Kāye Kāye-anupassī Viharati
Living Seeing Body Following Upon Body
In SN 5.52.1 Maha Moggallāna questions Anuruddha about his practice of the four settings-up of memory and Anuruddha explains.
A good sutta to consult for the reader interested in the precise wording of the Satipaṭṭhāna practice.
In the Majjhima and Dīgha versions the wording is kāye kāyānupassī [viharati] 'body body-overseeing [living]'; where here it is '[Ajjhattaṃ] kāye [vaya-dhamma]-anupassī [viharati]' '[Internally, etc.] body [passing-things, etc.]-overseeing [living]'
In this sutta:
Woodward: "dwells contemplating the rise of things as regards [his own personal] body".
Bhk. Bodhi: "dwells contemplating the nature of origination in the body".
In the Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Suttanta
Digha:
Rhys Davids: 'as to the body, continue so to look upon the body'.
Walshe: 'abide contemplating the body as body'.
Woodward (in this sutta but apparently influenced by the Satipaṭṭhana): 'he dwells in body contemplating the rise of things in body'.
Warren: 'as respects the body, observant of the body'.
Bhk. Thanissaro: 'focused on the body in and of itself'.
Horner: 'contemplating the body in the body'.
Bhk. Bodhi/Nanamoli: 'contemplating the body as a body'.
I have translated: 'observing the body, through the body' also 'living in body, overseeing body'.
I have reasoned that because this is a practice for setting up a recollected mind in the state in which we find ourselves (that is, primarily identified with body, or sense-experience, or emotions, or the Dhamma) with the intent of seeing body, sense-experience, the heart (or mental states) and the Dhamma as passing phenomena whether currently considered as 'our own' (internal) or 'of the outside' (external) such that we can observe these things whether internal or external or both external and internal as passing phenomena, painful, and not in any way 'our own' such that we may become totally detached therefrom.
Hense the idea: 'while we are living in.'
But today, it occurs to me that this carries weight or shadow of identity that is not in the Pāḷi and is not necessary for the passage to make sense even in English.
So today [Monday, October 12, 2015 3:38 AM] I think that we should be translating:
'[one] lives seeing body following upon (anu) body', or, in the case of this sutta:
'[one] lives seeing body following upon internal passing things.' In other words seeing phenomena in a way similar to the way one might view the flipping of a series of images making up an animated cartoon.
Well I have suggested this translation, but for the most part I have continued to use 'overseeing'. Watching over while also supervising. Perhaps it is my position that is influencing my translations. Now that I see it written out, 'supervising' seems very interesting: anu = super ('further', 'beyond', 'following upon' could be thought of as 'super'), passi = seeing. super = beyond, vising = seeing, and carries the meaning of correcting where needed.
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