Hi Sekha
If I may trouble you for some clarification -
Let us analyze these three terms:
1) 'sāsava' correctly means 'connected with the āsavas' (ie. mental impurities or corruptions of the mind).
I note that "
sa-" in
bahubbīhi compounds always connote accompaniment or possession. Your explanation of this compound as a relation of "connection" is usually served by the suffix -
ika, -
ima or -
iya, but no such
āsava compound exists. Might you be able to point me to where your explanation of
sa- might be attested?
Moreover, at AN 10.139, it is said:
AN 10.139
Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sāsavo dhammo? Micchādiṭṭhi, micchāsaṅkappo... micchāsamādhi, micchāñāṇaṃ, micchāvimutti: ayaṃ vuccati, bhikkhave, sāsavo dhammo. Katamo ca, bhikkhave, anāsavo dhammo? Sammādiṭṭhi, sammāsaṅkappo... sammāsamādhi, sammāñāṇaṃ, sammāvimutti: ayaṃ , bhikkhave, anāsavo dhammo ti.
And what, bhikkhus, are the states connected with the mental impurities? Wrong view, wrong thinking... wrong concentration, wrong knowledge, wrong liberation: these are called, bhikkhus, states connected with the mental impurities. And what, bhikkhus, are the states disconnected from the mental impurities? Right view, right thinking... right concentration, right knowledge, right liberation: these are called, bhikkhus, states disconnected from the mental impurities.
This directly contradicts any claim that there could be a right view connected with the mental impurities (ie. 'sāsava'). If any view is connected per se with the mental impurities, it is a wrong view. So this makes clear that this use of the word 'sāsava' in this context is a complete nonsense.
I believe AN 10.139 needs to be translated differently. Note that the sutta contrasts 2 sets of 10 factors. The analysis, as is typical of sutta analyses of sets, is to apply the predicate to the
whole set, and not to its individual members. Note that
ayaṃ is in the singular (= this), as is the verb
vuccati, reinforced by
dhammo (nominative singular). Your translation would have required the Pali to have been
"ime vuccanti, bhikkhave, anāsavā dhammā ti". Clearly, the singular demonstrative pronoun, verb and noun are referring to each set of 10, rather than each of the 10 members of the set.