Since my last update, I’ve added two Dīrgha Āgama and 16 Saṃyukta Āgama translations to Dharma Pearls. This brings the DĀ translation project up to 10 sutras complete and 13% of DĀ by length (~20 of 149 pages of Taisho). For the Saṃyukta Āgama, I’m continuing to edit drafted sutras, releasing them as I go.
In addition to these new translations, I’ve also created an initial index table of the Ekôttarika Āgama at the Dharma Pearls wiki site. Aside from copying over the Pali parallels, I also incorporated the existing uddāna verses and individual fascicles to help visualization the internal evidence we have of how EĀ was apparently redacted after the initial translation, which seems to have added about 10 fascicles of new material.
Below are the translations that were added last month:
This version of DN 25 doesn’t vary in any significant way from the Pali version. One thing to notice, which is evident in other DĀ sutras about non-Buddhists, is that the wanderers aren’t cast in such a bad light as they are in the Pali version. For another good example of this, compare the depiction of Ajātaśatru in DĀ 27 to DN 2.
DĀ 13 The Great Method of Conditionality (DN 15)
This sutra follows the Pali text fairly closely. The main differences are that the introduction initially presents the classic 12 links of dependent origination that begin with ignorance and action. As the discourse continues, however, it covers the same ten links that are described in the Pali version. It also has the list in the middle that traces craving as the condition for conflict and violence, which segues into a continuation of the ten links.
After the presentation of dependent origination, DĀ 13 explicitly treats the two types of arhats, implying that one can be liberated through the wisdom developed by dependent origination. This segues into the discussion of different views about self, which isn’t as clear in the discourse in the Pali version. It then ends with the same discussion of the abodes of consciousness and the eight liberations.
SĀ 2.1 Impermanent (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.2 Painful (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.3 Empty (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.4 Not Self (SN 35.155-157)
SĀ 2.5 Correctly Contemplated (SN 35.158-159)
SĀ 2.6 Not Knowing (SN 35.26-27)
SĀ 2.7 Not Knowing (2)
SĀ 2.8 Not Knowing (3)
These sutras are very similar to SĀ 1.1-8, using the same templates applied to the six sense fields instead of the five aggregates. This parallelism is missing from the two Pali saṃyuttas, but parallels do exist for some of these sutras in SN 35.
SĀ 2.123 Samṛddhi (SN 35.68)
SĀ 2.124 Samṛddhi (2) (SN 35.66)
SĀ 2.125 Samṛddhi (3) (SN 35.65)
SĀ 2.126 Samṛddhi (4) (SN 35.82)
SĀ 2.127 Samṛddhi (5) (SN 35.85)
This group of sutras all feature a monk named Samṛddhi who asks the Buddha about the meaning of different expressions such as the world, ‘the world is empty,’ sentient beings, and Māra.
SĀ 2.128 The World (~SN 12.44)
SĀ 2.129 The End of the World (SN 35.116)
These sutras are interesting in that they confirm the experiential vs. ontological view of the world in Buddhist thinking.
SĀ 2.130 Having a Teacher and a Disciple (SN 35.151)
This sutra uses a metaphor of having a teacher or students who live nearby (presumably referring to the social irritations that can bring) as being similar to being affected by sensory experiences that give rise to the three poisons and abiding in them.
Dharma Pearls 