) by
a discussion of the antarabhava. They seem to be different (3.9bc lists them
separately), though Vasubandhu points out some similarities.

Dan