Passanā & Dassanā

Explore the ancient language of the Tipitaka and Theravāda commentaries
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Unrul3r
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Passanā & Dassanā

Post by Unrul3r »

Hello everybody!

I'm wondering what would be your thoughts on these two words: Passanā and Dassanā

Both of them seem to point to "seeing" but, from Sanskrit, dassanā seems closer to "showing, exhibiting, appearance".

I have only seen their meaning from an etymological point of view, what would a contextual analysis point to?

With metta. :)
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Assaji
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Re: Passanā & Dassanā

Post by Assaji »

Hello Unrul3r,
Unrul3r wrote:Hello everybody!

I'm wondering what would be your thoughts on these two words: Passanā and Dassanā
They correspond to the verbs 'passati' and 'dakkhati' ('dassati').

"Passanā" is used only as a part of "anupassanā" and "vipassanā".
Both of them seem to point to "seeing" but, from Sanskrit, dassanā seems closer to "showing, exhibiting, appearance".
AFAIK, in Sanskrit the 'dar"s' and 'pa"s' are interchangeable forms of the same verb.

In Pali there's also a form 'dasseti' - 'show, make appear', similar to Sanskrit, but that's just a causative form.

Margaret Cone's Pali dictionary lists both 'passati' and 'dakkhati' under the verb root 'dis'.

Metta, Dmytro
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Unrul3r
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Location: Porto, Portugal

Re: Passanā & Dassanā

Post by Unrul3r »

I see.

Thank you for the reply Dymtro!
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