Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

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sphairos
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Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by sphairos »

Hello everyone, I am looking for usages and contexts of the terms prajñājīva, prajñājīvaka, prajñājīvika, Tibetan shes rab kyis ʼtsho and shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba

They are found in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra

prajñāprabhede dvau ślokau |
samyakpravicayo jñeyaḥ śa[sa]mādhānapratiṣṭhitaḥ |
suvimokṣāya saṃkleśātprajñājīvasudeśanaḥ || Msa_16.27 ||
dharmāṇāmuttarasteṣu vidyate trividhaśca saḥ |
prajñāmevaṃ parijñāya paṇḍitaḥ samudānayet || Msa_16.28 ||
samyak pravicayo jñeya iti svabhāvaḥ | samyagiti na mithyā jñeya iti laukikakṛtyasamyakpravicayavyudāsārthaṃ | samādhānapratiṣṭhita iti hetuḥ | samāhitacitto yathābhūtaṃ prajānāti | yasmātsuvimokṣāya saṃkleśāditi phalaṃ | tena hi saṃkleśātsu vimokṣo bhavati | laukikahīnalokottaramahālokottareṇa pravicayena | prajñājīvasudeśana iti prajñājīvaḥ sudeśanā cāsya karma | tena hyanuttara[raḥ] prajñājīvakānāṃ jīvati | samyag dharmaṃ deśayatīti | dharmāṇāmuttara ityuttaratvena yogaḥ | yathoktaṃ | prajñottarāḥ sarvadharmā iti | teṣu vidyate trividhaśca sa iti vṛttiḥ | prājñeṣu vartanāt trividhena ca prabhedena | laukiko hīnalokottaro mahālokottaraśca | uktaḥ pratyekaṃ dīnādīnāṃ ṣaḍarthaprabhedena prabhedaḥ |

GRETIL, ed. Bagchee 1960:104.

Translation by Thurman et al. (The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature {Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra)). 2004:

27-28. The wise person should practice wisdom, having understood it thus: as true discernment of objects; as based on meditative concentration; as good liberator from addiction; as (enabling) the life of wisdom and excellence in teaching; as supreme among practices; and as threefold, found among those (who are wise).
"True discernment of objects" indicates its reality; "true" means objects which are "not false," and excludes authentic discernment of mundane duties. "Based on meditative concentration" shows its cause, as the concentrated mind intuitively understands reality. "Liberator from addiction" shows its result, since there is liberation from addictions through discernment, mundane, slightly transcendent, and greatly transcendent. "Life of wisdom and excellence in teaching" shows its activity, since it enables one to live as unexcelled among those who live for wisdom and to teach the authentic teaching. "Supreme among things" shows endowment with supremacy, as it is said: "Wisdom is the supreme of all things." "Threefold as found among those" indicates its function, as it functions among the wise with a three-fold differentiation into mundane, slightly transcendental, and greatly transcendental. So are stated the analyses of generosity and so on, each with a sixfold
analysis.”

And in the Savitarka-bhūmi of Yogācārabhūmi. The Yogācārabhūmi of Acarya Asanga, the Sanskrit text compared with the Tibetan version, part 1. Calcutta. University of Calcutta. 1957, pp. 97(16)‒99(4)):

Api khalu pañncabhir ākārair bāhyāt kāmināṃ kāmaparibhogād āryāṇāṃ prajñājīvināṃ dharmaparibhogo viśiṣyate yenāryaḥ prajñājīvya anuttar[ā]ṃ prajñājīvikām jīvatīty (2.2) ucyate

Moreover, the enjoyment of Dharma felt by Noble Ones who live by insight is distinguished through five features from the sensual enjoyments felt by the externally impassioned – that is, the Noble Ones of whom it was said, “The Noble ones, who live by insight, live [guided] by a life of unexcelled insight.”

(Transl. P. Skilling. 2013. The foundation of the Yoga practitioners).

The term is found one time more in Tibetan in a śrāvaka sūtra translation in the Tibetan canon.

Is there anywhere explanation of prajñājīva and prajñājīvaka in śrāvaka or Mahāyāna sources? The only thing I have been able to determine so far is that it is connected to prajñāpāramitā practice. I don't find any other occurrences of the term nor any explanation. It is also unclear if it was originally prajñā-jīva or prajñā-ājīva

Would appreciate any help.
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Supramundane
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by Supramundane »

It's amazing how many Sanskrit words there are in Indonesian. Words like Raja, deva, jiva, rupa, and many more, all exist in the modern Indonesian language, Bahasa Indonesia.

Jiva or jiwa in indonesian means life --- but also soul.

I think the translation of "life of wisdom" or "insight" looks right.

But when you write:

"prajñā-ājīva"

It looks like you're making a mistake. I don't think there is an A in front of jiva, but I could be wrong. I don't speak Sanskrit.

However, it is intuitive that there is no A, but that you are taking the A from the preceding word, prajna, wisdom. Are you sure there is a word ajiva? I think it should just be jiva.

Hopes this helps
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Zhen Li
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by Zhen Li »

The Skilling translation is a bit loose. Thurman's gets the meaning quite literally I would say.
Supramundane wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:24 am However, it is intuitive that there is no A, but that you are taking the A from the preceding word, prajna, wisdom. Are you sure there is a word ajiva? I think it should just be jiva.
Due to sandhi this is ambiguous. Actually ājīva/ājīvaka are livelihood—they would work, but maybe not well, in this context. Prajñā-jīva is life of wisdom; prajñā-ājīva is livelihood of wisdom (what that would be is unclear).
sphairos wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:37 pm Is there anywhere explanation of prajñājīva and prajñājīvaka in śrāvaka or Mahāyāna sources? The only thing I have been able to determine so far is that it is connected to prajñāpāramitā practice. I don't find any other occurrences of the term nor any explanation. It is also unclear if it was originally prajñā-jīva or prajñā-ājīva
Can you elaborate on what you mean by Prajñāpāramitā practice? You do not mean that this term is from a Prajñāpāramitā text I think.
Malcolm
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by Malcolm »

sphairos wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:37 pm Hello everyone, I am looking for usages and contexts of the terms prajñājīva, prajñājīvaka, prajñājīvika, Tibetan shes rab kyis ʼtsho and shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba
The term is defined in the Udānavargavivarana:

།ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་ཤེས་པ་སྟེ། ངེས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་གང་ལ་ཡོད་པ་དེའོ།

Vasubandhu's Sūtrālaṃkāra commentary gives:

།ཤེས་རབ་འཚོ་བ་སྟོན་པ་སྟེ། །ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་་པ་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་གཉིས་ནི་ལས་ཡིན་ཏེ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ཚོང་དང་ཞིང་རྨོད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པས་ལུས་རྣག་ཅན་གྱི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་མོད་ཀྱི། དེ་དག་ལས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བླ་ན་མེད་པ་སྟེ། བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་འཚང་རྒྱ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བའི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།

It's pretty straightforward.
sphairos
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by sphairos »

Malcolm wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:34 pm
sphairos wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:37 pm Hello everyone, I am looking for usages and contexts of the terms prajñājīva, prajñājīvaka, prajñājīvika, Tibetan shes rab kyis ʼtsho and shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba
The term is defined in the Udānavargavivarana:

།ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་ཤེས་པ་སྟེ། ངེས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་གང་ལ་ཡོད་པ་དེའོ།

Vasubandhu's Sūtrālaṃkāra commentary gives:

།ཤེས་རབ་འཚོ་བ་སྟོན་པ་སྟེ། །ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་་པ་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་གཉིས་ནི་ལས་ཡིན་ཏེ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ཚོང་དང་ཞིང་རྨོད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པས་ལུས་རྣག་ཅན་གྱི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་མོད་ཀྱི། དེ་དག་ལས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བླ་ན་མེད་པ་སྟེ། བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་འཚང་རྒྱ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བའི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།

It's pretty straightforward.
But the definition doesn't say anything which is not already clear from the term itself. Prajñā as a knowledge of tathatā doesn't explain anything.

Vasubandhu's bhāṣya I already quoted in full. The Tibetan is only slightly different.
sphairos
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by sphairos »

Zhen Li wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:21 pm Can you elaborate on what you mean by Prajñāpāramitā practice? You do not mean that this term is from a Prajñāpāramitā text I think.
Because the verses from the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra are about prajñāpāramitā. That's all we have.
Malcolm
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Re: Sanskrit term prajñājīvaka (shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba)

Post by Malcolm »

sphairos wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:31 pm
Malcolm wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:34 pm
sphairos wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:37 pm Hello everyone, I am looking for usages and contexts of the terms prajñājīva, prajñājīvaka, prajñājīvika, Tibetan shes rab kyis ʼtsho and shes rab kyis ʼtsho ba
The term is defined in the Udānavargavivarana:

།ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་ཤེས་པ་སྟེ། ངེས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་གང་ལ་ཡོད་པ་དེའོ།

Vasubandhu's Sūtrālaṃkāra commentary gives:

།ཤེས་རབ་འཚོ་བ་སྟོན་པ་སྟེ། །ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ། ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་་པ་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་གཉིས་ནི་ལས་ཡིན་ཏེ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ཚོང་དང་ཞིང་རྨོད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པས་ལུས་རྣག་ཅན་གྱི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་འཚོ་བར་བྱེད་མོད་ཀྱི། དེ་དག་ལས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་ནི་འཚོ་བ་བླ་ན་མེད་པ་སྟེ། བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏུ་འཚང་རྒྱ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བའི་སྲོག་མི་འཆད་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།

It's pretty straightforward.
But the definition doesn't say anything which is not already clear from the term itself. Prajñā as a knowledge of tathatā doesn't explain anything.

Vasubandhu's bhāṣya I already quoted in full. The Tibetan is only slightly different.
You can search the term at BDRC, etc.
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